India 2019 - Bharatpur pt2

30^th January 2019

Change of scenery today as we headed out into the surrounding farmland to look for Indian courser. I wasn’t quite expecting our first site to be where they were building a new university but after a short wait they let us onto the building site! Certainly wouldn’t have happened in the UK.

University building site!

Mustard fields

The place was alive with birds. A very mobile and flighty flock of 500-1000 short toed larks were feeding in the grounds along with ashy-crowned lark-sparrow, desert and isabelline wheatears and a very confiding Indian roller that allowed close approach as it warmed up in the morning sun. A large lark seen in the main flock turned out to be a surprise bimaculated, a good bird for the area according to the fieldguide. Sadly it melted into the flock before we got any pics of it.

Desert wheatear

Isabelline wheatear

Indian roller

We searched the surrounding fields for a couple of hours but sadly the crop had grown. All of the mustard was now too high with very little open ground which meant we dipped on the coursers. We did manage to add a few new species to the list including red collared dove, Indian busklark, isabelline shrike, paddyfield & tawny pipits and yellow-wattled lapwing.

Indian bushlark

Isabelline shrike

A random check of some wet areas on the edge of town for painted snipe failed to locate any but we did get a bonus marsh sandpiper, pheasant-tailed jacana and superb views of a pair of displaying red-wattled lapwings.

Red-wattled lapwing

The afternoon was spent in the NE section of the park including some more of the dry grassland areas. A pair of roosting Indian stone curlews were very confiding and showed well in the long grass. Mallard, Asian openbill and Indian golden oriole were added to the trip list before we had another look at the dusky eagle owls. Although the dusk light was poor the birds were showing much better further out in the open. It was also pretty smart to hear them calling; a rather haunting sound in the half light.

Indian stone curlew

Just as we thought we’d finished for the day a male barred buttonquail crossed the track in front of us followed by another jackal a little further on. A good day taking the list onto 170 species.

31^st January 2019

Last morning in the park and we headed for the tower at the central point overlooking the large area of wetland. The light wasn’t the best, grey and hazy, but the sheer number of birds was impressive. Pintail, garganey, coot and grey-headed gallinules were everywhere and numbered into the 100’s for each species. Both Eastern imperial and greater spotted eagles were roosting in the surrounding trees and several marsh harriers kept flushing the waterfowl including 10 lesser whistling-ducks. A small group of streak throated swallows were feeding with a flock of barn swallow.

A final look for flycatchers and thrushes was well worthwhile as we had much better views of orange-headed ground-thrush out in the open. That was pretty much the end of the morning and we headed back to the hotel and said our farewells to our guide and rickshaw driver.

Bijendra was an excellent guide. His knowledge of the birds, the park, general wildlife and history was fantastic and he looked after us well at all times. The rickshaw driver was great too especially having to carry us about the park for 3 days!

The park was amazing, so many birds and such good views. Although it was busy at times it was easy to get away from people in the quieter parts of the park. Definitely recommended to any birder and/or photographer to add to their list of places to visit.

One of many the confiding bluethroats

Brahiminy starling

Dalmation pelican

Greater spotted eagle

Indian pond heron

Intermediate egret

Nilgai

Purple heron

Sarus cranes

White cheeked bulbul

White tailed plover

Yellow footed green pigeon

Ended the first leg of our trip on 173 species.

A long journey back to Delhi included a couple of stops by the taxi driver to look for birds. One included a 6-lane motorway and one added a new species in the form of a white browed wagtail. As we were early into Delhi the taxi driver showed us some of the sights in the city. We were able to walk to the India Gate and drove past the parliament buildings all lit up following a recent festival. We eventually made it through the crazy Delhi traffic and met Narendra at 7pm at the beautifully lit up Old Delhi station for our 10:30pm train to Ramnagar….

India gate

Old Delhi station