16 Jan 14 - The Grey & Brown Of Gujarat

This is my homage to the classic Sawdoctors song 'The Green and Red of Mayo'. We headed out with our Indian jeep mates again this morning, but Bill & myself were dropped off for a few hours to look for Stoliczka's Bushchat. This scarce regional endemic species is only found in a small area in Afghanistan, Pakistan & the arid NW of India. To make life harder, there is nowhere in India where it's common & it could easily be overlooked as one of the much commoner Siberian Stonechats if not looked at carefully. The area we visited was a local lake with arable edges as Stoliczka's Bushchats like weedy edges to arable land as well as grasslands in arid areas. Bill had seen this species here in at least once during previous visits. Unfortunately, no joy after a couple of hours of searching. Initally, we were birding along the edge of these arable fields & grasslands.

We were held up by the local rush hour before we got to the lake

Indian Grey Francolin: A fairly common bird in arid scrubland

Ashy-crowned Finchlark: Male. This is the common Finchlark in Gujarat & good numbers were seen each day

Ashy-crowned Finchlark: Female

Pied Wagtail: Trying to sort out the subspecies on wintering grounds is probably not possible, but dukhunensis or personata are the expected subspecies in this part of India

White-eared Bulbul

Pied Bushchat: Male

Eastern Pied Wheatear: Female (or immature male)

Desert Wheatear: The commonest Wheatear in the Little Rann of Kutch

Daurian Shrike

Bill: Checking the finer separation features of Grey Bird from Brown Bird in the Inskipp guide

One of the local cattle: They are pretty impressive animals when seen close up. Fortunately, they were also fairly docile

There was a good opportunity to have a good look at & get some photos of a couple of confusing Pipit species, Tawny Pipit & Paddyfield Pipit, which were in the same field.

Tawny Pipit: This photo shows the long legged, long appearance & upright stance as well as the overall pale, relatively unstreaked appearance of Tawny Pipit

Tawny Pipit: Showing the fine dark lores, malar & moustachial stripes

Tawny Pipit: Another view of the pale bill, facial pattern & general appearance 

Tawny Pipit: Showing the well marked median coverts

Tawny Pipit: This is a winter visitor to India & is the nominate campestris subspecies (the same as the European subspecies) 

Tawny Pipit: A different individual to the above Tawny Pipit photos

Paddyfield Pipit: Although the same size as Tawny Pipit, it looks smaller, more compact, shorter tailed & shorter-legged than Tawny Pipit

Paddyfield Pipit: This is the waitei subspecies which is paler than the rufulus & malayensis races in the rest of the Subcontinent

Paddyfield Pipit: Showing the more uniformly patterned converts, streaky crown, weaker bill compared to Tawny Pipit

Paddyfield Pipit: The whitish throat & belly help separate this species from the buffier Blyth's Pipit. This photo also shows the weak eyestripe, malar & Moustachial stripes

Eventually, we moved across to look at the lake edge & nearby scattered bushes. There were a good selection of species on the lake and around the lake edge. Unfortunately, there was a lot of glare as we were looking into the light.

White Pelican: As far as I can see they are all White Pelicans in this flock

White Pelican: This party flew over as it warmed up

Glossy Ibis

Crane: Adult

Crane: Immature

Red-wattled Plover

Black-tailed Godwit

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: Two females enjoying a drink

Sykes's Warbler: The main features of this species to my eyes is it is a cross between a small Acrocephalus and Phylloscopus Warbler. The pale colouration, pale supercilium mainly up to the eye, but fading out behind the eye, lack of a dark eye line & pale lower mandible

After a long day in the field yesterday, it was an early return for lunch today. On the way back, there was a Black-winged Kite on the wires. Checking it, it turned out to be a sub-adult bird which was even better looking than the adults.

Black-winged Kite: Sub-adult

A local farmer's field on the way back to Desert Coursers

It's a pretty basic way of live 

15 Jan 14 - A New Nightjar To Celebrate The 50th Post

Well that didn't take very long to get to the 50th post (with the first only being on the 24th October last year). Hope you've enjoyed the blog so far as much as I have.

As we started out for the afternoon we got caught up in a local traffic jam trying to get onto the road

A local lady showing how easy it was to balance things on her head

After some lunch we were back out for the afternoon, but taking some warmer clothing as we were staying out late to look for Nightjars & nocturnal mammals. We visited a larger, but mainly dried up lake this afternoon. It's always worth keeping an eye on the wires on the way to & from the lakes. This afternoon a few stops were made for a very approachable Black-winged Kite, a Smyrna Kingfisher, a Bay-backed Shrike & more bizarrely, a Green Sandpiper. The advantage of having an open topped jeep was it allowing rapid photography whichever side the bird is on.

Woolly-necked Stork: Sitting tamely in a dry stream bed as the road crossed over it

Black-winged Kite

Green Sandpiper

Smyrna Kingfisher: This is the nominate smyrnensis subspecies which extends to the Western Palearctic & Arabian Peninsula

Bay-backed Shrike: The broad face patch extending onto the forehead & bright mantle are the main separating features of this cracking Shrike

Finally, we reached the Little Rann of Kutch reserve & handed over our permit. Permits are needed to enter the reserve & need to be obtained on a visit by visit basis. Once in the reserve we had a much larger open dry area to explore & very quickly we encountered our first Wild Ass. This excellent looking mammal is one of the highlights of the Little Rann of Kutch reserve & the reserve is its stronghold in India. The first one we saw was standing near to some bushes & ended up walking closer to us to get to the clear ground on the far side of the jeep. Clearly, it was uneasy being hemmed in between the bushes & our jeep. We ended up seeing about 10 before the end of the day.

Wild Ass: This one approached the jeep to get to the clear ground behind us & almost got a bit too close for photography as this uncropped photo demonstrated

Wild Ass: Another individual just chilling

Will Ass: Interesting to see a similar dark marking on the foreleg so perhaps closely related to the first Wild Ass

A lot of this area must seasonally flood given the amount of bare mud

While we saw some birds in the more open areas, the number of species were much lower than in the morning as there was no water & we mainly kept away from the bushes.

Montagu's Harrier: Male. The Harriers roost in the open areas of the Little Rann

Indian Grey Francolin

Pied Bushchat: Male

As it got later into the afternoon, we started to encounter parties of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse flying in & finally settling on the ground. I never tire of seeing Sandgrouse which are one of my favourite families. I've seen all, but three of them (only Tibetan & a couple of Southern African species still to see).

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: Great to see parties flying around

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: In flight, the black primaries with white trailing edge on the upperwing & the dark underwings rule out the other Sandgrouse in range

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: Here are the dark underwings. The males have the clear pale grey-buff breasts & buffy throats & the females have the spotty breasts

Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse: Male

At last light, we arrived at a small local hut where the locals live on the Little Rann & make a living from salt production. Seems a very hard, poor & basic existence & it must be even tougher as the heat increases into the Summer. The others enjoyed some masala tea (where the tea, milk & sugar are all boiled together for ages) which I personally can't stand while we waited for the last bit of light to go.

Birding was from the open jeep: I preferred the back seat as it was easier to jump up & photograph over the other's heads or get in & out quickly

Near to sunset

Close up

The salt production lakes: They pump the saline water in & then allow the heat to evaporate the water to leave the salt

A local salt production hut: There were about 8 in the family who were living here

Finally, the moon was up & it was time for some spotlighting

After driving & spotlighting for a while, the driver found some eyeshine. It was a Sykes's Nightjar which is a Gujarat speciality. These small, pale Nightjars winter in Gujarat, before returning to Pakistan to breed. It was the only regularly occurring Nightjar on the Indian list that I hadn't seen before (somewhere in the world). I quickly jumped off the back of the jeep & walked towards it (keeping out of the headlights & spotlight so it wouldn't see me) to get some extra photos.

Sykes's Nightjar: One of my main reasons for visiting Gujarat

 Sykes's Nightjar: They are fairly common & we saw several more roosting during the day on the 17th, but they flew everytime they saw the camera raised

Indian Stone-curlew: This was the only other species we saw in a couple of hours of spotlighting