The Amazing Journey

Further to the news that more than 400 Sociable Lapwings had been found at a stopover site in Uzbekistan in mid September, news has now reached us that at least some birds migrating along this ‘Eastern Flyway’ have reached the Indian Sub-continent.

Birders following The Amazing Journey have sent us several recent reports confirming that Sociable Lapwings are now on the move again and have started their long migrations back from their wintering grounds.

Last September, four Sociable Lapwings left Kazakhstan to begin their migrations fitted with working satellite transmitters but shortly afterwards we unfortunately stopped receiving any transmissions. We are however, pleased to now be able to report on a number of sightings we have recently received that confirm the presence of Sociable Lapwings in most of their regular wintering areas.

After spending the winter in western India (near the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat) Dinara has set off on a long journey north back towards her breeding grounds and is now already in Tajikistan about 50 km north-east of Khorog.

A new transmission just received from Dinara now locates her close to the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

One of our tagged Sociable Lapwings has been tracked all the way from the breeding grounds in Kazakhstan to wintering grounds around the Great Rann of Kutch. Dinara, an adult female Sociable Lapwing tagged in May 2010 at Birlik in central Kazakhstan, was tracked spending at least ten days in the Indus valley in Pakistan [...]