Greater Flamingos Descend on The Basai Wetland in large numbers

A trio of Flamingos take to the sky

Just yesterday I had set out early in the morning intending to visit the Sultanpur National park, but when I reached the T-Point from the Dwarka Expressway, I somehow decided to turn left to visit the Basai Wetland and sure it made my day! Stretched across the distant edge of the wetland was a huge flock of Greater Flamingos! They were too far away even for my modest 70-300 mm lens to capture, but the experience of spotting the Greater Flamingos far outweighed the disappointment of not having a larger zoom lens. However, I guess having an even larger zoom lens would not have helped, especially because the lighting was not good. The rising sun was on one side of the birds and so what I was able to capture was a shadow of the original image!

Taking off

Showing affection towards each other

Searching for Breakfast

Looking at all the beauty that surrounds Gurgugram, one cannot help feeling sad at the deliberate destruction of the Basai Wetland, a prehistoric wetland that once supported a massive ecosystem. It is a lesson for all of us to see how nature continues to fight back despite all the abuse we hurl at it. The Greater Flamingos are a testimony to the resilience of nature in face of all the inequities we throw at it. Seeing the Flamingos at play was simply inspiring, a lesson for all of us, human or not so human to spend some time with our family members, interact with each other and socialise because if the Flamingos can do it then can we afford to be far behind them?

Flamingos at Play

Flamingos are very gregarious and in our terms, gregarious in nature. The juveniles could be seen chasing each other around, while the grown-ups were showing their affections for each other. I was lucky enough to capture some of their emotional moments where it was clear that these were adult couples.

Expressing Emotions