Bird Watching: Flamingo Watch in Mahul (Chembur, Mumbai)

Bird Watching :: April 2008

Ever heard of migratory birds – I have always seen pictures of wonderful pink dolls on the Times of India, Hindustan Times and other daily newspapers. I am referring to the Flamingos – the pink feathered wading bird also called as Phoenicopterus [refer: Wikipedia:Flamingo].

[on 26th April 2008]
One fine day at work – one of my colleagues Ruturaj raised a travel request to visit the flamingos somewhere near Chembur a place called Mahul creek – for some random photography time. Since a long time I had a desire to go and visit these birds and capture them and I got an excuse to see them in person.
At work – I, Ruturaj, Vinay and Amol were all set for this event. And we called up one of our trekking pals – Mallikarjun – he too agreed to join us on his new bicycle Raleigh M650. We finally agreed upon the rendezvous and as soon as I reached home I happened to arrange for the basic tools (my Canon EOS 400D – Rebel XTi) for the early morning.

As planned I headed toward the destination on my Apache. I had to pickup Rajoba from Andheri on my way to Bandra near Lucky Hotel – where I was supposed to meet Ruturaj(who was to come on his Unicorn and pick up Vinay from the Bandra Railway Station). We had taken the way from Kalanagar-Sion-Chembur and we were to meet Mallikarjun at Akbarallys at Chembur. He was waiting with his bicycle all geared up for a morning ride. From there on – we started our way to Mahul village. I had never ever heard about this place before in my life – was just aware that these pink dolls are visible some place near the creeks around Chembur. We reached the Mahul village with great help from people wandering around on the streets early morning.

Read more