Birds in Bhandup mangroves

Today, a colleague and friend of ours, Varun Namjoshi, was to go flamingo sighting to the Bhandup salt bank area on the Eastern Express Highway. I came to know about it and naturally tagged along. We saw egrets, grey and pink flamingoes, sand pipers, a shrike, wagtails, seagulls, bulbul, munni and of course the crow!

An aside:

The crow, wagtail and seagull require a special mention because they brought back memories of

Poldy - the friendly scarecrow from world books! - I remember introducing the world of books when my children were as young as one, and they were fascinated by the

adventures of Poldy who used to take them to various lands. One quote from the book that has been with me during all these years - when we would get stuck in the middle of nowhere during the annual rain - is
"Even a bad day spent with good friends is good".

Back to track:
We left in an auto and were met by a friend of Namjoshi, Mr.Vishwas Kunte - he has a fabulous fauna page where he has blogged this very trip here and another one which had me mesmerised (Click here for this one!) - in a van and were taken to the salt banks at Bhandup. I learnt that it is a regular haunt for flamingoes in the winter and the entire water stretch behind the salt banks upto vashi creek are covered with them in a sheet. [I never knew that such beauty lay close to me in all my years - no fret - I am going to make up for lost time!!] Mr.Kulkarni had this impressive and obviously expensive and advanced lenses on his camera and I felt a tad jealous as I imagined the great pics possible on it!! I too took many pics with my own Canon A630, and for an amateur it is a really good one - but one day I am going to own that one too!! I thought it resembled one of those huge guns belonging to Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarznegger - My friend says even beasts fear it as they sense it to be a weapon (Seriously!!). I wanted to post my pics today but suddenly the camera window isn't working - so maybe tomorrow or whenever possible.....

Meanwhile enjoy Mr.Vishwas Kunte's photos up there - they are a treat to watch. I found it difficult to leave the site and would have liked to leave a nice comment - but you need to be a member at webshots to do that!

After the wonderful time I had there, we took a rick upto Mulund. I returned to my office to pick up my bike (Another new passion - my firefox) and cycled with the wind homewards. It was a great way to end the week!

Want something to mull over the weekend and act from Monday? Here it is:
"PLEASE DO NOT ABUSE NATURE -AVOID USING NON-BIODEGRADABLE SUBSTANCES UNNECESSARILY" - It is the only world we have, and it is for all of us - what right do we have to tamper with it?

"MAKE A PROMISE TODAY - DO NOT USE PLASTIC COVERS" - Don't wait for someone to enforce it. It is a duty each one of us owes to this world - Why? Incredulous question! Isn't it enough that we are given a place here and have enjoyed all the pleasures it gives? - and to the future! (Blaming is a leeway for cowards!)

Labels: birds, nature, Photography