Sholinganallur through the lens of Mr Ramanan

Sholinganallur in southern Madras is home to wetlands that are an extension of Pallikaranai.  Now known more for being part of the IT corridor, the area is in urgent need of preserving of the remaining grasslands, scrub, water bodies and wetlands.

These are the soak pits and groundwater charging areas for the city and support an important ecosystem.  Here are a few glimpses of that.

A beautiful capture of the conical silver bill, black tail and white breast of the White Throated Munia (Euodice malabarica), by Mr Ramanan.  These birds move around in large flocks and feed on grass seeds found in scrub and grasslands.  They are found usually in the winter months in south India.

A Black Shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris) stares menacingly, just before taking off on its hunt for mice.  Its feet are usually clutch the perch from opposite sides.  These smaller kites live on a diet of mice, and it is amazing to see them hover in the sky as they hunt for lunch, dropping silently and speedily onto their prey.  Photo by Mr Ramanan 

The streaked fantail warbler (Cisticola juncidis) displays its fantail.  I prefer to call them Zitting Cisticola which is apt, as their call is a "zit, zit", as they zip past from reed to reed.  They are easily hard, but difficult to spot through the binoculars as they are always on the move.  Photo by Mr Ramanan

In the lake, Mr Ramanan's lens captured a winter visitor, the black tailed godwit, (Limosa limosa) a large wader, with the characteristic pink bill with the black tip.  The bar-tailed goodwill is more streaked 

Meanwhile on the shores, Mr Ramanan finds the brilliant colours of a yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava) in breeding plumage.  The wagtails, well, wag their tails quite incessantly and can be found on the dry periphery of lakes and other water bodies looking for insects.  This one seems to be a male with its olive upper parts.

Another species found in the dry scrub is the ashy-crowned sparrow-lark (Eremopterix griseus).  They look like sparrows.  This is a male with the well marked black collar, while the female is sandy brown.  They have an interesting courtship display with the male kind of shooting up vertically into the air, and then descending also with a whistle.  These are ground birds, foraging for seed and insect and also spending the night on the ground.  We need to leave enough undisturbed ground for these birds to survive and propagate.