Saturday, March 26, 2011

Twisting terns at Kelambakkam

Skandan and Mr Shivakumar have photographed and reported the several terns that they have been sighting in the backwaters of Kelambakkam to the south of Madras.

And then there was the matter of gulls - brown-headed and black-headed - also reported. And Ruddy Turnstone. And Curlews.

So off we went today morning in Sheila's car armed with driving instructions and precise directions on which bund to walk on, etc etc.

It was a most rewarding morning - many gulls and terns I was seeing for the first time, plus of course the usual greenshank to madden us, before we id it.
  • Little terns
  • River tern
  • Whiskered tern in bleeding plumage, which I thought was a black-bellied tern
  • Sandwich tern and/or gull-billed tern?
  • Caspian tern
These we saw just off the road, as they went about the business of catching their breakfast with single-minded focus. I found it quite confusing to figure out which was which, and did that yellow beak have a black-tip, is the black cap "rakish", was that a yellow-tipped black beak, and so many more permutations and combinations!

Off the road, down by the broken bridge, walking along the bunds, and we saw the gulls. Brown-headed and black-headed in a mixed bunch....they were a huge flock in the distance, and without Chitra's spotting scope, and Preston's idying guidance, "look for the white mirrors on the wings", I would not have spotted them.

And there was a Eurasian Curlew too!
A few more visits needed.

2 comments:

  1. Nice pics. Is this off the Mahabalipuram road? Near Muttukadu?

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW, that's awesome! looks like you guys are really professional with the bird watching and stuff. But I have a question, I'm really only "begining" birdwatching so everything is new to me and sort of seems to intimidate me.
    So many species! Do you people use binoculors? Just a question. All in all, good to know that you had such an absolutely fantastic day, and good luck spotting more terns! :)

    ReplyDelete

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