JOIN USWeekend travel has become a way of life for many of us. Every time we wish to do something new and different. A bunch of friends and I were seeking the same when we decided to set out to Mangaluru to watch seabirds. This type of birding in the open sea is called pelagic birding.
How did we go?
We started from Bengaluru on a Saturday at 8 am, hit Highway 275 and reached Mangaluru around 6 pm, taking a break for lunch near Madikeri.
What did we do?
On Sunday, at the first break of light, we sailed our first few kilometres bearing all the ‘ups and downs’ that the sea had to offer. The view from the fishing boat was breathtaking; our eyes could see nothing but the blue ocean till the horizon where the sun was rising. It was a unique experience for all of us to see the sunrise from a boat!
As we sailed into the ocean, after eating our packed ‘chapatis’ on the boat, our expert pelagic birder looked through his binoculars and identified a black dot in the sky as the ‘Greater crested tern’. Carefully balancing myself, ensuring not to get tossed off the dangerously rocking boat, I managed to get a photo of it.
From all the stories I had heard of pelagic birds, I took a liking to this particular bird called ‘Skua’. Catching a fish in an open sea is a lot of effort, terns and gulls do this religiously! While the lazy skuas pursue the poor terns and gulls and steal food from them. The acrobatic skuas go to a whole new level of persuasion; they harass the terns and gulls for food until they regurgitate it. All this drama happens while they are flying high up in the air!
Unfortunately, for us, we did not see skuas even after a long wait. But nature does not disappoint. Further ahead, we had a very good view of Bridled and Common terns. It was absolute joy watching their antics!
We travelled a total distance of 65 km into the 52 metre deep sea when we decided to return. With the satisfaction of seeing eight lifers and the joy of meeting some wonderful people, we started sailing back towards the shore against the setting sun.
We reached the city of Mangaluru in the evening on Sunday and treated ourselves to ‘Gudbud’ special at Pabbas, a local ice cream joint. By far, this remains my top pick from all my travel stories!
(The author can be contacted at sampadarao1812@gmail.com)