The temperature was around 35'C this afternoon, but it was my last chance to
do some birding in India and more to the point my last chance to see Pallas's
gull, so I decided to join the mad dogs and go out in the midday sun.
In recent weeks Pallas's gulls had been reported at Puthuvypin beach, about
15km from the family home, so I decided to call on the services of the
friendly auto rickshaw driver Deepan who is a favourite of the family because
he is so reliable. From my point of view he's also good because he's a decent
birder and carries a camera with him, and is quite happy to stay with me and
even come for a walk and engage in some birding!
A journey in a rickshaw or any other vehicle in India is always an adventure.
A typical drive might include driving down a relatively narrow road with
vehicles coming the other way. Suddenly with the sound of a horn the driver
attempts to overtake any other vehicle who he thinks is going too slow for
whatever reason, seemingly oblivious to what is coming the other way. Just as
he does this a vehicle coming in the opposite direction does the same, and
then from nowhere a motorbike overtakes you. A car pulls out onto the road
from the left, causing the vehicle you are overtaking to swerve into the
middle towards you and a pedestrian decides that now is a good time to cross
the road and just walks out. More motorbikes pull out from the right and
unexpectedly another motorbike overtakes on the inside between you and the
vehicle you are overtaking. Finally just as you think that against all of the
odds you're going to make it, a bus coming the other way pulls out as well.
Everybody is in a rush until they block your route and then they move at snail
pace, nobody stops to wait for a safe moment to pull out, they just go for it,
and zebra crossings..... it's actually a waste of time and money to paint a
zebra crossing on the road, in fact they are probably amongst the most
dangerous places to cross because they give the unsuspecting pedestrian a
false sense of security. The number of times I saw desperate pedestrians on a
zebra crossing, stranded in the middle of a busy road, and nobody stops for
them. If you stop at best your liable to a be bombarded with horns from
behind. Interestingly the horns aren't usually used in an aggressive way as
they often are in the UK, they are used as they should be, to warn other road
users that you are here. Trouble is, once the warning has been issued, then
you're on your own, you had your chance to get out of the way. Dual
carriageways are just as bad only different. A two lane carriageway might have
three cars driving side by side, as well as five or six motorbikes and other
motorbikes weaving in and out. More often than not the motorbike driver has a
helmet on, but bizarrely his wife and young kids are on the back, often riding
side saddle, with no helmets. Chaos is the only word for it, yet I didn't see
a single accident while I was in India and to be honest it all seemed to flow quite nicely!
However, eventually we arrived safely at Puthuvypin beach. As usual Deepan
took off his khaki rickshaw driver shirt and put on another t-shirt and we set
off down the beach. There were gulls flying out at sea but a little distant
and in any case the bright, late afternoon sunlight made viewing in that
direction almost impossible. It was pretty obvious that I would have to be
very lucky to see Pallas's gull here today, the beach itself whilst not very
crowded was busy enough to take away much hope. Still, Deepan knew of a few
shallow lagoons along the way which he said might be worth a look for waders,
and so it proved, with at least 10 black-winged stilts, 15 wood sandpipers, 12 little ringed plover and 30 greenshank. Best of all I got two new species here in the shape of 20 Tibetan sand plover and a small flock of jungle myna's. But no Pallas's gull.
We still had 90 minutes of daylight left so in a last desperate effort I
suggested that we should stop at nearby Vypin beach, near where the ferry from
Fort Kochi docks. The scenes here were wonderful, with masses of Brahminy
kites and egrets hanging around the Chinese nets, whilst out at sea a few
brown-headed gulls went past as well as lots of lesser crested terns and a
couple of gulls-billed terns. At least two Indian Ocean humpback dolphins kept breaching and it could all best be described as a tremendously evocative scene.
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| Pallas's Gulls © Ajayakumar N |
Suddenly I saw them! Four huge gulls flying along the river towards the docks, their wing pattern and black heads clearly identifying them as Pallas's gull, the king of gulls. It was a breathtaking moment, finally I'd seen them. My camera was in my bag and I had absolutely no intention of wasting time trying to get it out, my only concern was watching the gulls. A couple of minutes later two more flew past and my camera was still in my bag. A couple of high fives with Deepan ensued before we set off back to the family home through the madness of Kochi. The end of a fabulous holiday.
Brown-headed gulls.
Chinese nets.
Blue-tailed bee-eater.
Jungle myna
Black-winged stilts, Tibetan sand plover, and wood sandpipers.
Blue tiger butterfly.
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