29 March 14 - Indian Owl Fest

I've just completed writing the last post for the Indian trip which visited Calcutta, the Andamans, the Western Ghats, Gujarat & Rajasthan. Out of the 420 species of birds seen, I managed to photograph 342 species (over 81% of species seen). However, to spin these photos out a bit further, I've decided to pull together some posts on particular themes. So here is the first of them on the Owls seen on the trip. On the trip I managed to see 11 or 12 species of Owl depending on taxonomy & all species seen were photographed. On the Andamans, I saw Orintal (Walden's) Scops Owl which Clements currently lumps as a subspecies of Oriental Scops Owl, but Rasmussen splits. I can't tick it at the moment as I also saw Oriental Scops Owl in the Western Ghats & I keep to a Clements taxonomy for simplicity.

I can't tick this Owl at Periyar

India is a great country for seeing Owls & seeing them well. In most countries, Owls are something you look for at night & we did see several species after dark. However, due to the large game animals & the number of sites I visited which are Tiger reserves, then looking for Owls after dark is often not possible (the Andamans being the main exception on my trip). But the result is the local Indian guides have become good at finding Owls in daytime roosts, where with care, you can get some good photos & more importantly not disturb the Owls. I'll leave you to enjoy the Owls.

Andaman Scops Owl: Jirgatna, Andamans (23 Dec 13)

Indian Scops Owl: Nominate subspecies bakkamoena, Thattekad, Western Ghats (5 Jan 14)

Indian Scops Owl: Subspecies gangeticus, Bharatpur, Rajasthan (28 Jan 14)

Bruce's Scops Owl: Desert Coursers, Gujarat (14 Jan 14)

Oriental Scops Owl: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (2 Jan 14)

Oriental Scops Owl: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (2 Jan 14) 

Oriental (Walden's) Scops Owl: Chiriya Tapu, Andamans (24 Dec 13)

Rock Eagle Owl: Jungle Hut, Western Ghats (29 Dec 13) 

Rock Eagle Owl: CEDO, Gujarat (19 Jan 14)

Dusky Horned Owl: Bharatpur, Rajasthan (28 Jan 14)

Brown Fish Owl: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (2 Jan 14)

Jungle Owlet: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (1 Jan 14)

Jungle Owlet: Parambikulam, Western Ghats (2 Jan 14)

Spotted Owlet: Subspecies brama, Jungle Hut, Western Ghats (29 Dec 13)

Spotted Owlet: Subspecies indica, Desert Coursers, Gujarat Ghats (14 Jan 14)

Andaman Boobook: Chiriya Tapu, Andamans (22 Dec 13)

Hume's Boobook: Chiriya Tapu, Andamans (22 Dec 13)

28 Jan 14 - The Day Of The Jackal

After yesterday's Big Foot day around Bharatpur I had a leisurely second & final morning. An all too brief visit to this excellent area, but the time for the flight home was getting all too close. This time I opted for the rickshaw approach for the morning as I needed to be back for an afternoon taxi to Delhi. This wasn't purely a lazy approach (although it partially was), but it was designed to get me to maximise the time in the main wetland area as well as hopefully to see some more Owls. The rickshaw drivers have a good idea of some of the stakeouts for the local Owls & Nightjars. In 91, I remember seeing 2 or 3 Nightjars roosting in trees along the main track, but this year there were none staked out. However, there were staked out Owls so some more chance to indulge in Owl photos.

Indian Scops Owl: The pair near the small temple

Dusky Horned Owl: This species is slightly bigger than Rock Eagle Owl. It is something I was hoping to see again & Bharatpur remains the only site where I've seen it

Dusky Horned Owl: The nest isn't close, but that's probably a good thing given the large numbers of Indian photographers who seemed to be milling around Bharatpur with big camera lenses, but little apparent knowledge of the birds they were photographing

There were a number of other species seen today, that had been missed on the Big Foot day as well as many species that were seen again.

White Pelican

Grey Heron

Night Heron: Enjoying a sleep

Black Bittern: Skulking in the water's edge vegetation alongside the track

Painted Stork

Black-necked Stork

Oriental White Ibis: With a Spoonbill for company

Spoonbill: The immatures have black wing tips

Lesser Whistling-duck

Shoveler

Ferruginous Duck: The male has a pale yellow eye & bluer bill, compared to the dark eye & darker bill of the female

Marsh Harrier: Female

Bronze-winged Jacana: Unfortunately, the only one I saw on the trip & it wasn't close

Ring-necked Parakeet

Rufous-tailed Flycatcher

Bluethroat: Female

Bluethroat: Female

Monitor Lizard

Fish: This was about 18 inches long

As hinted at in the blog title, some photos of the Bharatput Jackals.

Jackal: 4 Jackals were chasing each other around so I'm assuming it was a territorial dispute

Jackal