When the feathered friends from the northern part of the world start arriving to central India, its the time to go to my pilgrimage place called Bhigwan. December and January are the months when the northern countries like Russia, Mongolia, China and even some northern parts of India like Ladakh freeze due to harsh cold. That's the time when the food for birds get covered with snow and the scarcity of food gets generated for them. These feathered friends are so intelligent that even before they have seen their first winter they get to know that the time has arrived for them to travel towards the southern parts and get away from the chilly winters. Birds migration is still a vast open subject for enthusiasts and scientists to study. There are still many unanswered questions about the bird migration. How do they know which path to take, how do they know that there will be food in southern part, how do they decide that a particular place is safe or unsafe. But with all these unanswered or partly understood theories these birds do migrate in numbers to India.
Just as winter starts in northern hemisphere, the coastal regions of Gujarath, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu starts getting flooded with these migratory birds. Other water birds even prefer moving to terrestrial land nearing bigger water bodies.
Ujjani, its the second largest dam in Maharashtra. This dam has huge backwater spread in and around Pune district. As all the other dams around this area get filled up fully, this dam receives water through the flood gates of the northern dams. Last year there was a a huge rainfall in Maharashtra, so the dam is full to its capacity. Water birds prefer shallow water so that they can stand in it and easily find their food. Also the shallow water allows the sunlight to reach till bottom and allow the marine life to flourish.
Birding, photography and being with friends are my most favorite hobbies, in fact those have become my habits now. As I always do, I published my plans to visit Bhigwan this year. There were about 40 people who said they would be interested in joining me. It was the biggest ever number for me to go for the bird watching.
We did car pooling and started from Pune at 5AM sharp. With small coordination, about 10 cars having 40 folks from ages spanning 4 to 60 yrs reached Bhigwan at 7.15AM.The boatmen with 4 rowing boats were waiting for us to take us near the flamingos. Before we started our boat ride, the rising sun welcomed us...
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| The Rising Sun.. |
As compared to last year the water levels were rose by about 40-50 feets. The bridge on the road was looking like a small wall as we could not see the pillars of that bridge. Last year we were able to cross the bridge via boat between the 2 of the pillars.
Before starting the boat ride, we did some birding in and around the roadside. One thing which we observed was, the number of birds this year were much less than that of last year.. The first impressive guy was the Grey Heron standing tall in the water.
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| Grey Heron, Standing Tall / राखी बगळा |
The other sightings before getting into the boat were the Painted Storks and the Black Headed Ibis.
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| Painted Stork and Black Headed Gulls... चित्र बलाक / कुदळ्या |
When we started our boat ride we were all surrounded by different birds flying over our heads or swimming besides us.
Capturing the birds in golden sunlight is the icing on the cake. That's the reason we need to start early morning and be there at sunrise..
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| Flight in the Golden light |
On the right side we could see the gulls diving in water to catch the fish.With lower light I did not capture it well, but managed a record shot of the gull catching the bigger prey..
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| Bigger Catch |
Also we could see some gulls swimming swiftly over the steady waters.
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| Black Headed Gull |
After 20-30 minutes in the water we could see the pinkish white border along the horizon and we understood that those are the birds whom we want to see the most. Yes with the maximum reach and with some cropping I got to see those beautiful birds. The greater flamingos..
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| Greater Flamingos / रोहित |
As we move closer to them, we could see some of them in heated discussion..
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| Closer Look |
Some of the flamingos have grey feathers and neck. These are smaller in size as they are the juveniles and this is their first ever migration. They have done lot of exercise to travel from about 800+ miles and are hungry. These birds eat the blue green algae in these shallow waters. As they eat more of it their under-wings become red and dark. Also the beaks become more pink in color and the grey feathers get refreshed with the whiter ones..
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| Four of us |
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| Close up |
Here is the shot which shows the difference between the grown ups and Juveniles.
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| हम दो हमारा एक ! |
As we were watching the flamingos we also saw the open-bill stork flying over our head in the blue skies.
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| Do you see my open bill? |
A small noise is a cause of concern for this flock and they started running on water..
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| Taking off |
As one starts flying, the whole flock became airborne. This is one sight that you should never miss. The elegant beauties of nature making a 'V' formation as they reach a level to reduce the air resistance. As if all this knowledge is in their DNAs... This is the time when I don't hesitate to take as many shots as I can. As they fly, you could see the red under-wings prominently resembling a flame. Hence the name flamingo came from a phrase 'A flame is going'..
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| The flight of the flock | | | | |
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| The V Formation |
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| The flame is going... |
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| As they fly over our head |
As the flamingos moved away from us, it was the turn of other birds to grab our attention. This one is the Intermediate Egret which might have lost one of his feet in some accident.
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| Intermediate Egret with a broken leg |
And some other birds like...
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| Whiskered Tern |
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| Whiskered Tern |
After a long time we saw Godwits in here..
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| Godwit |
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| Little Stint |
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| Black Winged Stilt |
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| Intermediate Egret, Grey Heron and Little cormorant with open wings |
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| Glossy Ibis |
The one identified by my daughter (Shreya) was this beautiful bird called Ruff.
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| Ruff |
With these sightings we concluded our boat ride, but not the birding session. We took a 30 minutes walk to see few more birds around the village. During that walk we saw few more birds as follows..
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| River Tern |
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| Northern Shoveler |
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| Marsh Harrier |
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| Redstart Female |
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| Common Sandpiper |
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| Paddyfield Pipit |
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| Yellow Wagtail |
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| Brown Headed Gull |
And with the birds, I thoroughly enjoyed the company of the the campers, who made this birding a pleasant experience. Thanks all once again. Wish to see you again in upcoming camps!!
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| iCampers |
Thanks all who have reached till here!!
