Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary
I visited the Vedanthangal bird sanctuary a few weeks back to check out the migratory birds there. Though I am not sure if the birds I spotted have migrated from other countries or other parts of India, the numbers were quite good. Of course, some say that the number of visitors has gone down these days compared to some years back. But being a first timer, I found the numbers a bit over whelming.
I started from Koyambedu by 5:15 am. Since I do not have a vehicle, I had to take the bus. There is no direct bus to Vendanthangal. So I took a bus to Tambaram and reached about an hour’s time. But the bus from Tambaram to Vedanthangal was a nightmare. First it was too slow for the almost empty GST road. Then it halted in Chengalpet for about 30 minutes for getting more passengers. By the time I reached the Vedanthangal town it was about 8:00am. To add to my frustration the bus halted again there for the drivers to have breakfast. The sanctuary is about 2km from there. I approached a local guy and got dropped in the sanctuary in his motor cycle. By the time I reached the sanctuary it was about 8:30am! What a waste of time in travelling. My advice to anyone who is visiting this place is to visit in their own vehicle and not depend on the public transport!Once I reached there I spent about 3 hours watching the birds busy in collecting twigs and other stuff for nesting. There was a constant chatter from the birds and surprisingly there were quite a lot of people visiting the place. I was not able to photograph all that I spotted. One major put off was that I did not carry my tripod. Lazy me! I could have got some better photographs had I taken a tripod. Anyway here is a list birds that I spotted.
Spot Billed Pelican
Asian Spoonbill
Painted Stork
Open Bill Stork
Black Headed Ibis
Glossy Ibis
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Purple Swamphen
Indian Pond Heron
Night Heron
Darter
Little Cormorant
White Throated Kingfisher
Greater Coucal
Purple Sunbird
Rose Ringed Parakeet
Roufus Treepie
I was a bit surprised that I did not spot any Grey Heron or the Purple Heron. Did I miss these or do these not come to Vedanthangal usually? Did anyone spot these birds there?
