Sunday 19th November 06 .
Jacob, Julius, subbu, Anupama, Rama, whiznaturekid Sooraj, Kamini, Vigi and his friends set out to paradise land ....Uran.
What a start...First stop at Killegaothan, the excellent bird spot has been wiped out giving way to development. The entire grassland, home for a lot of birds, has been flattened.
Disappointed at this development, we thought it fit to refresh ourselves and drove straight down to Uran. ....At crack of dawn, the sunrise was a beautiful sight and we saw a ray of hope for the naturalists and mankind.
We saw a flock of spoonbills and what a sight to see these lovely birds spooning away to glory.
A quick drive through and we parked at Uran... dry fields beckoned us and we were about to think of going elsewhere when we saw a marsh harrier, quite a few egret
s and ruddy shelducks flying across. A ringed plover, ashy crowned sparrow larks were next on the list.
From here we went inside the village and on the way , seated high on the electric wire were a pair of white throated kingfishers waiting for their prey in the pond below. |We halted for quite a sometime hoping to catch a glimpse of the majestic dive into the pond but alas we were disappointed. Alongside were green bee eaters and were rewarded with the bee eaters with prey
...grasshopper. A pied crested cuckoo was spotted which immediately dived into a tree and was trying to look at us through the leaves. Further down there were a lot of butterflies, tiger, common crow which with sunlight
made our day.
From this side of the road we
crossed over to the other side to have a very good sighting of ashy crowned sparrow larks, ruddy shelducks.
From here we went on to the lands end ...Dronagiri.
The drive into the village and from there on to the dirt track led us to fresh fencing across the land.
Oops ...this skipped my mind...On the way we had a wonderful sighting of little blue kingfishers at a perfect locale. On the otherside was a great sight ... a dozen Red wattled lapwings posing for us and with perfect lighting conditions....this was our day...and for a moment it was paradise. Just after we clicked our pics the birds flew away and the flight photographs eluded us.
Just a few yards away a flock of Eurasian curlews, red shanks, black winged stilts and were waiting for us. A common bush chat and paddy field pipit were interesting sightings.
We parked our cars and went right inside and till lands end from where we could watch the Mora
Jetty to our left and JNPT to the right. Spotted a flock of Curlews but the terns and gulls were not to be seen. We were following the birds but an interesting thing is that a few security guards were following us ...watching what we were upto with our cameras and binocs. The security guys called up their headquarters to inform them that photographers and picnickers were in the territory. They noted down the car nos. We learnt that this entire site has been earmarked for the upcoming SEZ project. Paradise Lost indeed.
From here we started our trek back . We caught a glimpse of black drongo, tiger butterflies.
Trudging back to our cars, on the way back a Western Reef Egret bid goodbye to us.
Halfway on our return we spotted Asian Open bills. Disturbed by the train which was zooming past they took
flight and what a sight it was to see these huge guys flying away.
All in all an excellent trip to paradise URAN sans the flamingoes.
common red shank
wood sandpiper
''
s and ruddy shelducks flying across. A ringed plover, ashy crowned sparrow larks were next on the list.
...grasshopper. A pied crested cuckoo was spotted which immediately dived into a tree and was trying to look at us through the leaves. Further down there were a lot of butterflies, tiger, common crow which with sunlight
crossed over to the other side to have a very good sighting of ashy crowned sparrow larks, ruddy shelducks.
Jetty to our left and JNPT to the right. Spotted a flock of Curlews but the terns and gulls were not to be seen. We were following the birds but an interesting thing is that a few security guards were following us ...watching what we were upto with our cameras and binocs. The security guys called up their headquarters to inform them that photographers and picnickers were in the territory. They noted down the car nos. We learnt that this entire site has been earmarked for the upcoming SEZ project. Paradise Lost indeed.
flight and what a sight it was to see these huge guys flying away.
