winged visitors of Karapakkam and the hovering one at that...

In the busy OMR different vehicles race against each other and time as people try to reach their office ….. there are two wheelers, autos, share autos, vans, cars, transport buses, volvo airconditioned buses, company buses, educational institution buses and more as people jostle for space ….. one sees so many multi-storeyed buildings, huge complexes …. Scenes of Corporate World

From our Office – we are able to see  lot of birds – the winged ones of ‘class aves’…………… perhaps there are Pelicans, the large water birds characterised by a long beak and large throat pouch used in catching prey and draining water from the scooped up contents before swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, the exceptions being the Brown and Peruvian Pelicans. Flamingos meaning "purple wing".   They  often stand on one leg, the other leg tucked beneath the body. The reason for this behavior is not fully understood. Storks, the large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. Cranes  which unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back.  In Tamil, we call – Kokku, Narai, Vakka and more…

 We enjoy the winged visitors in the nearby wet lands… beautiful white birds – slowly landing .. wading in the water and taking off…. mostly white plumage… ! - plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. 

The chirping sound, the way the move around, fly, land and more – are all pleasant, irrespective of what little you know of them. 

The water is fast disappearing and more area now looks parched – one shudders to think that in peak summer, things would go totally dry, leaving nothing for the winged visitors at these marshy lands of Pallikaranai.  This morning there were group of cranes [as I identify them –they could be of different genus too]… and here are some photos of the group taken without disturbing them.

~ that is not all……… Karapakkam, the once upon a time village has more…. if you ever thought that executives working here travel in one of the modes described in the first para of this post… a few times, we have seen another winged visitor – a mechanical contraption though, enabling some top notch professional attend place of work !!!

Helicopters are always a marvel – for they are  type of rotorcrafts in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward, and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft would usually not be able to take off or land. The capability to hover efficiently for extended periods of time allows a helicopter to accomplish tasks that fixed-wing aircraft and other forms of vertical takeoff and landing aircraft cannot perform.  English-language nicknames for helicopter include "chopper", "helo", "heli" and "whirlybird". Helicopters have been built and put to use since 1936 ~ still, they are mostly used for military purposes and less for civilian uses. 

Here is one seen hovering around landing closer to the backwaters that cut across OMR nearer Karapakkam.  ~ and for those impatient – there is news that HAL’s planned Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) should be ready for first flight in 2017, it has also proposed a VIP cabin configuration for its 5.5t Dhruv rotorcraft. The LUH will be able to carry up to six passengers and will be designed as a multirole aircraft. HAL has yet to sell a VIP version of the Dhruv, which is widely used by the country’s military. … the message is loud and clear……. !!!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

13^th Mar 2014.