24 Jan 14 - The Best Of The Rest

The first day at a new site, usually seems to lead to large numbers of photos & Tal Chappar was no exception. When I checked I had 902 photos (over 5Gb) to wade through so it was one of my heavier days of photography. About 25% of these were of the Blackbuck & Chinkara, where the photos got better as early hazy conditions cleared & the light improved during the day. But there were a good selection of open country & thorn bush birds photographed. Here are the remaining photos for the day.

Black Vulture: Also known as Cinereous Vulture in case birders get confused with American Black Vulture which as the name suggests doesn't occur in the Old World

Black Vulture

Pallid Harrier: Female. I was really glad to find these photos as it's a much better comparison against female Montagu's Harrier (see the An Enigmatic Family Year Tick post) than my first poor photo from the lake at CEDO. This photo shows the strong white crescent in the face & dark ear coverts 

Pallid Harrier: Female.This clearly shows the dark secondaries with the narrower pale band in the middle which narrows considerably closer to the wing as the dark trailing edge broadens

Steppe Eagle: Subadult: The large, bulky size, long head & neck & bulking secondaries all help to separate this from the 2 Spotted Eagles. The 2 white bars on the upperwing indicate its not an adult bird & the lack of a pale bar on the underwing indicates it's a subadult

Laggar Falcon: This Falcon's range is SE Iran to Burma

Laggar Falcon: Adults have a pale belly

Laggar Falcon: Immature birds have a dark belly

Indian Grey Francolin

Indian Peacock: Pity he didn't turn around, but it shows how grim the light was & this was mid morning

Indian Roller: This was a fairly common bird at Tal Chappar

Indian Roller: Separated from Roller which is an Autumnal migrant to NW India by the streaked, pinky face, throat & breast (which are bright blue in Roller)

Zitting Cisticola: Cisticola identification is easy in NW India, as the only other contender, Golden-headed Cisticola, is not found in this part of India. A nice looking Cisticola when seen well

Zitting Cisticola: Showing the barring on the undertail

Siberian Stonechat: Male 

Desert Wheatear

Isabelline Wheatear: Note the upright stance, heavy bill, pale coloration & the hint of a black alula which all separate it from a vagrant Wheatear

Great Grey Shrike: This is the lahtora subspecies which has the black extending onto the forehead, which it doesn't do on pallidostris (which also has paler lores). Formally, this was Southern Grey Shrike, but has now been lumped into Great Grey Shrike

Great Grey Shrike

Black Drongo: There was one open area at Tal Chappar which had over 10 Black Drongos feeding from the ground

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