Seabirds come to Padma

Mainul Ahsan had been waiting all alone at the ghat of Padma. It was 21 May and everyone had left because of the rains. The evening was approaching. Finally, the birds appeared just before it became dark. He took photographs of the birds in the rain. Mainul could not identify the birds. Moreover, he was yet to know the surprises waiting for him at a char (shoal) of Padma river in Rajshahi in the next day.

On 22 May, Mainul took photos of some more birds and sent those to ornithologists. By 10:30 on that night, all of the experts confirmed that he has taken photos of four species of seabirds. The birds had no name in Bangla since no one had seen them in Bangladesh before. Bird Club of Bangladesh founder Enam Ul Haque has proposed four Bangla names of those birds.

The English names of the birds are -- sooty tern, bridled tern, long-tailed skua/jaeger and Wilson's storm petrel.

Professor Monirul H Khan of the zoology department at Jahangirnagar University identified the first bird from the photograph while ‘Bird Bangladesh’s’ admin Shahriar Rushdi identified the second and fourth species. Indian bird lover Ashwin Bishwanathan confirmed the identity of the third bird.

Later, Monirul H Khan confirmed the identity of the four birds to Prothom Alo on 27 May. All of them are seabirds. They have come to this area to save themselves from severe cyclonic storm Amphan that hit the coastal districts of India’s West Bengal and Bangladesh.

Mainul Ahsan alias Shameem is a medical officer at Rajshahi Diabetic Association. He along with bird lover and a noted photographer and Rajshahi divisional Ansar and VDP director Fakhrul Islam and Mustafizur Rahman went to a char of Padma when the cyclone Amphan subsided after 21 May afternoon. But they had to return from there as it was raining hard. Though he had seen the birds on the way, he could not take out the cameras because of the rain. But he got the chance of taking photographs of the birds at the ghat. Those were sooty terns.

Being confirmed of the identity of the birds at night, he along with a boatman Nuru went to the river the next day and the sooty tern again and another new bird appeared. This was later identified as bridled tern. Around 2:30 in the afternoon on 22 May, he took photographs of a bird that was bathing. That was identified as long-tailed jaeger. Elated Mainul Ahsan phoned another bird lover and physician Noor-a-Saud.

Within a short time, Noor-a-Saud joined him along with a boatman Anik. Boatmen Anik and Nuru also took photographs of the birds with their cameras. Around 4:00pm, they found another new bird, Wilson storm petrel, which flies as if dancing on water.

Enam Al Haque proposed the Bangla names of the birds. The proposed name of sooty tern is sooty paanchil or kalche paanchil, bridled tern could be named bolga paanchill Long-tailed skua/jaeger could be said lanje jaegar while Wilson's storm petrel could be named as Wilson’s ghurni petrel.

* The report, published in the print edition of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza