In Search of Flamingos

Showing signs of Friday-restlessness-syndrome, bitten by the wanderlust bug, I lured Manoj, promising a chance to watch Flamingos.. near Sriharikota, near AP-TN boundary.. and headed off eastwards from Bangalore, on Saturday night.

We reached Chennai (New Mofussil Bus stand, Koyambedu) by 4:30am, got into

the 5 o'clock bus to Nellore. It was 7 when we got down at Sullurpet. After breakfast,

we asked around for info to get onto Sriharikota road ASAP. When looking for an auto,

we saw this cycle shop.. It was just a matter of minutes, before hiring two and heading towards SHAR road.

Pulicat Lake Bird Sancutary

The first 3-4kms of the road cuts through village cultivation fields with the usual flocks of Swallows, Bee Eaters lining the telephone wires, with White-Breasted Kingfishers and Blue Jays at more or less regular intervals. Secretive Pond Herons and Egrets scattered on the field taking that gingerly step forward. Apart from the patches of cultivated land, the terrain doesn't support much variety of plants- mostly just thorny shrubs all along the roadside. We pedalled leisurely with intermittent stops for peeping through binocs at the assorted avian bevies. When passing a paddy field, shreiky calls of parakeets made my head turn towards two isolated palm trees in the middle of the field- one just a dead headless trunk, seemingly some four parakeets made a home in the hollows.

Next-Floor-Neighbours and a 'Flat':

Off the bike, I reached for the camera -Looking at the direction of the morning sun, I moved around to the other side of the tree. While focussing on the raucously hyperactive parakeets which moved between the two trees and sometimes flew away for a while, looked away from viewfinder and my heart skipped a beat ..when my eyes locked onto two very alert glowing yellow eyes focusing intently on me ! the sunlight falling sideways on just the front of its head added a special effect to the glow of its pupils with the dark background of the large hollow midway down the trunk.. perched inside,

a Spotted Owlet !! those eyes that would anyday beat the world's most advanced night-vision equipment.. its 180deg+ ultra-swivel head turning to track every step I take. My instinctive next step was to aim the camera.. when about to click, it took to wings. Head drooping, I walked back.

When describing this fortuitous finding to Manoj, the owlet returned with a wavy flight. This time around, I tried hiding behind a bush and approach slowly but again it flew off.

Now I just crouched on the ground.. may be the color of the dress and cap helped camouflage, for soon it returned, and since I didn't have to move in close, the owl looked somewhat familiar with my presence and I clicked happily, the parakeets were also back to the scene, and smile was back on my face.

Back to the cycle, thorny twig stuck to the rear tyre made the grin on my face eclipse. I pulled it off, and I new it's about to go flat. Checked with a milk-man about the nearest cycle repair shop. "Akkade" (there), he said pointing to the ISRO housing colony within a km which we passed on our way. Luckily, though Sunday, it was open. It took an hour for us to hit the road again.

The Causeway-Cruise and Flocks of Folks from Siberia:

A few Kms down the road, the terrain changed to seasonal salt marshes on either side of the road extending to horizon. A board announced start of Sanctuary limits. There's information centre and within 5kms of it, there's a Nature study centre.

At this time of the year, the water has receded.. We could see only a small congregation of about 100 large birds, in one of the isolated pools of water- Painted Storks and Gray Pelicans which landed from Siberia, Whiskered Terns, and some Large Egrets were all sharing that pool.

But till Sriharikota, there were no sign of the high-profile visitors from Rann-of-Kutch, The Flamingos. We'd been warned of this when we enquired at the wildlife dept office on this road near Sullurpet.. In January after the water recede, they cannot be seen near the road to Sriharikota. But they can still be spotted at the entry point to the lake near Tada. Though we were informed of this, we wanted to try out this stretch anyway, since Tada can be tried out in the afternoon.

By noon, we chewed down the packed stuffed parathas, atop a watchtower by the road. Perfect silence broken by the hiss of cool briny breeze and intermittently, noise of vehicles plying to the ISRO space centre- mostly ISRO shuttle buses and pick-up vans doubling up for transport of villagers.

That's the longest-about 15km- and lowest-almost sea level- stretch of road I've seen without any gradients- most of it is causeway built across the Pulicat Lake to Sriharikota Island.

Reached the entrance of the island by 12:30, where entry to the high security Satish Dhawan Space Centre is restricted. I remembered reading the book 'How Birds Fly' by Satish Dhawan, former ISRO head, complete with mathematical analysis of the aerodynamics involved. He might have done part of his study on bird flight while stationed here.

While waiting for a pick-up van to arrive to load our cycles and head back to Sullurpet, saw this Blue Jay perched on the tree outside the guarded gates. I pulled out the camera and aimed at the bird, though I smelt trouble from security guys, which Manoj also warned me of.

Soon enough, a horde of uniformed men were breathing down my neck, firing a barrage of questions on my motives. Wasn't difficult for me to convince 'em that 'am no spy of space-programs, and was just spying the bird'.

Back to Sullurpet in a pick-up van with the cycles piled on top, we steered clear of people in the bustling, dirty marketplace to return the cycles. We hopped into a bus to Tada, at AP-TN boundary, 13km on the way to Chennai. Within a km of the railway station at Tada, there's wildlife division's office. We were greeted by a worker there with good news that Flamingos are around, and boats can be hired to go near the flocks.

Leggy Beauties from Rann-of-Kutch:

Water here is very shallow, less than knee-deep. We hired a 'muscle-powered' dhungi (canoe) with two boatmen, who worked hard sticking the bamboo into the mud and pushing and steering it.

On the way to the Flamingo flock, there were at least 10 other species of waders

and other water birds. Most prominent being the Caspian Tern which is unusually large compared to other terns I've seen (Salim Ali's book mentions that Caspian Terns are the largest Terns around on Indian shores)

Got close view of two flocks of Greater Flamingos, around 100 birds and I went 'shutter-happy'. They were simply graceful, exotic-looking, but at the same time

vulnerable.. amazing slim beauties with very attractive pink shades on head, wings and

o'course those looong legs. (Somehow, all looked very 'feminine' to me!! may be because of the pink color n curvy features ;)

They look a very harmonious lot, very much at peace with each other of their ilk.

But as they say, looks are deceptive.. The Valentine Special Nat Geo news article says,

`House martins and greater flamingos are the Elizabeth Taylors of the bird world,

with 100 percent of pairings resulting in "divorce" !! (see links below)

They breed in Rann of Kutch and fly down here for wintering (Sep-March).

When we got down from the 'dhungi' (canoe), one person approached us introducing himself as a BNHS researcher, who's been studying Spot-billed Pelicans there and in South India in general for 3 years, wanted to know whether we were some research fellows !

Sun was on its way down doing the vanishing act when we walked back to the railway station. Before the final curtain descended on the day's birding, some 4-5 Hoopoes flying about the palm trees provided an eyeful.

After making the bird-list of the day, watching the scattered lights of the far-away Chennai skyline, with a fast-fading twilight, I dozed off in the 6:30 metro local train to Chennai Central from Tada, fulfilled with an interesting cycling-birding-clicking combo outing.