Pulicat photo essay

A couple of years (I think) since I visited Pulicat.  Sigh!  In the meantime, I shall draw solace from wonderful collections like this.

Zenfolio | camerags | A visit to Pulicat with a 600mm/f4 telephoto lens

"No flamingos in sight, but a rocket"

Rags is a neighbourhood friend, long-time MNS member and another of the Society's band of excellent photographers.

Here is his account of the happenings of Oc 12th.

Photo by Raghavan aka Rags

When Venky and Prabhu asked me to join them today for a drive up to Sriharikota to watch flamingos ( the word was out that the birds were seen in hundreds) and a rocket launch from the SHAR center, I went along without knowing what to expect.

We reached SHAR road by about 7.30 am and drove along trying to spot birds one either side. When we reached the Wildlife Warden's office, we were stopped at a heavily armed Police and Army barricade. As the rocket launch was scheduled for 1100 hrs, we were not permitted to drive further but were advised by the men in uniform to turn South and drive along the brush jungle to spot birds. We could only see Egrets, Painted storks, some ground roosting Pelicans and some bush birds like pipits, finch larks, black winged kites and so on.

There was little water in the lagoons and the mud flats were turning into a mirage with all the heat shimmer in the distance. Disappointed by the complete lack of flamingos, we turned back North and drove up to the derelict watch tower to hang around and watch the rocket launch at the least. We were probably 10 kms away from the launch pad, which was obscured by the distant tree line to the East and we waited with baited breath for the launch to take place, a first time experience for me.

At 1058 hrs, there seemed to be an eerie silence - as though the wind had stopped blowing - and at 1100 hrs on the dot, we heard a distant siren wailing and then blast off! It was a flaming streak that took off from the distance - sounding perhaps as loud as a jet engine initially - and barely a few seconds into lift off, I experienced a ear shattering BRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMPP and the ground around my feet shook - I was hearing the sonic boom as the rocket broke the sound barrier! Another few seconds and there was only a rapidly dissipating vapour trail left behind by the rocket.

The attached picture is already magnified about 100%, even though I used my 300mm/f4 on a Nikon D90 body. If you enlarge the picture more, you can see a distinct 'ring' of condensation just below the nose. Prabhu, being the tech savvy man, explained the 'ring' phenomenon. As the rocket slices through the air, the velocity at the nose is so great that a low pressure or vacuum forms just below the nose. The water vapour 'ring' settles within this low pressure zone and travels with the rocket till it gets out of Earth's atmosphere. Quite an experience from someone who only went looking for flamingos!

Rags

Check out Rags' pictures at  Camerags

The rocket was ISRO's PSLV series, and it put a weather satellite up in orbit.

Can we now hope for better weather forecasting?

Flamingoes - Experiences in the Kutch and at Pulicat

The Kutch adventure began with the wild asses.
Laurel & Hardy shadows

In 2008, I saw flamingoes in the wild for the first time at Pulicat. Later that year, Mr Ramanan, took some lovely photos of these ballerinas in pink.

But still, it was a thrill to see them at the Little Rann, in April this year. The LRK is a breeding ground for them, and we saw little ones without their pink, and we saw both Lesser and Greater flamingoes. We saw them near the salt pans, we saw them in the last remaining waters in the wetlands.

They fed, and called noisily and took off in large groups, filling the skies with pink.

LRK. In formation! Junior captures them in flight with his analog camera.
LRK. Photo by Mr Ramanan, caught in a rare moment when they were not feeding!
LRK. The rest of his buddies had taken to the skies, protesting against our getting too close to them. But this one stayed back and stalked proudly up and down, posing for us. Photo by Mr Ramanan

The same fellow.
A juvenile, feeding single-mindedly.

We returned home with our stories and pictures, only to be bested by Skandan and company's experiences, right here at Pulicat!

They were privileged to witness the Flamingo March! I had not heard of this, until I saw these videos. They are the ritualised courtship breeding displays of the flamingoes, and generally precede breeding.

So then, does that mean these flamingoes are breeding in Pulicat in the middle of summer? Maybe not.

Adeesh Shivkar writes, in his post on the flamingoes of Mumbai that,

The lesser flamingos before leaving the shores of Mumbai to their breeding grounds…..perform a spectacular display that is rivaled by none…...Even if you do not get any images…...its an amazing experience to just watch this…

So does that mean these flamingoes of Pulicat will now leave? I am hoping that Skandan and friends will keep me informed!

The Kutch encounter with the fashion king of Dasada continues here.

The maddening world of wader identification

Madras is blessed with a lot of water bodies big and small, brackish and fresh. Any self-respecting birder in the city has to know their waders.

Now, if you are as bad as me at this, you will benefit from this "Waders 101" or "Waders for Dummies"!

There's a young man in MNS by the name of Gnanaskandan, (aka GK aka Skandan!), who has patiently put these pictures and the idying tips together. The original pictures can be found on Facebook here.

He has also designed a google map on Birding places around Chennai, which is definitely worth a look-see.

Shanks

1) Common Greenshank (Top) - Grey above - Foreneck & underparts white with Streakes - Greenish legs - Long , stout bill slightly Curved upwards - Prefers : Freshwater & Saltwater wetlands

2) Common Redshank (Bottom) - Variable brown to Grey above - Grey breast - Orange Red at base of bill - Orange Red legs - Prefers : Fresh & coastal waters

Red Shank - Prefers shallow fresh & Coastal waters

2 Species:

1) Spotted Redshank (Pic 1) - Has longer,slightly down curved Red bill., very conspicuous white supercillium (line above the eyes) and less streaks in neck & ear-coverts - Widespred winter visitor - Taken @ Pulicat

2) Common Redshank (Pic 2) - Has shorter bill compared to Spotted Redshank., lacks the white supercillium and more streaks down the neck - slightly smaller than Spotted Redshank - very timid and gives out an alarm call in flight - Taken @ Pulicat

Sandpipers - Size : Bigger than a Little Riged Plover - Prefers Freshwater & Costal wetlands and sandbanks

1) Common Sandpiper (Top left) - Distinct White Shoulder line - White Supercillium extends till nape(Not extending after eyes in Green Sandpiper) - Constantly bobs its head - Greenish yellow legs

2) Green Sandpiper (Top right) - Distinct White Supercillium not extending after eyes(extends till nape in Common Sandpiper) - Dark wings compared to Wood Sandpiper - Greenish Yellow legs

3) Wood Sandpiper (Bottom left) - Heavily Spotted Upperparts - Dark Yelllow legs - Prominent white supercillium

4) Marsh Sandpiper (Botton Right) - Fine Stilt like bill - Foreneck and underparts more whitish compared to other sandpipers - Greenish Yellow legs

Stints - Size : Slightly smaller than a Little Ringed Plover - Prefers shallow fresh & Coastal waters

1) Temminck's Stint (Pic 1) - Yellow legs - Lacks Supercillium - Complete grey Breast band - Uniform grey wing pattern - Widespred winter visitor - Taken at Pulicat

2) Little Stint (Pic 2) - Dark legs - Prominent White Supercillium - Rufous to Grey streaks in neck & breast - Black to Rufous wing pattern - Widespred winter visitor - Taken at Pulicat

I am off to Kelambakkam this weekend, and lets hope my wader idying improves from the abysmal level it is currently at!

Ballerinas in pink and spotted bills

More great photos from Mr Ramanan!

Click on the photos for an enlarged view.

Leggy ballerinas from Pulicat.

Getting ready for a performance?

Look straight ahead girls, nice and graceful now!

Oh, dash it, I lost my slipper!

(Well actually, they are feeding...but we could build a nice story around them!)

The spot-billed pelican at Nelapattu.

Oh leave me alone, I have a lot on my mind!

Lets get ready for the party!

Mummy, do my back feathers, please!

Not now, I'm busy.

The Pulicat Flamingoes

The Pulicat dance troupe!

Yes, there are flamingoes, thousands of them, just north of Madras, and I am quite ashamed to say that I saw them in a New York zoo before seeing them at Pulicat.  I have lived for more than twenty years in this city, blissfully unaware that these lovely birds lived and bred in our backyard.

Strange looking birds.  Light pink, long graceful legs, huge flocks, a sinuous movement as they walk across the shallow waters, so ballerina-like.  But that beak...... there's nothing graceful about it, according to me anyway.  Its large and bulky, and seems to be just added on, like one of those Photoshopped oddities!

They are useful to them, though, the beaks I mean.  Since they feed on saltwater shrimp and such like and use their beaks to filter-feed.  They will be in the "pink" of health the more shrimp they eat.  That's what they get the beta-carotene from, which keeps them pink!  So if you think the ones in the zoo are always pinker, you're probably right - they get more pink food in their diet.

Dec 2007.  We took a boat from SHAR road to get a closer look, but the closer we got, the faster they edged away from us, making sure that we couldn't get any closer.  At first they walked away, in a slow deliberate fashion, then some nervous ones spread their wings. At one point, they decided enough was enough and took to the skies, and what a lovely sight it was!

My husband clicked away, and came up with these lovely pictures.  It was a dull day with the sun well hidden, the water a bleak grey, but dont these birds really stand out in the dullness?

(You can click on any of these pictures to get a full-page view.)

Dont come any Closer!
OK, we're off!My mother opined that a flying flamingo is much more beautiful than a walking one, and I have to agree.  Where are those colours of dark pink and black when they just stand? Their long necks and legs form a lovely line in the sky, and even their beaks kind of fit in, giving a curve to their silhouettes!

An early flier is high up in the sky.  Take a look at the beauty of the airborne trio in the right foreground
The flying flamingoes bump into a flock of duck

Balaji by some coincidence seems to have also visited the flamingoes in December, though he and his friends were lucky with a  bright, sunny day.  There are some lovely pictures on his blog as well!

My son filmed the flamingoes on our handycam, and if you are willing to take a look at some footage that shakes and kind of goes off in all sorts of directions, see the video below!  You will also get an idea of what lots of flamingoes means really.  The whirr you hear is the sound of the strong wind that day, and if you have sharp ears you will also pick up the calls of the flamingoes.  They make quite a racket - well there are a lot of them.

Why do I like to go and see these and other birds in their habitat I wonder.  My brother (as a typical older brother), thinks I am a touch insane.  Why dont you just go to a zoo, or better still watch them on Nat Geo or Discovery, he grumbles.  

Is it the uncertainty of not knowing what I am likely to see?  Or the joy at seeing them free and unrestricted?

Another visit to SHAR road  and Annamalaicheri is overdue I think...  What say?  I should also write about Annamalaicheri, that fishing village on Pulicat, from where we took many a sortie and even had a Delhi birder traipse across the flatlands holding the hands of one of the fishermen, much to the latter's delight I'm sure, since the birder in question was a lovely lady!!

Pelicans up close at Nelapattu

My first live encounter with a pelican was on a visit to the Jurong Bird Park, in Singapore. My son was littler then, (literally!), probably around 4 ft, and completely enthralled by the feathered friends on view. We were walking along the path near Pelican Cove, and he was chattering away with us, blissfully unaware that following just behind him on the path was a pelican, walking with a deliberate, serious gait. My son happened to turn around, and was startled out of his skin to be eyeballing a pelican. This fellow studied my son with a deliberate air, dismissed him as not worthy of further interaction and then shuffled on up the path, with an air of an academic don ruminating his latest theory.

Then came Finding Nemo, and that delightful animation from Disney of a pelican, its large beak and inquisitive personality.

I always thought of them as these exotic birds that one finds in far-away lands. How ignorant I was. Our chance visit to Nelapattu - just 100 kms away from Madras - and there they were, nesting, socialising and living in a pelicanry. No, they were not migrants from somewhere else, they are there all year long, using the Barringtonia tree tops in the tank as nesting places. Not one or two but hundreds! These are the spot-billed pelicans, common in Asia.

Since then, I've seen them many a time, and am always fascinated by these large birds, each of which seems like quite a character. There was once this solitary, pensive pelican we came across in the waters of Pulicat, who really looked like he was in need of cheering up.

Another one flew by our boat, with a rather busy, dont-bother-me look, and what looked like a bill-full of fish.

Then there was this harassed looking mama pelican trying to calm her testy little ones, as she opened her beak to them. They create quite a combined racket, these birds, and as you approach, it reminds one of a school building where the hum of hundreds of kids carries across the air.

My favourite so far has been this young show off we saw on our last visit. As we watched from the boundaries of the lake, he came gliding down into the water. He came paddling by (they are good swimmers, with duck-like webbed feet), posing for all the shutterbugs, first left profile, then right, straight one now, ok now my beak with the spots, want to see my feathers?, alright that's enough, I have to go now!





A trip to Nelapattu is always rewarding because of these birds, and I could spend hours watching them as they go about their daily routines.

Getting to Nelapattu

Its not difficult to get to. The first time, we took a morning passenger to Gummidipoondi, then changed trains to Doravarichatram, from where its a short, dusty walk to the lake. This last time, we just drove down, lovely highway all the way once you leave the city. Driving down gives you the option of visiting both Pulicat and Nelapattu in a day. That way you can take in the graceful flamingoes and lovely painted storks in Pulicat (they require a separate essay) and then see the pelicans and Ibis and Open-billed storks in Nelapattu.