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.

A Paradise of flowers! Part 1

The flowerscape at Kaas plateau - Smithia bigemina.

  

Whenever I think of flowers and especially when I get to walk around the wild flowers like in Kaas, I am reminded of the song...

Dekha ek khwaab to yeh silsile hue,

Dur tak nigahon mein hain gul khile hue...these Bollywood songs do make it easy for us when we are at a loss for words to express our varied emotions! Well, the topic of today's post isn't 'Bollywood' or the songs but about my recent visit to a very Khaas (meaning special) place called 'Kas/Kaas'.

Mixed flower carpet - white, Indigo & pink floral carpet

 Kaas, hardly needs any introduction these days.  Located in the Western Ghat of Sahyadri range / on the mountain top, in the district of Satara in Maharashtra (India), this Plateau of flowers is on the top of the must-visit list for many nature lovers, botanists, researchers, photographers as well as many others who actually don’t know why they are there (many people arrive there just because others go there).  

The busy photographers!

Just after the monsoons, the plateau throws some amazing visual treat in the form of rare and western ghat endemic flora & fauna. The area of plateau is approximately 1,000 hectares and is covered with the wild flowers every year for a very short period of time. This place has been recently declared as Biodiversity World heritage site by The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). More information can be read here - Wikipedia. 

With that brief introduction I will march ahead and write about my recent visit to this plateau of flowers or Maharashtra’s very own ‘Valley of flowers’, Kaas pathaar.  Originally, it was planned that I would visit this place with family and drive ahead to Goa.  But when the entire trip got scrapped due to unavoidable circumstances, I immediately contacted a birder friend of mine, who was  organizing a visit for a group of nature enthusiasts / photographers on the 28^th & 29^th September, 2013. Sheepishly I enquired with him if I could get a seat in the bus along with others and it turned out that I was lucky and made a last minute entry. This turned out to be such a wonderful experience that now I am already looking forward to joining them in their next ‘briding trip’ to Nanaj. Our program was planned and organized through 'Wild India', Eco tour & Wildlife photography tour organizers. 

Introducing ourselves, just before we begin our sightseeing.

The people behind the program were my dear friend Bhavesh Rathod and his partner Mr. Sunil Kadam. Also the presence of Ms. Rupali, wife of Mr. Sunil Kadam, made a lot of difference. She kept the group together and understood every need of each member and co-ordinated excellently throughout the trip. The 15 member group consisted of kids, an elderly lady, photographers, lawyers & doctors, software engineers and other professionals. But one thing connecting each one of us was the love for nature!!

We (the group) started from Mumbai on the night of 27th Sept 2013 at 11.00 am from Borivali (Mumbai), and reached Satara on 28th morning around 7.00 am.  

  

A brief report and lots of photographs from me, now.

Driving towards Chalkewadi Windmills 

Checked into the hotel Maratha Palace, freshened up and had our breakfast and left for sightseeing. We were accompanied by a naturalist and a person who is very familiar with the flora and fauna of Kaas plateau, Ms. Medha Karkhanis.  28th September, 2013 - On day one we drove directly to Chalkewadi windmills, Thosegar waterfalls - off the Kaas plateau road. Both are very interesting places. 

   

Lucky find en-route Chalkewadi windmills.
Indian Eagle Owl.

Neelambari flowers!

Just a word or two about the naturalist who was visiting the plateau along with us - Medha ji as we fondly called her, has been visiting Kaas regularly every year for the past 22 yrs. Her love for nature and interest to educate people who want to understand this place was very evident when she walked us through the whole of the valley and introduced us to many a ‘flower wonders’, which we would have surely not given even the first look, leave alone the second! Thanks to her, today I am aware of a few names of the rare flowers which appear on the landscape of Kaas.  

The first thing one realizes when we reach this place is its solitude and then the sight of the mammoth windmills really makes you feel tiny.

Even though there isn't much to do or see at Chalkewadi, this place deserves a visit in it's own right. One can walk wherever one feels like and appreciate the splendid views of the gigantic windmills spread out on acres of lands.

The topli Karvi plants - they flower once in seven years, I am told!

The group busy exploring the landscape.

Pogostemon deccanensis - Jambhli Manjiri

In Thosegar, I felt the flow of water was less but then for people who go there for the first time, it will surely be an attractive sight. In this place one can see series of waterfalls during peak monsoon season. The water dancing down into the valley makes for a great sight when it rains heavily. Many blogs mention this waterfall to be the third tallest waterfall in India, but it’s yet to be authenticated from reliable sources.

The viewpoint where a platform is constructed towards the left hand side when one starts descending the steps while walking from the parking area, is the best place to watch this bustling beauty.

Watch the two waterfalls on the right hand side of the platform.

Velvet touch - the feeling when we touch
this leaf

A closer view of the milky white water
falling from that great height.


       

 

Some  members of our group for a group photo! 

Afternoon, we drove back towards Kas plateau and on the way had lunch at Maratha palace's restaurant located closer to the plateau. Unlimited thali lunch (Pure veg) - It was yummy and filling.

The Balsam flower carpet.

Post lunch, we went to watch the flowers on the plateau and were fairly happy. It was a bit misty and occasionally it drizzled. The flowers were very less. Still managed a few good pictures. Apart from the regular pink & yellow flower carpets & utricularia, Eriocaulon sedgwickii (gend phool, in marathi?) we found a few other interesting flowers, thank to our naturalist's knowledge about the habitat. Flowers & flowers, wild ofcourse, as far as one could view. Truly ‘Paradise’.

Some of the rare findings for me at Kaas plateau - 

The Toothbrush orchid

Cute little blue flower!

               

Ericaulon sedgwickii

One of our amazing find for the evening was this 'Khaas' flower - Drocera Indica  or the Sun dew plant (Gavathi davabindu in Marathi). This flower/plant mimics as though it holds tiny water droplets but in actual it is the sticky juice which attracts insects to the plant.

Drocera Indica.

HEY, it's not just flowers, look at me, said this 'Spot-billed duck'!

Utricularia purpurascens

Paracaryopsis?

But the best scene just before we called it a day was THIS!! At a distance a young couple enjoying a photo session on the mist covered plateau!

Later in the evening we drove back to hotel and had a leisurely dinner and called it a day.

To be continued...

Details of the 'The second day's visit to Kaas plateau' will follow soon. :)