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2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with

More birds from Sewri

In my earlier post, I wrote about the flamingos we saw at Sewri. They are, after all, the main reason people flock to Sewri these days at low tide! However, there are also scores of other birds which arrive at Sewri for the insects which populate the mud flats. This post is about some of them...




On an earlier visit to Sewri, I remember seeing a large number of small and medium sized birds - little stints, sandpipers, varieties of herons and egrets..... and being told that all these birds migrate to the same areas and live off the same place, without any conflict of interest, since each of them has a different kind of bill or beak, made for eating different varieties of insects or creatures, found in different layers of the soil. Some have small bills which barely skim the surface of the mudflats, eating the creatures inhabiting the upper layer...while others have much longer beaks, which penetrate deeper into the soil, convenient for entrapping insects hidden deep within. It was amazing to learn how these birds manage to live in harmony.



These are either Little Stints or Sandpipers. My identification skills dont extend so far as to make a perfect ID! So, can all you birders out there please confirm the identity of this bird?



I first thought these were two different species of birds, but apparently, they are the same species,, just the ones in front are in breeding plumage!




There were other birds too.... A painted stork was spotted at a distance, but it flew before I could click a pic. This Black Headed Ibis turned up rather late in the day, just as I was about to leave.... 





Waiting a while longer turned out to be a good thing, for we next spotted a Western Reef Egret..







There were other, common birds too... such as this Egret...


and this Pond Heron, which I see in my colony, but have never managed to capture this well!!


Oh, and these werent the only creatures we saw at Sewri.. just the birds!! There  are a couple more posts coming up!

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Comments

  1. I like the comprehensive range of bird species that you have managed to photograph. Well done.

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  2. My bird watching is confined at home but they are the traditional ones only seen during a particular season. In this post I find many many more beautifully captured.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely captures. Such variety too. They all look graceful doing their business for the day!

    enjoyed looking at them. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow...the pictures are breathtaking Anu! It seems to be a great place for bird watching!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice collection of birds

    thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  6. Brilliant stuff!
    Gurgaonflowerplaza.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. superb shots of birds

    ReplyDelete
  8. The bird in the first and fourth photos is a common sandpiper, notice the short straight beak. The birds in a few subsequent photos are apparently curlew sandpipers, some in breeding plumage, notice the slightly down-turning longer beaks. Nice shots.

    ReplyDelete

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