Birding and Flamingoes

I was the newest entrant in the group. I had progressed from addressing them as "birds", to addressing them as "Swallows, Robins, Parakeets and so on".

The group was an informal gathering of people with varied vocation but with a common passion - bird watching. I had known such a group in Delhi, thanks to a friend. The same friend was now instrumental in me being part of such a group in Chennai.

Bird walking this time was to be at the Pullicat lake in the outskirts of Chennai. A birding enthusiast couple had offered to pick up my friend and me in their car. The mission - counting flamingoes sighted at Pullicat.

Incidentally, part of Pullicat lake lies in the Tamil Nadu region and the other part in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district. We decided to go to the AP part of the lake before going to the TN part.

Enroute to Pullicat, we counted some 62 migratory "plovers" in a region near Sriharikota. Waders with short beaks. They were the "Kentish" plovers. I missed sighting the golden plovers when an informed gentleman shouted "golden plovers" - coz, by the time I trained my pair of binocs on this bunch of birds, they were silhoutted as tiny specs on the skyline. :-)

Plovers, shikras, barn owls, bee eaters, doves, and parakeets later, we reached the Pullicat lake. Boy, what a sight. The flamingoes, gregarious as they are, were an absolutely stunning sight.

Flamingoes are usually found in brackish water. These migratory birds reach Pullicat in the months of October and November. We also sighted a few pelicans floating around in the lake - maybe, they were visitors from the nearby Nellapattu bird sanctuary, which apparently houses loads of pelicans.

Between us we counted about 4000 flamingoes. One enthusiast was sure he counted close to 9000!!

We had also sighted a bunch of grey herons in the lake. The identification was done after a lot of debate. Were the beaks yellow? Were the feet yellow? So on and so forth. Finally, it was decided that they were the grey herons.

I had returned with a strange sense of joy...was tired but the joy of learning, observing and walking amidst nature - that has to be experienced to be believed.