Watch out for those geckos!

 

A walk in the urban woods of TS

Butterfly Walk for MNS Members – The Theosophical Society – July 29, 2023

By Sagarika

It was a nice and sunny Saturday morning, 20 of us gathered in TS for the Butterfly Walk led by M. Yuvan. Theosophical Society post rains is an amazing place; we could notice butterfly activities the moment we stepped into their premises.

The ‘Butterflies of Chennai’ booklet by Palliyur Trust and a sheet on depicting all the key Butterfly Behaviour – from nectaring to mud-puddling to chrysalis was distributed as we waited for everyone to join in.

Under the Premna tree, with the morphs of the Common Emigrant being shown by Yuvan.

Yuvan started his briefing by sharing how he has been following butterflies and insect for last few weeks, and how the onset of the SW monsoon leads to a migration not only of butterflies but also of various other insects towards the Eastern coast.

He asked us to try and observe the different behaviour of the butterflies, going beyond just the name/ id. ‘’Know the name and then forget the name’’- that really set the tone for the Walk.

We started off by observing activity around a Premna tree, the group quickly spotted Lemon Pansy, Common Leopard, Tailed Jay and Common Jay. Yuvan went on to show the eggs and caterpillars of Emigrant as well as Tawny Coster. A floating Great Eggfly distracted some of us for few seconds before disappearing into the tree canopy.

It didn’t take much time for us to realise that the patches of Tridax had maximum congregation of different butterflies, the so-called weed is truly a butterfly magnet.

Through the Walk, Yuvan pushed us to observe more - observe the wings, the flight, the antennae, the height of flight.

I was surprised to learn that butterfly’s flight is very different from that of bird. Butterfly wings clap above to generate thrust, unlike birds who get majority of the thrust from the downstroke.

The Walk was filled with many interesting observations and discussions about various aspects of butterfly behaviour. Some key learnings were:

– Tawny Coster - male butterflies utilize a mechanical tactic – a mating plug or copulatory plug to reduce female re-mating.

Turnera subulata - White buttercups, favourite plants of the Tawny Coster, a more recent adaptation.  We saw the Coster female looking to lay eggs on its underside.

– Multi-generational migration of butterflies – each stage carried out by new generation of adults.

– Poisonous butterflies – Common Crow, the Tigers, the one which we see commonly around are all poisonous!!

– ‘Time compensated sun compass’ of butterflies which help them to understand their location in the world.

– Older generation of Crimson Rose migrate to Sri Lanka, never to return. Usually migration is round trip, in this case it seems to be dispersal enmasse post breeding boom.

Besides butterflies we saw many other insect like robber flies, stink bugs, spider hunter wasp, cricket hunter wasp, blue banded bees, beetles, ants, and grasshoppers of various kinds. The masked crab spider with a wasp hunt took many of us by surprise.

The Little Clown grasshopper nymph was my favourite.

What looked like a wasp - Oreumenoides edwardsii - sitting on a flower...

...was actually a prey captured by a Crab Spider about a quarter of its size.  Basically the spider just sucks out all the living juices off the wasp...quite gruesome to visualise this.

Indian Green Lynx Spider and spiderlings

On our way out, we saw Lime Swallowtails mud-puddling on a patch between the bushes. Some of us went on to spend few moments admiring the giant Sterculia apetala before calling it a day.

And just when we thought that we are done with the sightings, a Great Orange-tip floated into the Periwinkle for nectaring, and we all gasped at its sheer size. What an exciting finale!

The Walk lasted for close to 3 hours. We spotted 37 species of butterflies and umpteen other insects.

We are grateful to MNS member Geetha Jaikumar for all her support, without which this wonderful Walk wouldn’t have been possible and to Yuvan whose passion for nature made this Walk so much more meaningful.

BUTTERFLY LIST

Papilionidae

1. Common Jay

2. Common Mormon

3. Crimson Rose

4. Lime Swallowtail

5. Tailed Jay

Pieridae

6. Common Emigrant

7. Plain Orange-tip

8. Great Orange-tip

9. Psyche

10. Common Albatross

11. Common Grass Yellow

12. Small Grass Yellow rose

13. Three spotted grass yellow

14. Indian Wanderer Lycaenidae

15. Small Salmon Arab 16. Common Gull

Nymphalidae

17. Common Crow

18. Blue Tiger

19. Plain Tiger

20. Striped Tiger

21. Lemon Pansy

22. Yellow Pansy Hesperiidae 23. Angled Castor

24. Tawny Coster

25. Common Leopard 26. Great Eggfly

Lycaenidae

27. Common Pierrot 28. Zebra Blue

29. Lesser Grass Blue 30. Indian Sunbeam 31. Tiny Grass Blue 32. Forget-me-not

Hesperiidae

35. Indian Skipper

36. Oriental Straight Swift 37. Marbled Skipper

More photographs of the butterflies here.

eBird India Checklist - 30 Jul 2023 - Shaheen Falcon - Viewing Point [Leela Palace IT Building West Facing] - 10 species

eBird India Checklist - 30 Jul 2023 - Shaheen Falcon - Viewing Point [Leela Palace IT Building West Facing] - 10 species

GK's observations

Quite a productive day to observe every behavior of a Shaheen falcon in detail. 

6:20AM: (ROUSING) When I had reached, the Falcon was perched in the right most edge of the Leela building at the top deck. Falcon was quite relaxed and preening, occasionally looking towards the Jains apartment/Somerset building. It once did a rouse, with raised feathers followed by a quick shake to dust of loose feathers and a poop. Falcon wasn't showing any signs of an hunt this day. 

6:25AM: (SOARING, PURSUIT ATTACK & FLAPPING FLIGHT) Falcon took off from the perch, did a short soar between Leela & Jains apartment. This made the Pigeons perched in the Jains apartment fly west. During the second half circle towards Leela, its flight pattern changed from soaring to active flight, with deep wing beats and flew steadily towards Jains apartment, a pursuit attack for sure. Vanished from the view for 5 seconds and returned through the same path with Pigeon in the talons, must have picked in between Jains & Somerset. Flew straight to the base of its favorite pillar perch. 

6:27AM: (NECK SEVERE) Usually the prey get killed when the Falcon landed on its perch, but today as soon as the Falcon landed all of a sudden the Pigeon started flapping heavily which startled the falcon for a few seconds. It took a well over 5 seconds to gain control of the Pigeon and the falcon hoped twice heavily holding the prey by its neck, followed by severing the neck with its bill. 

6:30AM: (PLUCKING & FEEDING) Falcon started to prepare its meal, defeathering the neck feathers of the pigeon and nibbled small bits of flesh with strong pulls. After 5 mins of feeding, Falcon moved the kill towards the corner closer to the pillar and started defeather again, now bigger chunk of long feathers flying off in the wind clearly indicating those are the flight feathers of the prey. Feeding continued for next 10 mins with 20-30 seconds pause to gaze around its environ. 

6:45AM: (GRIFFON POSE, CACK & WAIL VOCALIZATION) Couple of Black Kites appeared over Leela and one of them sighted the Falcon with its prey. As soon as the Kites started soaring over the side of the Falcon, it turned over to the ridge side and moved to more an horizontal posture, started giving loud "cack" calls. One of the Black Kites, flew quite close to the Falcon's ridge as if it tried to snatch the kill. The Kite then flew right over the Falcon's head, dive bombed in an attempt to make the Falcon fly with the kill or abandon the kill. Now the Falcon transformed into "Griffon" posture, with its back feathers roused + half open wings in mantling posture + well spread tail + open bill and started giving loud "agonistic wail" calls. Its call reverberated the entire open area below the Leela building. After a couple of attempts, the Black Kite moved SW towards the estuary. Feeding resumed only 5 minutes after the Kites had vanished. 

6:55AM: (TOMIAL TOOTH) 3 more Black Kites appeared over Leela, 2 flew south and one happened to see the Falcon. This time few "cack" calls from the Falcon were enough to deter the kite away and the feeding continued. Now the Falcon had moved closer to the edge of the pillar facing West which gave good views of the feeding. The pigeon now was held to lie on its back and the Falcon fed from the flanks as the feet of the pigeon was clearly visible. The Falcon nibbled the flesh at first, then held a good chunk with its bill followed by a tilting of its head on both the sides to rip of flesh from the bones. The tomial tooth must be of great help here to tear small pieces of flesh from the pigeon.

7:10AM: (GUT ELIMINATION) Feeding continued with big chucks of flesh been gulped by the Falcon. The intestines/gut are pulled out carefully and been set aside, not eaten. One of the Pigeon's feet along with the tibia portion been detached and swallowed whole after about 1 minute of struggle to push the entire piece in. Few small pieces of flesh & feathers struck to the Falcon's head & bill were carefully removed by a head-rub over its shoulder feathers. 

7:20AM: (CACHING, SCRATCHING & FEET NIBBLE) Feeding came to a pause now. Falcon picked the remaining (around 30%) kill in its beak, carried it closer to the wall of the pillar and dropped it there, cached it for later. Did a short hop to come back to the edge of the pillar base now. Feet nibbling continued for about 2-3 mins accompanied with some scratching of the bill with its front facing talons. Then and there the Falcon will look at its feet, gaze around the habitat for a few seconds and once again relook at its feet. This behavior continued for quite some time until it walked along the ridge of the pillar for a few feet and settled facing the wall. 

7:30AM: (RESTING) Falcon moved to the left side of the Pillar base, started resting and gazed around looking at the flying Crows and Pigeons. Couple of Rose-ringed Parakeets ignored the presence of the Falcon and landed few metres below the pillar investigating the crack in the wall. 

7:35AM: (AGONISTIC CALLING & TERRITORIALITY) Two Black Kites flew in to the Leela building's terrace where the House Crows interrupted them and started mobbing them at all sides. Falcon now turned away from the wall, started giving the "cack" calls looking up. When one of the Kites came closer to the pillar Falcon took off, made a quick climb and started mobbing the Kite. As the Falcon started to circle around the open ground next to Leela, "cack" calls continued with the Falcon trying to soar over the Black Kite. When the second Black Kite too moved towards the Leela west side, Falcon moved towards NW and didn't return. 5 mins post the Falcon had vanished, House Crows appeared next to the pillar base and took possession of the remains of the Pigeon cache.

******

My learnings

Tomial tooth?:  A protrusion that is quite sharp on the upper mandible outer edge - used to kill their prey and I guess also eat.

Travels along the Thamirabarani - Day 4 - Padhaneer, KMTR and a flaming Laburnum

Continued from here.

Day 4: 20 April 2023

By Gayathri R

(My comments in italics)

The morning began with a Malkoha sighting - there were a pair and Baskaran managed this shot of the full bird!  Most often, we were seeing tail or face or beak, with the restof the bird hidden behind.  A whole group of us crowded near the fence to see these beauties.

 

Before wandering in to the bus, I stared curiously at the grasses there, which seemed all knotted, as if some creature had been at work building a nest.

And then eagle-eyes Sagarika spots an Assasin.  Well, thats what these bugs are called I believe. Spot it if you can, and look for that long proboscis.  That is the assisination weapon - it injects saliva into the hapless prey, which then liquefies its insides which it then sucks on like a nice cold mildshake.  All this learning is today.  That day, I looked at it, or rather didn't see it, and then when I did, I was marvelling at its camouflage. "Tribe Harpactorini"

 Padhaneer!

The hero of the morning was Borassus flabellifer, the nungu tree, our state tree, ignored for most of the year, until it is nungu season!

As we got into the bus, Vijay announced he had a sweet surprise for us.  The bus came to a halt on the highway, along an avenue of Palmyra - and Padhaneer was announced.  The boys were dubious as was I, the men were gleeful, the women sceptical, but everyone curious.

Nungu was a favourite summer pastime at my grandparents' home in Coimbatore, but what was this padhaneer?  Wasnt it like pre-fermented toddy?  Shouldn't we be careful?

By the time these questions went through my head, everyone was busy slurping, a long line had formed each with one of these delightful cups.

I had a first tentative sip, oh!! it was delicious! - Sweet, malty, grainy and cool!  

Clay pots are placed under the flower fronds and the sweet sap collected early in the morning.  When fermented, this turns into toddy (was my understanding).

 Raji, Chitra and Sara lined up for second cups, Samrudh did not take to it, and Baskaran was in seventh heaven.
 

The tools of the trade, to clumb up, pierce the fronds and tie the pots

These cups - so aesthetic.

The video below shows how the rib is removed and the fronds are tied, to make these cups.

 

KMTR and the Sorimuthu Iyyanar Kovil

The Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) has been on my wish list for more than a decade.  This reserve is part of the Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve, which straddles Kerala and Tamil Nadu.  If I remember right, Thanikai mentioned how the Thamirabarani originates within the KMTR.  If I remember right, Isakki mentioned there were 13 rivers, including the Manimuthar, Ganga and Kallar  in this region. The main species being protected was the LTMs - Lion tailed Macaques - and later tiger.

The landscapes vary from  moist to dry, and Kakachi was also part of the overall area was how I understood.  We were off to the Sorimuthu Ayyanar kovil area - for which special permission is not needed.  So we did not go into any "non public" places.

We crossed several canals and streams - all part of the wider Thamirabarani network.  Past Kalidakurichi and Ambasamudram.  We were soon winding up the hills.  It was a dry April scenery.

And we were at the Papanasam falls. Alighting from the bus was not allowed, so Isakki took everyone's phones and took some lovely pictures of the Papanasam Agasthiyar falls.  This is one of the falls where the Thamirabarani moves to the flatlands, and there is also a big Hydel project and a dam in the vicinity.  It was not in full force, but still quite a splendid sight.

Just a km or so before the temple, we got off and decided to walk the road.  There were many butterflies in the undergrowth keeping everyone busy.  We spotted a Leafbird, Lyra kept both eyes on her dad,

 

A watchtower had to be climbed, and what a breathtaking anorama, of the forests, the temple, the rocks and the river.

The bridge across the Thamirabarani

With the temple at the far end of the rocks.

Amidst the rocks, these plants were growing.

The Sorimuthu Ayyanar Temple, on the banks of the river flowing from the left of the picture, to the foreground.  What a grand sight!  The temple can be accessed from th right, over the bridge.  The temple sees busloads of pilgrims in the month of Aadi - especially amavasai.  It is a special temple for Sabaramalai pilgrims.  the Ayyanar deity is a avatar of Ayyappan.  Common names in the region - Pechi, Isakki, Pattavarayan - these are all part of the various deities at this temple.

As we crossed the bridge and headed to our bus, to return for breakfast, we saw this clump and a board.  

Euphorbia susan-holmesiae - a Cactus native to this region, and is also endangered. 

Vitex leucoxylon - identified by Thanikai as Neer Nocchi (tamil name). 

Breakfast, tree climbing and the most gorgeous Laburnum I have ever seen

It was past 9, we were hungry and hot, as we descended past the Papanasam temple and down to this lovely spot by the river.  Under the shade of a large Banyan tree, we feasted on Pongal (I think).

All these spots were (relatively) clean and defecation free - I found that amazing and enjoyable in itself.  One of the joyous revelations of the trip is the relative cleanliness of the surroundings of Tirunelveli and the river.

The banyan - boys and girls climbed, many ladies swung - including Raji, with the most gleeful expression on her face.  I did not attempt it.

What a gorgeous sight this tree was!  When we returned to Chennai, the Laburnums burst into bloom in May, this year - and some are even now in flower.  We all took pictures under this tree, of this tree, various combinations.

Back to Singampatti for a final dip in the river - it was HOT, and I had much travel ahead of me, so like a responsible adult (for a change) I decided to stay out of the sun and the water.  I watched the antics of the Greenish Leaf warbler instead.  This was the better dipping point - stronger water flow, and deeper as well - there was a mid-river ladies conference as well, it was wonderful to see.  Also impressive is the magical changing routines pre and post bath that the ladies managed.

 

It called, and chirped, and Aravind, Shashank, Sagarika and I followed it around.  Photo by Sagarika

Photo by Sagarika

 

 And so we returned back to our dorms, to pack and eat and rest before leaving.  Samrudh went off spider hunting within the campus along with Sagarika, the other boys played cricket.

The spiders are in this link.

Gayathri sums it up best:

We then came back and thanked everyone who crafted a spectacular journey, extending their hospitality. After delightful lunch with payasam, we started packing for our return trip. With loads of memories and authentic Tirunelveli halwa, we bid good-bye to the magnificent Thamirabarani landscape with high hopes of returning back. Below is a group photo of us in the campus.

Thanks to all the members of the group for sharing the sightings list, pictures and offering a lovely company. Thanks to Sagarika for her valuable feedback during report making. Special thanks to Vijay sir for organising this awesome trip. 

PS:  Raji got off at Tiruneveli - Janakiraman hotel to spend an extra day temple visiting, so no return adventures with her.  There was a rowdy and raucous "goodbye" that resounded all through the bus as she alighted.  After dropping her, we seemed to go round and round, seeing the same streets, as there were one way streets.

Chitra and I had a chocobar in the station, with much glee.

No Snorer in our compartment, so we slept well, and got off at Egmore, said goodbyes, and made our way together across the city - Mr Shankarnarayan, Chitra, Sheila and me. It is always difficult to say goodbye.

The iNaturalist species list

https://www.inaturalist.org/lists/4402490-Tirunelveli-Trip?view=plain

Travels along the Thamirabarani - Day 3 - Amazing landscapes

Continued from here.

Day 3: 19 April 2023

By Gayathri R

(My comments in italics)

Up and on the road by 620 am.

Vijay had warned that it was a long hot day, and we were all to be prepared.  

We drove through Tirunelveli town - this bus stand caught my eye.

Sheila was in a high state of excitement, as we passed her mother's school.  We had many on our group with Tirunelveli connections - and there was much chatter and nostalgia - Baskaran filling us in about Singampatti zamindar and KMTR, Mr Shankarnarayanan on his love for the Papanasam falls, Raji and her paternal connections to villages in the neighbourhood.

Vallanadu Blackbuck sanctuary

The sanctuary is a dry deciduous forest and the flora includes thorny hardwood and xerophytes: Dalbergia horrida, Dichrostachys cinerea, Vachellia horrida, Acacia planifrons, Albizia amara, Zizyphus. The place also hosts spotted deer, jungle cat, mongoose, black naped hare, scaly anteater(pangolin), vipers and rat snakes and nearly 100 other species of birds are found in the area/

We reached and climbed down from our bus into the searing dry heat, and up to the tower.

  

 

 

 

Thanikai explained the importance of the scrub and how this 16sqkms is like the last and southernmost refuge for the Blackbuck, with a hillock on  one side and the highway on the other.  It is important for such scrub habitats to be preserved, but I did wonder about this isolated sanctuary and what it meant for the population of Blackbuck, cutoff from other populations and inbreeding.

From up there, as we scanned the sanctuary, I saw a beautiful Paradise Flycatcher, a brown shrike, a skulking coucal and a Collared Dove, besides the 6 0r 7 Blackbuck fawns.  We did not spot a male.

Photo by Sagarika - The Blackbuck fawns

The brown shrike - lovely capture by Sheila.  Observe the thorns of the Acacia!

We descended and walked along the perimeter, and of course we menadered.  Some went off to see a little watering hole, I stared at the dragonflies and wildflowers, Shashank vanished into the undergrowth, the boys marched on ahead, and after a while wanted breakfast.

Photo by Sagarika - We saw this Agamid.  I gave it a casual once over and walked on....

Sagarika, on the other hand, the meticulous recorder of all things that move and dont move, took this picture.  Came back and checked - it was a Palm Leaf Fan throated lizard - Sitana visisri - endemic to TN and a not-so-common find. This from the internet - "The Sitana visiri species epithet is derived from the regional Tamil language word for a hand-crafted fan made from palm leaf (also the source of the common name), because the dewlap of S. visiri resembles a local palm-leaf fan."

Many more of the interesting flora and fauna are on iNaturalist, here.

All were picked up from different parts of the track, and a  slightly cranky and hot group got into the bus and headed to the Range Office, where our breakfast awaited.  A few puris later, everyone's spirits were up again!  Hats off to the remarkable team at Atree who kept us fed and hydrated - the age range of our group was from some 10 years to around 70 I guess, and between Vijay's remarkable people management and Thanikai and group, all diverse needs were taken care off!  The drinking water arrangement was interesting - I had never seen this handy little battery operated "pump" that fitted on top of the 20 litre water can, enabling us all to keep refilling our water bottles.  The Range Office also had a set of toilets, and soon we were all set to depart.

There was a Pied Crested Cuckoo at the rear of the campus, which I did not see as I was busy with the puris.  Some others were smarter- they managed the puris and the cuckoo. 

Therikaadu - the red desert.

What an amazing landscape!  I had read about it before our trip, but nothing quite prepares you for the sight - red sand, dunes and searing heat in the middle of peninsular India!

 

Situated close to tiruchendur, and just 15-20 kms from the coast, Therikaadu appears like this huge red Martian area in the middle of TN.

We climbed up dunes like this.

We gathered up around Thanikai, under the shade of a cashew to understand the geology of this place. 

Hrishu was given the taske of telling us what he knew.  Here's how I understood it - the land breezes blowing down the Nilgiris erode the laterite rocks carrying fine sand.  These winds collide with the sea breezes blowing in the opposite direction, and this has caused the red sands to get deposited here over centuries.

The "Aeolian Process" is detailed here.

Now these were just plain sand dunes with nothing growing on them.  But these are shifting sand dunes, which does not suit humans who want to deal with certainty and stability.  So, we have tried to "control" the shifting it appears.  How to prevent the dunes from shifting onto agricultural land?  Wind Breaks and Shelter Belts are being tried, it seems.  The cashews, casuarina and Palmyra are all planted more recently - even Neem has been tried, along with Kodakupuli.

It was too hot to linger on the dunes and we all moved from bush to bush seeking shelter.  i could almost feel the sun dehdrating me, drawing the waters from my body, sucking me dry!!

I tasted cashew fruit for the first time - it was too astringent for my liking, though full of water.

We were all grateful to sink into the bus seats, and turn on the airconditioning as we headed to our next stop.

We made our way to the Arunjunai Katha Ayyanar Thirukkovil which comprises of sacred groves, century old trees, ponds with lots of water birds. 

The sands were red here also - it is the periphery of the Therikaadu.  Thanikai explained how this was a land of "eris"  - lakes and ponds, some as large as an ocean, with some 30 villages around the periphery.  There is no connection between these rainwater tanks and the Thamirabarani river.

The tanks hosted temples and the trees around became sacred groves, protected by the people.

Thanikai explained that the palm trees, Screw pines (kewras) and Barringtonia groves were all very old and made for an interesting array of landscapes. A 400 year old Naval (Jamun) was also around.  And the ponds and tanks were filled with birds.

We saw this large peepul surrounded and protected by stone deities including this Ayyanaar which was quite magnificent.

The Barringtonia roots were stunning, and stood tall along with kewras - roots seen in the picture, indicating the presence of water, even if they were dry in April.

It was very warm and humid, but under the tall trees we were fine.  The road was filled with tamarind trees as well.  Lyra and Neil had discovered an interesting shoe stamping game - interesting for them I mean.  They were keeping score, much to my amusement.  

We came across the mighty Naval as well.  Take a look at the girth of its trunk. I kind of put my ear to the trunk, and took a few deep breaths as i lay my face on it.  Somehow a tree like this always fills me with awe and respect and amazement.  Was it standing and a witness durng the Polygar wars?

At one point, we rounded the corner, and suddenly there were no tall trees, just a long road with large tanks on either side, filled with water birds, standing listlessly in the ponds.  For some reason, at this point my body battery ran out, and I just felt extremely tired and drained.  I dragged myself from tree cover to tree cover, for a bit.  We saw both the jacanas, grey herons in plenty as also Brahminy Kites. 

But the biggest excitement was for the Comb Ducks - recognisable with their larger size, but far away in the distance. (Sagarika's Photo)

The boys pressed on down the road to see what the rest of the pond would reveal.  They were rewarded with Cotton Teals, which I didn't see.

A few of us, including me, took refuge on the steps of this tank under the shade of the trees.  A beeeater kept us entertained with its sorties, on the far left, Coots paddled around and a large grey heron stood stockstill in the midday sun.  (Baskaran's photo)

Lunchtime, came the welcome announcement, and we skulked by the short cut back to the Arunjunai Katha Ayyanar Thirukkovil, where we started.  See the way the temple envelops the Arjuna tree within it.

Mr Shankarnarayan's Picture of the beautiful Ayyanar from the Arunjunai Katha Ayyanar temple

What a beautiful lunch spot it was!  The tank water was clean as was the surroundings.  Once again, lunch plates were opened, bottles were refilled with water, and we ate and cooled off.  My body battery also got recharged.

We used the restrooms, and piled into our bus again, and started on the last leg of our day.  We were travelling East to the sea!  Many of us dozed off - a short ride to Punnakayal.

Punnakayal

At around 3 PM we reached Punnakayal, a small fishing town. This is the place where the river Thamirabarani meets the sea. 

Our boatmen were not available until 4pm, and we had to wait in the little covered shed-like structure.  Everyone kind of wandered around.  The older fishermen were playing some game, which I could not figure.

Boats were coming in with all sort of catch.

We witnessed a quick and efficient auction of this load of octpuses,

as also these mussels, which were being exported to China.  I wondered about the sustainability of this all, but of course I have no idea, and I am hoping the local fisherfolk know better.

Conspicuously absent at this time of day were the women - I did not see a single one.

We were shown the day’s catch along with starfishes, rays, crabs, octopuses and jellyfish.

We sighted Brown-headed Gull, Black-headed Gull and many Brahminy Kites. (This brown headed Gull photo by Baskaran)

 We hired a boat and traversed the sea, estuary and the mangroves. There are four species of mangroves belonging to 3 genera namely Avicennia marina, A. officinalis, Rhizophora mucronata and Acanthus illicifolius. 

We were taken to a small island patch where we walked around and found beautiful shells of sea-urchins, colorful shells and flora unique to the ecosystem. We tasted a small leaved plant which the fisher-folks said would be a bit salty. 

One other interesting behaviour we observed was of a Brahminy Kite. It was hovering above us eating the fish it held in its claws. 

We could see it in close quarters and clicked some good pictures. Other birds spotted on this day was White-eyed Buzzard, Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark, Great Thickknee, Whimbrel, Western Marsh Harrier and Western Reef Egret.

We returned around 6pm, and witnessed a beautiful sunset as well.

The journey back was long and we reached our stay at 9 PM. We had dinner and some of us (not me!) went for a night walk with Mr. Thanikaivel, escorted by Gingee, the pet dog there. We saw 3 vine snakes, scorpions with it’s young ones, a small white-breasted waterhen sitting on a tree and a Indian Black Turtle along the waterbody.