Chennai: Chennai’s wetlands witnessed something unusual this year: Greater Flamingos, typically fleeting visitors tied to a predictable seasonal rhythm, are now being recorded through the year at both Pallikaranai Marshland and Kovalam Creek.The majority spotted are juveniles, a first for both locations. “This is the first time the juvenile flamingos were spotted in both locations,” says B Ajith of The Nature Trust, who has been tracking the birds at both sites.Kovalam Creek currently hosts over 100 flamingos, while Pallikaranai has around 25. Spotting the young birds at Pallikaranai has been especially tricky, since they tend to stay deep within the marsh, away from easy view. Ajith’s team has relied on telescopic lenses to photograph them, though even those images have come out less than sharp.The shift becomes clearer when set against what’s missing elsewhere. Kazhuveli, near Marakkanam, is usually a reliable July sighting spot, visible right from the East Coast Road. This year, the water body has run bone dry, with not a single bird in sight. Pallikaranai and Kovalam Creek are now the only places where the flamingos are showing up.Trust founder K V R K Thirunaranan points out that despite being classed as shallow-water birds, flamingos are strong swimmers, something he has personally watched play out at Kovalam Creek, where they swam and foraged when the water ran high.The pattern holds further south too. The lagoon near Arikkalmunai, declared a Flamingo Sanctuary just last year, has no flamingos at present, according to Ramanathapuram Wildlife Warden Akhil Thampi. Instead, it’s a lesser-known lagoon at Valinokkam on the Rameswaram – Thoothukudi road, where nearly 500 birds are almost resident by now, that’s drawing the crowds.Meanwhile, the waders that usually herald the season such as Common Greenshanks, Redshanks, and Marsh Sandpipers, are notably absent, leaving birders watching, and waiting, for answers.
