Birding at Shols after ages
The morning had a nice familiar feeling to it - Srinivas is back in town, I am shamelessly jumping into his car, we are off to Shols - Classic Farms side - Umesh wants his vadai, Vijay says no no.
The birds seemed to be making the most of the perches it provided.
I did not see the Indian Roller fly, but Umesh did.
The Indian Roller is showing a decline nationally, and TN and Chennai appears to be part of that pattern. The State of India’s Birds 2025 update estimates a 41.5% long-term decline nationally, with the current annual trend still declining by about 3.8% per year.
Vijay told the group about the city peregrines, the Mammalan reservoir and why it was a bad idea and many other such biodiversity wisdoms.
I watched as they skated and darted across, using surface tension. All pretty extraordinary and fascinating to watch this spread-eagled little insect dart across in search of prey - it moved real fast, almost like as if it was flying across the water. Some mosquito or fly it was feeding on - prey invisible to me.
It is Madras Week and this is the bird walk. We navigate the OMR and the Metro construction hazards and enter the colony - more plots filled, less marsh, more concrete. Where will the birds go I keep thinking, as we watch the habitat vanish before our eyes.
Sagarika, our resident marsh birder is AWOL sadly and so the waders also decide to give it a skip it seems.
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But the regulars were there - Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Swamp Hens, Stilts in plenty.
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| What was this I wondered in dismay. Some illegality for sure. |
The birds seemed to be making the most of the perches it provided.
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| The Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) studied the marsh from above. |
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| And then delighted us with its aerial acrobatics. I love to watch them hover before they dive. This one seems to be a female - with a broken black breast band. The males have a double band, GK said. |
Srinivas and I enjoyed the Zitting Cisticolas - I heard them but could not spot them, until one obligingly sat on a bare twig (prosposis I think) among the grasses.
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| Zitting Cisticola - Cisticola juncidis - enjoying the morning sun, swaying in the breeze it seemed. Or maybe he/she was resting between searching for insects. |
I did not see the Indian Roller fly, but Umesh did.
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| Indian roller (Coracias benghalensis) |
The Indian Roller is showing a decline nationally, and TN and Chennai appears to be part of that pattern. The State of India’s Birds 2025 update estimates a 41.5% long-term decline nationally, with the current annual trend still declining by about 3.8% per year.
Open grasslands (what we call wasteland) - that is their habitat. As we pour more concrete everywhere, and clear and "clean" empty plots, these birds seem to be struggling. A landscaped park is not really a green space, in my book.
Rollers I think nest in our state tree - Palmyra - and even that is declining.
The crows seem to be taking matters into their own hands - removing the wiring and maybe dismantling these structures in a while! A lovely set of pictures by Umesh.
Vijay told the group about the city peregrines, the Mammalan reservoir and why it was a bad idea and many other such biodiversity wisdoms.
Umesh wowed the participants with his magnificent pictures of the regulars - a flying Darter here, a Purple Heron preening there, and Purple Swamp Hens virtually everywhere.
Srinivas and GK methodically trained their Scopes on the birds, giving everyone a chance to spot and enjoy the birds.
Of course we did not see the Watercock - that requires Sagarika to be present, but we did see a Shikra.
I wandered around into the empty plot nearby and heard the back and forth between a gaggle of sunbirds high in the canopy.
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| I peered into the water of the marsh and saw these skaters doing their thing - walking on water. |
I watched as they skated and darted across, using surface tension. All pretty extraordinary and fascinating to watch this spread-eagled little insect dart across in search of prey - it moved real fast, almost like as if it was flying across the water. Some mosquito or fly it was feeding on - prey invisible to me.
And so ended the birding morning. Unfortunately, no kids on this walk.
Vijay treated us to breakfast at Upavihar on ECR - my first time there, Supposedly a Kannada style restaurant, with benne dosai, Udupi (sweet) sambar or madras (not sweet) sambar on the menu and Hindi-speaking waiters with digital ordering devices.
The coffee was excellent too.
As we returned, Srinivas decided to play "chicken" with a rather large MTC bus - these past months in the orderly world of the US seems to have made him less tolerant of our ill-mannered fellow road users - and I must tell you, that unlike TACO, Srinivas didn't.
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