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 :)