Every year thousands (between 10000 and 20000) of Lesser Flamingo es migrate from Kutch, Gujarat to Mumbai's Sewri, a phenomenon that has been occurring since the 1990s.
The reasons why Sewri and its mudflats at low tide is unknown and theories range from the food available to the flamingos due to the proximity to mangroves, a passive symbiotic relationship with the mangroves each one feeding off the other and such. Food available to the flamingos as well as the other birds like stints, herons, egrets, sandpipers, plovers and ibis consists of a variety of marine life such as fiddler crabs, fish and small invertebrates.
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| Boats |
When the tide is low the mudflats (coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides and rivers and found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons and estuaries) become feeding ground for the thousands of flamingos. They are constantly at it, not taking a break to look around and watch the scenery etc. They are constantly eating or searching for food.
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| Flamingoes |
The Sewri mudflats are not too far from Suhita's place and we all hopped into her car, joined by Preeti and Leya, and headed off. At Sewri we met Miskil and Kabir and a few thousand flamingos. I remember naming my first cricket team, the only one I had an opportunity to name, Flamingos, simply because they sounded exotic. But once I found that they were not as glamorous as they sounded I changed the name to Falcons.
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| Dramatic sight |
But anyway, flamingos it is.
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