Did birding for 3 hours at Nandur Madhyameshwar bird sanctuary with parents and cousins. So it was primarily birding trip with a spotting scope. Did that after long time. Ofcourse carried a camera 😊
Nandur madhmeshwar dam is on gadavarj river just below confluence of Gadavari and Kadwa river. It is around 40km from Nashik near Niphad. One needs to take the Nashik-Aurangabad highway and some 25km from Nashik then take the Saykheda-Shingwa road.
All the silt that Godavari has brought downstream over the years has got deposited in Nandur Madhyameshwar Lake creating small islands and shallow water ponds. This has given shelter to around 220 species of birds out of which some are migratory.
It was a chilly morning and being a weekday there was no one else at the gate when we reached at around 7.30am.
Birding started just outside the gate with a flock of rosy starlings sitting on a bush and a flock of around 30+ baya weavers feeding in a field.
There is a nice parking area just at the gate and nice walking trails inside towards many watch towers which are well maintained by the forest department.
We first walked to the watch tower on right and the walked backed and then towards 3 more towers on the left.
The towers provide nice view from the height as otherwise the reeds are quite high to get long view.
There were atleast 500+ ducks spread over a complete water body.
Barn swallows were flying low over the water along with beeeaters trying to catch flying insects.
Since there are reeds on one side and grassland on other side of walking trail one can see both shallow water birds like swamphens, cranes, waterhens as well as grassbirds like munias, bushchat, stonechat, collared doves etc.
It was great with around 48 species.
Highlights
- Orphean warbler (my lifer #558)
- Baillons crake very near
- Purple swamphen with 2 chicks
- 50+ small pratincoles flying like swallows apt for there other name swallow plovers
- Lot of Eurasian Wigeons
- Cotton pygmy
- Red avadavat always a pleasure to see
Other birds seen ducks, herons, egrets, kingfishers, bushchat, stonechat, pipit, wagtail. Here is the complete list on ebird
https://ebird.org/checklist/S63090879
Northern Shoveler
Common Pochard
Marsh Harrier
Nandur madhmeshwar dam is on gadavarj river just below confluence of Gadavari and Kadwa river. It is around 40km from Nashik near Niphad. One needs to take the Nashik-Aurangabad highway and some 25km from Nashik then take the Saykheda-Shingwa road.
All the silt that Godavari has brought downstream over the years has got deposited in Nandur Madhyameshwar Lake creating small islands and shallow water ponds. This has given shelter to around 220 species of birds out of which some are migratory.
It was a chilly morning and being a weekday there was no one else at the gate when we reached at around 7.30am.
Birding started just outside the gate with a flock of rosy starlings sitting on a bush and a flock of around 30+ baya weavers feeding in a field.
There is a nice parking area just at the gate and nice walking trails inside towards many watch towers which are well maintained by the forest department.
We first walked to the watch tower on right and the walked backed and then towards 3 more towers on the left.
The towers provide nice view from the height as otherwise the reeds are quite high to get long view.
There were atleast 500+ ducks spread over a complete water body.
Barn swallows were flying low over the water along with beeeaters trying to catch flying insects.
Since there are reeds on one side and grassland on other side of walking trail one can see both shallow water birds like swamphens, cranes, waterhens as well as grassbirds like munias, bushchat, stonechat, collared doves etc.
It was great with around 48 species.
Highlights
- Orphean warbler (my lifer #558)
- Baillons crake very near
- Purple swamphen with 2 chicks
- 50+ small pratincoles flying like swallows apt for there other name swallow plovers
- Lot of Eurasian Wigeons
- Cotton pygmy
- Red avadavat always a pleasure to see
Other birds seen ducks, herons, egrets, kingfishers, bushchat, stonechat, pipit, wagtail. Here is the complete list on ebird
https://ebird.org/checklist/S63090879
Northern Shoveler
Marsh Harrier
