Saturday, February 25, 2006

Thane creek boat cruise

On Saturday 25th February 2006 we decided to do a boat cruise of the Thane creek to see around the natural life and view of the coast from the water.

Our route is marked below on the google earth map


Started at 7:30am from CBD belapur jetty after having a sight of rising sun.




Fishermen were getting ready for their catch.



One can see the concrete jungle of NRI colony at Nerul.
In the front one can see a few Mangroves left.



A brown-headed or a black headed Gull (non-breeding) perching on
a fishing net pole.



Dredging machine seen near CBD



Nhava port



A ship anchored near Nhava



Trombay Jetty



Approaching the vashi bridge


with the train running over it



"Never seen vashi bridge from here"



Between the road and the rail bridge



As we left the vashi bridge behind
got the first glimpse of flamingoes
(Greater flamingo)



A single Grey heron



A lot of flamingoes



There were atleast 500 of them and they were flying all around.
In short a great view



A few meters ahead a much bigger group



Crossing below the Airoli bridge



One can see a lot of bird life in this stretch
A group of smaller waders (could not identify)



A good pose struck by an Orprey



A congregation of black winged stilts



A large egret in flight



A sewage pipe emptying its dirty water in the creek



Pied avocet , black-winged stilt and little stints



Mangroves around the creek


Thane rail bridge



Terns and cormorants



Old bhiwandi bypass



Hiranandani complex near ghodbander



Quarrying near nagla





A small halt at Reti bunder - Nagla



Flowering palas tree ( Flame of the forest)



Masjid near Ghodbunder fort



Vasai fort