Editor’s letter: Birding Season -

November arrives in India with a change you can hear before you see it. Wetlands that looked ordinary in September begin to fill with new shapes — geese in lines against a pale sky, ducks packing the open water, and waders working the mud with the seriousness of travellers who have already spent their energy on the journey.

This issue of Travel Viewpoint is about that season. We stay with Bharatpur’s Keoladeo Ghana National Park, with Chilika’s boats and reed channels, and with one quieter floodplain wetland that has not yet become a weekend destination. We also return briefly to Ranganathittu on the Cauvery — a small sanctuary that still rewards a short boat ride — because birding season in India is never only one map.

We are not writing a race for rarities. Birding, done well, is slow travel: you rise early, you keep your voice down, you accept that fog may delay the first clear view, and you let a guide or a boatman set the pace. The birds do not rearrange themselves for our schedules. They feed at first light, rest when the sun hardens, and return to roosts we only find if someone local points the way.

If you are new to this habit, start with what the month actually offers. Winter migrants on the Central Asian flyway use Indian wetlands as feeding grounds and temporary homes. Bar-headed and greylag geese, pintails and shovelers, pelicans and harriers — these are the reliable stories of November through February, not every exotic name a brochure once printed. At Bharatpur, the Siberian crane that once defined the winter list is no longer a regular visitor; the park remains extraordinary for what still comes.

Please treat sanctuaries as working habitats, not outdoor galleries. Stay on paths and boat routes. Do not play recorded calls. Do not crowd a roost for a photograph. Confirm ticket timings and boat rules at the gate — fees and schedules change, and inventing them helps no one.

Read this issue as an invitation to look carefully. Dawn at Bharatpur. A quiet skiff in Chilika’s marshes. A notebook instead of a boast. The water is already busy. We only have to arrive with patience.

— The Editors, Travel Viewpoint