Birding at the Poonga from greenways road

eBird Checklist - 26 Sept 2026 - Poonga from greenways road - 27 species

I had a good Saturday morning, watching the pelicans and the Little egrets fish and feed.  I saw a Darter up close after a long time.  

I was here - on Greenways Road, opposite Quibble island.

The backwaters were "aromatic", the traffic sped by, but the water birds were busy.

A grey heron waited patiently, 

As did this Painted Stork.

The Darter swam, fished and then came and sunned itself.  See those feet!

Lapwings walked jauntily on the exposed mud flats - see the mangrove prop roots, and little baby mangrove seedlings, all set to grow.

This one Pelican preened - on a tiny rock, if you please.  the rest of the flock were swimming and fishing.

This large healthy stilt mangrove was nice to see.  Little Grebes swam by.

The skies above were filled with feral pigeons and house crows - we feed them too much - and the occasional screech of Parakeets.  A few barn swallows also swooped around, though I see more numbers in Thiruvanmyur, interestingly.

No raptors did I spy - Maya the Shaheen has been a no-show so far, and it it too early for the Vismaya show (the Leela Palace Peregrine).  

More pictures in the ebird list.

28th Sept morning ebird list here.

Water level was a bit lower - and the Little Egrets were in plenty this morning!

I did not see the Herons - Purple or Grey - but a flock of Spot Billed ducks were feeding in the waters today and I saw a pair of Pied Kingfishers.

They were filter-feeding on the aquatic plants I think.

The colours on these ducks are amazing, aren't they?In some angles - the wing patch looks green, and in others blue!  

So, in this little tiny bit of the estuary backwaters - the spot-billed ducks were filter feeding, the egrets were stabbing and fishing with their pointy bills, the painted stork were moving their bills side to side and snapping shut on fish, the Little Cormorants were underwater diving and fishing and the Pied Kingfishers were swooping down from above!

So much competition and so many different strategies that the hapless fish have to evade.

A pair of Pied Kingfishers - the one on the left -  definitely male with the two breast bands; the second on the right - probably female?

The male swooped and fished, and then flew up to another perch.

The male pied kingfisher

The Little Cormorant looked distinctly unhealthy - was the water pollution affecting their skin/feathers?  They all looked like this.

Usually, one does not see the skin exposed like this.  They were flapping their wings a lot.

Another bedraggled one.  Couldn't be that they were all moulting at the same time?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the estuary, Bharath had spotted and photographed a Japanese sparrow hawk flying south!

No raptor luck at my end - not even a Black Kite today.