Hi Birds,
Sorry for this delayed mail..........Four of us (Myself , Venkat K.,Shashank Dalvi and Vidya) went to Sewri for a brief birding on Sat.27th Mar'04.
I had just bought my new spotting scope and I thought, what a way to inuagurate, with the first bird, none other than a Flamingo.It was a low tide when we reached there at about 10.30 am and we could see a pink carpet of flamingos at a distance.The waders were scattered all over.
Most of the wader species were looking different with their Br+ plumage.Apart from some c7000 + Lesser Flamingos,the whole area was teeming with different kinds of waders that included Common , Wood , Marsh , Curlew Sandpipers .A lone Terek sandpiper was very conspicous with its typical movement.Little ringed , lesser sand , Kentish & Greater sand plovers were also seen,Infact a Lesser sand plover with a complete Br+ attire looked so beautiful.The most numerous waders were the Black tailed Godwits in different shades of rust and copper colours.Gullbilled , Little & Caspian terns were scanning the area below for a morsel.A couple of Ruddy Tern stones and some Grey plovers were also busy feeding.
There were good number of Eurasian Curlews around and one particular Eurasian Curlew confused us for quite some time ( With Sumit Sen's Eastern Curlew still lingering in the mind---Reported by him on 24th Mar'04 )*,the beak somehow seemed longer and it had mask like black on its face. However , a little later its identity was revealed as the tide came closer ( The identity would have been much easier in flight).A very interesting feeding behaviour of the curlew was noticed more than a couple of times. The curlew used to probe with its long beak deep in the mud till its beak completely dissapeared in the mud and the head almost touching ground ( This explained the black mask on its face) , to take out a long worm,which looked muddy.The curlew then used to walk few steps towards water, dip the worm clean and gulp it down.We could clearly see the muddy worm turn to fleshy red after the wash....Good table manners.
With the ever so cheerful Vidya for our company ( I really appreciate her enthusiasm for nature...coming all the way from Vasai)..... it was a good starter (Sewri) before the main course (Uran) on Sunday.
Happy Birding
Addi the Birdie
* Sumit : The Eastern Curlew is a vagrant species for India , reported only from the West Bengal / Bangladesh Region ( Grimmet & Inskipp).Was it an Eastern or the Eurasian Curlew that was sighted on 24th Mar'04 .Please correct me.......
