Chennai’s biodiversity hotspot: Discovering, and delving into Ennore’s rich flora and fauna

Before cyclone Michaung and the oil spill at Ennore creek, we explored the rich biodiversity at North Chennai’s Ennore where we spot 5,000 Glossy Ibises, rare Pied Starling & more

In November, a cab driver suggests that we go to North Madras. This recommendation comes after seeing our interest in hopping on and off whenever we spota resident or a migratory bird in water bodies around Tambaram and Vandalur.

He is keen we explore Manali and Ennore as he hails from that area, and even volunteers to do an initial recce on his bike to ensure that there are birds we can spot, and for a navigation route. Cyclone Michaung and its devastating aftermath which includes the oil spill at Ennore creek hasn’t happened yet, and all that awaits us at Ennore is its rich biodiversity.

The pilot trip proves to be a success, and he reports seeing a variety of birds, including bulky pelicans nesting and roosting on power transmission towers. All through November, we set out on multiple trips to Manali and Ennore.

On our first trip to Manali early one morning, we spot more than 5,000 Glossy Ibises flying out for the day. We are treated to a thorough bird show. The rare and solitary pied starling was busy feeding on a frog. A brahminy starling was perched on top of a detopped palmyra. There was also a common kingfisher on the lookout, and a common sandpiper twitching her tail.

In the water bodies were purple swamphens, fulvous and lesser whistling ducks, purple herons, pheasant tailed jacana, bronze winged jacana, spot-billed ducks, grebes, pelicans, common coots, black-winged stilts, open billed storks, red-wattled lap wings, pond herons, cormorants, and egrets. Interestingly, there were terrestrial birds as well including house sparrows, paddy field pipits, red-vented bulbuls, grey wagtails, pied bush-chats, black kites and green bee-eaters. The fidgety and non-stop flyers, and rusty barn swallows pose for us, as they perch, unusually immobilized, on the bending Typha inflorescence. We caught a yellow bittern trying a trapeze act on the foliage, leaping from one leaf to another.

Moving from Manali to Ennore along the Kosasthalaiyar river and the Ennore Creek was quite an expedition. There are halophytes, plants that tolerate high salt levels, and typical mangroves dominated by Avicennia species. The creek has Eurasian curlews, a large wader with a long downward curved beak sifting through the waters for a meal.

Interestingly, water bodies in North Madras do not have many Cat tails (Typha angustifolia) or water hyacinths (Eichhornia crassipes), except for the Madhavaram Jheel. Though these hydrophytes are perfect breeding hideouts for swamphens, grebes and Jacanas, these invasive species are a menace in many other wetlands in the city.