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.