Flight of the falcons: 'Longleng' returns to India after winter sojourn

[caption id="attachment_247367" align="aligncenter" width="565"] A graph showing Longleng’s route.[/caption] Our Correspondent Imphal, May 4 (EMN):The satellite-tagged female Amur falcon known as Longleng, which flew non-stop to reach Somalia in November last year, has returned to India—on her way to a breeding area in northern china—a Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientist said on Saturday. Scientist R Suresh Kumar of WII, who is monitoring the migratory route of the bird, when contacted over the phone, said that the bird flew straight over to Surat (in Maharashtra) after her long open-ocean journey. “Now she is at a place called Rayagada in Odisha,” Kumar said. Rayagada is said to be a district of meadows, forests, waterfalls and terraced valleys in cyclone Fani-hit Odisha with a predominant tribal population. The female Amur falcon was named after Nagaland’s district; it arrived in Somalia on April 17 from her wintering grounds in South Africa, and started her return journey to India on April 29 with a flying speed of 45 km per hour, the scientist added. The bird was radio-tagged sometime in 2016 to study the flight route of these long-distance migratory birds and other environmental patterns along the route. The small raptor, depending upon the weather condition is expected to fly across Nagaland or Manipur on her journey to China via Myanmar after passing through Bangladesh, he said. It may be recalled that two more Amur falcons—Tamenglong (female) and Manipur (male)—were also satellite-tagged in Tamenglong district in Manipur on November 4, 2018. Unfortunately, Manipur was found dead after four days, while Tamenglong has lost contact after reaching Zambia in Africa. The Amur falcons spend their summers at their breeding grounds in southeast Russia and northern China. They migrate to their wintering grounds in South Africa, from where they start their return journey in April-May, undertaking a yearly journey of about 20,000 km. In between, they stop in India’s northeastern states. In their journey, these pigeon-sized birds arrive in large numbers during October in Nagaland and Manipur besides a few places in the northeast. They leave the region in November after having enough food for their non-stop flight to Africa where they spend their winters.