The Hindu Business Line : The delightful pink fleet

IN the 1890s, Maharao Khengarji christened the Rann of Kutch the `City of Flamingos' and was followed by Dr Salim Ali who wrote an essay, the Flamingo City. The Sewri mud flats off the Arabian Sea in Mumbai can be termed the "Flamingo Nook" as every winter a few thousands and more flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) and lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) assemble to beat the bitter cold of Rann.

Last Sunday afternoon, Varad Giri, Girish Jathar and myself spent more than an hour at Sewri watching Lesser Flamingos (the bigger ones or the Flamingos had not yet landed). It was high tide when we reached the Sewri jetty at around 2.30 in bright sunlight and one could spot a thin pink line across the waters with another some distance away. "They are sleeping," Girish said, after watching the thin pink stretch through his telescope. Around 500 birds were standing still in the waters with their heavy, pink bills tucked into their white necks.

For no evident reason, the line broke up as one by one the birds took two to three strides on the water's surface before taking off in a delightful, pink and black flight.

The pink and black of the birds framed the skies as they landed, in orderly fashion, to form a crowd at the near end of the jetty. Dr Salim Ali is prosaic describing the event: "In flight the long outstretched legs and neck, and the black bordered brilliant scarlet wings are diagnostic." One stood numb watching the splash of colours across the skies.

Girish Jathar took us to a second spot behind a factory to watch juvenile lesser flamingos feed from a distance of about 15 ft. The juveniles start life black and grey and turn pink over six months after feeding on blue-green algae. The sea waters had backed off leaving the juveniles free to munch using their turned in beaks to trawl the muddy surface. Giri and Girish clicked long and hard while admitting, "it is something which does not happen often." One wondered at the ways of the birds adjusting to the mud flats dripping with dirty black oil spills and other wastes flowing into the Arabian Sea. Except for us and two more naturalists, the noon was quiet as one saw a predatory bird disturb a flock of sea gulls.

Sewri was not on our agenda when Giri called me for a tour of Uran (near the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust), some 80 km away from Mumbai, for bird watching. Making our way to Uran, we spotted a white stork sitting pretty near a water pipe line and a shikra atop a dry and dead tree.

Of the white stork, Girish mentioned, "It is a migratory bird and the last time I saw it in this area was in 2003." It stayed put at one spot for about 10 minutes for Giri to crawl near to it for a picture. White stork (Ciconia ciconia) is a winter visitor from Europe and surprisingly it was a loner that Sunday wondering at the speeding truck traffic honking along the road.

A few metres away, Varad spotted a female shikra (Accipiter badius) scanning the area for prey from its perch on the top of a tree. We managed to get close to note the female with its sharp yellow eyes glinting in the sun with its breast bearing "white spots cross-barred with rusty brown." It called loudly like the black drongo and Girish added, "the drongos sometimes imitate shikra's calls." Having a vehicle is useful as one can make unscheduled halts to meet up with various birds, not found in the city of Mumbai.

After driving into Uran we parked ourselves near a mud-flat adjacent to a railway line busy carrying containers. One was a bit sceptical of sighting anything living or dead in the blurring dust and noise, but Nature seems to be a good match in our determination to destroy her. The creeks are being dredged for sand, the hills are being quarried and if it continues at the current pace there may be no creeks or hills left.

Construction workers are busy putting into shape high-rise homes spearing the skies for the public to live. There is nothing pretty or dainty about the surroundings; one is not certain whether the building activity is legal or violative of the coastal zoning rules. But there it is like the migratory birds marking time in fast drying mud flats.

One noted avocets, about four white ibis, a painted stork and a Brahminy duck over which one spent a few minutes using the telescope. The Brahminy duck or the Ruddy Sheldrake (Tadorna ferruginea) is a "large orange-brown duck with paler head and neck and sometimes a faint black collar at its base," going by the precise notings of Dr Salim Ali.

In the crowd, one could see quite a number of grey herons reminding one of the Buddha in deep meditation. For a moment the sun's rays glistened off the beak of a white bird on the far side of the mud flat before becoming aware of the spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia).

At home, after a day well spent, one kept thinking of the black and white juvenile flamingos. In the next two months, they will turn pink warranting a fresh trip.

P. Devarajan

More Stories on : Wildlife | Reflections

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
The delightful pink fleet

Wilderness Resorts to set up eco-tourism chain

Waiting for Santa

Getting ready for Christmas

Maharaja group to open amusement park in Coimbatore in April

Crafts mela at Shilparamam

Floating comfort

Something to cherish