Birds near Jaipur

There is a lake 30 kms from Jaipur ( Chandlai Lake)  beyond the airport which is relatively unknown to most birders. I researched a bit on the net and visited the place for a few hours in Jan,2014.

We started at 6 AM . Our driver did not know the place and we had to guide him thanks to Google Maps. Soon we realized there was heavy fog and whatever little hope of birding in an unknown territory was about to vanish. We had a few cups of chai at a Dhaba while waiting for the fog to clear before finally making it to Chandlai lake.

When we reached the lake I could see a lot of initial promise with a flock of Black winged stilts welcoming us next to the road.

Rajasthan is known for its Babool trees and here is an Intermediate Egret sitting on a Babool tree.

A purple swamphen  added some colour to the gloomy morning

The locals were quite surprised seeing Birders with large lenses and a lot of honking followed. We realized we were in the catchment area of the lake and we climbed a ridge  to get to the lake which was huge.

The place, to our amazement, turned out to be a Birder's paradise and we saw hundreds of ducks ( Northern Pintail, Mallard, Spot billed) to name a few besides a lot of waders. Tried to capture a few shots here.

Common sandpiper

Black winged stilt against a relatively still lake

A black tailed Godwit ( Lifer for me) 

A yellow wagtail 

There were River terns fishing and though the light conditions were bad I tried to shoot them ideally with a fish in their mouth coming out of the water. Either my timing or their fishing skills were poor.  I only managed to get a few shots in and out of water.

Towards thye rear end there were hundreds of ducks. One Northern Pintail flew over us.

Bar headed Geese were feeding at the lake bed.

Rudy Shelducks

Pied Avocet

Common Moorhen

Grey Heron

Little grebe

Laughing Dove

Ruff ( another lifer for me)

There is an advantage of bad light ...you can develop a few Black and White photos and look good. But if they are a group of Pied Avocets it doesn't really matter :)

Birding in Goa

We were in Goa for our Christmas vacation. While we spent most of our time at the beach and with the kids, I managed to sneak out some time for a half day birding trip to Bondla. I went with Rahul Alvarez, who is a Herpetologist turned Ornithologist.

The main objective was to get a good shot of the Malabar Trogon. My earlier attempt in Thekkady was in poor light.

We started at 6:00 from the Club Mahindra resort in Varca and reached Bodla around 7:30. The first spot that we visited near a temple was full of activity and a few Birding tourists were also there. We saw from a very far distance the White browed Bulbul, Yellow browed Bulbul besides the red vented and the red whiskered ones. Also we saw Purple rumped sunbirds, Plum headed Parakeet




Baya Weavers


and Jungle Babblers



We then moved to the main road on the way to Bondla Zoo and stopped a couple of times.

We saw the Malabar white headed starling ( Lifer)


and Rahul alerted us of the sound of Asian Fairy bluebird. After a bit of patient waiting we were soon rewarded with the magnificent view of this bird. Another Lifer.



Things were getting interesting and hopes were rising. In between I saw Common Ioras, Spangled Drongo, Leafbirds and Black hooded Oriole.



We then waited patiently at a spot where Rahul has seen the Malabar Trogon a few times. While waiting I shot a few Butterflies like the Tawny Coaster



and then Rahul alerted us of a sound of a bird. After a bit of waiting we saw the Black crested Bulbul ( Gularis) also referred to as the Ruby Throated bulbul.






It is a very colourful and is also the state bird of Goa. Another Lifer for me!! We waited for a while for the trogon but ran out of luck.

So while the search for the Trogon continues, it was a great half day birding with three lifers and a lot of fun. If you are a serious birder you can take the services of Rahul Alvarez while in Goa.

Finally we saw crocodiles near a lake on our way back....

Mostly Indian Birds - some of my favourites

Here is a sneak peek of some of the bird pictures from different regions of India. Usually these are shot during my vacations and occasionally some specific birding tours.

Great Indian Hornbill shot at the Periyar Wildlife sanctuary, Thekkady, Kerala.




Himalayan Bulbul at Sat Taal, Uttarakhand.




Oriental white eye, available across India. This one is from Dehradun, Uttarakhand.







Eurasian Griffon Vulture shot near Dhanolti, Uttarakhand.



Fire tailed sun bird shot at Pangot, Uttarakhand.



Common Kingfisher shot at a lake near Hyderabad.




Crested Serpent Eagle. This one is from the Gir Forest in Gujarat.



Brown Fish Owl shot at Saat Taal, Uttarakhand



Glossy Ibis shot at a lake near Hyderabad



Spangled Drongo shot at Kaziranga, Assam




Yellow eyed Babbler shot at Kabini National Park, Karnataka





Yellow footed Green pigeon shot at Kaziranga, Assam






Indian Roller, the state bird of Andhra Pradesh shot at Hyderabad




Bar winged Flycatcher Shrike shot at Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu.





Black Shouldered Kite shot near Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.




Bar Headed Geese shot at a lake near Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh,




and our National bird in flight




If you are keen to see more interesting birds from different regions of India, select them from the right panel.

Happy viewing !!

Cheers,
Arijit

Birds of Uttarakhand

I had the privilege of going with a group of accomplished birders for the 2013 Great Himalayan Bird Count. in late Oct, 2013. I had participated in 2011 and had some great experiences in and around Dhanolti 

This time around we got the Yamunotri route. Besides the excitement to bird at a higher altitude, I was also curious to see the reconstruction efforts post the floods in June. Reconstruction activities were on and roads were accessible though broken in many places with tell tale signs of landslides everywhere. I also saw pretty widespread deforestation and a lot of construction activities for Hydel projects which are believed to be one of the causes for the huge calamity.

Our trip started at Dehradun, where had brief stay at the Geological survey guest house and we did a bit of birding around there. At Dehradun we saw the Dark sided flycatcher, Blue Bearded bee-eater,White throated fantail, Oriental White eye




Green Shank



White breasted Kingfisher



besides lots of Bulbuls, Treepies, Parakeets etc.

Our next stop was at Mailgar en route to Barkot. Near the riverbanks I had my first sighting of a crested kingfisher. We also saw the Plumbous  water red start




and the White-capped water Redstart which are very common across this region.



After a night's stay at Barkot we drove towards Jankichatti. Enroute we did some birding at Barkot, Mora, and Hanumanchatti.

A black kite



A grey bush chat calling..



Asian Barred owlet



Chestnut crowned laughing thrush



My first sighting of a Brown dipper



A black throated tit



Verditer Flycatcher



Bar tailed tree-creeper



Ultramarine Flycatcher (juvenile).



At Hanumanchatti we saw quite a few Himalayan and Eurasian Griffons









We stayed at Jankichatti for the night and started our trek to the Yamunotri Temple next day morning. Jankichatti is at 2650mtrs and Yamunotri Temple is at 3235 mts. The distance is around 6 Kms.

 On the way we saw the Rufous Gorgeted flycatcher



Streaked laughing thrush



Blue whistling thrush




Pink browed Rosefinch. The female (below)  is nowhere near to the beautifully coloured pink male !!



Lots of snow pigeons flying around.




Slaty blue flycatcher



Yellow browed Tit.




These were all lifers for me. We finally reached the Yamunotri Dham after a 6 hrs trek



Some of the uncommon species on the way back were the Red headed Bullfinch and the Golden Bush Robin




We saw over 100 species in three days with over 20 lifers for me.There are so many rare species of birds in Uttarkhand that I wonder if we can take a bit more care of the fragile environment, we can continue to see these rare species for generations to come.