Andamans Day 2 - Garacharma Wetland - waders

11th Feb 2024 - afternoon.  Continued from here.

A short post-lunch snooze later, we were headed out again.  We picked up Jabili along the way from Bathi Bastu.

A twenty minute ride down south from the hotel, through little colonies interspersed with vacant plots, small patches of marsh and we were at an unimpressive mudflat/water body with a lot of humdrum human activity all around.

Garacharma wetlands - further under threat than even Pallikaranai it seems.  

"White birds" were scattered here and there - no large flocks, just a smattering of solitary waders here and there.

Binoculars and cameras emerged, and the search was on, and before you know it, we had a dozen species!

As I scanned, all the 3 egrets I could see, plus what I call the usual Pallikaranai residents - Swamp hens, moorhens and waterhens.  Then we spotted the sandpipers and the wagtails, redshanks and plovers.

We walked around the periphery to another part, sat down on some construction stones on the sides, and now the lifers (for me) began - winter migrants.

Long-toed Stints - with their pale legs and mottled bodies.  I was happy to identify one - after much instructions - "left of the small yellow bucket, behind that plastic bag, walking to the left", and such like.  Finally we had a tally of 11 of them.  

Five Red-necked stints were shown to me - no red necks or anything, just a grey little wader, with a stocky bill, smaller stint size of course but with dark legs unlike the LT cousins.  (The red necks are in breeding season up north.)

Scurrying about in the grass were Red-throated pipits - their usual upright Pipit stance, quite heavily streaked.

A White-bellied Sea Eagle glided lazily above, and then moved out of view.

Click for a video view of the wetlands here.

We moved to a more scrubby part, away from the water's edge, and a bittern flew quite literally past my nose! It vanished into the undergrowth, but we did track it, and what a lovely sight it was.  A yellow bittern, absolutely still, trying hard not to be seen, and staring at us.  It was hard to point out to the others, so well camouflaged was it, even though we had a clear line of sight.

An Andaman cow came up to say hello in the meantime.

Desigan flushed a Snipe which went shooting off, and then another and then yet another!  Five Pintailed Snipes in all.

A bunch of Rosy Starlings came to roost on a tree as the sun sank low in the horizon.

I was sad to see this dump - as usual wetlands and marshes considered wastelands, and unprotected.

We stopped at a Tamil diner, for a dosai (which was pretty ordinary - it flattered to deceive) and some even more ordinary chai.  But our waiter was a master of hyperbole and provided much amusement.

eBird Checklist - 11 Feb 2024 - Garacharma Wetland - 44 species

We were off to Rangat the next morning - it was a 4 am departure!