Hemkund & Valley of Flowers – A first timer’s Guide

(Summer progressing, tourists, who are planning or already booked their Hemkund & Valley of Flowers Yatra for June to September, will find this blog useful. Only important info has been compiled, so it serves as a quick guide.)

1) Travel Package / Own itinerary

There are plethora of travel websites who provide a travel package as per their pre-determined departure dates and itineraries. Along with Hemkund & Valley of Flowers, they also have a day’s tour to Badrinath thrown in. The Uttarakhand Govt. provides a package tour which can be booked online www.gmvnl.com. I had two tours to this region, once availing of gmvnl package and once my own itinerary by hiring car from Rishikesh. The advantage of booking through gmvnl is getting best possible accommodation owned by Uttarakhand Govt. enroute.

One can have his own itinerary covering all the destinations as above by availing of car/jeep at pre-determined rates per day basis. The tour typically starts from Rishikesh, Haridwar or Delhi. As a thumb rule small car like Maruti Alto costs Rs. 2,000/- to Rs. 2,200/- per day and larger vehicle like Tata Sumo around Rs. 2,800/- per day. A typical touring period in this region is seven days. During monsoon in the months of July/August, it is better to keep an additional day, in case there is landslide in this region. 

2) Timing: The Hemkund as well as the valley of Flowers are open to tourists from 1^st June to 30^th September. When one should visit depends on one’s priority. Hemkund is visited best in first week of June, when the portion of route is through snow. One experiences some extra-ordinary landscapes en route; also the weather being cool, trekking is lot easier. Ironically the Valley of Flowers is best visited between 15^th July to 15^th August, during monsoon, when maximum number of flower species are in full bloom. Since base for both the destinations is Ghangaria (also called Govind Dham), one rarely wants to make two trips in the same region. Accordingly, one should decide his priority and journey date.   

3) Things to carry: Early June can be really chilly at Ghangaria, hence one needs to carry warm clothing, including thermals, jackets, woolen lined wind cheaters and Cap. A poncho (once use and throw type rain coat) helps in case of rain. 

4) Food: Only vegetarian food is available. Breakfast is Aloo Parathas and pickles or Maggie noodles. The meals are simple vegetarian fare. At Ghangaria, the base for Hemkund as well as valley of flowers trek, there are a few well stocked restaurants (Himalaya Restaurant, opp. Gmvnl guest house)with variety of food and a few dhabas as well. Apart from vegetarian food, egg preparations are also available. Hot Gulab Jamun, will rank as the specialty in this town. 

5) Trekking en route:

a)Day 1 Govind Ghat to Ghangaria( 13 km ): those who have done Kedarnath trek of 14 km will find this trek no big deal. One can cover the distance in 7 hours by taking several breaks. One should not miss River Point with a small island, river branching off in two streams. The place offers a good view of river and resting place with food served from restaurant. There will be a lot of tourists on this route, mostly Sikh community from Punjab and other parts of the country. Those who cannot foot it out, can hire pony, kandy (cane basket for children). A bamboo stick with spiked at one end purchased for Rs. 20/- at Govindghat, does ease the load on legs.

b) Day 2 Ghangaria to Valley of flowers (2km): Valley of flowers, which is much easier trek compared to Hemkund, can be visited first to acclimatize. A 2 km trek on a gentle gradient brings one to Valley. The valley extends another 5 km. But many do not explore too far. It is possible to return by early afternoon. The entry gate to Valley opens at 7.30 am and there are entry charges as well as fee for still and video camera. If there are glaciers en route to valley, the authorities take care to scoop the snow to get a firm foot hold. In this route ponies are forbidden and one has to foot it out.

Day 3 Ghangaria to Hemkund (7 km): The gradient is steep at most of the places as one climbs nearly 5000’. One can make it in 5 hours by starting very early in the morning. Some Yatris start even at 5 am. There are ponies available; however ponies are hired in pairs. So, one may have to wait for some minutes to be finally on the way. The last two km of the journey had stone steps sometimes back as an alternative to stone stitched route. It is better to take the sloping track route rather than steps – which could be really tiring. While returning one can avail of the stepped route partially, if it is in good condition. En route there are many dhabas (eateries) who cater to Yatris need of mineral water, soft drinks and food like Aloo parathas. The mineral water cost goes up as one goes to higher altitudes. On arrival one generally take a bath or wash hand, feet and face in the holy lake and then enter Gurudwara covering one’s head.

There is a langar run by Shrine committee who supply Khichdi – piping hot but somewhat on liquid side on stainless steel utensils. There are kar sevaks who continuously wash the used utensils in running stream water near the Gurudwara. One can have some hot tea as well. By 2 pm all the tourists are required to resume return trek to Ghangaria. There is no staying facility for tourists at Hemkund.

Accommodation: At Govindghat one can stay at gmvnl guest house by booking online. There are private hotels also. Those taking tour package are mostly halted for the night at Joshimath, which is one and half hour drive from Govindghat. At Ghangaria there is gmvnl guest house, a lot of tented accommodations, gurudwara hall and some private guest houses.

Full Blog On Hemkund

Full Blog On Valley of Flowers

Photo Color Saturation For Aesthetics – Photo Editing Part 4

(This post has been specifically written for Photo Talk page and hence has no relevance to main headline in Blog page - Destinations in Indian Himalayas)

In nature, every possible color in visible spectrum is perceived with the naked eye. Any color predominating means, the object is not absorbing that particular color and reflects most of it. In a haze free sunlit day, the sky looks more blue and hence more color saturated than would be on a haze filled cloudy day. During sunrise and sunset, the colors like yellow and orange are considered to be saturated. In outdoor, the light changing every moment, the color saturation on any object changes. In color photography when some frames look all black and gray, the color saturation is at its lowest.

Human brain enables him to do the required correction in deficiencies of color saturation in a given outdoor scene. But, camera mechanically captures the scene as it is and sometimes resulting scene on computer screen is not all that good. Increasing Photo Saturation is most felt in outdoor objects of any kind, due to the variation in sunlit images at various times of the day. Sometimes atmospheric haze also cuts down the color saturation to a great extent. 

A discerning photographer waits patiently, for capturing a frame in a color saturation of his choice. Yet, a traveling photographer rarely waits for the best possible moment to capture his image because of paucity of time. The best recourse left for him to use a photo editor in his computer, to render his frame to have a color saturation of his choice.

Coming to Microsoft Office Picture Manager, one opens the file and clicks edit…, then clicks Color. On right hand side three scales appear for amount, hue and saturation. Thus one is ready to edit the photo for increasing or reducing color saturation. A few frames are added for demonstration purpose.

Frame 1

Following frame is a landscape as seen from a hill top during Madmaheshwar Yatra. The frame shows the meandering river in a plateau between two hills covered in haze. Such frames look pleasing to eye but one is disappointed when one looks at the photo on computer screen.

A photo editing for increasing color saturation by fifty points or + 50 on saturation scale, the photo improves to some extent.

Frame 2
A Russet Sparrow captured in lens at Patal Bhuvaneshwar, looks getting merged with the background.

To make it stand out more, increasing color saturation by 50 points or + 50 on color saturation scale, the bird stands out much better against the background. 

Outdoor portraits taken on a sunlit day, the color tones on face are greatly varying on sunlit portion and shaded portion. The darker tones on shaded area softens with a decrease of Color Saturation in Photo Editor. 

Frame 3

In Following frame the portrait has been shot in a diagonally back lit condition. The skin tone differs in lit portion and unlit portion to a great extent. 

A reduction of 20 points on Color saturation scale or – 20, the portrait can be softened with skin tone balancing out to some extent. The background color becoming less saturated, the portrait stands out.

As in any form of Photo Editing overdoing the color saturation or under doing it, will render the picture becoming worse than the original. Hence one needs to be careful.

Photo Contrast for Aesthetics – Photo Editing Part 3

(This post has been specifically written for Photo Talk page and hence has no relevance to main headline in Blog page - Destinations in Indian Himalayas)

The terminology contrast has altogether different meaning in black and white photography and color photography. In black and white photography, the various elements in the picture have different shades of gray in black to white scale. The difference in lit areas in comparison to shaded areas in various elements of photo is a measure of contrast. A maximum contrast can be obviously between an element having a black tone and another having white one. There will be many combination in between. This is also called tonal contrast. 

In color photography, color contrast is due to opposite characteristics of color (warm and cool) in main elements of the photo. Generally speaking colors like red, yellow and orange are considered warm colors whereas blue, cyan and green are considered cool colors. A cool color accentuates the warm color and vice versa. The cool colors gives a feeling of receding and warm color gives the feeling of approaching when referring to the photo elements. Nature abound in cool colors comprised of blue sky, the green foliage, the gray rock and hence serve as best back drops in any frame. With context to the photo editor, the measure of photo contrast means, the difference of brightness between darkest (shadows) and highlight (well lit )areas. 

Coming to Microsoft Office Picture Manager, one opens the file and clicks edit…, then clicks the Brightness and Contrast and is ready to edit the photo for increasing or reducing contrast. A few frames are added for demonstration purpose.

Frame 1

In this frame a shot taken from a height shows the dwelling below. The photo looks flat and lacks the contrast.

An increase of 30 points or + 30 gives on contrast scale it looks much better. In the frame the green foliage color in background dilutes whereas the green cover in foreground accentuates, in that process adding clarity and depth to the landscape. The shaded areas becoming darker, highlighting the red, green and whites of the buildings. 

Frame 2

Following is a photo taken from a resort in Uttarakahnd. There is not much difference of contrast between shaded areas and sunlit areas.

By increasing contrast by 30 or + 30 on contrast scale, the shaded areas become more dark compared to well lit areas and enhances it.

Frame 3

A typical shot of a Leh Palace with cluster of dwellings around it, offers a lot of shaded areas. In the bright sunlight, the photo contrast is high.

The same photo is given a reduction of 20 points or – 20 on contrast scale. The photo does not lose much of sky color but the shaded areas are somewhat less dark or more lit and offers less contrast to the overall picture. 

Frame 4

Following is typical temple view at Auli, Uttarakhand. The photo being shot against the light, the temple wall in the frame is in shade and hence contrast is high. The details in walls are not clear.

After decreasing contrast by 20 points or –20 in photo editor contrast scale, the wall details are clearer as shown below.

Both the process of increasing or decreasing contrast has to be done carefully to meet the objectives of photographer. Giving more contrast may render more dark spots and on the other hand less contrast may mean the photo looks flat.  

Char Dham Yatra - A First Timer’s Guide

(Summer approaching, domestic and overseas tourists, who are planning or already booked for their Char Dham Yatra for May/June, will find this blog useful. Only important info has been compiled, so it serves as a quick guide.)

Char Dham* (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri)Yatra, offers the best possible opportunity to visit the finest and famous Garhwal Himalayan shrines by the devout as well as the laymen. Apart from Shrines, the chance to view Himalayas from close proximity is luring. Having done it two times, once in 1985 / 86 (Do Dham at a time) and then again in the year 2006, I found that the charm has not diminished a bit.

Following info will be immensely helpful for the first timers planning to undertake Char Dham Yatra.

1. Travel Package / Own Itinerary

a) The easiest way is booking an online travel package from a travel website. There are too many of them vying with each other to lure you. Personally speaking I preferred Garhwal Mandal Vikas Mandal Limited, a Uttarakhand Government Undertaking, with their head office located in Rishikesh. They have a website www.gmvnl.com , which gives a detailed itinerary and starting dates. One can select the dates and types of package (ordinary or deluxe) and make payment online. Normally one reaches Rishikesh earlier night (stay at no extra cost) so that next day there is no delay to start the Yatra. There are also packages for tourists who want to board from Delhi. Advantage of taking gmvnl package is that, the best accommodations at Garhwal are owned by them. The duration of the Yatra is 10 to 11 days.

b) Taxi service from Hardwar and Rishikesh is available for a small group of 4 to large group of 10 members. As a thumb rule small vehicle like Maruti Alto charges are Rs.2000 to Rs. 2200/- per day and large vehicles like Sumo/Qualis charge Rs. 2800/- per day. 

2. Timing: The tourist season for Char Dham Yatra is from May to September. The temple opening dates for Badrinath and Kedarnath are available from website http://www.badarikedar.org/ . Normally temples open between 1^st May to 15^th May.  Better to take earliest possible date to get hold of good accommodation on Yatra route. The first batch of gmvnl Yatra leaves from Rishikesh around 15^th May.

3. Things to carry: One needs to carry in addition to normal accessories, woolens, jackets, thermals and other warm clothing. Kedarnath can be really chilly any time of the year. A heated room is almost non – existent in the Yatra. A torch light is a must - the electricity can be erratic.

4. Food: Normally vegetarian food is available at all the destinations. For breakfast one has to do with Aloo Parathas or Maggie noodles. In hills nobody understands noodles but asking for Maggie will get you noodles.  At Badrinath one should not miss taking meals at Shri Saradeshwari Restaurant. They serve a variety of food including North Indian and South Indian varieties. At Kedarnath breakfast snacks are good at Kedar Mishtan, a sweetmeat shop. At Gangotri there is a big restaurant serving a variety of cuisine including South Indian stuff. However, I cannot recollect the name. At Yamunotri, there is nothing much to choose from. At Uttarkashi best restaurant is Bhandaris. It is air-cooled, comfortable and food is good. 

5. Trekking en-route:  The Char Dham Yatra which includes Gaumukh throws in has some 72 km of trek route where vehicles will not ply.

a) Kedarnath 14 km trek starts from Gaurikund. The entire trek route is stone paved. The gradient is steep but doable in around 7 – 8 hours with plenty of short breaks. There are many dhabas (eateries), to seat and rest or have some snacks and meals. At Gaurikund, one can buy poncho (cheap raincoat) for Rs.10/- and a bamboo walking stick for Rs. 10/-. Both will come handy. For those who do not want to foot it out, there are ponies, palkis (palanquins borne by four persons) and kandis (baskets for carrying children and old people) and pittoos (porters) carrying luggage. The rates change every season. The Uttarakhand Govt. rates indicating sign boards are at the starting point but haggling for price is common. If one starts on foot and enroute wants to engage a pony, the prices are higher.

b) Yamunotri Trek is 5 km and it starts from Janki-chatti. The gradient is steep, but being of short stretch is doable in 3 hours with a few short breaks. Here again a bamboo walking stick is useful. For those who do not want to foot it out, there are ponies, palkis and kandis.

c) Gaumukh trek is 18 km and it starts from Gangotri. After completing the trek, one retraces the path to Bhojwasa which is 14 km from Gangotri. After spending one night there, the next day’s trek is back to Gangotri. The trek is more or less on even elevation and is doable. There are ponies available from Gangotri up to 2 km before Gaumukh. The last 2 km has to be footed. No palkis or kandis were observed in this route. In early summer mid May, there was only one dhaba serving mineral water, beverages and biscuits. It is better to carry water and snacks during trekking. Hiring a pittoo (porter) and handing  over the back pack makes one comfortable.

Gaumukh is a restricted area because of environment preservation. An entry permit is a must. In a package tour, the entry permit is arranged by tour operator. Those who are having a private trip to Gaumukh need to obtain the permission from following authorities.

1)  Presently the number of visitors to Gaumukh is limited. Permits can be obtained from following offices:

a) Chief Wildlife Warden, Dehradun ( tel: 0135-2644691)

b) Director, Gangotri National Park, Uttarkashi (tel: 01374-223693 )

c) At Gangotri, if the quota of 150 persons per day has not been exhausted).

The fee for Indians is Rs. 150 for first two days and Rs. 50/- for per day per person thereafter. Permit is issued only for the first two days. Additional amount is charged on your way back at the gate of the Gangotri National Park. The fee for foreign national is Rs.600/- for first two days and Rs. 250/- per day, per person thereafter. In case of package tours offered by travel companies; they will arrange the permit for you.

6. Important places one passes through in this Yatra: Deoprayag, Rudraprayag, Joshimath, Vishnuprayag, Tehri Dam. Tehri Dam on river Bhagirathi at Uttarkashi is a spectacle, as seen from bus. View from car will not be as good because one is seated in a lower elevation. On a clear day, the sunrise view on Mt. Neelkanth at Badrinath at 5 am in the morning is a spectacle. 

7. Darshan, Puja Aarti Timings: One can get the info on timings after reaching the Dhams. At Badrinath, there are special pujas or religious activities for which one has to book tickets in advance, since a limited number of people are allowed. There are general darshan timings, when one has to stand in queue. The entire queue formation is in a shaded area, to get the protection in case of rain. 

At Kedarnath only general darshan is there for the devotees who queue up in early morning and other allotted times. At Gangotri, evening Aarti around 6 pm is attended by a lare number of people. At Yamunotri, one can have a darshan as soon as one reaches there, spend some time and resume their return trek to Jank-chatti. 

* Char Dham Yatra Blog 

Photo Brightness for Aesthetics – Photo Editing Part 2

(This post has been specifically written for Photo Talk page and hence has no relevance to main headline in Blog page - Destinations in Indian Himalayas)

Photo Editing Part 1 dealt with Photo cropping for aesthetics. The cropped photo may not need any further editing, if it satisfies the photographer’s expectations. Yet there will be some photos which require some more photo editing like enhancing or reducing brightness.

As usual one opens the Microsoft Office Picture Manager or any other photo editor. One can double click on the photo to be edited or import it separately into the editor frame. On top menu click editing…, a side menu appears. Click on Brightness and Contrast. Two scales appear, one for brightness and another for contrast. One can move the cursor on plus side or minus side on brightness scale for the desired result. For finer corrections, one can use up and down arrows, which give numbers for brightness comparison. Some demo frames are added as follows. 

 

A photo may be under-exposed so the photo appears darker. In some photos the color tones will be looking garish. In such instances increase in brightness does help.

Frame 1

This frame shows portrait of a Langur. If one sees carefully the details of the right eye of the animal is not clear.

On the brightness scale a 10 points increase or + 10 results in the eye details becoming clear.

Frame 2

The following photo of Pangong Tso looks un-natural and garish because of very deep blue tone on water and sky due to under-exposure.  

On the brightness scale a 20 points increase or + 20 results in the blue tone to be realistic as it was visible through naked eye. 

A photo may be over-exposed, so it looks flat and color looks diluted. In such instances decrease in brightness does help.

Frame 3

The following frame captures a landscape at Ladakh, the sky, water and foliage color tones appear to be diluted due to slight over-exposure.

On the brightness scale a 10 points decrease or - 10 results in the blue tone of water and sky to be realistic. The foliage tone looks a lot richer. 

Frame 4

Following frame shows a wild flowers shot at Binsar, in a diagonal composition with a dark grey background. 

To make the flowers stand out better, in a darker background, a reduction in brightness is called for. On brightness scale a 20 points reduction or – 20 results a darker background tone as desired.

In playing with Brightness for photo editing, there will be instances when some details would be looking un-natural or some details may get lost. One needs to decide his own priority while achieving the final result of the photo. 

A note of caution: Over-doing the exercise of increasing or decreasing brightness may result in an edited image far inferior to the original.

Photo Cropping for Aesthetics – Photo Editing Part 1

(This post has been written specifically for Photo Talk page and hence has no relevance to main headline in Blog page - Destinations in Indian Himalayas)

Gone are the days when photo editing was a dark room job. The negatives gave the best possible results what one’s camera could capture. While making the positives using a projection machine taking the exposure on special chemical sensitive paper in a dark room, the operator could prevent certain areas from getting exposed and hence the finished positive print showed the result of actually how much the photographer wanted to show. It was an indirect method of photo cropping. Discerning photographers those days not only shot the photo but did double-up as dark room operator to get the prints as per their liking.

With the advent of digital photography since last ten years, computer became an essential gadget for the downloading the images from camera. With the availability of plethora of photo editing software, the scope of producing a good photo is for the asking. The making of a good photo involves shooting a scene or portrait by proper exposure (a combination of exposure time and aperture) offered by one’s digicam. A normal photo for memory sake with individuals being a part of a scene was rather easy and could be shown in the computer screen. Such photos never went through photo editing unless one was inclined in doing so. Individuals who aspired to create an aesthetic photo took to photo editing in a big way.

Any camera manufacturer provided its own proprietary software to take care of various needs of photographer like what the camera had to offer and of course and editing the photo. Nikon Capture NX and Canon ZoomBrowser EX are some of free photo editing software provided by company when a digicam is purchased. People who purchase HP printer cum copier do get a photo editing software called HP Image Editor free. Microsoft Office Picture Manager which comes as a part of Microsoft Office software does the same job.

A typical Microsoft Office Picture Manager is shown below. After opening a picture file, on top menu, click edit pictures…, a side menu appears. On side menu click crop, the photo periphery bars and corners appear. Dragging those, one can decide how much to be cropped and how much remains. Then click ok and save the new photo in Save As…… mode. The following frame shows the intention of photographer to crop top portion.

The advantage of saving in Save As…… mode rather than Save mode is that one does not want to lose the original image. Some times after repeated cropping, the photo loses its importance and one can start all over again from the original image.

What exactly to chop? It depends on what the photographer thinks which will make his photo more appealing, the focal point more prominent and some time even tell a story. 

Following are a few demo frames where the original and the cropped ones are shown.

Frame 1

Following frame shows the photo shoot of Pangong Tso at Ladakh. Apparently the photo looks good. If you view it carefully, it will appear, the central attraction of photo, the lake with varying hues of blue is dwarfed by the foreground full of stone rubbles.   

Chopping off most of rubble portion from bottom makes the photo look better with centre of attraction getting prominence. Small portion of foreground rubble is left intact to give depth to landscape. Some portion from right side is cropped which appeared less interesting.

Frame 2

A raft is going down stream on a river. It has been positioned bang in the middle of the frame.

The cropping on left hand side and some rocky portion from top improves the image dramatically. The raft, the central theme gets the prominence. Ideally for a moving object there should be more space in the front than at the back, to create an impression that the moving object is entering the frame rather than exiting it.

Frame 3

Frame shows a small flower captured in normal settings of camera. The leaves in background are distracting the main centre of attraction - the flower.

 The same shot when cropped from all sides, looks more appealing. The centre of attraction, the flower gains prominence. 

Frame 4

Following frame shows a large group of Gulls, a random shot at high zoom. The picture in not attractive enough to tell a story

  The same photo has been chopped almost 40% from bottom and right side to create a story – A Gull is trying to land amongst the crowded Gulls in a narrow space.

Frame 5

This frame shows orange colored temple captured along with other elements in a typical landscape scene. The center of attraction is almost at the center.

The center of attraction the orange temple looks more aesthetic when placed 1/3^rd distance from top and 1/3^rd distance from side by cropping from top as well as right side. Some small portion from bottom is also cropped.

Frame 6

A bunch of Lily flowers in the following frame look pleasant enough. All the flowers look fresh, crisp and clear. It is worth trying some cropping to achieve a different type of composition

From above frame a specific flower was targeted to try a diagonal composition, which involved a huge amount of cropping.

There are basically two types of photographers.

a) Those who have ample time in their hand and subject of interest is available for a long duration. He does most of his composing in camera itself and hence required to do minimum cropping in computer to achieve the desire result.

b) Those who are trekking or on expedition or travelling have very little time in their hand. They shoot really fast and to be on the safer side take in their frame more than required. Later they seat at leisure in front of a computer and do the photo cropping. 

The image size which is expressed in KB or MB is an important factor to justify cropping. A 2MB to 3MB photo will allow a large amount of cropping if the photo is properly exposed and focused and will look equally good after cropping.

The photo taking ability of any individual will improve over the years with as much practice as possible. One develops an eye or a kind of judgment to decide the composition of photo in LED screen itself and hence sits for much less time in front of a computer for cropping, to get the desired result.

Migratory Birds At Sewri, Mumbai – A Photo Shooting Experience

(This post has been written specifically for Photo Talk page and hence has no relevance to main headline in Blog page-Destination in Indian Himalayas)

The presence of a long coast line, mangrove swamps in some locations and having a salubrious climate, has attracted some species of migratory birds during winter months from November to March to Mumbai. The birds return to their original habitat during summer months. The cycle goes on. For the past few years, there were reports on destruction of mangroves, lessening of the number of birds arriving to this island city. It was my endeavor to spot the birds at Sewri mangroves and photo shoot  the same. I had four visits to Sewri  in months of February and March. The experience has been varied, some rewarding experience and yet some disappointing ones. It is worth while recounting it for bird watchers as well as those who want to view frames or video clips of  the same.   

While surfing web to get some prior information on watching birds at Sewri, some interesting points surfaced. Apart from the months when these migratory birds swamp the mudflats, the tide timings for both low and high, play a significant role. Some info said, one should visit the site during low tide. Some said to visit between 2 hours before and after high tide. One even recommended to visit the site one hour after the high tide. Finding tide timings in Mumbai was no big deal. And, I was ready for my first visit.

5^th February 2012

Sunday morning being convenient time for me for this photo shoot, I set out around around 10.30 am, good half an hour after the high tide. Being my exploratory visit, I just carried my Sony Handycam. I reached near rail station Sewri west in about 15 minutes, crossed over via over-bridge to arrive on the eastern side. A twenty minutes walk brought me to the Sewry jetty. The jetty is a small one with a large ship on right hand side in grounded condition and a number small abandoned fishing vessels in different states of degradation, on the left side, entrenched in mud. There are mangroves on either side on the mudflat, with water collected in pockets. Small crabs and insects were visible poking in and out of the slush. The sea water mass was some 50 ft distance on left side. The mangrove all dark green and gray covered a huge area as far as eyes could go. The extreme backdrop, visible through haze had a few muliti-storied structures, the factory structure and chimney.

View From Sewri Jetty

In the immediate vicinity, the mudflats having some water pockets with high tide water receding, a dozon of brown coloured Black Tailed Godwit birds were moving around poking their enormously long beaks rhythmically into shallow water for their feed. A few White Herons, long necked, stood still in shallow water of sea and wait for the kill. The small white colored Gulls at least a hundred of them at a distance of 75 ft, bobbing on water, occasionally taking off in a group and resettling. Beyond, at a 100 ft distance, there were at least a few hundred Lesser Flamingos, inter-spaced with an occasional Greater Flamingo, moved gently poking the sea bottom, with the help of long curved beak, aided by long neck, for their feed. My Handycam caught them all, but hand shake getting amplified at highest zooms, the resulting footage was not worthy of posting into the net. 

White Heron

Next, I climbed to Sewri Fort located midway between Sewri station and jetty. That gave me another view of the mangroves and the Flamingos scattered across the sea at a lower depth. The Flamingos were advancing slowly towards the mud stretch. Some video footage later, I started back, ruing the fact that I did not bring my tripod along. Overall, I would rate, the exploration experience a good one. 

12th February 2012

When we visited the Sewri in in the morning, it was low tide time – water receded to show us the mudflats up to a very long distance. The Flamingos could be viewed faintly at a very large distance. Visitors who carried binoculars were trying to see the birds with a slight advantage. I missed taking any video footage. I caught an unknown bird in my digicam on the nearby mud flat.

Unknown Bird

We once again made it to Sewri fort and watched the Flamingos at a long distance. The video footage were not expected to be good in spite of a tripod. I took the opportunity to shoot some frames through my digicam of the fort.

  

19th February 2012

Way to Sewri Fort

I arrived at Sewri around 11.15 am, about half an hour after the high tide time. I straight away made it to the Sewri Fort. The sea water just receding some what, a large part of mudflats were still inundated. The Flamingos on this day much nearer into the shallow waters of the sea. Zooming to extent possible, I found, a large group of the same was bobbing on the water. The footage proved to be good subsequently, when I created the video. 

Flamingo group - View from Sewri Fort

As time wore on, the Flamingos were moving slowly towards the shore in an orderly fashion. I wanted to have a close view of the birds but decided against going towards the jetty, instead I was trying to figure out how to go to near mangroves at the bottom of the fort, towards the left side. After some inquiry, I took a right turn after coming on the road and another right turn brought me near the mangroves.  

The new place brought newer experience of watching birds like, some Flamingo like birds with brown feather on the mudflat and a group of Red Billed Gulls on shallow water near the ware house, jutting into the sea. It was a novel experience of watching the Gulls settling on water in group, looking for their feed and restlessly scratching different parts of their body and taking off in unison.

Red Billed Gulls

A good half an hour later, it was another pleasant experience to watch the Flamingos reaching the mangrove area, in a very orderly manner, in a queue which had bends and went as far as eyes could see. The Flamingos were paddling in deep water and walking as they approached the shallower water near the mudflats. The video footage I had of this day left a huge impression in my mind. The completed Flamingo video clip uploaded in youtube is receiving good response.

Flamingos

 4.3.2012

We reached the Sewri jeety, one hour after the high tide time around 10 am, but was surprised to see that water had receded much more than I had expected. The Gulls and Flamingo groups were visible at a long distance, while on the mudflats in isolated pockets of collected water, it was opportune moment to capture Black Tailed Godwit birds in a group of a dozen or so. Since they were not too far, I had some still images as well. These species of birds have long beaks and constantly poke at the bottom of the collected water pools to collect their feeds. 

Black Tailed Godwit bird

One observes the very funny characteristics of Black Tailed Godwit birds in water in one legged stance.

One legged Stance - Black Tailed Godwits

At the end of this year’s experience, I feel, to capture all possible birds available at Sewri mudflat, during winter, one needs to go during high tide time and spend at least two hours thereafter, photo shooting birds, by visiting all the three spots namely a) Sewri Jetty b) Sewri Fort c) Near mangroves on left of Sewri Fort.