India 2019 - Bharatpur pt1

27th January 2019

Plane into Delhi 30mins early but immigration very slow and chaotic taking over an hour to get through but eventually we got through to meet our taxi driver in arrivals and onto our overnight hotel. Hotel was good and we added a few species to the list over breakfast before the taxi arrived and we set off for Bharatpur.

A stop at a random roadside pool for some black winged stilts also produced several citrine wagtails and an Indian pond heron. A better stop on the side of the motorway was great with a large flock of wildfowl, 10 greater flamingos, river tern and a family group of 5 sarus cranes. A smart oriental honey buzzard went over at our lunch stop.

Citrine wagtail

We arrived at the Birders Inn, Bharatpur mid-afternoon and spent the time relaxing after the long journey before meeting our guide Bijendra to plan out the next few days.

28th January 2019

Main track leading into Bharatpur reserve

First morning in the park after a rather chilly rickshaw ride from the hotel. Birding started straightaway with a mixed flock of babblers (yellow eyed & jungle) moving the bushes and a wryneck was a nice surprise. Most of the morning was spent walking up the main central track and making detours into the bush either side and then heading out the east side of the park in search for flycatchers and thrushes. A search around the edge of a pond produced good views of red breasted flycatcher, bluethroat, grey headed canary-flycatcher and several oriental magpie robins and the first of many Blyth’s reed warblers. The smell from two dead cows wasn’t quite so nice!

Grey headed canary flycatcher

Oriental magpie robin (female top, male below)

Red breasted flycatcher

Bijendra picked up a Tickell’s thrush (I never heard it) and after a bit of searching we had decent views of a female feeding in the dense undergrowth. Walking around the tracks was good and we eventually caught up with an orange headed ground-thrush, a species that I really wanted to see as these were the nominate race that have the all-orange head. I had seen the species before in Goa but they didn’t have orange head just two dark stripes. I was happy J

We also several more bluethroats, citrine wagtail, a nice black-rumped flameback woodpecker and confiding views of both Rhesus macaque and spotted deer.

Black rumped flameback

Rhesus macaque

The highlight of the morning though was six golden jackal crossing the road while we were stopped for a cup of tea.

Golden jackal

Species added in the morning included chestnut shouldered petronia, grey francolin, spotted owlet, shikra and purple sunbird

After lunch we headed deeper into the park and towards the wetter areas but stopped of briefly to see if any Indian rock pythons had come out of the burrows now the temperature has warmed up. One was present but thankfully docile and at arm’s length!

The sheer variety of waterbirds was impressive with large numbers of duck, geese, herons and egrets everywhere.

We walked along the main track then headed out the east of the park where there were less people. The afternoon highlights included several Eastern imperial eagles including superb views of one sub-adult bird perched up close and then doing a nice flyby. 

Eastern imperial eagle

A greater spotted eagle on a grey heron kill (we don’t actually know if it killed it but we did see it hunting the area) was an impressive sight and we ended our first day with a black bittern at dusk on the way back to the hotel.

Other highlights included 50+ white tailed plover, spot billed duck, wire tailed swallow, great white & Dalmatian pelicans, booted eagle, bronzed winged jacana, plain martin, pigmy cotton goose and bay backed shrike

Spot billed duck

White pelican


29th January 2019

Morning spent around the western side of the park after trying for the Siberian rubythroat that had been seen the day before but had no luck. Most species were the same as we’d already seen but we did manage to add 11 new ones for the trip including knob-billed duck, pochard, moustached warbler and sparrowhawk mainly around the wet pools along with another pair of spotted owlets. The damp edges to the path on our walk round were excellent for bluethroats with at least 16 seen. Many of them were very mobile but with a bit of stalking they did show well.

Bluethroat

The dry forest habitat looked very similar to the parks in Sri Lanka with lots of dry grassland with patches of trees and scrub but no leopards. A small flock of Indian silverbill and a male yellow-crowned woodpecker were seen along with a very manky looking jackal.
Raptors were good with 6 species of eagle including a close steppe eagle overhead.

Other morning highlights included 5 red avadavat, Bonelli’s eagle, OBP and large grey babbler.

Steppe eagle

We managed to get to the middle of the reserve this afternoon, 6km from the entrance gates, and it was well worth it. Started off with a crested serpent eagle and then the guide put the scope onto a tree where a dusky eagle owl was sat on a nest! A very impressive bird indeed. He then proceeded to find its off duty mate close buy and a further 2 adults further up the track. Completely not the habitat I was expecting to see them in and never that well. 

Dusky eagle owl

We had good views of smoky warbler which our guide was intent on me getting a photo of but it was far too dark and skulking to get anything at all. A lovely juv black winged kite was further up the path along with a couple of siberian stonechats and a black necked stork out on the marsh. We ended the day with a couple of roosting Indian scops owls. Trip list up to 147 species