Tens of thousands of migratory birds have made this Indian lake their winter home

NAGROTA SURIYAN, India (AP) — Before the day breaks on a winter morning at the Pong Lake wetland in northern India, muffled honks of geese are heard in the distance.

A lone fisherman wrapped in a blanket rides his bicycle in the darkness, relying on his familiarity with the landscape. The air is heavy with water vapor and headlights of motorbikes zigzag across the swampy plain as more fishermen arrive, two on each vehicle. Before the sun rises, the fishermen’s creaky wooden boats are specks in the distance.

In the soft light of dawn, a large flock of bar-headed geese at the water’s edge becomes visible. The geese seem to be stirring, and a few take off, noisily flapping their wings and honking. One flight soon triggers another and within a few minutes hundreds have taken to the sky flying east before settling on the grassy ground to feed on grains, roots, and other plants.

The geese are the flagship species of the wetland formed in Himachal Pradesh state in the mid-1970s after a dam was built on the Beas River.

The geese winter at the wetland, leaving their frozen homes on the Tibetan plateau and in Central Asia each year, tens of thousands of them crossing high mountain passes to settle in locations across India.

According to the Himachal Pradesh forest department, about 45% of the total bar-headed geese population spend the winter at the Pong wetland, more than anywhere else in the world except in their breeding areas.

In addition to 37 species of resident water birds, about 75,500 birds from 48 migratory species were recorded at the wetland last year.

Each autumn, water from the Pong reservoir is released to neighboring states and the receding water exposes a large area rich in organic matter. The grass and other