Day with FLAMINGOES ( Dec 2003)

An Evening with Flamingoes
After having an eventful day in the morning we had had a splendid evening. I and Sagar had been to Shewree for bird watching. The place was the dockyard near the colgate factory. There were many asian palm swifts welcoming us and so were the crows and pigeons.
Reaching the place which was exposed to the sea we grounded to our feet after seeing the sight which was waiting for us. Their were thousands of flamingoes on the muddy areas near the mouth of water. There were around 5000 of them. While walking along the shores we noticed mangrove plants and some beautiful birds like the white wagtails moving around making beautiful sounds. Kentish plovers, common sandpipers, accompanied them. We walked a little further down; we climbed on to a motorboat to have a better look at the birds. We got more birds to see like the gulbilled terns, ruddy turnstones, Eurasian curlew, black-headed gulls, little terns, lesser flamingoes and greater flamingoes.
The prized sights were the flight of these pinkish red colored flamingoes. It was a precious and million-dollar sight. To observe with a photographer’s view was something different than a normal vision. I was awed and struck by the beauty of the flight of the flock of these pink beauties.
Overall it was a great day and I immensely enjoyed my experience.
Rgds
vidya

TRIP TO GLORY ( 22nd august)

Dear friends
Well here goes another report of mine. This Sunday i.e. 22nd August I had been to Gawalideo hills in Navi mumbai. It was a trail of the BNHS navi mumbai Chapter lead by Mr. Isasc Kehimkar and Mrs. Daya Tilwe. The participants were bubbly kids of the St.Marys school and few collegians along with the rest of the BNHS members. I have been to this place last year exactly during this time and this is how I got introduced to Navi mumbai’s flora and fauna ( and BNHS navi mum chap).
The walk was planned in the Gawalideo hills which is actually a regenerated forest and promises beautiful flowers and a magnificent Waterfall.
After a brief description of the group leaders and the members and a introduction of the place the walk began. With the enthusiasm filled in the hearts to see the flowers esp glory lily the trip we were in the conquest of the glorious red flower. We began with Daya mam talking about the flowering and non flowering plants as mentioned by Dr.Tarin in his mail. She explained skillfully the difference between a moss ( non flowering) and the flowering plants ( cocks comb, etc) She also explained in simple words about the monocots and dicots etc. As it was a regenerated forest the trees and shrubs along the path were made of Hibiscus, Cashew nut tree, Vilayti chinch, Pongam, ixora, agave, bamboo, etc. Further the rest of the patches were filled with the beautiful pink beauties ( cocks comb). Here I caught a baby garden calotes. Its body colour was attractive yellowish green colour unlike its mature adult colour. Isaac sir mentioned that it would have just hatched. It was indeed very beautiful. Further we walked to discover that there was no actual path seen which indicated that it was still not disturbed by human explorations. We could work out the path which we had taken last year. The only difference between the path now and last time was that the paths are very well hidden by the bushes and herbs which fortunately proved that it is still safe from the human interruptions. The resultant spot where we reached was the patch of purple pink and red. Streams of cyanotis and Murdania made ground look purple with cocks comb and Balsam gave a beauty upliftment to the place. The star of the place was the tree plant of Glory lily. The beauty of the clusters of flowers was mesmerizing and enchanting. We had a quick brunch there and returned back. We also saw a spotted dove, spittled bug, frog legged bug, etc.
I was expecting to a snake and felt unfortunate not to see one. My sorrow short lived as my joy knew no bounds when one girl exclaimed that she saw a snake. Isaac sir hurried to the spot and held a baby bronze back snake. It was so beautiful. I got the opportunity to take it in my hand for a long time. It was in my last visit I got the opportunity to release a rat snake and now a bronze back. This place is indeed lucky for me in terms of plants and snakes. Honestly the enthusiasm to watch these flowers and insects took away our much attention from birds. Nevertheless we heard sunbirds and robins calls. We also saw many butterflies. Well I end the report here giving a list of the sightings. Please add if I have missed anything
Plants- ( F- flowering , NF- Non flowering, FR - fruit)
Gloriosa superba F
Morinda tinctoria FR
Ceiba pentandra NF
Lagerstroemia reginae FR
Sesamum orientale F
Celosia argentea F
Cyanotis fasiculata F
Murdania sp. F
Neanotis lancifolia F
Anacardium occidentale
Cassia tora F
Pongamia ppinnata
Grewia tiliaefolia F
Lantana camara F and FR
Calotropis gigantea
Ixora coccinea F
Momordica dioica F
Curcuma pseudomontana F
Justicia procumbens F
Eriocaulon sedgewickii F
Trichodesma indicum F
Physalis minima F
Impatiens balsamina F
Neuracanthus sphaerostachyus F
Sida acuta F
Tridax procumbens F
Carissa carandas
Bamboo
Adansonia digitata
Sterculia urens
Bauhinia purpurea
Tectona grandis
Adiantum ( maiden hair fern)
many fern species
Anthoceros
Riccia
Bracket fungi
Misc
Crabs
Baby bronze back snake
Short horned grasshopper
long horned grasshopper
Frog legged bug
Baby garden calotes
Juvenile preying mantis
Common immigrant butterfly
Common crow butterfly
Danaid egg butterfly
Great Egg butterfly
The trip was a great success as we got to learn so many new things. I am just in love with that place and I am just wishing for another monsoon visit there. Thanks to Isaac sir and Daya mam for their info, we really learnt a lot. We also enjoyed a lot woth the enthusiastic kids.
We missed u Deepa, Adesh and Vijaya mam for the trip.
Rgds
NATURELOVERVIDYA