The Pulicat Flamingoes

The Pulicat dance troupe!

Yes, there are flamingoes, thousands of them, just north of Madras, and I am quite ashamed to say that I saw them in a New York zoo before seeing them at Pulicat.  I have lived for more than twenty years in this city, blissfully unaware that these lovely birds lived and bred in our backyard.

Strange looking birds.  Light pink, long graceful legs, huge flocks, a sinuous movement as they walk across the shallow waters, so ballerina-like.  But that beak...... there's nothing graceful about it, according to me anyway.  Its large and bulky, and seems to be just added on, like one of those Photoshopped oddities!

They are useful to them, though, the beaks I mean.  Since they feed on saltwater shrimp and such like and use their beaks to filter-feed.  They will be in the "pink" of health the more shrimp they eat.  That's what they get the beta-carotene from, which keeps them pink!  So if you think the ones in the zoo are always pinker, you're probably right - they get more pink food in their diet.

Dec 2007.  We took a boat from SHAR road to get a closer look, but the closer we got, the faster they edged away from us, making sure that we couldn't get any closer.  At first they walked away, in a slow deliberate fashion, then some nervous ones spread their wings. At one point, they decided enough was enough and took to the skies, and what a lovely sight it was!

My husband clicked away, and came up with these lovely pictures.  It was a dull day with the sun well hidden, the water a bleak grey, but dont these birds really stand out in the dullness?

(You can click on any of these pictures to get a full-page view.)

Dont come any Closer!
OK, we're off!My mother opined that a flying flamingo is much more beautiful than a walking one, and I have to agree.  Where are those colours of dark pink and black when they just stand? Their long necks and legs form a lovely line in the sky, and even their beaks kind of fit in, giving a curve to their silhouettes!

An early flier is high up in the sky.  Take a look at the beauty of the airborne trio in the right foreground
The flying flamingoes bump into a flock of duck

Balaji by some coincidence seems to have also visited the flamingoes in December, though he and his friends were lucky with a  bright, sunny day.  There are some lovely pictures on his blog as well!

My son filmed the flamingoes on our handycam, and if you are willing to take a look at some footage that shakes and kind of goes off in all sorts of directions, see the video below!  You will also get an idea of what lots of flamingoes means really.  The whirr you hear is the sound of the strong wind that day, and if you have sharp ears you will also pick up the calls of the flamingoes.  They make quite a racket - well there are a lot of them.

Why do I like to go and see these and other birds in their habitat I wonder.  My brother (as a typical older brother), thinks I am a touch insane.  Why dont you just go to a zoo, or better still watch them on Nat Geo or Discovery, he grumbles.  

Is it the uncertainty of not knowing what I am likely to see?  Or the joy at seeing them free and unrestricted?

Another visit to SHAR road  and Annamalaicheri is overdue I think...  What say?  I should also write about Annamalaicheri, that fishing village on Pulicat, from where we took many a sortie and even had a Delhi birder traipse across the flatlands holding the hands of one of the fishermen, much to the latter's delight I'm sure, since the birder in question was a lovely lady!!