How persistent patch birding placed an obscure lake in Chennai on a citizen science map

From 27 bird species in 2017, the Puzhuthivakkam lake in Chennai now is credited with hosting 93 species — the result of more pairs of human eyes being focussed on it

Puzhuthivakkam lake was hidden in plain sight.

From Velachery Main Road, this waterbody is easily get-at-able. From this arterial road, roll into Madipakkam Main Road (also known as Bazaar Main Road) and before long, the lake heaves into view.

Despite its door being always open, the mat lying in front of it remained undisturbed except by residents of houses ringing it. The lake was not having visitors scuffing their shoes on that mat. Even for a majority of those residents, the interest in the lake was hardly connected with the lake. The neatly-raised bund providing an ideal ramp to walk on, the space enabled them to limber up for the day. On hindsight, that was an opportunity missed, an opportunity to record natural history. There was some birding interest from time to time, but it was desultory.

The tide begin to turn in 2017-2018 when a resident not of Puzhuthivakkam, but of a nearby area began to work the lake into his morning walking route — at first, once a week which would evolve into an everyday engagement. Fortunately for natural history, he was a binoculars-carrying and telephoto lens-lugging fitness walker.

Under the doting gaze of someone genuinely interested in the lake for the lake’s sake, it began to reveal its charms.

That gaze belongs to birder A.M. Aravind and it has only become more intense. The results of the sustained gaze has ensured other pairs of eyes were drawn towards the lake and what it offered.

“From 27 species in 2017 to 93 species now on eBird, Puzhithivakkam lake has come a long way,” says Aravind, clarifying a great number of feathers had been there all along, but not enough pair of human eyes to acknowledge their presence. The lake had been “underbirded”. The Puzuthivakkam lake and the Pallikaranai marshland are separated by eight kilometres or thereabouts, and was bound to mirror avian movements associated with the marsh, but this data was waiting tediously long to be mined for want of keen and interested pairs of human eyes.