29. Birding Hotspots in and around Chennai

Who would have thought that one could see big water-birds like pelicans, open bills, ibises, purple moorhens and, I am told, even an occasional flamingo in all the small marshes surrounding Chennai? Anu and Ajit, our friends residing here are indignant that the Chennai Municipal Corporation is dumping garbage in these marshes and systematically killing the habitat of the birds that frequent these marshes; the purpose being, of course, to reclaim this land for building residential colonies. Ever since we have come we have explored the marshes around Sholliganallur during our walks and have never returned disappointed. The tiny marsh visible below Anu’s terrace hosts some purple moor hens, white breasted water hens, coots and herons, not to talk about the amount of bush bird activity it generates.

Birds Around Shollinganallur

Lesser Whistling Ducks

A Spot Billed Duck making a pretty picture

Purple Moorhens and a Cattle Egret

A  Pheasant Tailed Jacana

Spot Billed Ducks with flashing white speculum

A Glossy Ibis

Open Bills bemoaning their lost habitat

A Pied Kingfisher (female) sitting after catching a prey

A Golden Dragonfly. They too are losing the battle for survival

Open Bills taking off

We made a long trip to a Lake called  Siruthavur near Mahabalipuram but it was disappointing. However it was more than compensated for by what we saw on our way back in the waters across from the Taj Vivanta's Fisherman's Cove.

 Birds in the Shiruvathur Lake

Cotton Teals in the Shiruvathur Lake

Cormorants in a queue

Fishing on a boat made out of a sack filled with some floatable material

Birds along the way back from Mamallapuram

We stopped at the Muthucadu backwaters and stood under the bridge for a long time to feast our eyes on the delightful spectacle of a profusion of pelicans, painted storks, black winged stilts and egrets.

Pelicans everywhere!

Painted Storks in hundreds

What was God thinking!

Black headed gulls in the air

                 Dead Puffer fish on the beach. 

Beautiful white egrets and black winged stilts in the background.

The dead Puffer fishes on the beach in front of Taj Vivanta generated a lot of excitement. Amma recalled how she and other kids played ball with them in her childhood in Kerala!! - flinging the fishes that were brought in by the sea, at each other!

 Pulicat Lake

We had seen most of the expected birds save perhaps the flamingos. So off we went to Pulicat Lake early yesterday for a look at the long-legged beauties. Puja, Anu's vivacious cook, prepared and packed a pile of Aloo-parathas for us at 6 am in the morning and we drove out some 95 kms to the north of Chennai towards Sriharikota, which incidentally is in  Andhra Pradesh. As we neared Pulicat, Ajit's smattering of Tamil, suddenly was not the flavour of the hour. We, unsuccessfully, tried to recall what little Telugu we had picked up when we were posted in Hyderabad, while asking for directions to the lake.
As we neared the lake, or what little remained of it, I saw a whole lot of ducks in the stream of water collected alongside the road. We were very excited, shushed each other and wondered in whispers what birds they were till we saw a small boy herding them like cattle and making them stay put in one area. The boy spoke Telugu so we never got to the bottom of the mystery but guessed that they were being reared for the table : (

 A kilometer ahead we had the most amazing view of a large number and variety of birds in a relatively small body of water and of course, flamingos! Pulicat Lake normally stretches for miles but this year there is just a small patch of water remaining and the rest looks like a desert stretch with occasional patches looking like white salt pans. Predictably we saw some boys playing cricket in the dried up area under the hot, mid morning sun. We drove onwards from the lake to Sriharikota to see the Space Centre but unfortunately we could not go inside as it remains closed on weekends.

Dry Pulicat lake

Lesser Flamingos

Purple Heron

Spot Billed Ducks

A Northern Shoveller

We drove back to the crossroad and took the fork to the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary (Pelican Sanctuary) but before that we took a break at  Environmental Education Centre, Pulicat Bird Sanctuary, and polished off Puja's 'parathas'.

Open Bills nesting

Pelicans and Open Bill Storks nesting in large numbers

White Ibises

 Black Buck also being kept in the sanctuary

That was a day well spent! Next we will be spending the night with Ridley's turtles...

28. Bird watching in Masinagudi

Spending a fortnight with our friends Ajit and Anu in Chennai – yes, leaving Pune for Chennai in March not a good idea, but Ajit lured us with a bird-watching trip to Masinagudi (Karnataka)– 29 kms beyond Ooty. So dutifully we flew in on the 5^th of March and took a train to Coimbatore on the 6^th then early the next morning picked up a pre-hired car and drove off for Masinagudi for a most wonderful trip.

The drive up to Ooty is quite delightful if you rule out some of the ill mannered drivers of SUVs who do not follow the rules of driving on a hill road. (Ajit kept shouting “nai” meaning “dog” in Tamil, while the car windows were rolled up, so unless they could lip read they remained un-chastised). While looking for a coffee shop we chanced upon this chocolate shop in Ooty (which also serves tea and coffee) and ended up tasting and buying every variety of chocolate they had. Fortified with all that chocolate we were equipped to take on the 36 hairpin bends down to Masinagudi.

Tea /pee stop enroute to Ooty

A flash-flood stream

 

Next to the chocolate shop in Ooty

 

 Chocolate ecstasy

The 'idea' of advt.

Getting checked for 'cash' in view of the forthcoming elections

 

Whew! the 30th gone! 6 more to go

Bison viewing point

Saw only this beautiful rock lizard

 

Pictures taken by Amma being reviewed

 

Blue Drongo

Passed through Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

WILD HAVEN 

The only marker for the "Wild Haven"

Wild Haven! the forest lodge where we stayed

The place we stayed in was called ‘Wild Haven’ and it certainly lived upto its name because though encircled by an electrified fence (to keep out rogue elephants if required), the animals had the run of the place. The spotted deer and wild boars came in hordes and some slept outside our room at night; once I saw a herd of wild asses too. Notwithstanding the wilderness outside, the rooms are clean and airy, the food very good and the staff friendly. We were quite captivated by the place. Within the first hour itself while we waited for other friends to arrive from other parts of the country, I had sighted a number of birds importantly an iora which I had wanted to see for a long time.

hanging Iora

Peeping Iora!

Long Tailed Shrike

 

Yellow billed Babblers

 

Black Headed Bulbul

Magpie Robin

A Sunbird's live nest - leaves and twigs sewn together with cobweb

Jungle Mynas, Brahminy Starlings and a babbler

A white browed wagtail on its favorite perch

 BANDIPUR TIGER RESERVE

The same evening we drove down to the Bandipur Reserve forest to enquire about the safari the next day. The jeeps were available only to the Government lodge/s so we had to be satisfied with a bus safari – a noisy contraption which kept the animals at bay. We managed to see some sambhars and a striped neck mongoose.

Drive to Bandipur

In forest colours - ready for the safari

"I ride on the roof of the car" at the Bandipur forest reception area

A hoopoe making a pretty picture - inside Bandipur Tiger Reserve

Striped Neck Mongoose

Sambhar

BIRD WATCHING AND OTHER PASTIMES AT THE 'WILD HAVEN'

 We spent the evening and the next morning looking for birds in the Wild Haven campus and had some great sightings. Ravi our new found ornithologist friend saw a Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch and made me really jealous. Anyway I had my own prized sighting of the Iora. We also saw a flame backed Woodpecker but it did not oblige us with a picture.

Silver Bills

Warbler

White Browed Fantail

Plum Headed Parakeet blending with the Lentana

White Bellied Drongo

Vultures in the sky - a rare sight nowadays

Malabar Parakeet

Scarlet Minivet

Scarlet Minivets

Peacock on a tree

White Browed Bulbul

Ravi intently looking at a bird

 

tiny butterfly lying dead at my doorstep

Wild Asses

Spotted Dove

Wild Boar

Don't miss the aloevera plant hung from the roof! To keep the mosquitoes away?

Fair baby

Spotted Deer

The 'lookout' from where we saw Ruoldo

Ruoldo the injured elephant eating sugar cane using both feet and trunk.

Ruoldo has an injured trunk; apparently thanks to poachers. Normally an elephant can even pick up a needle with its trunk but poor Ruoldo cannot fend for himself and uses its foot to pick up its food. The Forest Dept. and also perhaps the Lodge feeds him. 

Langurs at the watering hole - 'that was a satisfying drink'

A Rummy session is always welcome

Chatting around a bonfire

Afternoon siestas were a must

The not so wild - Muncher and babies

Funnelweb Spider web

 THE WAY BACK

The way back was even more picturesque because we took the wrong turn at Doddabetta. In Ooty we found a good eating joint called Amma's Kitchen (NOT of Jayalalitha fame). The owner was sweet enough to get us a cake from a shop in the city as it was Ajit's mother's birthday.
Some of the sights on the way back...

Celebrating Amma's 87th birthday enroute

Amazing bark colour

Tea gardens of Ooty

The wrong turn meant a delay of more than an hour, so we had to cancel our proposed trip to the Isha Ashram. That will require a special trip I guess.