In December 2023 during X'mas holidays, we had planned to visit Bhigwan in anticipation of sighting Flamingoes as family but the plan failed. Scarcity of time and health issues with junior, we went to Mangalore and concluded year.
We still kept looking for more opportunities to make that pending Bhigwan trip during Jan/ Feb but then the CBSE exams kept us occupied. Things didn’t materialise as we expected. And then eventually we gave up.
One fine March morning, a friend messaged on one of our TORC groups that there are flamingoes near Ankasamudra bird sanctuary in KA near Hospet. This is a wetlands bird sanctuary and pretty close to Bangalore - worth making a day trip. After connecting with a few locals via extended networks, we got confirmations of flock still being in the area. I quickly googled for locations, and made an impromptu plan to drive there. We were expected to travel to MH over weekend (another RedSparkle Story coming up!) and this wasn't on our plan - sighting the opportunity, we altered the travel route. We made Ankasamudra as last minute entry into our itinerary - that was totally off-beat from our planned theme. The decision turned out to be the best one - so much so that, now I detach this #RedSparkle story into it’s own!
Ankasamudra is a recently designated wetlands birds sanctuary - with ramsar status! (
https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/2535) The recent G20 summit at Hampi brought the govt attention to this location - strategically located close to the Tungabhadra Damn backwaters, this place with abundant resources around for feeding, has turned out to be a good birding hotspot. The local support for this sanctuary is commendable. The sanctuary has attracted lot of painted storks, open bills, other pelicans and a lot of local birds. All of these winged miracles have made it their home. The place is slightly off from the Chitradurga - Hospet highway, easily searchable on google maps. The sanctuary doesn’t need any entry permits. Neither it has any specific timings enforced yet. The drive is uneventful in case you want make a quick dash.
Searching over internet, we chanced upon a nice small boutique setup called as The Old Mudhouse. Connecting to the owner Carlton, we got the assurance to stay and on a Saturday morning, we headed there. The place is nice old village mud house. Nothing fancy - has ample space, just one extra room for guests. (Host uses the rest of the home). No ACs or fancy swimming pools - just the backwaters within a couple of KM distance in case you want to take a plunge anyway! Home made food, and homely feeling with tons of stories to listen to from Carl. Carl himself is a accomplished photographer and a great human being to have connected with.
Carl connected us with the same guide that my friend had suggested earlier - Raju, who works for KFD and is stationed in Ankasamudra. Raju has been tracking the flamingoes in the area, knows where they are on daily basis. Since earlier this year the flock made it to the area, he has been keeping an eye on them. Raju helped us with arrangements for the boat ride to reach tot he shallow waters on the Tungabhadra backwaters. The boatman, who runs a his boat for his living as a fisherman, took us in waters. This a raw arrangement at your own risk - there’s no fancy boat ride with lifejackets. Wading through the waters, walking in the shallow water and then marshy banks, we enjoyed the flamingo sighting. Spend good time watching the sunset and then returned to the mud house to retire for the night.
Next day early morning, we had an opportunity to walk in the Ankasamudra wetlands bird sanctuary - there are thousands of painted storks, pelicans and other local birds. So mush so that, you get bored of clicking them! Having sighted lot of birds including local ones like breasted munia, tricolour munia, blue-tailed bee eaters, we concluded this first leg of the week long vacation that was about to be even better!
The entire experience of this visit, from the eyes of my daughter, was penned down as below:
Quote:
Flamingoes, one of the most beautiful and graceful birds to ever have walked the Earth. Their long, white neck shaped like the letter S, their slender legs that they use to wade the shallow water, their wings such a beautiful shade of pink. One can never mistake this bird for any other.
We had arrived at Ankasamudra Bird Sanctuary. We were staying at The Old Mud House - a beautiful house set on the banks of the backwaters of Tungabhadra Dam. The mud house was right beside the bird sanctuary. It was a very homely place. There were sparrows everywhere, in and around the hut. They didn’t shy away at all. Our host, Uncle Carl, was a very warm and sociable man. He cooked the best meals for us. Our stay there was punctuated with calls from Open-billed storks. Seeing these birds in such huge numbers can get very boring after a while.
My dad got information from an acquaintance about the arrival of flamingos in the Tungabhadra backwaters. He immediately got the contact of a guide in that area and booked us all a boat ride. This got us all excited. We rushed to pack water bottles and hats, got ourselves laden with sunscreen, and went to the backwaters. We had to take off our footwear and walk over the slippery and marshy land, through the water, to get onto the boat. My mom was so scared about the boat tipping over, and to add we had no life jackets. Boating is very fun, but not under the scorching afternoon sun. We all were more worried about our hats flying off due to the strong air currents. Except my dad, that is. All that he was doing was pointing his camera at every bird that flies past us, and shooting. He was in his own world, with us holding onto his sunglasses and hat.
The boatman steered the boat to the other side of the backwaters. And there they were, dotted along the shore, Flamingoes. We slowly neared them, so as to not scare them. The group that had been there before us got too close to them with the motor on, and scared them away. We wanted to avoid making the same mistake and so, turned off the motor, and used the pedal to get closer to the flamingos. There were so many open-billed storks around the flamingos, and were creating such a ruckus. Our guide and boatman got off the boat to hold it still as my dad wanted to get good pics of the birds. In the end, he wasn’t satisfied and he too got off the boat. The water wasn’t deep, it was knee length. He stood there for a good 10 minutes and continued capturing them on his camera. Me and my mom used our layman’s phone cameras and captured the beauties. Even after all that, my dad wasn’t in the least satisfied.
So the boatman wedged the boat into the marsh, and he, the guide and my dad walked onto it. They walked far on the black marshy soil and spent another 25 minutes there, trying to get good clicks. Meanwhile me, mom and my brother were still on the boat. The heat had gotten to us. Although it was almost time for sunset, it was still pretty hot. We were getting pretty restless. But my dad, showed no signs of returning back any time soon. After around 20 minutes they were back and he still didn’t look happy with the pics he got! He had no choice but to get onto the boat and get back to where our car was parked. As we sailed back to shore, we saw our car, a fierce red dot on the scenic green landscape.
We returned to the stillness of land with a few stray feathers of flamingos in our hand. We were just in time for sunset. We sat on the green grass and spent some leisure family time together. As the night inched closer, it became more cool and breezy. We returned to the mud house and were welcomed with the aroma of home cooked food and familiar barks from the Rottweiler. The sparrows had called it a day and gone back to their nests. Before dinner, my mom and brother sat down and drew. The warli my mom drew was gifted to Uncle Carl as a token of gratitude, for making us feel so at home. In return, he gifted my brother a photo frame of a Bramhini Starling. It was such a beautifully captured photo.
Overall it was an amazing stay. The highlight being the flamingoes, which were a first for me. We all would love to visit Uncle Carl and The Old Mud House again.
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And to conclude, I made some videos, and pictures to round up this short, one nighter experience into a travelogue. Thanks for reading: the pictures and videos below.
A brief video:
FYI, more info of this sanctuary:
6th April 2024, 14:25
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Thanks
