Of Lilies and Roses - The Greater flamingoes, in Sangareddy lake

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Canon SX60 HS, 1/500, f/7.1, 179 mm, ISO-100. Full Frame. Basic PP in GIMP.

Clicked in Sangareddy lake on 12-July-15. This year greater flamingoes have visited this part of India in far greater numbers and have stayed for almost 8 months. I found good population in three lakes, Gandipet, Sangareddy and Nizamsagar spread in a diameter of 200 Kms. When I visited Nizamsagar on 26-Jan-15 the whole lake had turned pink & white, there were probably more than 500 Flamingoes. Also, far the first time I have seen Pelicans around here. I am not sure whether these are sings of some disturbances in their habitats in AP.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see these flamingoes. Interesting to hear that the flamingoes have stayed back. The changes in their habitat due to climate change as well a direct man-made habitat destruction may have a role to play in their decisions to choose specific sites. It would be nice to have an estimate of the flamingoes in winter this year vis-a-vis now. Thanks for sharing.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Beautiful birds. It is a good news that there numbers have increased from the last year. Wish the wires were not present at the top (nothing you could do about it). It is difficult to click landscapes these days with all these wires present :(. Thanks for sharing.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice to see this subash. after visiting in Jan did u go back during the summer ? they are a highly specialised species and very sensitive to disturbances to the habitat and availability of food. maybe the disturbances in other sites in the rann, mumbai surroundings etc is driving them south to find new homes.
TFS
Roopak

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Thanks Sabya, Mrudul, Roopak for sharing your comments and views. By mistake, I mentioned it as 26-Jan-15, the correct date is 26-July-15.

Sabya sir; the last I visited flamingoes habitats was in 26-July-15 when I found the largest concentration, probably the population was about 10 times what was on Dec- Jan period. One of the reason for Flamingoes to stay on may be the late onset of rains and continuation of Summer.

Hi Mrudul, yeah, there could have been more human made and/or humans, the lake is surrounded by human civilization on three sides, the remaining side is where I go and that is still quite pristine.

Hi Roopak. I wrongly mentioned it was Jan, it was in July that I found the largest concentration. I suspect disturbances in the AP coastal areas as the probable reason.