Just about two years ago I had a heavenly experience when I encountered the Almighty's very own angels...at close to 5ft tall and pinkish colour...the migrants flock of Flamingos had grazed us, a bunch of buddies sailing on in a small boat, at Diksal, Bhigwan. The moment was so auspicious that all of us were just awe-struck and froze in for almost 5-10mins witnessing the huge amount of Flamingos in several groups and also the way, on after the other, a group of 20-25 would come in flying and land on the small island of marsh...Even now I get goosebumps whenever I try to recollect that moment.
Since then I have been awaiting for a similar experience, unfortunately for the past 2 years I couldnt enjoy the same, forget enjoying, never ever had any encounter with the Flamingos.
Cut to...the present. In 2012, after searching through a lot of blogs, assistance from a few friends and finally on a Christmas morning headed to Sewri where there were several reports of flamingo spotting. But my Christmas gift hadnt arrived...reason??? Well a lot of guys and sources mentioned never go over to Sewri on low tide...which I translated "Go during HIGH TIDE" and so did I, and so there werent even a single sighting of it, rather it was so disappointing that I hardly could spot 9-10 varieties of birds and hardly 50-60 photographs.
And then came 2013 and so another plan...
Date 02-02-13, Location: Sewri Dock, Time:0830hrs (Low tide at 0942 hrs)
How to Approach this place??? The lower image would guide you
Word of advice:
-Located hardly 1- 1.5kms from the Sewri station, the Dock area is as the name suggests...Sewer-y. So if you are not accustomed to being in the dirty side of the Mumbai, I prefer you travel to this place in a car or Just Dont.
- Secondly, visit this place either an hour after high tide/ two to three hours before low tide or just an hour after low tide. Why??? Flamingos feed on algae which is only available to them on the surface of marsh or rock. If there is too much water, they wont get any and if there is low water level and the algae is available in abundance they will stay away from the place were we filthy humans roam around. So basically during low tide they will be too far away, as I experienced. The lower frame should explain the same.
Was surprised to see the sight with hundreds and hundreds of these beauties, but too far away from the Dock. So decided to wait and enjoy the site with the other birds(No pun intended). But one sight seriously made me sad, How can someone discard the Almighty whom they Worship so much???
Here are few example of the Birds around Sewri Dock:
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| House Crow...Watching thru the curious eyes |
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| Common Sandpiper...Flushing its beak after the catch |
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| Houston I have landed |
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| Western Reef egret |
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| Gull billed tern |
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| A Redshank |
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| Pigeon |
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| Grey Heron...Landing gear activated |
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| Terek Sandpiper |
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| Lesser Sand Plover |
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| Lesser Sand Plover |
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| Sea gull...caught in flight |
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| A Western Reef Egret...Calm and compsed |
Few interesting activities that was happening:
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| Ready...Steady... |
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| Go... |
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| Finally Caught one |
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| Show off time... |
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| A few more show off... |
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| Show off with another one |
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| Cleaning up the beak...A common sand piper |
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| Walking thru the rags... |
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| Beating down a small crab...wished I had a better zoom lens to capture this moment |
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| A strange moment with the Redshank |
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| Trying luck deep inside... |
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| Well poised and off to action...A grey heron |
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| Hoax shot... |
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| Another try...unsuccessful |
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| These guys love to be clicked :) |
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| Strangely...these seagulls gave a very similar pose again and again... |
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| Another similar pose with extended neck |
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| The flight with a twist |
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| Mr.Crabby busy having lunch... |
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| Some swamp surfers??? |
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| Destruction under progress |
And then the first close sighting...
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| And the first sight of the pink beauties... |
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| They just went on coming as the tide started to rise |
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| Feeding on the algae |
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| Strangely, these mammoth-ic creatures cud walk easily over these knee deep marsh |
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| Time to fly off to a suitable place |
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| A brief idea of the no.s...this probably wud be just one tenth of the whole group that I could grasp/see |
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| The graceful walk |
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| Ready...Set...Fly... |
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| On flight... |
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| Just an example of how deep this mudflat is...this is just at the start |
Patience is the key to all problems...well I did experience it here...After waiting patiently at the same spot for 3-4hrs finally could get good shots of the Flamingos. But staying kaput at just one point, without surveying the surrounding, is not at all a=good, as you miss out on what all action is happening around.
So to end it, Sewri is a great place to visit and experience the encounter with the Migrating beauties. Ideally these angels fly in from Kutch somewhere in November to February months and stay over here until the monsoon. These beauties can also be experienced at the Vasai Mudflats, Airoli bridge area and few other spots,like the Bhandup Pumping station. But at Sewri, once u get over the stench of the all sortsa waste and get comfortable with some spot just keep your eyes open and keep a keen eye all around you as at one instance there would be an Egret busy catching a mudflipper, at the same instance u shall realize that a SandPlover or sand piper came to close to you to its own comfort...Capturing all of them would be impossible and always have and idea of the tide timings as once the high tide gets closer these waders and angels shall seek refuge in some distant shallow spots, far far away from any form of human interference.
Do plan out and Do visit this place if you are a very enthusiastic birder...or else for other street photographers or portrait lovers, this area has a lot of interesting subjects for you too... Enjoy
