vedanthangal

We hit vedanthangal after a gap of over 18 years. And we were happy that the tourism department has not been sleeping in the meanwhile. There used to be one old watchtower with a single binocular mounted on a huge pedestral. Now there are quite a few watch towers and tourists bring their own binoculars and have unlimited viewing.There are no facilities for boating in the lakes unlike in Ranganathittu near Mysore. But the small pathway skirting one side of the lake is well laid and well maintained with benches all along the pathway. With cool and shady trees lining the entire pathway life was good. We enjoyed the cool breeze blowing, after the cyclone in Bay of Bengal dumped the entire depression into kavali and machilipatnam and sparing chennai of gale and gusty winds.

The birds were in good measure and were fun to watch.

I had tried the handycam for the first time outdoors. I wanted to capture the birds by zooming. They looked fantastic to me, but when we played it at home, the pictures are shaking quite  a bit. I thought it is the swaying of the bushes in the breeze but apparently not. 

We had two binoculars, one still camera and one video camera and a book on birds.So we were really like tourists.

We were told that vedanthangal is oldest bird sanctuary in India. This was due to the fact that when our winged friends from siberia and australia came over to roost, the local farmers took care not to shoot them or harm them in any way. They actually adopted these guests gladly in their midst.This is the story of the guests and their future generations  repeatedly making visits for over 200 years here.

My best view for the day were two grey herons sitting light on a rubbish heap in the water and floating gently along with the rubbish heap.We almost did not notice it, it was a perfect camouflage. I was reminded of the 'teppotsavam' in mylapore temple! One of them flapped her wings and flew a bit and landed back again and the camouflage of the grey was broken with a tinopol white of their inner feathers. Cormorants there were aplenty and their swift dive into the waters to catch fish was a treat to watch. Ibis and pelicans were in large measure and there were busy nesting and relaxing in hoardes.

The place was choc a bloc with visitors jostling for space with the birds who had come travelling from sri lanka, pakistan, siberia and australia.