Birding at Annamalaicheri - Watching The Flamingos

It was almost the end of February and soon the birding season was going to get over. So we chanced upon the first opportunity to make a quick visit to Annamalaicheri near Chennai. The Pulicat lake or lagoon is one of its kind and hosts a large variety of migrants birds and waders, the flamingos in particular are an attraction here. We had made a similar visit in 2012 but had limited luck with the flamingos since there were only a few that were settled far away in an inaccessible spot. So this was again going to be a matter of chance, but that's what birding and wildlife watching is about, you gotta be at the right place and wait for the right time.



This time we were lucky to have a much closer view of the flamingos, but still it wasn't as good as what you'd experience in the Rann of Kutch. The morning light was quite good though and we were able to get a few decent images of the juvenile birds who were now almost 4-5 feet tall and seemed ready for their first migration.



Apart from the flamingos, we saw a huge flock of Northern Pintail ducks near the shoreline but they took off as we approached them. It was a nice sight to see hundreds of birds fill the blue sky.



Getting the flamingos in flight with the 600mm mounted on a tripod in a boat wasn't the easiest thing to do, but I did manage to get a couple of decent shots. One of those shots has been procesed to look like an oil painting and I liked this version better than the original. The texture on the otherwise dull blue sky makes a huge difference I feel.

A Sequel to Dec 2011 - Exploring the Little Rann Of Kutch

The 2012 monsoon hasn’t been great across the country and one can easily make out the impact of it in LRK. The water bodies that were full last year and had a lot of ducks and other waders had just ankle deep water and were now flooded with flamingos who prefer that habitat. The ducks had to move to the creek side which had some water but not as much as the last time. There was some water released from the Narmada which had an impact on some of the access roads and the only option to go the creek side was from Bajana which is 20kms from Zainabad whereas last year there was another road midway. 

The number of birds this year were less as compared to the previous year and what I got to know was that the flamingos on the way to Dholavira were no longer there in this season. Last year, I was told that there was a huge gathering of 1.5 to 2 lakh flamingos on that side of the Rann. We missed it because we thought we’ll go to Dholavira from the GRK side and unfortunately that road access was closed when we went there. Now Dholavira is about 5 hours from Zainabad and is one of the sites where you can see the remnants of the Harappan civilization, but my main aim was to also go there for the Greater Flamingos which are not found in LRK otherwise. We made plans and we dropped the plans, that’s pretty much what we did and end of the trip, we didn’t really take off for Dholavira. May be someday when I visit the place again, I’ll keep this on the itinerary. 

 

We did go to the Modhera Sun temple which is quite a brilliant depiction of how ancestral Indian man was knowledgeable about subjects ranging from history, geography, science, mathematics to sex education. The temple is no longer a place of worship since it was desecrated and is now a well maintained archaeological site. Our guide kept telling us intriguing stories about how Mahabharata was depicted in the sculptures and how the temple was built based on the sun calendar etc. Overall, a nice visit and there’s always something you learn from such places. 

During the course of the 4 days at Desert Coursers, we made friends with a lot of people and surprisingly one of them was a family from Bangalore who stay just about 7-8 kms from our place. Their son and Pozu immediately took off and what followed was a couple of days of sheer playing madness between the duo. Given that LRK isn’t really a place that has too much to offer for a general tourist, usually the people who visit the place are wildlife enthusiasts and that has helped keep the crowds limited but the overall region can definitely be kept a lot cleaner than what it is today. Plastic trash is seen almost everywhere and can easily be avoided through proper regulations and education. 

My favorite photographic subject in LRK has been the Lesser Flamingos and even this time I spent most of the time sitting at the edge of Nawa Talav waiting for these beautiful creatures to accept me and close in for a nice shot. Finally, persistence paid off and I was able to get a few shots that were satisfying enough to call it a successful day. 

While I was busy photographing the flamingos, Pozu was keeping her Mom busy with her insistence to use my other camera. She also wanted to try her hand at some shots of the flamingos and finally managed to work her way out.

A Greylag Geese couple also happened to pose nicely for the camera, though they maintained safe distance at all times. No amount of hiding helped in getting close to them and they’d take to the sky at the slightest hesitance from anyone in the group.

  

The LRK special for this visit was the encounter with the nightjars, we spotted both the Sykes as well as the Indian nightjars after sundown. The only challenge was to get a nice picture of these supremely camouflaged birds, the search light surely helped in spotting these beauties, but the harsh light didn’t make it easy to get a pleasing picture. Still after fiddling around with the exposure and dialing it down to soften the light, I was able to get a couple of pictures that are worth posting here. 

The Eurasian cranes were found almost everywhere but I was glad to document some aggressive behavioral shots in a siege. I couldn’t make out whether the two males were either fighting for dominance or it was mock ritual, but it went on for about 10 minutes while the other cranes were seen cheering the fight. 

The Demoiselle cranes were missing last year during our trip, but this time they made a good special appearance and during the evening golden light hour and it more than made up for their absence. 

The sunrise and sunset are the two most beautiful events in the Rann where you can see the big orange ball of fire just rising from or sinking into the perfectly flat horizon. One of the evenings we were lucky to witness a really beautiful orange glow reflecting off the shallow waters, introducing a magical effect into the whole landscape. We positioned our jeep to get a classic silhouette shot of the curlew sandpiper in the orange waters and after a couple of tries, I was happy with what I had gotten. 

A day before we were supposed to leave for Jamnagar, I called the Saevus organizers to check on my stay arrangements since I had asked for a separate booking. I was told that they have blocked the room for me separately, but since there was a cancellation they offered my wife to join the event as a participant if she was willing. Given that there was basically nothing that she was going to do except babysitting Pozu, she was ready to join but we wanted to make sure that it was okay to have our daughter along with us all the while. We were happy to know that there wasn’t any issue in having Pozu with us if we were okay with it and so now all three of us were going to participate in the bird race which was quite exciting.

A Date With The Flamingos

Our trip to the Rann Of Kutch in December 2011 was really nice except for one thing, I didn't any opportunity to photograph the Greater Flamingos. Since then, I was always thinking of visiting the Anamalaichery Bird Sanctuary which is the closest place from Bangalore to watch these beautiful birds. Finally, last week, a random discussion yielded a weekend plan to visit Chennai to explore the bird sanctuary and also visit a friend who's recently moved to the city. We also had the Guindy National Park on our list of places to visit, but the sultry weather made us decide otherwise.

Anamalaichery is actually a small village at the shore of a big lagoon also known as the Pulicat Lake which is about 60kms from the main city. It's not really a very well organized tourist spot but more like a local fishing joint and you can hire the local fisherman boats for a 2-3 hour ride through the shallow waters. The water body itself is quite huge and extends in to Andhra Pradesh upto Sriharikota which is a well-known satellite launch site.

The lake is an ideal habitat for a lot of waders and you can easily spot a variety of Egrets, Herons, Sandpipers, Terns, Pelicans, Storks, Kingfishers and of course, the Flamingos. Though October is a little early for the migratory birds to arrive in large numbers, we did get to see most of the expected species. The Greater Flamingos were mostly Juvenile and/or sub-adults which may be a good sign showing that there is indeed some breeding that happened last season.

Tech Specs:
Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4L IS and Canon Extender 1.4x
Shot at 840mm, 1/1250s, F5.6 and ISO 250


The boats, though convenient are a bit noisy and it would have been good to have some quieter engines in them. Also, the other thing to know is that since the water level is hardly about knee deep in most places, the boats can't make it through to all the places. Hence, you may see a lot of birds at a particular spot, but getting there isn't going to be always possible. Walking in the water is an option if you don't mind getting your clothes dirty, but it's a bit tricky with the clay like soil sinking you knee deep at places. You may also be at risk of being bitten by the crabs that are found in plenty here, so it's better to be careful.

Tech Specs:
Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4L IS and Canon Extender 1.4x
Shot at 840mm, 1/2000s, F5.6 and ISO 250


The boats are quite wide and you could sit down on the floor to get some nice eye level shots of the birds if you do manage to get close enough. Since it's not a very touristy place, the boatmen aren't really well-versed with Hindi or English and communication is a big barrier unless you have someone who knows Tamil. We had to use a lot of gestures to get our guy to understand what we wanted him to do.

Tech Specs:
Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4L IS and Canon Extender 1.4x
Shot at 840mm, 1/2000s, F5.6 and ISO 250


If you're there to click pictures, you'll need to make sure to have a strategic approach to your angle of shooting to get the sun behind you. The ideal way would be to go seawards and then turn back towards the land if you're shooting in the morning hours. The choice of backgrounds is limited since it's mostly water everywhere but you could get lucky sometimes!

Tech Specs:
Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4L IS and Canon Extender 1.4x
Shot at 840mm, 1/1600s, F5.6 and ISO 250


Given that the birds can fly and you can't, it's always good to be patient and wait for them to feel comfortable with your presence and then move in slowly. Waiting at a spot helps in observing the behavior and also capturing some of the moments in a pre-visualized manner.

Tech Specs:
Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4L IS and Canon Extender 1.4x
Shot at 840mm, 1/2500s, F5.6 and ISO 250


Hope you guys enjoyed the short trip to Anamalaichery as much as we did!

The Flamingos of Rann

Apart from the Wild Asses that are special to the Rann, the other species that makes a visit to the Rann every year are the Flamingos. Now, there are two types of Flamingos that come, the lesser flamingos which are seen in the Little Rann and the greater flamingos who prefer to stay at the Greater Rann.

One fine morning we had taken off into the Rann all by ourselves (We did have a GPS though). After an initial couple of hours of getting lost, we did manage to reach the creek where these beautiful birds were seen everyday. I spent a good two hours at the shoreline waiting for them to come closer. After the initial hesitance, they did ease out a bit and I was finally able to make some decent images.

You can see the images from the Gujarat trip over here.

Tech Specs:

Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4 L IS with 1.4x TC
Shot at 840mm, 1/1250s, F8 at ISO 200