Thane creek revealed!

A beautiful sunrise at thane creek :) (Ameya joshi)

Habitat shot (Shantanu joshi)

The showstopper- Spotted crake (sanket mhatre)

It all started on 15 december when I could not stop my mind from thinking about thane creek. That was because, My friend omkar saw black-headed bunting and his brother saw read-headed bunting
on two consecutive days.  I'm kind of a self-confessed twitcher :P, so I wanted to add buntings badly. Thats why we decided to finally visit it on 17th again. After the long sleepy and sadistic journey from Girgaon to V.T. to Thane, It was still dark. I was unpacking camera when we entered, the area around lake. We Saw a medium sized bird walking at the edge of small pond on entrance. My friend captured a few Photos, and we were still confused. But, then we got sure that it was a 'Slaty breasted rail'. The bird which was awarded bird of the day in Mumbai Birdrace 2009. We were overwhelmed from that Sighting, No luck with buntings that day though, after that I started liking that place. It had a different habitat (The meswak plants and openlands).  I participated and won the Dombivali BirdRace (For more information Please read my previous blog post) But in that race we met a birder Mr. pradnyavant mane who won the bird of the day price for spotting the ruddy breasted crake. Two of my birding friends were to visit thane creek with Mr. mane. When they came back I was awestruck when the told me about seeing 'Slaty breasted rail' and 'Ruddy-Breasted Crake'. But they did not have good photos. I decided to visit that place next morning along with amey joshi and omkar godbole.  And results were rewarding! We not only saw Ruddy-breasted Crake and Slaty Breasted rail, but also 'Baillon's crake' another secretive and elusive species. On one march after numerous visits to that place pradnyavant mane reported another two fantastic Birds, Yellow Bittern
And 'The Spotted crake'. The latter became a sensation and rest is history.

(Ameya joshi)

Not to brag, but thane creek became one of my favorite places to visit. Alsmost all the birdwatchers from mumbai have visited it, But it's not only about the rails and crakes, but thane creek has yeilded numerous rarities. When, I started Searching about this place I saw many rare sightings from that place, so I thought of compiling all the data available in a proper place.

A bit of History-
Suhas paranjpe, Vivek vinod and ajit joshi are some of the original birdwatchers of that place, living in nearby areas. Most rare sightings are recorded by them as they have visited the place Numerous times. Suhas paranjpe was our friend. He took us there for first time, and then the chain started as stated above. There are also few records mentioned in 'Birds Of Mumbai' by Sunjoy Monga, But
exact place is undisclosed.

Habitat:-
We can divide thane creek in three primary areas-
1) The actual reeds where crakes and waterhens are found- It contains mostly reeds and marsh land in the middle and dry openland around. There have been many interesting sightings like 'Yellow

Black-headed bunting (Omkar godbole)

bittern', 'Greater painted snipe' in that area.
2) The wetland area- The wet area adjoining the salt pans hosts numerous waders and water birds. Birds found there include Lesser flamingos, Terek  sandpipers, whiskered terns, wood sandpipers,
 little terns, Black-winged stilts, 'Ruddy shelduck' to name a few. Also one can see congregation of egrets in breeding plumage fishing around.
3) Mangrove area- The passage which leads to the creek where you can see few waders too. It also hosts some scrubland and openladnd species, like common babbler, white-eared bulbul.
Some birds like 'Black-headed buntings', 'Red-headed buntings' and 'Grey-necked bunting' can be seen there too.

Red-headed bunting (Ameya joshi)

Grey-necked bunting (Vivek vinod)

Uncommon records-

Slaty-breasted rail (Avinash sant)

>Slaty breasted rail- There have been sightings of only one specimen in area [1]. It will be interesting to see if this resident bird breeds here. Biggest from family rallidae.
>Ruddy-breasted crake- There have been confirmed sighting of three specimens, but more should exist as estimated from there calls, There are many previous records of breeding of this bird
from mumbai so, we will hope it breeds here too.

Ruddy breasted crake (Vivek vinod)

Baillon's crake (Shantanu joshi)

>Baillon's crake- There have been confirmed records of four specimens. This smallest member of rallidae, found here is sure the boldest of them. We have seen it coming it as close as 6 inches to us! Being a winter visitor, it has surprisingly not yet migrated.

Baillon's crake (Vivek vinod)

>Spotted crake- Most famous of the birds found here, only one specimen is  observed. This secretive wintering bird has very scarce records from maharashtra. But it was seen for prolonged period
at Thane creek.

The skulky- Yellow bittern (Vivek vinod)

>Yellow bittern- Another shy and elusive bird as all the bitterns mostly are. One specimen was observed feeding and roosting in the reeds area. (March 2011)
>Black headed bunting- A small flock containing males and females were observed in area [3] [December 2010]
>Red-headed bunting- Flocks  are observed sometimes in area [3].
>Grey-necked bunting- Another uncommon bunting, one specimen sighted once. (November 2010)

Yellow-wattled lapwing (Suhas joshi)

>Yellow-wattled lapwing- Sighted once, A vagrant lapwing to area around mumbai. Sighted in area [1]. (April 2011)

If you feel any information given is false or wrong please notify me.

Greater painted snipe (Vivek vinod)

Thanks to: 
>Vivek vinod (A lot of Photographs and information)
>Omkar godbole (Photographs and info.)
>Suhas paranjpe (Photographs and information) And also thanks for taking us there first time :)
>Avinash sant (Photograph)
>Sanket mhatre (Photograph)

List of birds found:-

1. Pied Avocet
2. Booted eagle
3. Yellow-eyed Babbler
4. Coppersmith Barbet
5. Blue-tailed Bee-Eater
6. Green  Bee-Eater
7. Yellow Bittern
8. Clamorous Reed Warbler

Clamorous reed warbler (Shantanu joshi)

9. Red-vented Bulbul

10. Red-whiskered Bulbul

11. Black-headed ibis

12. Black-headed Bunting

13. Grey-necked Bunting

14. Red-headed Bunting

15. Paddyfield Warbler

Paddyfield warbler (Shantanu joshi)

16. Little Cormorant

17. Indian (Shag) Cormorant

18. Baillon’s Crake

19. Ruddy-breasted Crake

20. Booted warbler

21. Common House Crow

22. Jungle Crow

23. Asian Koel

24. Ruddy Shelduck

Ruddy shelduck (Shantanu joshi)

25. Eurasian Curlew
26. Laughing (little brown) Dove
27. Spotted Dove
28. Black Drongo
29. Spot-billed Duck
30. White-eared bulbul

White-eared bulbul (Shantanu joshi)

31. Greater coucal (Crow pheasant)
32. Greater Spotted Eagle
33. Black-naped monarch flycatcher
34. Intermediate (Median) Egret
35. Cattle Egret
36. Little Egret
37. Large Egret
38. White-throated Fantail
39. Lesser Flamingo
40. Asian Paradise Flycatcher
41. Red-throated Flycatcher
42. Scaly breasted munia

Scaly-breasted munia (Shantanu joshi)

43. Common kingfisher

44. Common Greenshank

45. Black-headed Gull

46. Brown-headed Gull

47. Yellow-legged Gull

48. Eurasian marsh Harrier

49. Shikra 

50. Black-crowned Night Heron

51. Grey Heron

52. Indian Pond Hero

53. Common Chiffchaff

Common chiffchaff (Ameya joshi)

54. Common Iora

55. Barn owl

56. White-throated Kingfisher

57. Black Kite

58. Red-wattled Lapwing

59. Yellow-wattled Lapwing

60. Common Moorhen

61. Black-headed Munia

62. Red Avadavat (Red Munia)

63. Purple-rumped sunbird

64. White-rumped Munia

65. White-throated Munia (Indian Silverbill)

66. Common Myna

67. Jungle Myna

68. Long-tailed Shrike

Long-tailed shrike (Vivek vinod)

69. Alexandrine Parakeet

70. Rose-ringed Parakeet

71. Rock Pigeon

72. Little Ringed Plover

73. Lesser Sand Plover

74. Little heron

75. Common Redshank

76. Indian Robin

77. Common Sandpiper

78. Terek Sandpiper

79. Wood (Spotted) Sandpiper

80. Marsh Sandpiper

81. Broad-billed Sandpiper

82. Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed godwit (Omkar godbole)

83. Greater Painted Snipe

84. House sparrow

85. Eurasian Spoonbill

86. Asian Pied Starling

87. Rosy starling

88. Black-winged Stilt

89. Little stint

90. Common Stonechat

91. Painted stork

92. Whiskered tern

93. House Swift

94. Asian Palm Swift

95. Little Tern

96. Gull-billed Tern

97. Lesser Whistling Duck

Lesser whistling ducks (Vivek vinod)

98. Blyth’s Reed Warbler

99. Purple heron

100. Bar-tailed godwit

101. Great cormorant

102. Common Tailorbird

103. Zitting Cisticola

104. White-breasted Waterhen

105. Common babbler

Common babbler (Omkar godbole)

106. Whimbrel

107. Ashy Prinia

108. Baya wevaer

109. Kentish Plover

110. Oriental magpie robin

111. Bluethroat

Bluethroat (Omkar godbole)

112. Paddyfield pipit

113. Openbill stork

114. Plainitive cucko

115. Yellow wagtail

116. Osprey

117. Slaty-breasted Rail

Where it all started- Slaty breasted rail (Omkar godbole)

118. Ruff

119. Temminck's stint

120. Pied kingfisher

121. Wire-tailed swallow

122. Pied crested cuckoo
123. Grey bellied cuckoo
124. Oriental dwarf kingfisher (In flight)
125. Indian pitta
126. Spotted crake

Another one of the spotted crake (Avinash sant)

Enjoy :) Please post your suggestions and comments. Thanks for reading, and once again I thank all those who helped me.

Dombivli BirdRace 2011

Wanted to write blog for a long time, even made it a long time ago but as title suggests my laziness came across :P
But I couldn't resist today. Yesterday on 23rd January I participated in my first ever Bird Race and it was dombivli's first too! And what a coincidence it was my birthday. Let me tell you what is a BirdRace, you have to watch and report the birds you found on that day in the limited area but you can decide your route. I got a mail regarding this race and I thought we can nail this! I had to have min. 3 members, two were me and my friend omkar who is with me since childhood and a very good bird watcher at the age of 20. We needed third member, omkar got in contact with our third teammate through a common friend who was already a member of team. 3rd member Nikhil was from thane and knew the areas better than us also was equally good at spotting and iding. Also we were depending on him for transport. We did the whole birdrace on a bike!! Three people on one bike (My mom doesn't know until now she will surely panic!) , it still hurts you know where ;)

Now with actual Report.

Me and omkar both lived in girgaon, south of mumbai there was orientation on day before race, so we had to sleep at our relatives he was in thane and me in dombivli. After we attended the orientation we met our teammate and got our logbooks and decided our plan for the next day.
We decided that first we should cover the gandhari river and nearby forest/scrub. First I opposed this idea as I have never even heard of that place and sightings were no that good in number. But we took decision- Morning-Gandhari ,Afternoon-Ganesh ghat or the khadi. After that nilje, this was our original plan and we made some alternations to it too. I came to kalyan staion and we started the race they saw birds like, Tailor bird, Black-crowned night heron, On the way!

Gandhari-Morning we started at about 7.oo am as it was pretty cold. My first bird was Common sandpiper as we reach near the river then some white throated kingfishers, B.tailed godwits. Then we started to walk as we left the concrete road. We started with seeing general/scrub species Like munias, Common stonechat, Long-tailed shrikes etc. Also there was a marshy area around where we saw prinias,  a lone bluethroat, many pied starlings. Also got some pretty good shots of Black shouldered kite. Saw grey heron flying, bay backed shrikes drongos etc.
Then, saw a pied bushchat male, Common teals flew as we saw them on a lake. Later, as we walked deeper we started to get forest species, like Yellow footed green pigeon, Indian grey hornbill, Paradise flycatchers, small minivets, yellow crowned woodpecker, black-nap monarch, sunbirds, black-headed cuckoo shrike to name a few. We frequently saw house and asian palm swifts. Also, got tawny bellied babbler which was a good catch and three prinias; plain, ashy and jungle. Few to add were common king fisher and paddyfield pipits. Also, saw a shikra while, coming to the road. As we tallied the count we couldn't believe it was 70!

#1 Ashy drongo

                                                             #2 Common Kingfisher

#3 Long-tailed shrike-Awesome moment we witnessed him catching this bug.

#4 Tawny-bellied babbler- I saw this bird second time and photo for first time!

While going to ganesh ghat a hawaldar caught us as we were three. Then after trying out our binocs and making sure that we were birdwatching he let us go.

Ganesh ghat- We had a lot of expectations for this spot as common pochard, mallard etc. were regularly seen here. But it was a ghat used for ganpati visarjan. In hot afternoon we added yellow wagtail, river tern and three swallows to our list; Barn, red-rumped and wire-tailed.

Nilje lake- Nilje lake is a medium sized lake situated inside nilje village once used to be larger in size. We knew certain species to add here. As, expected we saw,  Comb ducks, lesser whistling teals, cotton pygmy ducks, Northern shovelers, Purple swamphen, Common moorhen, Common coot and both jacanas; Bronze-winged and a lone pheasant tailed juvenile. Both jacanas are lifers (Birds I saw first time) For me so I was quite happy.

Comb duck- Female

Purple swamphen, Bronze-winged jacana in back.

Our original plan ended here so we decided to do a new spot, Bhopar. I wanted to go to that spot after nikhil told us that white, oriental white and woolly necked storks are frequently seen there. That's something amazing. But it was pretty far away and we had to walk some distance in crazy hot sun..

Bhopar- It was quite a big lake with green patches and grass all around. While walking towards that lake we had to par the desertish sandy area. But, got lucky there to see rufous tailed larks, Paddyfield pipits and a crested lark. We started with seeing cormorants and purple heron at the lake. But it was looking empty and dissapointing.  Then we decided to go other side which was more fruitful. As, we saw sandpipers, northern pintails, many spot-billed ducks and pacific golden plovers very far minutely seen only in photos. Pacific Golden plovers in there plumage was fantastic about 30-40 of them another lifer for me! suddenly we were seeing a lot of birds as evening came close. A raptor came and disappeared before we could ID him. Then a osprey put up a good show with diving and hovering in front of us. Eurasian marsh harriers were plenty too.
Suddenly we spotted two birds with a long white neck flying at a far distance all said at once "Woolly necked storks!" also, saw them chased out by a black kite, fabulous experience. Lifer no. 4. After seeing those we ended our hectic day as we were first ones to arrive on the venue.

On way to bhopar lake- Habitat shot of pipits and larks.

Shikra

An Osprey that we saw fishing too!

Eurasian marsh harrier, there were plenty of these.

We survived the whole day on water and a packet of bread-butter, Even I cannot believe it now! We were frequently visiting the experts for warbler ID's and some confirmations.

After taking a lot of time winners were announced 2nd price bird count-90. 1st price Oriental dwarf kingfishers with a count of 105. Which was our team!! We had won and it was a great feeling. The best birthday gift I can ever ask for. Thanks nyass org. for conducting it and thanks to my teammates.


These are my views you may disagree. Photos copyright shantanu, Nikon D3000, Nikkor 55-300 VRII.
Thanks for reading, Do post comments and suggestions :)