Bharatpur-Dholpur 2013

Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Bharatpur, needs no introduction, it is world famous destination for bird watchers, home to more than 350 species of avian-fauna from all categories, resident, migratory, critically important species and various mammals and aquatics. Historical hunting ground, Bharatpur, is now maintained proudly by villagers and government authorities, and most important guardians are the guides and rickshaw drivers, who offer the best services to birders. Water is topmost essential commodity for survival of every living being, humans being the most dependent and topmost consumer, has duty to maintain it with care and responsibility. Few years before when Bharatpur was dry, as people tell us, the birds were driven away, and everything got affected. There was pressure on government to bring the Chambal water by pumping to the affected zones, and Water came, bringing back the life. 

Untill this year, the bharatpur was being missed by me due to some or other reason. Alok and Rohit were planning this trip and I happened to jump in at last moment. The Bharatpur season was just at its end, and we  were still hopeful that we wont be disappointed. We visited Bharatpur for two full days birding, one day at Chambal, one day at Jaipur and around while travelling back. Thanks to the rail availability, we had to put Jaipur in the plan.

Day-1 : March 2, 2013, Bharatpur

Upon reaching Bharatpur station at 3:30 pm, quickly checked in the Iora guest house, My rickshaw driver  Jeetu, was waiting to take me to sanctuary which is 1 km away from guest house. This cheerful guy pacified me and answered all my questions arising due to excitement and anxiety of the first time impressions I was going to have about this charismatic place....The path leading to temple surrounded by water bodies and huge flocks of birds settled in to it, was such site to cherish and I was stunned. From photography point of view a huge feast was awaiting to come....Sun was setting and casted beautiful golden light upon the place.

Sambar Deer

Painted Stork (juvenile) 

Neelgai - female

Neelgai - male

Jungle Babbler

Peacock - coming to roost

Day-2 : May 3, 2013, Chambal Sanctuary

We had spent wonderful time with our guest house owner, Mr. Devendra Singh discussing about Birds and Photography earlier night and his descriptions of Chambal and the show stopper..Skimmers, made us restless. Morning we started off the most wonderful and memorable day, with our guide Bholu Khan, who had arranged the conveyance to Chambal, situated at 60 Kms from Bharatpur. The road to chambal goes via beautiful villages and green mustard fields. We stopped along the road side to watch spotted owlets which were seen sitting out in open on a top of ruined structure made out of stone. Thanks to Rohit who spotted them from a moving car...We has a great time watching these owlets.

Spotted owlet

Spotted Owlet

Large Grey Babbler

There were many birds on the roadside fields and canals and villages like bushchats, babblers, peacocks, wooly necked stork, kingfishers etc. The views of large green mustard fields is signature of northern plains agriculture and were very pleasing to eyes.

About 10 O'Clock we reached the banks of the Chambal river, The only pure river in India, with minimal or no industrial water pollution, until river meets Yamuna. Due to the river's pristine ecology indian dolphins, Ghariyal, Muggar and Indian skimmer population has survived in the wild. The river's banks are sandy and soft  that provide bed for breeding and nesting of these species.

We had a short boat safari run by forest department, the smooth flow of blue clean waters of Chambal soothed our minds, and our hearts overwhelmed with joy to see the landscape. Widely flowing waters with muddy banks on both sides appeared extremely unique and beautiful. The high sand hillls give altogether a different touch to the place.

Chambal

We had spotted Greater Flamingos, Egyptian vultures (juv., adults), greater cormorants, river lapwings. We were delighted to see the *Red Crested Pochards*. Few hundred meters towards the up direction of river, on our left we could see to our excitement a group of *Indian Skimmers*, basking in sun on a sandy bank. Boatman approached slowly to the place. We could see Ghariyal, younger one with 2 feet length close to bank. Few ruddy shelducks were present among Skimmers. 

We watched the skimmers to our heart's content. Unforgettable moments were being imprinted in our memory..

Indian Skimmer

Indian skimmer


Ruddy shell-duck

Ruddy shell-duck

River Lapwing

River Lapwing

Great Thick-nee

Egyptian vulture

Ghariyal (three individuals with different sizes due to their age)

Black Necked Stork - Male

Ruddy Shellduck

Muggar

Muggar

A huge Muggar was basking in sun was encountered when we tried to get closer views of black stork male. This muggar was impressive in size, and experience of watching one of such strong creature in the wild was amazing.

Skimmer - orange candy bird

Skimmer

We decided to return as sun has already came overhead. We reached Bharatpur and spent evening time birding inside the sanctuary.

Day 3: May 4, 2013 : Bharatpur

We had this last day in our hand at Bharatpur, we had already seen *Black bittern*, *Dusky eagle owl*, *Bar headed Geese*, *Greater spotted Eagle*, several water bird species. We were surprised to see *Mallard* male and female, as our guide had information that mallards were not being located from last few days and they might have left back. We could observe a significant drop in numbers of ducks, during only last 2 days. And we were happy that we haven't missed much.

Few best sightings of the day included *Black necked stork-female*. Female has distinct yellow eye compared to male. There were number of painted storks, young ones learning to fly and soar along with adults, they soared high and high.We could add *Siberian rubythroat* ,*Saras Crane* to our list.

Yellow footed green pigeon

Brahminy Myna.

Spotted owlet - Resting after night shift.

Rose ringed parakeet - in search of nesting sites.

Lesser whistling teal

Siberian Rubythroat

Squirrel

Darter

Darter

Glossy Ibis

Saras Crane

Hoppoe -anting behaviour

A Hoopoe was seen on the lawn in the gardens with crest open, wings spread and allowing the ants to bite it, and release acid which acts as disinfectant.

Black Necked Stork - female

Little Grebe

We left Bharatpur with sinking heart, with plans to return again in next season, anybody will agree that one can not see so many of species and and so many in quantity anywhere in India. We reached Jaipur late in the night and waited for next day to bird at Sambar Lake,

Day 4: May 5, 2013 : Around Jaipur 

As we travelled towards Sambar Lake, we already had started missing the bird density effect of Bharatpur.  It was getting very hot and birds were few in sight. We could come across small ponds in and around villages. Where we could see some waders.

Pied Avocet

Pied Avocet

We pushed ourselves birding under the scorching sun. There were *Small pratincoles*, various waders  and a flock of *Great White Pelicans* at the distance end of the Naliyasar lake.

Garganey duck

Great white pelicans

Long legged Buzzard.

There were few sightings at Sambar Lake and we decided to have return migration.

Can't have enough of this Orange Eye Candy bird...Such a wonderful creation.

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Equipments used for Photography : Nikon D200 SLRl, Nikon D50 SLR, 18-55 lens, 300mm f2.8 VR II lens+1.7x tc.

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| श्री कृष्णार्पणमस्तु  |

Amaltas

Amaltas or Casia fistula appears a simple tree untill the spring arrives, heat rises in atmosphere, then this tree opens up its treasure for display, long showers of bright yellow delicate flowers cover the tree completely. Tree becomes leafless laden with thousands of its beautiful flowers. This is quite common tree, many times seen along roadsides away from cities. Due to its ornamental value it is there in our gardens at my residential colony. I am sharing some of its beautiful views captured on camera. 

 

Tal-Chapar Wonderlife sanctuary

The word "Tal" means the flat saline depression, an unique element of the Thar desert landscape. The Tal-Chapar Sanctuary came into limelight due to the sightings of rare birds like Yellow Eyed Pegions, Stolickza's Bushchat, Spotted Creeper and many more that visit this "Wonderland" during their normal course of migration into the country. Surely this is birding paradise through out the year despite the harsh climate. 

Nature India trip for Tal-chapar was announced and luckily I could reserve my participation. Leaders of the team, Adesh and Mandar, with their best skills and experience made it successful for all members participating. Personally I could get six lifers from the trip namely -

**Spotted Creeper

**Yellow Eyed Pegion

**Stolikza’s Bushchat

**Long Billed Pipit

**Rufous fronted Prinia 

**Isabelline shrike.

Grasslands of Tal-chapar

We reached Jaipur station on 13^th October, early morning and were waiting outside station for getting our luggage loaded on the vehicles. Birding started right there and on the tree in front of us, *Indian hornbill showed up. On the treetops of the ficus trees around the crowded station area perched were *Yellow footed green pigeons and pied starlings.

We moved on the highway NH-8 and to Naliasar Lake. Our destination was to reach Sujangarh (10 Kms from Tal-Chapar Sanctuary) till evening. The distance we were supposed to cover was around 300 Kms. It took full day to cover the road because of the spectacular birding on the way. 

Black-winged stilts

Highlights of the day included *Europian roller, *Blue-Cheeked bee-eaters seen in large number perched on overhead wires and hunting near the waterbody, *Painted snipe female giving beautiful views, Variety of waders seen gathering as the season of wintering in India have been started.

Tern hunting

Blue Cheeked Bee-eaters

Painted Snipe

Painted Grasshopper

In-spite of the tremendous heat, nobody gave up birding and ticked every bird visible while on the move. We have had good breakfast in the morning and we didn’t realise that evening closed in as we touched the state highway around 4 pm. We had late lunch but till that time much of birding appetite was satisfied. Of course this was not the main course of the menu which was waiting to be relished at Tal-Chapar.

We stayed at Sujangarh and early morning next day we found ourselves gathered around a small tea vendor, who opened his shop  at 6 o’clock, making the special masala chai. Quickly we moved towards Tal-Chapar. On the way a *Long legged buzzard made us to stop and have good views. Few *scavenger vultures had already started their search for food. Adesh informed us that huge number of *white eyed buzzards come to the area for breeding and juveniles are seen in good numbers, but we could see only few of them, only two or three during the whole trip, possibly the juveniles spread out and left the area.  The first striking thing as soon as we entered the Tal-Chapar, was the number of backbucks seen literally on the fences and of the fences, jumping, moving in groups spread over the grass land. 

The grass has been little green and tall as the effects of rains persisted. This makes little difficult sighting the Larks and ground dwellers. Entering upon and while scouting on the paths available, we could come across the key species such as *Laggar falcon, *Egyptian  Vultures, *Red necked falcon, flocks of *Greater short-toed larks, *Long billed pipts, *Domessile cranes flying overhead, *Isabelline shrike, *Grey shrike, *Common Kestrel, *Bluethroat, *Montague’s Harrier and *Eurasian Marsh Harrier.

Montagu's Harrier

Bullet flight - Laggar Falcon

Laggar falcon - juvenile

Laggar Falcon - Adult

Afternoon was spent outside the sanctuary area looking out for the reptiles, spiny tailed lizards which were in great numbers. A desert fox was seen fleeting away. These beautiful reptiles are main source of food for the raptors and we could see *booted eagles, Egyptian vultures and Laggar falcons circling over to hunt. There were good number of “Khijadi” trees around which is prime habitat for *Spotted Creeper. Spotted creeper was later spotted picking up bugs and insects from crevices of tree trunks without bothering being surrounded by shutterbugs. Photographers were seen bumping themselves as well as bumping the camera ISO to capture the fleeting hyper active bird called spotted creeper which unlike other creepers had a strong tail and held it away from tree trunk, pushing all its weight on strong claws to cling on the tree. It flew off with melodious call.

Spotted Creeper

Spotted owlets

Scavenger Vullture

Spiny Tailed Lizard

Blackbucks

Evening was reserved for Yellow eyed pigeons which visit sanctuary area for roosting. The safari in the grassland now seemed more delightful as the golden sunrays spread across. One pigeon came and sat on dry branch alongside a collared dove. That was the yellow eyed pigeon, or eastern stock pigeon. Many of them came with falling light. The distinct ID features being explained by experts were quickly appreciated by team.

Yet another night we survived at the international hotel and same tea stall in the morning was crowded by us. Morning stroll at the grasslands gave similar sightings of the earlier morning with not less but more opportunities to watch and appreciate the beauty of the abode of avian variety, reptiles and other lesser fauna. We came across a Red Sand Boa snake, monitor lizard crossing the pathway.

Blacbuck fawn

Indian Roller

Common Hoppoe

In the afternoon we went towards north away from park along highway at a recorded nesting site for Northern Raven. We had no luck to see it but saw white eyed buzzards from close distance. A small water pond in a village on the way was teaming with herons and waders including a small pratincole. 

White eyed Buzzard - Juvenile

Small Pratincole

White Eyed Buzzard - Adult

Evening we spent outside sanctuary near salt pans to find *Stolickza’s bushchat. Photographers devoured this unique opportunity. Stolickza’s bushchat is another mysterious bird as explained by Adesh, as its breeding behaviour and details of local movements is less documented/observed.

Stolikza's Bushchat

We did our best to spend the last available time at Tal-chapar and were rewarded with sighting of desert fox running over the hills.

Next day early morning we left International hotel, towards Ajmer to catch up evening train. On the way while one of the vehicle encountered a minor problem, we all remained halted at a small village called Daulatpur. We just casually walked and found number of “Khijadi” trees, a suitable habitat for spotted creeper. And Sandeep Dhumal spotted the Spotted Creeper with ease. It was a big surprise for us, but in the view of expert, Adesh, there is fair chance to spot it in the adjoining area where ever the habitat exists. 

Spotted Creeper

We reached Ajmer around 12 o’clock. In the middle of the day, in scorching heat we tried to bird around Ajmer. *Eurasian eagle owl was the unexpected sighting.

Eurasian Eagle Owl 

Paddyfield Warbler

Rajasthan may appear as synonym for deserts and ruthless, merciless rule of sun overhead, however in these harsh deserts gentle human beings also dwell, and their hearts are filled with love for all life forms. Birds, Animals are not harmed by these people, as they better know the value of life and survival in the conditions available. Still it is difficult to understand how such kind and humble attitude was established in society and is still being continued. Birds that we saw were tame and did not fear of human beings..this was surprising..  

Rang Rangilo Rajasthan...!

In the uninteresting dry landscapes what catches one's eye is the colorful attire of the common people...Where on earth one can find such blast of colors...India it is.

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Equipments used for Photography : Nikon D200 SLRl, Nikon D50 SLR, 18-55 lens, 300mm f2.8 VR II lens+1.7x tc.

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| श्री कृष्णार्पणमस्तु  |

flamingo

Expanse of Flamingos gathered at Shiwdi Jetty, Mumbai in 2006. 

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