Painted Storks in Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

Painted Stork in flight

Using the excuse of dropping our friends and colleagues off at the airport in Chennai for their flight to Delhi this morning, Puru, Maya and I visited Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary on our way back to Pondicherry.

Painted Stork and reflection 

Vedanthangal is near Chengalpattu, in the Kanchipuram district of Tamil Nadu, around 85 kilometers south of Chennai and 77 kilometers north of Pondicherry. This is one of the few places in India where there is no differential pricing for Indians and foreigners.  Adults pay Rs. 5 (about US $0.13) for entry.  Taking in a still camera costs Rs. 25 (about US $0.64) while a video camera costs Rs. 150 (US $3.65).

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

We got to Vedanthangal around 10:30am.  Not the best time of day, and a Pongal holiday at that, so the Sanctuary was more crowded than usual and noisy with picnickers. However, we saw plenty of Painted stork, Open-billed storks, Grey pelicans, Black-headed (or White) ibis, Glossy ibis, Little cormorants, Night herons, Pond herons, all species of egrets, and a couple of different species of ducks.

Painted Storks building nests 

Most of the resident and migratory birds that winter in Vedanthangal nest from November to February. The Painted storks and Little cormorants were building their nests, while the Open-billed storks already had hatchlings.  The Grey pelicans were too far away for us to see with the naked eye. (Unfortunately, I had sent back our binoculars with a friend returning to the San Francisco Bay Area after our trip to Bhitarkanika in December 2007.)

The photos shown on this post were taken by Puru Kothari, who has caught the shutter bug and hopes to return soon to take more pictures.