Beach Birding.

Gulls - Mixed flock.

The winter has just begun - It's November already!  And the winter visitors are here. A few of my friends had already welcomed the guests on the Arabian sea coast and taken many a wonderful pictures of the guests on the beach. Well, how could I resist visiting the place and spend sometime with the guests myself?  From the above picture it is already clear who the 'guests' in question are! We are here talking about the 'winged-guests' who migrate and on their journey happen to visit us and spend sometime here - Akshi Beach, Alibaug (Maharashtra). 

In the last week of October one of my birding friend Mr. Avinash Bhagat, had visited the beach and had brought us the good news of the arrival of huge flocks of waders along with fantastic photographs of those birds, in this part of the state.  Should I write that it was too tempting and hence I had to visit the place and do a bit of clicking myself? May be not. :)

On November 1st, me and hubby decided that the next morning we would drive down towards Alibaug and visit Akshi beach and spend some hours watching these birds. 

02 November, 2013.
After a long time, I was on trip exclusively for birding!  I was thrilled. Took some tips and instructions from my friend as to the exact location to sight these birds, the previous day and by 5.30 am we were on the highway driving towards Alibaug. 

Route - Borivali - Chembur - Panvel - Mahad - Pen - Wadkalnaka - Alibaug - Akshi beach.
The road condition from Pen to Wadkalnaka is not very good, lot of 4 laning work is in progress (it happens to be the Mumbai/Goa highway). 

Vehicle Parking area - Akshi Beach.

Anyway with a short break for 'pet pooja' (breakfast & tea) at Wadkalnaka, we were walking on the beach by 9.00 am.  It was already a bit too bright and sunny.  We spotted the flocks as expected at some distance. Made it to the closest point to watch the birds by almost crawling on the hard beach bed.  It took a bit of an effort and some patience to get somewhere at a comfortable range (both for me and the birds) to photograph the birds, I confess.  BUT, it was all worth it. 

Black Drongos - First Sighting of the day.

The beach - a view!
Gulls and plover flocks in full attendance.

I had not seen many waders in the past, birding itself I had picked up in the past couple of years.  I was only too happy to lie on the beach and observe those beautiful birds feeding, preening, walking sometimes swimming and many a times fling away into the sea when they felt there was some company  in the form of whizzing bikes or some zooming jeep or some exuberant visitors on the beach walking and talking at the top of their voice. All the while, I just lay there still on the beach watching the birds if the were in front of me or waiting for them to return if the had ventured a bit into the sea.  Return they would, within few minutes and again settle down. 

The Gulls on the beach.

The Plover Party!

Some 3 hours on the beach with extremely hot sun right above my head, by around 12.00 pm, finally thought I should be walking towards the vehicle and take cover.  Actually within an hour's time, my hubby had already retreated to the comforts of our vehicle.  I was obviously oblivious to his activities as I was totally engrossed in my birding activity.  

A Kentish Plover (Left), inspecting the activities of a Ruddy Turnstone (right).

The star in the middle - The taller and slightly stocky bird right in the centre
is the Brown-headed Gull.

The brown gull in the middle - Heuglin's Gull (1st winter).

Crab Plover pair (Centre) flanked by Grey plovers.

Eurasian Curlews, walking closer to the sea water. Their beaks seem huge
for their little head!!
Grey plover in the fore ground.

Beach bums - Little Terns.

When it started getting hot, a few decided to take a swim and others wanted to just cool their belly on the sand.

Gulls enjoying a swim in the shallow waters.
Black-headed gulls in the foreground and a Heuglin's Gull
(Brown in colour, on the right hand side corner closer to the water)

Kentish Plovers on the sand.

Mixed flock -  Terek Sandpipers (Long upturned bills),
Kentish Plovers (Little black legs & collar around their neck)
Curlew Sandpiper with long upturned beak (In the centre, but out of focus in the last row)
Some Lesser Sand plovers (Larger & Longer legged than Kentish plovers and also lacks white hind collar)

Lost in thought - Grey Plover

A Ruddy Turnstone - looking for something interesting to put it's beak into to use!

Checking me out from the corners of it's eye - cute little Kentish Plover.

 It was time to walk back towards the vehicle parking lot. Still, as I walked back, took some pictures.

Layers!
Plovers in the foreground with the Gull flock in the background.

Bid Goodbye to this beautiful pair of Crab Plovers.

Wanting to fly back into the sea?

To fly or to take a boat ride, seems the dilemma for these birds!

The beach.

Once back in the vehicle, took a 10 minute break and replenished my soul with tender coconut water being sold near the parking area. Felt totally rejuvenated. We drove back towards Alibaug and reached a water body where we saw a few more water birds. Spent just a bout a few minutes at this place.  It was time for lunch but we decided to get back to the highway and take a quick lunch break at Wadkalnaka where had stopped for our breakfast. We reached home around 6.00 pm.

List of birds seen in and around Akshi beach. 

Black Drongos - the first ones to welcome us as we got down from our vehicle at the beach.

Gulls - Black-headed, Brown-headed, Heuglin's 

Plovers - Lesser Sand, Kentish, Grey,

1 pair Crab Plover

Sandpiper - Terek, Curlew

Curlew - Eurasian Curlews

Turnstone - Ruddy Turnstones

Tern - Little Terns

Brahminy Kite - Juvenile
White Wagtail, Spotted Owlet, minivets, Prinia
Around Alibaug - Lesser Whistling ducks, Bronze-winged Jacana, Cormorants, Egrets, Sunbirds

I would like to thank very senior birders and bird experts like Mr. Adesh Shivkar, Mr. Vaibhav Deshmukh and few of my close birding friends like Avinash Bhagat, Bhavesh Rathod and others too, who have helped me with the bird IDs on different fora.  Many thanks to all of them, for all the help.

SAPUTARA.

It had been some time since we (me & my hubby) had gone for a leisurely drive, so anything that would attract our attention, even a little bit, was bound to be visited. 

Around 6.45 am, on the highway somewhere in Thane.

One such place which we came across while surfing on the net was 'Saputara', just about 250+ kms from Mumbai. Well, looked up for some basic information about the place on the net and found it to be interesting enough to pay a quick visit.  For Mumbaikars, Mahabaleshwar and nearby hill stations like Lonavla, Khandala and Matheran are a few regular places to escape to during the hot summer months. So for a change I did think that Saputara, too, would be a good option to check out.

Saputara means the 'Abode of Serpents'. As per the information found on the net, I gathered that it was a picturesque hill station, perched on a plateau in the Dang forest area of the Sahyadri range at an altitude of about 1000 m. A hill station with a few regular points of interest (Sunrise, Sunset, Rope-way  lake & boating), did have an impact on my mind.

Some competition to those swift vehicles on the highway!

One can plan to reach this place from Mumbai through 2 different routes;

The first option being Mumbai - Thane - Igatpuri (Via Kasara Ghat) - Nashik - Talegaon - Dindori - Kasbe Vani - Chausale - Saputara. (around 260 Kms). 

Road condition: After Nashik, once we take to the state highway, the road condition is just hopeless till we reach Saputara. (i.e about a stretch of about 80 kms)

Another option - Mumbai - Vapi - Dharampur - Vansda - Waghai - Saputara (around 290 kms). 

Road condition: This route is beautiful. Roads all over Gujarat, I have found out are in very good condition. This route is no exception.  Except for a small patch when we enter Vapi where the road is a bit bumpy.  Else, a pleasure to drive.

We drove from Mumbai (Borivali) and took the first route to reach Saputara and on our return leg, we opted for the second route. 

Tip: If one wants to have a sense of visiting a hill station, I would recommend that they drive towards Vapi and then steer towards the state highway to reach Saputara. The drive would be a pleasure with wonderful views of picturesque landscapes.

But if one drives from Nashik side, though one gets to see the grape vineyards during the right season, it is almost like driving on a plateau and before one realises one would be in Saputara.  The thrill of driving in ghats/twists & turns of the road which one expects to experience while driving to a hill station is replaced by a bumpy drive on the not-so-impressive route - at least that is what I found out during this trip of mine.

A view of the vineyard - off Mumbai Nashik highway.

Another colourful sight - A small patch of land full of marigold flowers.

Just 2 days before we planned to drive up to the place I made some phone calls to the hotels listed on popular travel sites on the net and found out the minimum & maximum tariff one could expect.  Depending on the budget, one can opt for the hotel/resort of their choice. Of all the places, the Toran hotel (run by the Gujarat Tourism) had varied options.

Toran Hill Resort building.

From Mumbai, we had reached the place around 12.30 pm. We directly drove to Toran Hill Resort and checked out all their properties (all the bookings are to be made in this place) - They have rooms in the hill resort (their prime property - may be a new addition, as the building looked neat, clean and a bit swanky but the tariff was also equally swanky – Inr 4200/- per night), Toran hotel (A/C and Non A/C rooms INR 1200/- & 900/- per night, respectively) & cottages. We settled in for C1 type cottage (non-A/C, tariff - INR 1008/- per night, inclusive of taxes on double occupancy).  Only this cottage has a reasonably good view of the valley. The Tariff also included lunch or dinner and next day morning's breakfast. Please note that all the properties are located in different places though close to each other. 

Toran Hotel - Cottages

The room condition was reasonably OK, could have definitely been better cleanliness wise.

21 October, 2013

On arrival at Saputara, I found that the place was too simple for a hill station. We had a leisurely lunch at the dining hall of the hotel and in the evening, by 4.00 pm we set out to explore the place.  We drove to the nearby Jain temple, which is still under construction/renovation. Took some quick pictures and then drove back towards the centre of Saputara. 

Jain Temple - Saputara

From there, we visited the Rose garden and were really disappointed.  The place needs maintenance badly.  It could not have been the proper season to watch the roses in their full glory but the garden as such doesn't impress one.

Rose Garden - entrance, Saputara.

Posterity sake, have to post at least one photograph from the garden.

Next, we wanted to check if the rope-way, a much hyped activity at Saputara was available for us to experience. Unfortunately, it was closed for maintenance and were informed that it wold be operational after Diwali. Bad luck, we thought. 

It's a beautiful drive towards the Vaity ropeway point.

View from the from the Vaity resort - Ropeway and the point of Sunset.

Another 200 mts uphill drive from the Vaity ropeway point, is the Table land - another point of interest.  We did drive up to the place but spent very little time and drove back.

Table Land - Saputara

Finally we thought that we should on our way back visit the sunset point and drive later to the lake. One can reach the Sunset point either by parking their vehicle at a designated place and walk up to the point or take the rope-way to the point.  But as rope-way option was not available we drove up to the place but decided against walking all the way up to the place. 

The sun was descending rapidly hence we hurriedly drove to the lake and spent some peaceful moments in the garden around the lake. Definitely a place worth spending an evening there.

The lake - Saputara

Boating is a popular activity - Saputara

Though we had planned for a 2 night stay, somehow the place did not interest us much, hence in the evening as we walked in the small market near the lake we decided that we would leave early in the morning to Mumbai. 

22 October, 2013

In the morning we had a relaxed tea session in our cottage watching the valley from the balcony.  Later ate our breakfast at the dining hall and by 8.30 we finally checked out and started our drive towards Mumbai. We had a lot of time on hand and we were there to enjoy a drive - so we took the route towards Vansda/Vapi. 

A view from the balcony of our cottage - Saputara

The drive was beautiful.  The ghats offered us the much needed thrill and to compliment it, beautiful vistas made for an enjoyable drive.

Fields brimming with food grains almost ready for harvesting!
 What a sight!!

Millet

I stopped at each and every scenic point to click a few pictures.

On the way we visited the Botanical garden. It is a beautiful place for a nature lover.  We can spend hours visiting different parts of this huge garden and watching the various plants & trees in the area.

Botanical Garden - Waghai.

Plants, trees & flowers are expected in the garden,
so is this huge spider on its web,

About an hour spent in the garden we proceeded further with our drive and again, the route enthralled us with some beautiful views of the Ambika river, small check dams through out our drive.

On the bridge - On River Ambika.

From the bridge, view of the water flowing below.

I will be a bit partial and post a few more pictures of some of the interesting sights we saw on the drive.  

Lovely?

A colourful Swaminarayan temple, by the road side

This turned out to be an interesting drive as we also drove in to the national park and spent about an hour inside, with the guide.  

Waghai - The check post.

It was almost 11.30 am when we reached the Vansda national park.  Entry fee paid - INR 200/- for our vehicle, Camera charges - INR100/- & Guide charges - INR 50/-.
It was quite hot inside and hence not much activity was seen of the animals or birds. Still managed to sight a few spotted deer, peafowl, and some other smaller birds. 

Vansda National Park, Vansda.
Main entrance.

Thew watch tower - in the heart of the jungle at Vansda.

Thickly wooded forest of Vansda.

By 12.45 pm, we were on our way back towards Vapi and further towards Mumbai.  In between closer to the national park, we had a simple lunch in a small restaurant. 

By 2.00 pm we had hit the road.  We encountered very little traffic on our way back until we reached Vapi.  Once we took to the National Highway, the traffic was a bit heavy but nothing to crib about because by 5.30 pm we were at home comfortably plonked on the sofa sipping a hot cup of coffee. :)