Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Weekend Expedition...Exploring the unknown in the known...

     And so the story goes...
     Almost two and half years back(20/05/2010), just as a leisure activity on a weekend, I headed off early in the warm sunny morning along with a back pack filled with a camera, some water, a F.A.K., some stuff to munch upon,in case required, and my newly joined companion, my Firefox Fusion. Where did I head? To some unknown part of Baramati. For what? To capture things that others didnt notice. 
     So finally after several hours of cycling, exploring the open narrow roads through the vast open, dried off lands and capturing all that I could,ended off with a punctured tyre, walking the whole 10-12kms all through the terrain and heading right away till the Baramati's market area to fix the puncture. Though it seems to have ended in a tragic way, it left me with a half filled memory stick of amazing moments and amazing sights.(https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.396362674443.172439.763644443&type=1&l=3f9b12a775) Link to the album.
     So why am I sharing all this? Well, all this started off as a simple leisure activity, but it made into a challenge to bring out some surprising facts about some normal place, realizing the fact that weare not just limited to we, us or me, Its more than that and is meant to be for all not just the insane humans...It belonged to the nature and its beauties, it still belongs to them as much as it belongs to us.
     Down the line somehow I forgot this fact and took it as a challenge to fill up my hard disk and surely trying to improve my photography skills. Finally this past weekend's trip made me realize what I had kicked off and what my basic motto was 'Bring the unknown in the known' and spread the awareness. Thanks to Nilesh Bhanage(P.A.W.S., Dombivli) and his plan to go Bird Walking to a place which I had always been visiting very regularly, so regularly that I knew each and every knoock and corner of the place...well thats the bubble I was in, until this trip. 
     So finally on a chilly Sunday morning I headed off to meet up others, Nilesh and few interns from P.A.W.S., at the predecided spot and went off to the place for the bird walk. And what a surprise! Never thought, just a few more metres away lied the most beautiful sight. Huge flocks of migratory birds resting, feeding, flourishing... Before I start describing the place and hinting about the location...why not checkout the snaps that I could capture int he whole trip???
      Here's the snapshots:

Pity state...A Common Sandpiper among the waste
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The flight of a Little Cororant
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A rare sighting...a flock of Spoonbils
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Flying beauties...the migrants
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A Northern Pintail(L) a couple of Gadwall* and a plover
*not confirmed
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In flight the Northern shovelors
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Ready to take off...A northern Pintail
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A fellow passenger in the ferry
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A small beauty
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An unknown birdie...Probably a Prinia or wabler
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Ideal lighting and a mini beauty
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A Paddy pipit
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Mini Beauty...Kumud(Indica Tropical water Lily)
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A Fully blossomed Indica water lily
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Just about to open up...
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Fellow birders...Nilesh(R) and his intern

Shying behind the thorns
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The flight of a Median Egret
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Macro photography in progress...envy that 90mm Macro

A Kentish plover
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A distant Marsh Harrier, my first sighting in this place
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A Drongo
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A Drongo from the other side
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Another rare sighting...a mighty Osprey
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Probably a yellow throated sparrow???
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An Asian Pied Starling
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A vibrant beauty
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Froze it just there...A Common Kingfisher
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Hmm...Main nahi pose karunga/karungi
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Sitting on a mirror floor...a Pond Heron
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A Busy Carpenter bee...
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Another shot of the mamothish bee...
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Young explorers

A mud skipper
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Busy clicking...

little stints
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Time to fly off...A little cormorant
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just off...
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A common Redshank
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A very first record of Pied Avocet at this spot
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Time to fly off...notice the depth of mud...
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And now its off...
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Graceful flight
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A Northern Pintail
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Some differences I guess??? A Gadwall and a Pintail
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A spot billed duck in flight
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A new form of a bird...

Some sun bathing time...a little cormorant
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A bit disturbed water..
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So How are they? Any guesses as where this place is??? Well for the Dombivli-kars...Its Khadi or rather the other side of Khadi. For outsiders, this is a place in Reti Bandar road, the banks of Ulhas river, rather Ulhas Sewer. The worstly abused water reservoir thanks to the indiscriminate disposal of chemicals, sewage from neighbouring encroached hutments and ofcourse the inconsiderate Sand mining and last but not the least the Holy almighty himself in form of the idols discarded during Ganesh Chaturthi or Devi during the Durga pooja or any other form of "Divine festival". Well once u cross the toxic, stinking liquid body you reach a filth layered coast surprising housing huge flocks of migratory birds ranging from the ducks, geese, stilts, gulls and few very rare, atleast for me, variety of migratory birds along with a variety of raptors.
So the bird count was:


  1. common sandpiper
  2. little cormorant
  3. spoonbil
  4. northern shoveler
  5. Spot billed duck
  6. gadwall
  7. Northern pintail
  8. prinia
  9. Ashy prinia
  10. paddy pipit
  11. Drongo
  12. asian pied starling
  13. median egret
  14. plover
  15. marsh harrier
  16. osprey
  17. Yellow throated sparrow
  18. Common kingfisher
  19. Indian Pond heron
  20. Grey Heron
  21. Little stint
  22. Common Redshank
  23. Pied Avocet
  24. Yellow eyed babler
  25. Sparrow
  26. Black kite
  27. Green bee eater
  28. Egret
  29. Gulls
  30. brown headed gull
  31. Indian robin
    So where do i go from here? Well after getting back and checking out with the collection of images from the other guys, who had joined in, there is a lot to explore and with just one spot I got so many new ones, imagine how much I could get at other potential points like the Saat pool, Bhopar village, in the deep extents of the village on the other side of the Khadi... And then there are also places like the Vasai salt pans, Sewri mud flats, some spot near Bhandup, the SNGP... and this is without the other side of Badlapur, like Matheran, Lonavala, etc. The list just goes on and on and on. And with the end of this year coming in pretty soon, shall have to make an elaborate plans for loads of Weekend expeditions for the 2013...anyone wanna join in???

Thank you for going through it patiently...Do share your thoughts on the Phlog and ways to improve it.

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