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  I asked the driver to turn on the window wipers as they were a wee bit dirty. I had removed the neck cushion from the front seat so I can take pictures. But the windshield need a quick wipe. Service minded as he is he stopped and he went out to give the windshield a proper wash.   We're leaving Bombay behind
 We're leaving Bombay behind
 We recognise the yellow building and no need to look around today
 We recognise the yellow building and no need to look around today
 We leave the highway and drive pass the yellow building
 We drive by the Salt Pans so we know we're on the right track
 We turn left to drive pass the green house when we see the closed gate
 We are at the end of the road. And we can see the branch blocking the last 100m of the road
To view the map in a separate window, click HERE Yes, we made it in 25 minutes. I don't know any other city in the world where you have this wonder available 25 minutes form the city. A huge mangrove area with an exceptional bird life. Of course, should have been a whole different story if it wasn't for all the garbage. Same here as in Thailand, the people coming here should be nature lovers, and still, the just throw the garbage where they stand or sit. I was alone with my driver at the boat jetty, and there were no sign off any people working there. But it was easy to understand as the whole area was dry. Obviously it was low water and the whole wetland was dry, or muddy. And no flamingos or shore birds, well, a few Black-winged stilts. I understood that there must have been a misunderstanding when they had told my driver that the boat would leave at 7. Maybe if we used wheels or the old Viking technique with the logs.
 This was a lake yesterday
 This was a lake yesterday
 This was a lake yesterday
 Boat jetty in low water
 Boat jetty in low water
It was low water and we could see how the wetland was drained out in the ocean via. Among other places the creek between the road and the basins. We met 4 other bird watchers and they told us that the boat would leave at 11. OK, so we will have to kill time here until then. No problem, you can spend weeks here in this huge wetland/ mangrove area. I got in to the car and the driver was driving slowly along the creek while I was looking for birds. We saw a Common Kingfisher that disappeared as soon as we stopped the car. There were also a White-breasted Waterhen and several other birds. I was happy to see the Greater Coucal. But I never got any good pictures.  Plenty birds in the creek
 White-breasted Waterhen
 White-breasted Waterhen
 White-breasted Waterhen
 White-breasted Waterhen
 White-breasted Waterhen
 Cattle Egret
 White-breasted Waterhen
 White-breasted Waterhen
 White-breasted Waterhen
 Greater Coucal
I saw a very strange Egret in the creek, but when it took off I saw that it was a Cattle Egret. I have NEVER seen a Cattle Egret in the water before. This time it was wearing its breeding plumage or I would have been sure it would have been a Little Egret We parked the car and I started to walk along the dirt road/ path on the Eastern side of the lake/ pond. I had the information sign fresh in mind. Golden Jackals and snakes. So I really didn't want to walk in the grass. The dirt path is nice, but sometimes I had to get in to the grass. Making noise to scare the snakes, as I did when I was birding along the river in Sasan Gir. It is tricky as you don't want to scare the birds. The pond was empty, except for a very few Black-winged stilts. It was a beautiful morning and I was really happy that I had decided to come here instead of  spending the day waiting for my flight in my hotel room, or worse, spent the day eating in the restaurant. It had been raining in the morning and now the horizon turned black. Thunder, but I was really enjoying my morning.
The birds was really hard to get on pictures as they were jumping around, and of course taking shelter from the slight rain. But it was not much rain to talk about.  Plenty birds along the dust road
 Plenty birds along the dust road
 Old bridge/ sluice I didn't dare to cross
 White-eared bulbul
 White-eared bulbul
 White-eared bulbul
 White-eared bulbul
  Ashy prinia or Ashy wren-warbler - Prinia socialis
 Black-winged stilts
 Black-winged stilts
 Female Baya Weaver
I also spotted an Ashy prinia or Ashy wren-warbler. Well, actually, there were many of them and that made it the second new bird today, which I managed to identify that is. There were several other birds that I never got a good picture of and thus I wasn't able to identify them I was soon back on the road and we drove down to the west side of the pond. I walked along the pond but I never discovered anything. I heard a lot of birds but I saw nothing.  West side of the pond
 West side of the pond
 Reaching the end, I don't want to walk out in the “jungle”
When I came out from the “jungle” I saw 2 girls and a guy sitting on the dust road. They were having a binocular and they were out looking for bird. They had never seen any flamingos here. But they told me that they were down at the river looking for food on the mudflats. There was a bridge crossing the river and you can see the flamingos from the bridge. They gave directions to my driver and we went to investigate. We crossed the bridge on the Mulund - Airoli Road and there was of course no wat to stop. There was platforms where you could walk but nowhere to stop. And it was a huge bridge so the flamingos was far away so I would be better off back at Sewri Flamingo Point. Even though the flamingos are far away they are closer than looking at them from the bridge. But my Driver got lunch on the other side of the river before we drove back to Bhandup Pumping Station.  Going to check out the bridge over the river
 Going to check out the bridge over the river
 Going to check out the bridge over the river - It was pretty pointless
 Going to check out the bridge over the river - It was pretty pointless
 Going to check out the bridge over the river - It was pretty pointless
 White-throated Kingfisher at the electrical plant coming back from the bridge
 White-throated Kingfisher at the electrical plant coming back from the bridge
 White-throated Kingfisher at the electrical plant coming back from the bridge
The only good thing coming out from the visit to the bridge was that the Driver got his lunch. And we saw a White-throated Kingfisher at the electrical plant coming back to Bhandup Pumping Station. I got out of the car and I told the driver to drive down to the boat jetty. I would walk  down there while looking for birds along the creek.
I had been walking for 200 meters when 2 guys came on a motor cycle. They were from the boat. I had given up all hopes about getting on the river on a boat. But it was 11 o'clock and as my new friends had said this morning. The boat tour is at 11. But now they had already left as I could not see them at the boat jetty. There were around 10 people at the jetty (flimsy bamboo construction) and it looked like two different companies running the boat as there were 2 boats. The two guys that had picked me up had their own boat. And while walking to the jetty (flimsy bamboo construction) they wanted me to take their number for future expeditions. I took a picture of his back with the phone number, can come in handy next time in Bombay.  Now we can see that it is a lake again
 Time to board the boat
 Time to board the boat
 Time to leave
 We leave the jetty behind
 Beautiful, but full of garbage
 Black-crowned Night Heron My third new identified bird for today
 A swallow I working on to identify
 A swallow I working on to identify
 A swallow I working on to identify
 Brahminy kite
 Brahminy kite
 Brahminy kite
 Brahminy kite
 Flamingos
 Flamingos
 Flamingos
 Flamingos
 Here it is easy to see the difference between the Greater and the Lesser flamingo
 Flamingos
 Flamingos
 Flamingos
 Greater and Lesser flamingo
 Flamingos
 Flamingos
 Flamingos
 Egret in the tree
 Pond Heron in the tree
 A beautiful place destroyed by garbage
 A beautiful place destroyed by garbage and only God knows what else
 Back at the jetty (flimsy bamboo construction)
And we can see that it is almost high water
 Getting off the boat
 And as it is high water the flamingos is back in the pond
What to say? It had been a fantastic day! I WILL BE BACK! Again, I had said it before, Bombay could easily have been the most beautiful city in the world. But clean up the place! I was soon back at my hotel and I had lunch before returning to my room. The car will take me to the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 8 o'clock tonight s I have a few hours to kill. No problems, I have plenty pictures to look at. You just need to click HERE to find out if I make it to my flight in time.  
    
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To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011
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