10th Chennai Bird Race

Northern Pintail with pelican

When we saw two comb duck in perumbakkam lake, we decided that comb duck is our bird of the day so mentioned in our record note also. Before starting survey I  informed my team members to assemble in sholinganallur junction at 6.00am sharp. As i expected everybody assembled in time. In our team two people were new to Birds survey and bird watching too. So I explained basics about birds and bird watching to them. Because survey is next level of bird watching so initially if they confuse themselves about birds and birds survey maybe they  will leave or feel bored about bird watching thereby I explained only basics about birds. This method gave results,  at the end of the day  they asked (New members) me which birds books to buy for reference and binocular too.

10^th Chennai Bird Race was conducted by MNS( Madras Naturalist Society) and HSBC

Our plan was first to visit muttukaadu bridge, next  kelambakkam backwater and finally to perumbakkam lake so our bike automatically went to muttukaadu bridge with joy. There were lots of sea birds  flying in front of us. We were happy to see huge number of Caspian tern  flying. Noticed by binocular beak of Caspian tern is red color and  body white. After taking enough snaps, we saw in sea water pelican  swimming and flying river tern, whiskered tern. We were in muttukaadu bridge  for more than half an hour finally made a record in note whatever seen.

Pelican-  by Masilamani

After muttukkaadu we were riding in ECR there I saw a spotted dove  roosting in power line in the right side of the road. Kelambakkam backwater is the heaven of sea birds and water birds. Black headed gulls were swimming happily but ducks were not seen in kelambakkam. Group of Pelicans standing in rock situated in the center of backwater. I have seen Santharaam sir in kelambakkam backwater he was watching birds with his colleague. Single Painted stork was standing for long hour in backwater like human, we have seen in both sides of backwater that Great Egrets were walking. Wherever water is clean, there  we can see Great Egret.

We were roaming about both sides of backwater to see perching birds inside water bodies tree. There Ashy prinia, warblers were seen and taken count aslo. Very happy to see in our record note for having crossed 25 species. Somebody from my team told that stomach needs something(hungry) so decided  to have some snacks and tea in  the main road of kelambakkam. We enjoyed in kelambakkam backwater, saw lots of migration birds.

Comb Duck

Chit-chat for few minutes in snacks shop after having tea and discussed about  birds in muttukaadu and kelambakkam . The book of Indian birds authored by grimmet  is very useful for reference and to find out birds which where seen in three places (muttukaadu,kelambakkam,perumbakkam). Two days back friend masilamani who worked in sathyabama university discussed about taking  survey inside sathyabama university  that  some water birds and perching birds are there. But cannot get permission to take survey the a eleventh hour so we quit sathyabama university from our list and added  muttukadu bridge instead .

Image by Masilamani

Our bike finally reached again shollinganallur junction at 10am. When we took turn Left side of the junction, perumbakkam lake has come. The lake was  with full of water covered by huge local and international migration ducks like Northern pintail, Northern shoveler, spot billed duck, comb duck, whistling duck, little grebe etc… every water bodies  welcomed us with little cormorant first, here also the same. One cormorant in kelambakkam was roosting with open  feathers. a new person in our team asked me whether cormorant feathers  got locked with something I told him  that mostly cormorant do like feathers open for some reason.

Painted Stork by Masilamani

In Perumbakkam we saw more than 30 species. Pied kingfisher was clearly doing its job i.e  standing above water with flapping it feathers and seeing inside water when fish will come or not if it sees fish coming, it suddenly dives inside water like diving person.  After finishing  its  work roosted in wire near lake .

Here in perumbakkam we saw little cormorant, pelican, painted stork, white throated kingfisher, pied kingfisher, open bill stork, gray heron, purple heron, pond heron, little egret, great egret, cattle egret, little grebe, parakeet, marsh harrier, northern pintail, northern shoveler, spot billed duck, whistling duck, comb or knob bill duck, spoon bill, sandpiper, white browed wagtail, black winged stilt, ashy prinia, red wattled lapwing etc…..

Pied Kingfisher

End of the survey i told to others that will meet evening at function. Function took place at TAG center within the campus of Anna university. Every group persons were present in the TAG center and submitted record note to authorized person. There snack and tea were  served outside the hall  for  members and audience. Drama was held for  one hour about tree cutting in villages for establishing industrial  building or mining.

School children’s who participated in bird survey,  came in uniform. The MNS has given bird books to school children  to encourage them in  bird watching. Santhaaram sir announced results, one team saw 105 species in and around Chennai . we saw 55 species in three places. Santharam sir has spoken  about comb duck so we were happy about that.  After function had dinner and left  TAG center by 9.45pm.

Lakshmi, Sharan, Arun, Yogananthan, Mani, Vijayakumar,  Masilamani -taken by chezheyan

Thanks to MNS President Mr.K.V. Sudhakar, Vice president Mr.Vijayakumar, Mr.Santharaam for having  conducted 10^th Chennai Bird Race in a successful manner.

-Chezheyan

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