The plan started from here A BIG thanks to the very helpful and sweet who made it happen.
The original plan was that we will take an early morning local train from Thane to reach Dadar at around 7am and from there Ashwini would take us to Sewri. However one of Swati’s friend somehow got enthused enough to wake up at 5:30 am on a Sunday and wanted to accompany us, plus was willing to drive us to Dadar. This was indeed creditable on his part as this was his very first birding trip and his usual Sunday waking up time is somewhere around late afternoon.
A fast drive and we reach Dadar station a bit early. We made good use of the time drinking cut chai from the roadside thela. From Dadar station Ashwini skillfully drove us to the observation point on the jetty where the first thing I noticed was a fairly muscular man doing push-ups right in the middle!
It took a while for the fact to sink in that the complete place was swarming with Flamingos. At the same time I also noticed what I had been warned about – the light! We were in the west and all the birds were either back lit or short lit. Photographing them was not going to be too rewarding…
However since we did not have time enough to be there in the evening this was the best we could have.
NO! we were not disappointed at all. After a few shots from the jetty Shishir took the initiative and talked to the pehelwan on the boat which was docked there. Soon we trooped on to the deck with our equipment. The birds were very close from that vantage point. Next two hours were spent in haven!
There are several more pictures of the Sand Plover and Curlew Sandpiper which I will upload as soon as I get some more time…. for now take a look at some of the flamingo pictures HERE