First photo-meet of 2009 at Jogninar Temple

First Photo-meet of PCG for year 2009 was arranged on 04-01-2009 (Sunday) at Jogninar Temple near village Sanghad.

This time we all three , Prabhat, Ajay and myself were present and a new member ,Rajesh Lalwani, also joined us.

Large egret with stretched wings.

We reached the Temple at about 10:30 am and decided to have look of surrounding area for suitable location. When we went to the salt-pans which 2-3 kms ahead of the Temple we found good variety of sea-birds present there. So we decided to get down there and roamed the area on foot. However on most areas were covered by salt-pans we had little scope for roaming.

Out of many birds watched we identified (1) White Pelicans (2) Indian (Western) Reef Hereon, (3) Herring  Gull (4) Greater Flamingos (5) Black winged stilt, (6) Black tailed godwit (7) Pied Kingfisher (8) Large Egret and many mud probing birds.

Herring Gull and Blackwinged Stilt

Good thing was that birds ,being at salt pans, were acquainted with the human presence and therefore it was quite easy to see them from closer distance.