19 Jan 14: White-naped Tit (Wow)

The good news was Bill had managed to contact Jugal & he had space for us to stay at CEDO for the next couple of nights. Therefore, it was off to CEDO soon after dawn. While we were waiting for Shiva to bring the car, we spotted a couple of Common Koels in the sole tree in our busy side street. A closer scan of the tree revealed 7 birds sitting there.

Common Koel: Male

Common Koel: Female

Cow pen: Cows are sacred in India & clean up a lot of the vegetable waste on the Indian streets. These ones were lucky? as they had a pen to stay in overnight next to a small temple by our hotel

Vegetable seller: There always seems to be a good selection of vegetables on sale in Indian towns

The good news is Jugal has expanded his accommodation area & now has 8 rooms. I had tried to contact him by email from the Western Ghats, but the email addresses I had were out of date & had no responses. Jugal's current contact details are cedobirding.com or cedoindia@yahoo.com.

Jugal: In front of the CEDO entrance

Another view of CEDO

After unloading the car of the bags into our rooms, we were soon heading out again. The Great Rann of Kutch area has a good selection of species within an hour or two of driving, but the main target for both of us was the tricky to see, dry country White-naped Tit. I had looked for this on my first Indian trip, but didn't have a good site & it was one of the main birds to hopefully see in Gujarat. Jugal was free to come along as our guide for the morning, which was great as this was a bird he has extensively studied in the past. But our first stop was when a dog sized mammal appeared on the road & stopped to look at us. As we got closer, we realised it was a Caracal (like a small Lynx) & all shouted at Shiva to stop. He did annoyingly, using only friction to break the car, so we ended up stopping close to where it had run into the impenetrable bushes (obviously never to be seen again). This was only the third Caracal that Jugal had seen locally in 20 years of living there. The chances are it would have disappeared had we stopped sooner. We were all elated, but a bit disappointed at the brief views. Soon after was the first birding stop: an arid rocky slope to look for Sykes's Lark.

We had some help to flush the Sykes's Larks

Indian Red-winged Bushlark: Also know as Indian Bushlark. The streaked crown, streaky breast & white surrounding the cheek patch separate it from Singing Bushlark. In flight, the rufous in the wing was obvious

Ashy-crowned Finchlark: Female

Sykes's Lark: They like bare, stoney ground & this area looked perfect 

Sykes's Lark

Sykes's Lark: The breast had a strong chestnut wash to it

Tawny Pipit

Rufous-fronted Prinia: Showing a good rufous forehead, as well as the whitish lores, supercilium & underparts 

Rufous-fronted Prinia: The pale tail tips show well in this photo

Moving further down the road, we reached the White-naped Tit area. This was an area of decent bushes on an arid, rocky hillside with a small temple nearby. Jugal quickly located a pair which hung around for long enough for reasonable photos to be be taken. Soon after he picked up a Marshall's Iora, which was very approachable & carried on feeding despite me getting fairly close.

The small temple: Indian temples are often the best kept of buildings in India

Jugal & Bill looking for the White-naped Tit

A typical view of the arid bush country

Indian Grey Francolin

Small Minivet: Male

Marshall's Iora

Marshall's Iora: Couldn't resist another photo

Black Redstart: Female

White-naped Tit: A pair quickly appeared to Jugal's tape

White-naped Tit: It looked even better when it turned around

White-naped Tit: A photo of the white nape

Bay-backed Shrike

Grey-necked Bunting

Butterfly

Finally, it was time to head back to CEDO for lunch. After the excellent food at Desert Coursers, the food whilst good vegetarian food, was a bit disappointing.

Booted Eagle: Pale phase over CEDO

16 Jan 14 - The Grey & Brown Of Gujarat (The Sequel)

All good films (& unfortunately a lot of bad films as well) have a sequel. So here is my attempt. Getting back for lunch a bit earlier today gave me chance to have a look around Desert Coursers camp with the camera, before we headed out again. Also had chance to say goodbye to the Indian jeep companions as they had a 36 hour taxi & train journey back to Chennai (lucky them).

Bruce's Scops Owl: Bruce was still sleeping through the day in his tree

Black Redstart: Male. The grey crown & lower mantle confirm this is the phoenicuroides subspecies as opposed to rufiventris, where these areas are both black. Both have the orangey-red belly

Black Redstart: I saw this same subspecies in Margate in the UK in Nov 11 where it is a vagrant

Desert Lesser Whitethroat: This bird is a paler grey than UK Lesser Whitethroats & doesn't have the same contrasting face mask

Desert Lesser Whitethroat: Another view of the general colouration. Lesser Whitethroat taxonomy has changed several times over the years - currently Clements splits the Lesser Whitethroat group into 4 species

Desert Lesser Whitethroat: Not a brilliant photo, but it does show the tail pattern. The only slightly darker tail is another separating feature from Lesser Whitethroat

Calotes versicolor: Thanks to Dave Gibbs for spotting this wasn't a Common House Gecko

It was soon time to head out again to the Little Rann. We were visiting another lake this afternoon, as well as some nearby farmland & Mesquite thorn bush in the hope of Stoliczka's Bushchat. Mesquite is a very common bush with long thorns throughout Gujarat, but it's actually an invading non-native bush from Southern South America. Due to the thorns little of the local wildlife & domestic animals will eat it & it's so prolific there is no hope of it being eradicated.

Camels are an important livestock in Gujarat

Pied Kingfisher: This widespread Asian & African species prefers hovers over water to fish, rather than using a perch

Pied Kingfisher: This is the leucomelanurus subspecies which is found in most of the Subcontinent and it's different from the African race rubis subspecies (which reaches as far North as Turkey)

Crested Lark: This photo shows why Mesquite thorn bush has been so successful

Rufous-fronted Prinia: The rufous front becomes duller with wear, but the whitish lores, supercilium & underparts are all features for this species

Rufous-fronted Prinia: The extensive white tips in the tail are another good features for this species

Siberian Stonechat: Male. Both maurus & indicus winter commonly in this part of India

Siberian Stonechat: Male. Look at that white rump as it takes off

Siberian Stonechat: A second flight shot of the same bird

Siberian Stonechat: A nearby female 

Common Babbler

Long-tailed Shrike: The black of the mask only gets onto the lower forehead which confirms this is not a Bay-backed Shrike

Baya Weaver: Out of plumage Weavers aren't easy, but Streaked Weaver would have been more heavily streaked on the back & Bengal Weaver would have had a more obvious yellowish supercilium which would have curved down around the rear of the face