The journey from Himalayas to Goa

Panaji: A juvenile Himalayan Griffon vulture's loss of direction on its winter flight proved to be Goan birders' gain, as the recent sighting in Cacora left them elated and the state list richer with a rare sighting.
Two birders-Mandar Bhagat and Omkar Dharwardkar-of Goa bird conservation network (GBCN) were driving from Cacora towards Sanguem when the threatened bird species soared overhead.
"Omkar spotted the huge bird first," says Bhagat, knowing that vultures are very rare in Goa, especially the Himalayan Griffon. They stopped and had enough time to click some photographs.
Birders are delighted as the Goa checklist officially stands at 460 species, including 14 records in the last three years. "This shows how bird watchers have become active in documenting the avifauna," says Pronoy Baidya, reviewer for eBird Goa.
Sightings of vultures, especially the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and Indian vulture (Gyps indicus) were common and they could be seen in fairly good numbers in Goa. Their numbers declined due to the toxic veterinary drug Diclofenac.
GBCN president Parag Rangnekar had sighted a lone white-rumped vulture, most likely a vagrant from a nearby state, near Mandrem on March 10, 2015. "The last known population of Indian vultures was in Chorla Ghat on the Goa-Maharashtra-Karnataka border but there have been no sightings since 2010," says Rangnekar.
While confirmation that the spotted bird is indeed the Himalayan vulture came from experts, the bird was previously thought to be a resident of the upper-Himalayas and would, at the most, stray till the Gangetic plains.
In 2013, a single exhausted juvenile individual was rescued in Kerala's Trissur district. Multiple sightings were reported in Bengaluru in Karnataka and Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh.
"This year, probably the same bird as observed in Goa was earlier spotted in Kaiga, Karnataka," Rangnekar said.
Juveniles of Himalayan Griffon invariably fly out of their breeding ground to avoid competition. "Such long distance straying from their home territory also points towards lack of navigational experience in immature birds," Baidya said.