Maduratakam Lake – A place for weekend bird watching and macro photography

This is fourth in my series of posts with a view of covering the offbeat birding places around Chennai. While Madurantakam Lake may not be an ideal birding place, it will be an interesting weekend trip and even provide some good photography opportunities.

Madurantakam Lake is situated on the GST road (NH 45) near Madurantakam town. As the lake is located very near to the famed Vedanthangal bird sanctuary, it is home to a large avian population. It is a man-made water body, believed to be built during the Chola reign by King Uthama Chola who was also called as Madurantakar. It is also the second largest lake in Tamilnadu and irrigates some 1000 odd villages in and around Madurantakam.

Domino Cockroach

Egret

This place is also famous for the Aeri Katha Ramar temple and has a legend attached to it, about an English Collector named Colonel Lionel Place becoming a staunch devotee of Lord Rama and building a shrine for Lord Rama’s consort Sita Devi.

Blue Pansy

Crimson Rose

Legends and stories apart, the place is home for a large population of Egrets, Cormorants, Herons and Anhingas (snake bird or darter). When, I planned my visit to Madurantakam, it was middle of September  2012 and most of the water bodies including Siruthavur Lake were completely dry. Even this lake was almost dry and birding was not on my priorities. It was a Sunday and I had decided just to go on a long drive. The destination was finalized as Madurantakam as my friend was from this place and it was decided that we will be driving to his parent’s place which is a small village near Madurantakam town on my bike. We started at around 4.30 am from Pallikaranai, made a pit stop in between on the highway and had tea in a small night eatery along with truck drivers and reached the lake at around 6.30 am.

Pea Blue

Wild flower

The lake is surrounded by an embankment with gates on the eastern side. There is also a road on the embankment which can accommodate light vehicular movement. Either side of the road is full of shrubs and wild flowering plants. As the lake was dry most of the waders were in the middle of the lake and also it was a cloudy day, so I just turned my attention from bird watching towards Macro Photography with a normal lens. I do not have an exclusive Macro setup so you can call it as close up photography.

Smaller Orange Tip

Restricted Demon (Skipper)

Found some interesting wild flowers, for which I do not know the names. A Restricted Demon butterfly was sitting patiently on a leaf. Found a Smaller Orange Tip butterfly (Please correct me if I am wrong with the names). Also found a few Jungle Babblers.

Jungle Babbler

Common Carp

And finally, if you are a non-vegetarian and can haggle with the local fishermen, you can get some freshly caught Carps straight from the water for a good price (On a Sunday at any point of the day some fishermen will be there in the lake trying to catch fish).

Meanwhile due to rains in the last few days Pallikaranai marsh is getting some inflow, encouraging the Flamingos which are there from some time to move to the edge. I have managed to get some better photographs than last time. Click on the link to view the post “Flamingos in Pallikaranai”.