the flight of the Flamingos

Lanceman · Post by **Lanceman** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 1:45 pm

A Sunday morning by a nearby lake, we watch the flamingos fly in. Here is the story of an amazing sight. My lens a puny 200mm, couldn't cope, so please see the link with a view of enjoying the moment rather than the photographs. Thanks to Kshitij for this lovely moment.

http://xerxespa.blogspot.in/2016/04/fli ... ingos.html

kshitij · Post by **kshitij** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 1:51 pm

Lovely images sir. The 200 held up pretty well.
Cheers.

Lanceman · Post by **Lanceman** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 2:35 pm

put up yours Kshitij, they were exquisite

Post by **xl_target** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 7:32 pm

Thanks for the great photos, Lanceman.
Kshitij, we would like to see yours too.

kshitij · Post by **kshitij** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 7:35 pm

Will do it tonight. Taken quite a bunch of pictures, haven't been able to sort through them...

kshitij · Post by **kshitij** » Tue Apr 26, 2016 11:29 pm

Here are few pictures that i have randomly picked up.
The sight of the birds coming in, in the thousands in an almost choreographed manner and then banking and landing in the water while still in formation was truly spectacular. This wasn't the first time I witnessed this but the experience was as enthralling as the first time I saw it. People (including me

) go all the way to lake Nakuru to catch a glimpse of these birds while we have a front row seat to the show right in our backyard.

When the birds flocked in formation, they remind me of the images of bombing squadrons that we see in pictures from WW2...

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Last but not the least, this was the sight when we arrived on site... it had me worried that i was going to be lynched by brig and brihaji for dragging them out into the sun on a Sunday

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P.s
open individual images in new tabs to see the full size images.
Had to resize all images to fit the 2mb file upload limit of the forum. Hence image quality may be slightly diminished.
The images were randomly selected while giving the set a quick brush trough. Will post the rest this weekend.
This is more or less what i could get with my limited skill and equipment

essdee1972 · Post by **essdee1972** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 10:37 am

It seems you guys had a stupendous time!! I missed the show

kshitij · Post by **kshitij** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:02 am

They will be here atleast one more weekend. Also today while crossing the Airoli bridge, saw the birds in the creek below in sizeable numbers.
The plus point at airoli is that you can take one of the fishing boats go to within a few feet of them without spooking them. The only con is that the boats are 2 feet by 6 feet contraptions that dont make you feel safe at all. So going in them with your camera and other gear is like an extreme sport of sorts.

gaurav31dec · Post by **gaurav31dec** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 11:23 am

Thanks for sharing. This indeed is a beautiful site. I can so relate to this as I spent 2 days following these beautiful birds at sambar lake in Rajasthan.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lanceman · Post by **Lanceman** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 4:48 pm

Kshitij, superb pics, but you are embarrassing me now. Your lovely flamingo pics next to mine where the birds look like sparrows. but lets try this weekend, also lets try the boat too?

kshitij · Post by **kshitij** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 5:32 pm

We could go there early morning and try our luck with the boats and then head to the lake. Alternatively we could do it on two different days (sat/sun).

Post by **xl_target** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 9:48 pm

Great photos Lanceman and and Kshitij,

The only con is that the boats are 2 feet by 6 feet contraptions that dont make you feel safe at all. So going in them with your camera and other gear is like an extreme sport of sorts.

What could possibly go wrong?

brihacharan · Post by **brihacharan** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 1:59 pm

After a long hiatus it turned out to be an unbelievable treat for me. At 8 am on that Sunday Kshitij called to say that he had sighted a flock of Flamingos near the Vashi Creek adjoining the Palm Beach Road....Excitement ran high as Lanceman, Kshitij & I drove down to the locale. Initially (around 10 am) all we could sight was a tiny group of 4 Flamingos lazily foraging in the shallow waters, Anyway out came the cameras with Tele lenses to capture this 4 some. Soon the skies darkened when a formation of 50 to 75 birds flew in like a squadron of B52 bombers and landed with precision and this was followed by several batched which finally amounted to an astounding 2500 (approx) of them.

For almost 3 hours they silently fed and curled up with their beaks into their feathers for a snooze. Chances are that they will hand around for another 2 weeks and take off to the Rann of Kutch to breed.

Both Lanceman & Kshitij have captured the saga beautifully....enjoy the visuals!!!
Briha

Post by **xl_target** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 8:30 pm

Welcome back, Brihaji.

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