27 Jan 14 - Bharatpur Big Foot

Two or three years ago, local birder Shaun Robson introduced Dorset birders to the concept of Big Foot Birding as it became known locally. The rules are simple: to see or hear as many species of birds in one day starting & finishing at your house & only walking. So no use of cars, bikes, buses or boats. As I was walking around Bharatpur, I was remembering the Big Foot idea & decided that as I was seeing a good selection of wetland & woodland birds that I would avoid the temptation of the rickshaw drivers & see how well I did with a Bharatpur Big Foot. So far the morning's walk from the entrance gate to the small temple & drinks stall had been good with a good selection of typical dry country bush species & lots of waterbirds. I had also had a look from both of the nearby tower hides. However, the main target for the day, Brooks's Warbler, was now in walking range. This likes to feed in the trees along the main track from the temple & drinks stall towards Python Point, which is the track on the map that runs alongside the Ghana canal. So now I had the chance to focus on adding more bush & tree species for the Big Foot list. 

Purple Heron

Purple Heron: Coming in to land

Oriental White Ibis: This is also known as Black-headed Ibis. There are also Spoonbill, Lesser Whistling-duck & a Garganey in the photo

Spoonbill

Lesser Whistling-duck: They are so graceful when they landing 

Lesser Whistling-duck

Knob-billed Duck: With a couple of Painted Storks. This is also known as Comb Duck

Tawny Eagle: Similar to Steppe Eagle, but this dark phase Tawny Eagle has darker wing coverts than the flight feathers, lacks the dark trailing edge to the wing, has a small pale flash on the inner primaries, has vaguely barred flight feathers & a dark tail band. The narrower wings & long tail rule out a Spotted Eagle

Bonelli's Eagle: Juvenile. This is identified by the bulking secondaries, dark primary tips, lack of a dark trailing edge to the wing & tail, narrow black band along the secondary coverts, paler inner primaries, compared to the darker (but not too dark) secondaries & buffy brown throat & upper breast

Rock Dove

Ring-necked Parakeet

Plain Prinia

Hume's Yellow-browed Warbler: This is the nominate humei subspecies

Hume's Yellow-browed Warbler

Oriental Magpie Robin

Bank Myna

Brahminy Myna

Three-striped Palm Squirrel: On the Northern edge of its range

Having walked the path once without any success with the Brooks's Warbler, I turned around to return to the temple area. I was almost as far back as the tower hide, when I heard its distinctive monosyllabic call. Fortunately, I quickly located the bird & managed to confirm the identification & get some photos of this subtle Winter visiting Phyllos. The main features are it is a small Phyllos Warbler with pale olive colouration, a pale yellowish-olive crown stripe, a yellowish supercilium, yellow at the base of the lower mandible, 2 pale wingbars & a yellowish rump. This was another case of the usefulness of the OBC images web site for getting my eye on in advance of seeing the bird.

Brooks's Warbler: One of the things I noticed is the yellowish features seem to almost merge into the overall olive colouration, compared to a Yellow-browed Warbler or Hume's Yellow-browed Warbler, where there are generally clear-cut edges. The second wingbar is faint on this individual, but you can see the supercilium, hints of the crown stripe, the wingbars & the bill colouration. Additionally, the overall colouration with the paler olive underaparts

Brooks's Warbler: Showing the crown stripe

Brooks's Warbler: I can just make out the side of the crown stripe on this photo

Brooks's Warbler: The second wingbar is very faint

Brooks's Warbler: Showing the pale yellow base to the lower mandible  

After a celebratory sprite at the drinks stall, there was time for a slow walk back to the entrance. Lots of tempting offers of rickshaw rides, but I had to say I preferred to walk as trying to explain the Big Foot rules would have been too difficult. I lingered on the main track in the park till dark hoping a Nightjar would fly over or an Owl would start calling. But I was also hoping something interesting would cross the track in the fading light. In 91, a local told us where to stand & we saw an Indian Porcupine crossing the main track at dusk. But I had no joy on any of these species, although I did have another couple of Jackals on the track. Finally, I got back to the hotel after dark & I totted up the species list. I hadn't set out till about 09:00 as I wanted a decent breakfast as I knew I wouldn't get any food in the park & didn't have anything to eat other than a small bar of chocolate. I walked in excess of 10 miles at Bharatpur & saw or heard 98 species of birds & 8 species of mammals. The highlight of the day was seeing my first Brooks's Warbler. With a bit more time to sort out some staked out species like Owls & roosting Nightjars & with a full day of birding, it would be easily possible to break the 100 species barrier. Especially, as the following day, I was to be shown stakeouts for 2 Owl species & a Siberian Rubythroat, that I walked right past, but more of that in the next post. Still it was a great days birding & it was a good total considering I had nothing staked out in advance.

15 Jan 14 - Wetland Birds Overload

After a dawn coffee, we were out on an early morning ride on the jeep. The plan was Bill, Shiva (Bill's driver) & myself were sharing the jeep for the day with 3 young Indian professionals who wanted to see some birds & mammals. I'm always wary about having to share transport with non birders as there is usually the likelyhood that at least one of the groups will get frustrated about not being able to stop or having to stop for every bird. But we had really good jeep companions for the day, as they were just as enthusiastic as Bill & myself at wanting to see & photograph the birds & mammals. They were also quiet & showed a lot of patience & fieldcraft when trying to get close with the camera, given they didn't have a strong wildlife background.

Breakfast appeared after a few hours of birding: Not that was going to stop Bill from birding

Desert Coursers is near the Little Rann of Kutch which a large, flat, arid area of bushes, grassland & wetlands. In the monsoon season, the Little Rann floods over a large area with a combination of rain assisted with high tides, causing sea water to also flood into the area. As the autumn & winter progresses this dries out to leave a lot of lakes & baked lake foreshores surrounded by arid Mesquite thorn bush, grassland & farmland. Nearly, all the sites are visited by driving over rough tracks & the lake foreshores, but fortunately, the drivers have a good sense of navigation as they visit these areas daily in the dry season. Access is much harder in the wet season & I believe Desert Coursers closes during this period. It took about 30 minutes of driving over dirt tracks from Desert Coursers to get to our birding location for the morning which was a local lake, not helped by a number of short stops as we saw birds on the way.

 Black-winged Kite: This is the vociferus subspecies which occurs from Pakistan to China & the Malay Peninsula

Black-winged Kite: A flight shot of a different individual

Shikra

Oriental White Ibis: Also known as Black-headed Ibis along with 2 Great White Egrets

Red-naped Ibis: Also known as Indian Black Ibis

Indian Stone-curlew: Another split for the Subcontinent, this time from Stone-curlew

Indian Roller

Rose-coloured Starling: There was a flock of about 50 adults close to Desert Coursers which we saw each trip. They looked a lot nicer than the brown immature birds we normally see in the UK

As we reached the lake, it became clear that the number of species to photograph was going to rise steeply, so I'll let the photos tell the story for the rest of the morning, before we headed back to a great lunchtime curry at Desert Coursers.

White Pelican: In flight, they are straight-forward as White Pelicans have all black flight feathers on the underwing compared to pale flight feathers of Dalmatian Pelicans

White Pelican: When not in flight, they are harder to separate from Dalmatians, but the lack of a shaggy crest is one of the features

Dalmatian Pelican: A breeding bird with the bright breeding bill & shaggy crest

Painted Stork

Greater Flamingo: The bicoloured bills help identify these as Greater Flamingos (rather than the smaller Lesser Flamingos which were also present in good numbers)

Greylag Goose: A pair of the rubrirostris subspecies, rather than the anser subspecies we see in the UK

Spotted Eagle: The dark colouration, strong bill & yellow gape only just reaching the centre of the eye supports this identification

Spotted Eagle: A different individual in flight. The darker underwing coverts and broad wings help separate it from Indian Spotted Eagle

Spotted Eagle: The upperside of the same individual

Crane: Adult & juvenile

Crane: Adult

Spoonbill: Adult (on left) & juvenile

Black-winged Stilt

Avocet: A species that I guess everybody will recognise

Wood Sandpiper

Ruff

Slender-billed Gull: The yellow eye, long bill & faint head spot separate this from other similar species

Short-toed Lark: This is the longipennis subspecies which is greyer & paler breasted than the dukhenensis race which winters further South & West in India

Crested Lark: There are many subspecies of Crested Lark. This is the chendoola subspecies

Citrine Wagtail

White-eared Bulbul: This is a common arid country Bulbul

Eastern Orphean Warbler: Male

Pied Bushchat: Female

Eastern Pied Wheatear: Also known as Variable Wheatear. This is the nominate picata subspecies

Desert Wheatear: This is the deserti subspecies

Common Babbler: A very slim Babbler to the other similar sized Turdoides

Daurian Shrike: Clements now splits this from Turkestan Shrike

Wild Boar