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.

25 Jan 14 - More Birds At Tal Chappar

Rather than head straight to the Tal Chappar sanctuary, we spent the first couple of hours birding to the North of Chappar village. There are scattered groups of trees here which are home to the enigmatic Indian Spotted Creeper. I was luck enough to have seen one at Bharatpur in 91, but was keen to see another & it was still an Indian tick for Bill. Unfortunately, after a couple of hours we had drawn a blank, not helped by some fairly imprecise directions (again) for the best area.

Wryneck: Always happy to see this strange Woodpecker

Indian Red-winged Busklark

Indian Red-winged Busklark

White-eared Bulbul: Me & my shadow

Desert Lesser Whitethroat

Eastern Pied Wheatear: This is also known as Variable Wheatear as there are 3 distinct colour forms across its range. All the other Eastern Pied Wheatears seen were the picata form which have a white belly. However, this looks like the opistholeuca form which is essentially black with a white vent & it should be wintering in Northern Pakistan 

Large Grey Babbler: The dark bill, black lores & intense yellow eye separate it from Jungle Babbler

Finally, we abandoned the Indian Spotted Creeper site & headed of to the pakora stall for a filling breakfast. Next stop was the Tal Chappar sanctuary where the main quest was Stoliczka's Bushchat. This looks an obvious species in it's male Summer plumage, but given it was still January it was going to be a lot harder to pick out from the female Siberian Stonechats in the park. This wasn't helped by Stoliczka's Bushchat being far more of a ground feeder than the Siberian Stonechats are & hence much easier to overlook in the knee high grass.

Red-naped Ibis: The white shoulder patch immediately separates this species from Glossy Ibis

Red-naped Ibis: They are much broader winged than Glossy Ibis (see the The Grey & Brown Of Gujarat post for a Glossy Ibis in flight)

Red-naped Ibis: I think this is a better name than it's alternative name of Indian Black Ibis

Pallid Harrier: Male. The black is limited to a narrow wedge in the wing, compared to the male Montagu's & Hen Harriers, where the black continues to the leading edge. Note, the clean grey underwing, which separates it from a male Montagu's Harrier

Montagu's Harrier: Male. Note the black on the leading edge of the upperwing primaries. This photo also shows the 2 dark bars on the underwing secondaries & fine rufous barring on the underwing coverts. Montagu's Harriers also have a black bar on the upperwing secondaries (the far end of which is just visible on this photo)

Tawny Eagle: Worn adult. This Eagle has a shorter, narrower hand (end of wing) & doesn't have the bulging secondaries of Steppe Eagle

Tawny Eagle: Immature. The underwing coverts are paler than the flight feathers & it has a pale inner primary flash & a narrow white trailing edge to the secondaries

Tawny Eagle: Immature. A second individual

Tawny Eagle: Dark phase adult

Imperial Eagle: Juvenile with broad white tips to secondaries & greater coverts & pale streaking on the rest of the wing & mantle. Note, the fairly long yellow gape

Demoiselle Crane: Showing how difficult it will be to find a ground feeding Bushchat in a small clearing in the grass

Demoiselle Crane: The track we were on went close to where they were feeding

Demoiselle Crane: Unfortunately, there weren't any other tracks we could have taken to avoid flushing them

Indian Roller: I needed to brighten up this post

Paddyfield Pipit: Quickly back to dull coloured birds again

Siberian Stonechat: Female

Isabelline Wheatear: Note, the black tail, uniform pale upperparts, heavy bill & head and black alula

Wild Boar: We saw several parties of Wild Boar in the sanctuary which had some domestic or inbred genes in them as well as the normal grey looking Wild Boar