My new discovery

Thanks to the bird race last Sunday, we visited the Karikili tank for the first time. Next to Vedanthangal, its more popular cousin ensures that there are no crowds here. 

It appears that the pintails also preferred the peace and quiet of this lake, and were sunning and snoozing in large numbers, far away from the noisy pelicans of Vedanthangal. 

We sat for a while on the bund and watched them now and then going bottoms-up as something in the water grabbed their attention.

A pied kingfisher did its helicopter act before divebombing in, only to come up empty-beaked.

As I sauntered along the walkway, a long wispy brown tail fluttered in the trees, attached to a rufous paradise flycatcher busy chomping on some hapless insect.  He stared at me indignantly before taking off to the next tree.

A flock of Red-wattled Lapwings announced our presence with some frantic did-you-do-it calling, but the Cormorant which was preening and sunning couldn't care less.

A lonely Lttle Grebe and a Common Coot looking most uncommon swum around as if in search of friends.

A Coppersmith Barbet and a Brainfever bird called from the trees, well hidden from our view.

We soon moved on to Pallikaranai, but the lake was the highlight of a day well spent, as we enjoyed the oh-so-short Madras  winter, with good company to boot.  Thank you Sekar, Raji and Sheila!

PS - our tally of 70 odd (72 I think) was the highest we've achieved on a bird race, so not bad for a birding day that finished at 2pm!  Of course GK's idying and Sheila's camera added a good handful to our tally at the end of the day.