A trip to explore the beautiful grasslands to watch Harriers and eagles.
The quantity of Harriers and eagles was too low than expected but was
rewarding as a overall experience.
We reached by 8.30am, quite late than expected, due to bad roads and traffic
in Katraj which has now become normal.
Birding started with a wonderful Steppe eagle sitting on a Nilgiri tree.
Got a few shots and then it flew away and sat on a mound in the grassland. It
was a wonderful frame.
Just few meters nearby was common kestrel sitting on a small stone.
One can see the huge difference in the size.
It was 8.30am and Common Kestrel had started its hunting.
As usual always a fun to watch how stable it can hover with very minimal flapping its
wings.
We tried to get few shots but not much exciting was happening.
Further ahead while searching for more raptors on the rocks saw a
Montagu's Harrier male but it was also in hunting mode and immediately flew
and started to search for food.
Later also saw a Montagu's female nearby.
The next raptor sighted was the elegant Short-toed Snake Eagle lazing around
on a pole next to field.
It seemed it had its morning breakfast and was just resting.
A nice breeze was blowing on its face but it was not liking, it used to turn
its face away, blowing its head feathers.
At one point we thought a Montagu's male was flying towards us but it was a
Black Winged Kite doing a harrier like V-shaped glide which it does sometime.
Then as usual it started to hover. Though it's also fun to watch these hover
but it's a different kind of hovering with continuous wing flapping but
equally stable as Kestrel.
It was already 10.30am but it was extremely hazy and cloudy so sun light was
not that harsh.
But the raptors activity was not there except for the Kestrels.
So we moved our attention to larks, pipits and other grassland birds.
A family of 6-8 Tawny Larks seemed to have made their home in a heap of rocks.
Ashy-crowned Sparrow-larks were in a plenty too.
The most abundant were the short toed Larks. Around a flock of 150+. They were
also dust bathing.
There was a pair of Common Stonechat, a Pied Bushchat and a Grey Necked
Bunting along the fence lining the grassland and the fields next to it.
There was a pair of tawny pipit too on the rocks nearby.
A Eurasian Hoopoe was feeding on the middle of the track searching for
caterpillars.
We got to see a few that he could find and tossed them to gulp it down its
throat a typical Hoopoe style.
There was also a waterbody touching the grassland and we got following in
that.
Juvenile White Breasted Waterhens
Few little grebes with juveniles
5-6 green winged teals
Common Coot
Common Redshank and Common Greenshank standing next to each other
With a White Wagtail walking in front of them.
It was already past 11.50 so we decided to go and have lunch and then later
proceeded to another grassland by 1pm.
This was a big grassland but part of this was now converted to a stone quarry
, destroying the harrier and eagles habitat :-(
Also this had increased the dumper activity making it very dusty.
But the other part seemed not disturbed and we hoped to still see some bird
activity.
On the way even on the dusty road we got some good sightings.
A Blue Rock Thrush
A pair of Southern Grey Shrikes And
Indian Bushlark calling
As we reached the grassland our first sighting was that of an Indian Courser.
Not just 1 but a family of 3 individuals.
Beautiful plumage as always seen in this area.
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Going ahead we saw a Steppe eagle on a rock on the opposite side of the
valley. One can see the size difference between the Eagle and the
Chinkara.
This grassland also had a waterbody at the base of the hillock.
It was small one but still we could sight
8-10 Little Cormorant
2 Brahminy Shelduck
3-4 Black Winged Stilts
Little Grebes
And on the rocks around there was a Blue Rock Thrush
And in the grassland we saw a Tawny Pipit and a surprise sighting of a pair of Common
Babblers.
Coming back on the plateau we got the female Common Kestrel.
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Chinkaras with babies were grazing around.
Just when we were discussing about wheatears we saw a male Desert Wheatear.
But it was very vary of us.
Just near was a female Desert Wheatear.
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Also on the other side there was an Isabelline Wheatear.
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A pair of Bonelli's could be seen soaring high in the background.
We decided to explore around fields and got munias and these 2 shrikes
Bay backed Shrike
Long Tailed Shrike
And how could the raptor show end without a Short Toed Snake Eagle again.
This time it was sitting on a short tree at the hedge
of a plot.
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We decided to have a last look at the waterbody and grassland area.
There were 2 amazing sightings waiting on the plateau.
A male Common Kestrel
And an Eurasian Sparrowhawk
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Back at the waterbody we got nice frames of Chinkaras grazing and a Wood
Sandpiper.
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It was 4.30pm but due to the cloud it felt like 6.30pm and we heard flocks and
flocks of Chestnut Bellied Sandgrouse going towards mostly their roosting
grounds.
Just when we were thinking of whether to call it off as the end of the day
there was a big surprise.
We saw a chinkara running and as we were trying to find the reason we saw 3
wolves following it.
They quickly vanished beyond ledge of the hillock.
We went a little further to look beyond the ledge and came almost face to face
with a Bonelli's eagle sitting on the rock.
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We took some pics but did not loose our focus and quickly moved to finding
wolves.
In the gorge below was a dry stream.
As we were screening around the stream suddenly found a wolf staring up
towards us but it moved closer and the view was blocked by a rock.
So we moved towards right and saw 2 wolves. One was very dark and we called it
blackie :-)
With this beautiful sighting we declared it the end of the grassland birding
day !!
