Cock of the Rock: Chris Mills

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Saturday, January 7, 2017

Birding Northern India. Bharatpur Pt. 2

Bharatpur is primarily a wetland: ' Keoladeo Ghana National Park is a man-made and man-managed wetland and one of the national parks of India. The reserve protects Bharatpur from frequent floods, provides grazing grounds for village cattle, and earlier was primarily used as a waterfowl hunting ground.' As such it is the birds that favour wetland habitat that make this national park so famous and valuable. Indian Darter, Little Cormorant, Indian Cormorant and Great Cormorant are all present in abundance and easy to locate. As are Little, Intermediate and Great White Egrets. Grey Heron and Purple Heron are both common and so too is Indian Pond Heron. We also had regular views of Black-crowned Night Heron and Striated Heron.

Black Bittern Ixobrychus flavicollis

Grey Heron - Pulling shapes - Ardea cinerea

Indian Cormorant - Phalacrocorax fuscicollis

Indian Pond Heron Ardeola grayii

Intermediate Egret Mesophoyx intermedia

Little Cormorant Phalacrocorax niger

Little Egret Egretta garzetta

Purple Heron Ardea purpurea

Striated or Little Heron Butorides striata

The singular most impressive sight is the Painted Stork rookery. Pairs of these birds are to be seen raising young in huge rookeries containing numerous pairs. Photo opportunities abound and had it been in the days of analogue film I would have had to keep a count of the rolls of film used as it is so easy to just keep firing the shutter. Isn't digital brilliant!

Painted Stork Mycteria leucocephala One of about half a million photos I took of this species.

Other storks seen on the reserve were Asian Openbill, Woolly-necked Stork and Black-necked Stork.
As to be expected there was a good variety of duck although the expected Wigeon were strangely absent. The most abundant duck was the Indian Spot-billed Duck and I was pleased with this as it is a beautiful duck...I think!

Indian Spot-billed Duck Anas poecilorhyncha

Asian Openbill Anastomus oscitans

Eurasian Spoonbill Platalea alba

Lesser Whistling Duck were present in big numbers, Ruddy Shelduck, Common Teal, Ferruginous Duck, Greylag and Bar-headed Goose, Cotton Pygmy Goose, Comb Duck, Gadwall, Pintail and Shoveler made up the remainder of the wildfowl species.

Lesser Whistling Duck Dendrocygna javanica

Ruddy Shelduck Tadorna ferruginea (On Golden Pond!)

At the end of the first day in Bharatpur we were treated to a spectacular sunset and an Indian Darter posing on a suitable stump.

Indian Darter Anhinga melanogaster and Bharatpur sunset.

I could not recommend a visit to Bhatatpur strongly enough. And of course if you're thinking of going then you should book a trip with Norfolk Birding and Chris Mills. Loads of eco-tourist companies run trips here but Chris gives real good value for money and there are the other sites that we visited that Chris knows well. Not to mention the tigers! More of which later!

Birding Northern India. Pt 1.

About a month before Christmas we had a birding holiday in parts of northern India. We travelled with Chris Mills of Norfolk Birding. Chris runs a guided trip to northern India each year and as a result he knows his way around! The trip adverts say that there is a good chance of seeing around 300 species of bird and a reasonable chance of seeing a tiger in Corbett N.P. I was up for both of these targets and I was not to be disappointed. By the end of the trip I had notched up 311 species and had great views of two tigers. Chris himself clocked up three tiger sightings during the three and a half days we were in Corbett. When you consider that most people who visit either fail to see a tiger or count themselves very lucky to see a single animal then three in just over three days has to be special!
As well as trying to amass over three hundred species I was also keen to see Ibisbill and Wallcreeper. Two iconic species that have eluded me in the past (hardly surprising as I had never been anywhere suitable to look for them, both are real rarities in Notts.). Chris was confident that we would see both species and he was not wrong. Some great views of three Ibisbill (or bills) and stunning photo opportunities of Wallcreeper were to follow. But I get ahead of myself.
After arriving in Delhi we were transferred to our hotel and early the next morning the birding began in the grounds of the hotel before breakfast. As is always the case on a first visit to a new country most of the birds tend to be 'lifers' and take a bit of identifying as well as remembering but with Chris on hand we notched-up: Common Tailorbird, Jungle Babbler, Common Myna, Indian Peafowl, Coppersmith Barbet, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Little Swift, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Black Kite, House Crow, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, Oriental Magpie Robin, Red-vented Bulbul, Oriental White-eye, Lesser Whitethroat, Greenish Warbler and Purple Sunbird then curry for breakfast.
To be honest it was difficult to know where to look.

Coppersmith Barbet Megalaima haemacephala

Common Myna Acridotheres tristis

House Crow Corvus splendens

Indian Peafowl Pavo cristatus

Jungle Babbler Turdoides striatus

Oriental White-eye Zosterops ceylonensis

As it turned out we were to see plenty of most of these species during the next two weeks.
After my first ever curried breakfast we were rickshawed into the Keoladeo National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site...better known amongst birders as simply Bharatpur. Most every birder has heard of Bharatpur; read of Bharatpur; dreamed of going to Bharatpur or has already been and is planning on going again. Nothing can prepare you for the diversity and numbers of birds to be found inside this national park. If the weather conditions have been right! We had two and a half days of superb birding in the park and we clocked up over 140 species. It's not the numbers and diversity however, it's the crippling views you get of many of the birds that impresses most. To be quite honest I could have spent all of the trip bimbling about in the park, taking photos and mumbling to myself. We had terrific rickshaw drivers (peddlers?) and guides who had the lowdown on just about everything to look for. Where to find Indian Nightjar snoozing on a branch in the middle of a lake; where to see a Rock Python snoozing in dense undergrowth; where to see Oriental Scops Owl snoozing in a hole in a tree...you get the picture.