A Kutchi summer - Day 1 - Of broken down jeeps and the fashion king of Dasada

I wrote about searching for the wild asses here. Now read Day 1 "retold" by my teenage son!

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After cheerily wishing my friends an enjoyable and unenviable last week at school, I finished my packing for the MNS trip to the LRK and Gir. The next morning, I was duly awoken by Dave Mustaine singing about death and annihilation, reminding me of the long two day long train journey ahead of me. Excitedly, Me and mother were dropped off at the train station by a noticeably subdued daddy.

We then made our way to the Navjivan Express where along the way to the oven-like bogie we met the fellow eccentrics who would be our companions for the next week. Some avid naturalists with a dead serious streak and a young birding prodigy, mixed with those who were along just for the fun. (I say this in the hope that I was not the only one!!)

The journey started, I realized that a certain set of headphones of mine had been left at home and I was soon scrounging, much to my mother's amusement, for another pair. A very kind Prasanna aunty loaned me a pair for the trip and I remain eternally grateful for that. The rest of the train journey thankfully passed in a blur, punctuated only by frequent visits from the local motormouth Roshan and a hilarious Malayalam movie.

On reaching Ahmedabad at 7.30, two buses carried the luggage and us towards our destination: Dasada. A half hour detour was made to nourish the group as we made good time and reached by about 11.30. The first order of business for some of us was relieving ourselves of the nitrogenous burden that unsanitary train toilets had brought about. For those who had braved the loos, it was bed, only to be woken up 4 hours later for tea and the morning safari!

One of the jeeps, kicking up dust at the LRK


The LRK in the summer felt almost like a desert and wildlife seemed to be sparse other than the Wild Ass and the Nilgai. Bird life was also somewhat absent other than near the watering holes, where it is abundant. So off we trotted to some god forsaken place in 4 jeeps and a big Tata vandi to carry the others that didn’t fit.

One jeep conked even before we reached the destination. So that jeep’s occupants, me included, dispersed ourselves between the other jeeps and the "elephant" (Tata vandi). So finally, we were on our way and as I was in child prodigy Vikas’ jeep, the first birds were spotted:Rosy Pastors. Two of them. So everyone suitably pleased, we headed on, to spot the famous Wild Ass we had come to see.

The Tata vandi

Far from the moviestar we were expecting, “it looked just like a donkey” as someone later said. Of course, my mother finds all these things so adorable; it just had to be coochie-cooed. Moving on, our jeep saw a herd of wild Nilgai, the blue bull, which thankfully not many others had seen.

The herd of Nilgai. With the Nikon 8008 analog.

We soon hit an old salt plain, with the last remnants of a drying water body, where truckloads of flamingoes were spotted, along with a pair of shrieking lapwings, whose newly hatched chicks we had disturbed. All bird enthusiasts suitably excited about the spotting, it took everyone a while to get back into the jeeps.

Click on the picture to see two fledgling lapwings. One of them was in the process of hatching, so we left quickly so that the shrieking parent could return to her nest.
The Shrieking parent
The same lapwing waits morosely in the distance for us to clear out

Much exhilarated at our finds, we headed back to our resort to enjoy a break from constant movement after so long and a well-earned breakfast!

The dining area at Rann Riders where we spent a good portion of our time finishing off all the food!

After breakfast, the resort's resident peacock was found posing for pictures (and probably fishing for some food) on the dining room sofa and everybody was agog at its boldness. The following shots are with the digital camera.

The "star" poses, complete with backdrop and fancy setting


He obliged for a close-up.

And a frontal as well. My mother posed with him as well. Imagine!

This mild excitement notwithstanding, there was pretty much nothing to do except go to our rooms and do……nothing! I was sharing with Vijay uncle and Pritam uncle and they both hit the sack with the AC on, and were soon sound asleep. I read about the misadventures of Fletch and his fiancé, whatever her name was. Upon being groggily shaken from our respective reveries, we made our way unsteadily down for a nice north lunch.

Feet up, my mom contemplating the ceiling!

Another nap later, we headed out for the evening ride which was more agonizing as the temperatures were in the high forties and everybody was wrapped up like a mummy to keep out the dust! Young Sanjana joined us on this trip as we headed into the true Rann of Kutch and across the numerous salt plains. Although the dust slightly dampened our spirits, we soon caught sight of the asses and spirits were lifted again. We spent the rest of the evening whizzing around the Kutch and passed many a lorry piled high with salt crystals.

Once again, one of the jeeps broke down and so we stopped as the sun went down on another day spent. The issue resolved, the jeep’s occupants relocated and we were on our way to Dasada again, just in time for a delicious and sumptuous meal that knocked everybody out for the next 8 hours, till the next morning safari.

This one was out in the wild, in Gir. He had just finished his dance I think.


LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT INSTALMENT!

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.

A tree bank in Chennai

Nice to read about other tree help organisations, along with Nizhal.

Get your birthday saplings from Tree Banker | tree banker | | Indian Express

CHENNAI: What began as a small eccentric idea has now reached at least 3,500 people all over the country.
And the result is for all of us to see. G Mullaivanam of Velachery has created a silent revolution of sorts planting hundreds of trees across Chennai and its suburbs.
His little crusade has even earned him the sobriquet of a tree banker, for Mullaivanam sources hundreds of saplings and distributes them for free.
Mullaivanam, who now commands a 3,500 strong volunteer force of IT professionals and college students across the country, says, “There are blood banks for giving blood and eye banks for donating eyes. But there was no bank for tress that give us air to breathe and shade when we are in the hot sun.”
This activity which he started as a hobby now easily takes up most of his time while his vocation, farming, takes a backseat.
Free saplings are given to people who approach the tree bank on auspicious days like their birthdays and wedding days.
“Before a tree is planted at any place, we look into various aspects, like the Metro line, cables and overhead livewires that may harm the trees at a later stage. We also ensure that the trees have enough space to spread when it grows,” Mullaivanam said.
The calculation is, in fact, simple: for a plant of three metres height, a one-and-a half-foot pit should be dug.
The Tree Bank has distributed 20 lakh saplings throughout India, including 11,500 saplings this month.
Surya Narayanan, an active volunteer and a college student, said that he and other students have planted at least 15,000 saplings at the Anna University, Alpha College and other campuses in the city. The saplings are also being maintained by the students.
Apart from this, they also distribute medicinal plants as much as they do, avenue trees.
The student volunteers help maintain a forest near Tambaram where they have planted avenue trees, neem trees, sandalwood trees and many other medicinal plants and herbs. Mullaivanam said that the volunteers have also helped plant trees in burial grounds in 17 districts of the state on May 1, his birthday.
He believes that potted plants are like birds in a cage, which are dying for freedom. The Metro Rail project in the city has eaten up nearly 200 trees, laments Mullaivanam.
Apart from contributions by the people, the Tree Bank also receives occasional donations from philanthropists that helps it survive.
Tamil comedian Vivek, for example, had gifted a truck to the organisation for transporting the saplings.
It even has a sticker on it that says ‘I love trees’.
Celebrities like S Ve Sekhar, volunteer for the organisation occasionally. Mullaivanam feels the toughest part is not planting saplings but to rear up the tree.
If only the authorities thought of the painstaking work, they would perhaps stop cutting down trees, he hopes.

I see the slender loris for the first time

Last night, along with my son and other members of the MNS, I sighted the slender loris for the first time!

The MNS is doing a project to track the slender loris, which I had written about here. It was in this connection that we set out at 9:30 at night, with head torches, covered with a film of red paper.

It was a lovely night, with the moon almost at paurnami (full moon is on the 18th I think), a strong breeze and clear skies. This summer has been mild by Madras standards. We walked as a group, as quietly as we could, shining our torches and scanning the branches for any sign of those large eyes. The loris-spotting technique is to look for the "eye-shine" in the trees, as you beam the torch.

This was our first time, while the others had already been on this exploration earlier. Within the first half hour, we had heard the characteristic screech, and seen our first set of eyes as well.

We saw many more, but the one I liked the best was closer to midnight, on an Indian Ash tree, bare in this season, just with the stringy flowers that make for good sightings. I first heard a loud call and quickened my pace down the road.

I caught it in the light of my torch high up on the tree, and upon seeing us, it made its way cautiously down looking for a place to hide. So we had a good sighting of it, and as we tracked it moving downwards, we saw another one too!

Mr Ramanan's photos from his spotting at Ayyalur are here.

A Kutchi summer - Day 1 - Searching for the wild ass

Seen on the wall of our room at Rann Riders

From Chennai to Ahmedabad by the Navjeevan Express ...two whole days on the train, when will we have faster trains in India? Junior is armed with ipod...without headphones. Just as I have a good laugh, Pritam also sheepishly announces he has left his behind too. Prasanna saves the day...she has a set and Vish is mightily relieved. (He took ownership of those headphones for the next whole week I should add. Thanks Prasanna!)

Arrive at Ahmedabad at 7:30 at night, to the heat and dust of Gujarat in the last week of April. 36 of us from MNS. Board our buses for Dasada (Point B on the map) stopping for dinner at a wayside Dhaba, where there is no Gujarati meal - only a Punjabi thali!


View Larger Map

SH18 takes us past lorries and more lorries. Going where? Mundra port? Its past midnight when we trundle into Rann Riders, which would be our home for the next few days. I am sharing with Prasanna and my "little loris" Vikas. Junior is off with Vijay and Pritam.

We are to be up at 5:30 the next morning, (actually the same morning, isnt it?), and i was sure that there would be many absentees for the morning ride. How wrong I was, even Junior was up and ready!!

The Little Rann of Kutch is a salt marsh and when I was in high school, I remember being fascinated by the markings we had to do over the Kutch peninsula, those dotted lines symbolising the area being under water for certain periods of the year, post-monsoon. I learnt that more than half of India's salt comes from here.

When we went, it was bone dry, as is typical of the summer months, and it was hard for me to imagine this whole stretch under shallow waters! What a treat that must be, and no wonder its a paradise for migratory birds! We do need to go back post-monsoon, I tell myself.

Here's a clip of the landscape, and some wild ass and a nilgai we saw.

The lunar landscape is the only home to the Indian Wild Ass, called khur. As I jolted along under the Kutchi sun, I could not help but be amazed at this strange country I live in, grinding poverty all around, and yet a safe home for the wild ass.

Here are some absolutely wonderful photos taken by Mr Ramanan

Photo by Mr Ramanan. With the sun back-lighting them, this herd provided ample photo ops for all the shutter bugs!
Photo by Mr Ramanan. Notice the little black patch where the leg joins the body

Photo by Mr Ramanan - They run quite fast, we saw them gallop along with the jeep, and were doing a fair pace.

I wondered where they would reside during the rains. It seems they stay on the little elevated sandy scrub parts, called bets locally.

Next, the Flamingo experience.

Let the lions roar

Its lion season for me! Come on CSK!

Lion on the march, reclaims lost kingdom - The Times of India

New plan to move Maldharis out of Gir

The countdown begins

'The Great Rann'- album sample by Listening Earth on SoundCloud

By the Navjeevan express

Anticipation suppress

Let it not be late

The Rann awaits.

Wetlands, endearing wild asses

moonscapes, wide open spaces.

Dusk falls as the Francolins call

Will we see Banni grasslands tall?

Across the Kutch we shall ride

to catch the roar of the pride.

Asiatic lions, the only den remains

protected by the Nawab of Junagadh on the Gir plains.

Excitement!

Wild wonder: Slender lorises sleeping on a tree on the Kalakshetra campus. — Photo: Tara Gandhi

Mr Ramanan had taken some lovely pictures of the endangered loris, which I wrote about here.

But here they are, in my own backyard!!

Slender lorises sighted on Kalakshetra campus

By P Oppilli

Naturalists are excited after sighting a good number of slender lorises, rare and endangered arboreal primates, inside the Kalakshetra campus. A detailed study on the primates has been taken up by members of the Madras Naturalists' Society (MNS).

G. Vijay Kumar, Secretary of the MNS, said in July last year students of Kalakshetra saw the movement of some animals on the tree. They then sought the help of MNS members to identify the animal. When the members visited Kalakshetra campus, they were taken by surprise by the presence of a large number of the arboreal primates.

Following the sighting, they approached ATREE, a Bangalore-based nature research organisation to fund a study inside the campus. The organisation had provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs.70,000 to take up the study. The six month study began in middle of January this year and will be completed by July.

A total of 20 lorises, including infants, were sighted by the MNS members, who went around the campus between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. The habitat in which they managed to survive needed to be protected and the lorises in Kalakshetra were wild ones, he said.

The MNS members used head lights covered with red cellophane papers, while studying them. As they were very sensitive to light, shining lights directly on to their face would stun them and they would be unable to feed due to this. Hence, the members have tied a paper around the lights to avoid disturbance to them, he said.

K.V. Sudhakar, member of the MNS, said there were not many records of sighting of lorises in and around the scrub jungles in Chennai. One had to travel to Mamandur near Renigunta in Andhra Pradesh to sight them. Similarly, not much information was available about this arboreal primate, except a detailed study by P.J. Sanjeva Raj of the Madras Christian College during 1950s.

Not many records of sighting of lorises in and around the scrub jungles in Chennai are available

So here's another account from Sheila, who was in another group, looking for this creature, (I wont tell you where!), and the excitement of a midnight search!

"About half an hour later, Shreekumar gesticulated wildly, but I guess we couldn't see in the dark, so the gesticulations were lost on us!! Finally Vikas realised he was calling us, and we all went to have a look. Shreekumar shone the torch on a tree on the other side of the road. He was absolutely certain he saw a pair of red eyes. He was very excited. He said he had no doubt about it - he's been a naturalist the last 20 years, and had been good at tracking snakes, etc and he was positive it was a slender loris, not a cat or owl or civet cat!!

We all trooped out onto the road and scanned the branches overhead and in the neighbour's garden. There is a continuous canopy over the road, as the branches from our trees and the neighbours' trees merge over the road. Tara says the slender loris will go from canopy to canopy, and must have gone from through the branches of the trees over the road, and into another garden. But try as we might we couldn't spot it. A couple of motocyclists passing by looked on curiously at us. Thankfully the flashes from the torches did not wake up the neighbours! Nor did they call the police to report the nocturnal activites happening in their backyard.

Vikas was thrilled that finally we were lending credence to his sightings!! "Amma, I told you, but you wouldn't believe me!!" Prasanna mentioned how they went all the way to Ariyalur (or someplace) near Madurai, spent 2 hours in the night 8pm to 10pm, looking for the slender loris, but all in vain!!

Shone our torches all over. Disturbed a barn owl which went screeching by. Vikas pointed out where he saw a bronze backed snake(!) (thankfully some days earlier and not last night!)

12.10am -

Again Shreekumar who was scanning the trees in a methodical way, gestured to us. He had spotted it! Vikas went quickly and saw it too. The next second when I went there, it had already gone. We spent a few minutes scanning the trees, but no sight of it.

This time we distinctly heard the call. 3 times, if I remember correctly. Shreekumar feels it was an alarm call. Also he feels the alram call is a means of communicating with each other about the presence of intruders, so this shows the presence of more than one slender loris.

The call had possibly come from a different direction too, one from a tree nearby and one from the western side, but I can't be sure of this.

We broke up aorund 12.30-12.45, all of us very excited and satisfied at the confirmation of sightings! Its difficult to believe that such a small patch of land has provided refuge to this animal.

Amazing, isn't it? Hope to see it sometime soon..."

I hope so too, Sheila!

A few of my favourite wings - I and the Bird #148

(With due apologies to Hammerstein, Julie Andrews and Sound of Music!)

Red Northern Flickers and Himalayan Griffons

Pale blue eggs and nest-building herons
Brown Lincoln Sparrows and a Snail Kite in wing
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the Stints limp
and the vultures die
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite wings
And then I don't feel...so bad

Red vented bulbuls and Coppersmith barbets
Birding with children
And wagtails with stonechats
Idying birds with beaks, crests and things
These are a few of my confusing wings!


Woodpeckers in forests with streaks and white patches
Sri Lankan Frogmouth with lovely eyelashes
A warbler singing with the coming of spring
These are a few of my favorite wings

When the poachers kill
When the trees fall
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite wings
And then I don't feel...sooooo baaad.

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List of Contributors

• Larry Jordan at The Birders Report
• Mike at Slugyard
• Nate at the Drinking Bird Blog
• Blake Mathys at the American Birding Association
• The Bird Study Ecology Group
• James at 10,000 Birds
• Deb at Dont Bug Me
• Amila at Gallicissa
• Gopi Sundar at Sarus Scape
• Thomas & Shilpy at Walk the Wilderness
• Howard King at Bahrain Bird Report
• Sandeep Somasekharan at The Green Ogre
• Frank Boxell at The Early Birder
• Ram at Trails of a Traveler
• Pangea Progress
• Shirl at Life's Indulgences
• Eddy Kuttschreuter

IATB # 149 will be hosted by Kirk Mona at Twin Cities Naturalist on 28/4/11. Send in your entries by the 22nd!

Twisting terns at Kelambakkam

Skandan and Mr Shivakumar have photographed and reported the several terns that they have been sighting in the backwaters of Kelambakkam to the south of Madras.

And then there was the matter of gulls - brown-headed and black-headed - also reported. And Ruddy Turnstone. And Curlews.

So off we went today morning in Sheila's car armed with driving instructions and precise directions on which bund to walk on, etc etc.

It was a most rewarding morning - many gulls and terns I was seeing for the first time, plus of course the usual greenshank to madden us, before we id it.

• Little terns
• River tern
• Whiskered tern in bleeding plumage, which I thought was a black-bellied tern
• Sandwich tern and/or gull-billed tern?
• Caspian tern

These we saw just off the road, as they went about the business of catching their breakfast with single-minded focus. I found it quite confusing to figure out which was which, and did that yellow beak have a black-tip, is the black cap "rakish", was that a yellow-tipped black beak, and so many more permutations and combinations!

Off the road, down by the broken bridge, walking along the bunds, and we saw the gulls. Brown-headed and black-headed in a mixed bunch....they were a huge flock in the distance, and without Chitra's spotting scope, and Preston's idying guidance, "look for the white mirrors on the wings", I would not have spotted them.

And there was a Eurasian Curlew too!
A few more visits needed.

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!