ECR birding on 15th May 2026 - looking for the flamingoes and also finding plovers

ECR birding on 15th May 2026 - eBird Trip Report

Sometimes, too much of planning doesn't help and the said plans fall through.  Not this one though.  An idea to go flamingo-watching mooted by Tara, Srinivas and Umesh became a mini expedition with nine of us MNS members going down ECR on a hot May morning.  (A tenth member did her own thing and was with us, well kind of.)

At around 430am - there was a sharp shower and everyone put umbrellas in their bags which turned out to be quite unnecessary.

First stop Muttukadu backwaters.  The tide was in and the birds were out.

The horizon was cloudy and there was no chance of one of those golden sunrises either.

A tight flock of Great Cormorants flew north, while terns crossed over the bridge, including a Caspian tern - the one that I identify well.

On the western end, we saw a large flock of tall birds with long necks, in the distance - looked like flamingoes for sure, so off we went to what we call the Ajwa Cafe point.  

Hello! Said the Painted Stork - an unusually "smiley" one - they are usually quite meditative and serious.  This one even pulled its leg out and waved.  😁 

Usually when we come to this point, we choose low-tide mornings with the mud flats exposed and little waders in the squelchy mud and crabs scuttling around.  This time, the waters were high, crab fishermen were at work surrounded by the Painted Storks, feeding in the rather high waters.

Pelicans preened in the mud at the far south, terns flew incessantly, and Black Winged Stilts called noisily.  Pied kingfishers whizzed by, hovered and dived, tittering and calling as well.  

This Stilt had a spring in her/his step and a jaunty air as she/he posed for me.  

And in the distance were the flamingoes, beautifully and gracefully arranged.

Srinivas set up the spotting scope, and what a beautiful sight it was to see them through the scope!!  The pinks so evident and also their long necks and beautiful wings.

The boatman offered to take us across and Tara and Jecintha decided to go.  Srinivas and I waited on the shore for them, while the others went off to the Kovalam point to look for waders.

Now the tenth member tried to wave to us from the opposite shore where she was, but our spotting skills fell short (note the pun) and we looked at the wrong bridge and did not see her.  But this is what she saw.

Two birders trying to locate the tenth birder....

....and the flying flamingoes and the boat.

One gorgeous overhead shot of the pink ballet dancer.

And the flock, not feeding for a change..  Their strange beaks and upside-down filter-feeding are highly adapted to algae, shrimp and crustaceans. 

As I looked at the flamingoes I wondered about what they were doing here in mid May and not heading North.  Increasingly, the Muttukadu/Nemmeli flamingoes seem to stay back year after year, leaving only in July.  The ECR wetlands — Kovalam Creek, Muttukadu backwaters, Kelambakkam wetlands, abandoned salt pans — are now acting as attractive feeding habitats.  There are also younger birds and juveniles.

Quite different from before, when they left for the northern wetlands by April.  Earlier, I have seen them in the Pallikaranai marshlands - when those wetlands had a connection to the backwaters.  Nowadays, Pallikaranai is sewage and cut off from the backwaters...so the flamingoes do not visit there anymore.   

For flamingoes, the ECR wetlands may now simply be “better real estate” than Pallikaranai.  Water chemistry and hydrology makes a significant difference - Flamingoes are very sensitive to tiny changes in salinity and microbial productivity. 

Another reason why we feel the Mammalan reservoir project is badly located.  These areas are hydrologically dynamic areas and reservoir solutions in low-lying coastal marsh systems can unintentionally degrade exactly the ecological processes that make those landscapes resilient in the first place.

I really do hope that the freshwater reservoir project can be located elsewhere.

The point was further emphasised for me when we found the plovers in Kelambakkam.  The Muttukadu–Kovalam stretch is becoming an interesting urban-edge bird landscapes right now, and it is in great danger from a different 3Rs -  real estate development, roads and reservoirs!

The sheer beauty of the breeding plumages of the usually dull waders

We wandered up the Kelambakkam road, after sandwiches, peanut chikki, coffee and buttermilk - yes, we MNSers always take care of our meals and snacks - and reached the Western end.  Peregrine instincts made us look at the pylons which were all empty, but the waters and mudflats had some other treasures.

And this is what we saw!  Little punctuation marks across the mudflats that turned out to be a combination of Pacific Golden Plovers, Tibetan Sand Plovers and Redshanks

Here are the Pacific Golden Plovers in breeding plumage - Pluvialis fulva - with their sharp black breasts, with a white border, and their flecked bodies.  In the Spotting Scope, the birds that caught the sun glinted.  They were stock still, hardly moving, like as if any movement would lead to a loss of energy!  

Were they getting ready to leave for their breeding grounds?  Birding in summer has its joys - seeing the birds in their breeding colours before they head off to the Arctic.  

And what about those lovely warm hued smaller Sand Plovers (Anarhynchus atrifrons) - see the chest with those rich colours and the mask around the eye.  As I watched through the Scope, I noticed different birds at different stages of plumage colours.  They were getting ready to fly back to the Tibetan high plateau.

I learnt that both sexes get new breeding plumages, and the males get it more dramatically.  So some of the less colourful ones could be females - both in the sand and in the golden plovers.

It was hard for me to imagine these little birds soon taking off in flocks, and maybe in a couple of weeks, the sand plovers will be in the cool plateaus of Tibet and the golden plovers in the Tundra!  Here they were in hot humid Kelambakkam, preparing themselves for the breeding season.  It is important they feed well and rest as their muscles and organs get ready to fly.

I just think it is one of the most marvellous phenomenons in the natural word - bird migration.

The Peregrine left, and soon these will too, and the mudflats will empty until next time.

When they return next season, will the mudflats still be the same?  Will we humans allow them some space to call their own?