2014-12-25 Bhigwan

Read about pre-lunch Session at Kavdi here

 We had brunch at Urali Kanchan and then started for Bhigwan by around 12:30pm.

The road has improved a lot and is completely 4 lane.
There are some problems due to multiple crossings on the highway but its ok.
We were at diksal by 1:30pm.

Just as we start going towards Diksal just before the bridge on the right we saw a lot of birds near the road.
There were mainly open billed storks, 20+ glossy ibis, black winged stilts, little ringed plover.

After the birdge in the water on the left side there were 10+ Pheasant tailed jacanas juvenile, lesser whistling ducks, Purple heron, Purple swamphens.

The link road to diskal was in a very bad condition and turned in less than 1/4th the distance and returned back to the main road.

From there we came back to bhigwan and headed to Kumbhargoan using the service road itself.

The water bodies dot the side of the service road and there were many birds to be seen here to but they were very weary of humans and as soon as we stopped the car the watch them they flew away.

There were whiskered terns hunting and one of them sat on a small water plant and we could approach it very silently and take some good pictures.
We found Sandeep quite knowledgable and hospitable.
He had no empty rooms for night stay but made an arrangement to pitch a 2 man tent on the terrace of his house and rest it to us.

We immediately start for the boat ride and got some gulls, terns, flamingoes, spoonbills. We could not get flamingoes for long since as we were watching them some fishermen came from behind the flamingoes and scared them away to the far end of Diksal.

We reached Sandeep Nagres place by around 3:30pm. On the way we could not see much activities of birds though we were looking out for the yellow wattled lapwings on the side of the pipeline.

There are now plenty of flamingo points that have come up in kumbhargoan providing home stay accomodations, food and boat rides to watch flamingoes and other water birds.

After having some tea we immediately for watching the flamingoes.
The flamingoes were on the other side of kumbhargoan.
It took us around 15-20min to reach to a point from where we could view them well.

On the way we encountered some fishermen collecting their catch and some gulls trying to pounce on some the catch

There were many Greater Flamingoes with Spoonbills and other water fowl.

But as we were watching them a group of fishermen approached from the other side and disturbed them. They flew away to the diksal side of the backwaters.

So we started back and decided to spend some time on the way to photograph some gulls and terns hunting.

A fisherman collecting his catch of the day as we were returning to the shore.

We came back had bath with hot water which Sandeep made available very gladly, had dinner at 8pm.

It was a very long day starting at 4am in the morning from Mumbai, birding at Kavdi, diksal and kumbhargoan.

Next day was also going to long too as we had planned to start in the boat before sunrise so that we could get some pics in golden light and then do the Mayuresh Wildlife Sanctuary and then return back to Mumbai.

Read about next day morning session here

2015-01-31 Kalyan-Barvi-Bhandup

The plan for this years bird race was to explore some new areas around Barvi Dam.

We started at 7am from thane and followed the Nashik highway.
A pipeline runs parallel to this highway and we decide to explore the other side of the pipeline.

Actually its 2 pipelines and a road runs within these 2 pipelines.

We drove on this road for some distance and then stopped near one opening and explored the left side of the road.

As soon we got down we heard a lot of bird activity from the bushes nearby and saw a flock of 10-15 tawny bellied babblers.

Here we saw lot of other birds namely
Purple sunbird
Purple rumped sunbird
Pale billed flowerpecker
Black Drongo
Greater Coucal
Chestnut Shouldered Petronia, etc.

After a good start we moved towards kalyan.
On the Ulhas River bridge in the the kalyan town we saw a lot of gulls and terns flying around and hence decided to stop near the river bank to check out the river.
Here we saw some waders, Black headed gulls, gull billed terns, heuglins gull, lapwings, spot billed ducks.

We took the Kalyan badlapur road, crossed Ulhasnagar and reached a pond just as we turn left on the murbad road near badlapur.

Its a very small pond with lot of lotus with big leaves.
This is a best place to observe Pheasant tailed Jacana, Bronzed winged Jacana, Common moorhen, Lesser whistling teal and Cotton pygmy goose from very close distance.

Here you could also see Ashy prinia, plain prina, jungle myna around.

Continuing further on this road you get to see a variety of habitat ranging from forest trees to dry grassland.

At a grassland we stopped to scan for larks. We found none but saw the regulars the Common Stonechat and Pied bushchat, along with Indian Roller, Black winged kite, oriental honey buzzard.
We were also lucky too see a Bluethroat.

A little ahead on the wire very near the road an adult White Eyed buzzard with a juvenile were sitting with the juvenile calling to the adult.

While watching them we caught a sight of a eagle soaring very high far away and slowly approaching us.
When it was almost on top of us we could spot the white headlights to id it as a booted eagle.
Just then something happened it suddenly dived nose first towards the ground. In just 5sec it was on the ground, picked up its kill and went and sat on a tree nearby.
It was mostly a lizard that it had killed and finshed it in 10min.
It gave us some fantastic views and it was a pleasure watching it dive at such a high speed.

Near barvi dam there was not much activity and we moved towards murbad on the same road.
The road climbs pretty high and the forest becomes thicker and thicker.

Its a fantastic forest there was lot of activity head along with sunbirds and flowerpecker were orinetal white eyes. Just then heard a very loud voice and we immediately recongnized it that of a racket tailed drongo. Here along with it was a rufous treepie and jungle babblers.
Behind was some more activity and we spotted a black hooded oriole.

It was already 12noon and started our journey back and at the grassland spotted a paddyfield pipit.

After having lunch at a hotel near Nilje we moved towards the Airoli mangroves behing the ganapati temple and saw a lot of waders.
Black tailed godwits
Common Redshank
Spotted redshank
Common Sandpiper
Little stints, etc

Moving towards the Airoli bridge we spotted again the familiar Black/Brown headed gulls and lesser flamingoes.

At bhandup it was quite silent except for the Yellow eyed babblers calling.
We also spotted a barn swallow, spotted dove, lauging dove, Green Beeaters, Spot billed ducks, black winged stilts and Gargeney duck, purple sunbird, red avadavats.

From here we moved to IIT at around 4:30pm and got the usual Purple swamphen, purple heron, Marsh harrier and palm swifts.

Overall a wonderful day spend exploring some new birding grounds with some wonderful sightings!!

2015-01-10 Karnala

This was my second visit to Karnala on consecutive weekends.

This time it was with my friends from my earlier company.

It started with an orange headed ground thrush popping out of the undergrowth when we were trying to look for sunbird, drongo and tailor bird in a very low light condition.

The orange headed ground thrush obliged us for long time and we were able to see its feeding habit very closely.

As we moved on chestunut shouldered petronias or the yellow throated sparrows flew over head, rested on a tree for a brief time and then flew ahead.

The activity was comparatively low with no sound of bronzed drongos or woodshrikes or paradise flycatcher.

We reached the guest house and tried to search for green pigeons and flycatcher but with no luck.

But we saw a flock of rose ringed parakeets sitting on a tree top across the pond.

And also Chestnut Shouldered Petronia and Ashy drongo having a breakfast.

Then we moved down the mortaka trail and took the turn on the Harial trail crossing the bridge.

Here there was a flowering red silk cotton tree and there we saw a purple sunbird and an ashy drongo.

We also observed some other beauties of nature in the form of peacock pansy and the giant wood spider which had woven a beatiful huge web as usual.

Just on the right site in the thick vegetation we saw the treepie and black hooded oriole.

Down the Harial trial near the main road again we encountered a pair of Chestnut Shouldered petronias and a pygmy wood pecker.

From here we traced back the trail to the bridge and then moved to the open space.

Here we saw common woodshrike, purple sunbird trying to build a nest and a white bellied drongo.

At the end of the trail near the stream we saw a juvenile black hooded oriole, chestnut shouldered petronia and rose ringed parakeet.

We saw also a flock of 5-6 white rumped munias (only seen in this area of karnala).

From here we returned back to guest house to have some breakfast and ended our trip here!!