Pulicat by boat

Photos by Dr Arun Kumar, Madras Naturalists' Society

Three MNS members (Thiagu sir, Doc and I) went on a morning trip to Pulicat, as part of the monthly bird count and survey. Kannan, a reseacher with the BNHS, joined us on the way.
We went on to Annamalaicheri where we hired a boat from the local fishing community. The lake is quite shallow. We saw many types of waders, herons and egrets. The highlight of the trip was the sight of a thousand flamingoes on the lake. It was a beautiful sight. My first sighting of flamingoes.

Birds:

Kentish plover
Pacific golden plover
Curlew sandpiper
Little ringed plover
Greater/lesser flamingo
Spoonbills
Painted storks
Cormorants
Greenshank
Redshank
Brown headed gull
Caspian tern
White ibis
Little/large egrets
Little stint
Pond heron
Black tailed godwit
Grey plover
Black kite
Black shouldered kite
Montagu harrier

The raptors were seen away from the lake.

It was a nice trip and we had a good time. we made it back to Madras by 12 noon, to beat the heat of the day.