12-05-2025
A hat trick at Great Salt Lake in Kalavakkam
Sample these scenarios where the least expected —or the unthought — happens against a fast-ticking clock, ushering in fresh joy.
A result-altering three back-to-back goals in the additional moments of a football match. Three sixes in a row in the final over of a 20-20 tipping the scale. Or, three less-seen migratory birds sighted on the same day within inches of each other, at the tail-end of a wintering season.
Sathish Kumar, an IT professional during the week and a birder during the weekend, experienced the very last scenario.
His jaw dropped during a birding trip to Great Salt Lake (GSL) last weekend and it is yet to snap back to its normal position.
On May 3, 2025, at the salt pans in GSL opposite SSN College in Kalavakkam, Sathish saw a Gull-billed tern, a Slender-billed gull and a Spotted redshank.
He has photographed all three with the Slender-billed gull and the Spotted redshank even filling one frame.
Sathish Kumar considers the sighting of the Spotted redshank extraordinary. It was a 'lifer' to him. In birding terms, a lifer marks the first time someone sees a particular bird species in the field.
The Spotted redshank and Common redshank have more similarities than dissimilarities, but the latter are sufficiently pronounced for a birder to not confuse one for the other.
When Sathish saw the lone Spotted redshank, there were a few Common redshanks in the waters too.
The Spotted redshank he spotted on May 3 had slipped into its breeding plumage.
In its breeding plumage, from crown to belly, including the nape and throat, the Spotted redshank develops a deep dark grey. Its legs also replace red with dark grey.
One of the diagnostic features distinguishing it from the Common redshank (also a winter visitor in these parts): the colour and the shape of the beak.
In the Common redshank, the beak is shorter, and the black and the red are distributed uniformly between the upper and lower mandibles. The base of the beak is red and the tip, black. In the Spotted redshank, the beak is longer, thinner and the tip sharper, and the lower mandible has a touch of red at the base. The rest of the lower mandible and the whole of the upper mandible are black.
Another feature of the Spotted redshank is the slight curve to the beak.
