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...