Long billed vultures
Sunday, 28th August, 5:55am – The phone rings, I spring out of bed, for once I had wished that it would indeed ring at this unearthly Sunday hour, voice at the other end said “Good Morning, 6:30?” I confirmed “Yes!” and kept the phone back in the cradle. By now Swati is up as well – “Raju?” she questioned, which elicited another “yes” from me. I was now out of the bed brushing teeth, Swati without a word brewed hot coffee for me (Did I thank you for that love? – Thanks anyways 
).
I double checked my camera, flash, lenses, batteries. Put in the bread and jam sandwiches into the rucksack along with 2 liters of drinking water. Raju arrived on dot at 6:30 on his mobike, I was wearing my shoes sitting at the doorstep. Swati quickly ascertained from him as to which direction we are heading… a soft goodbye and take care… we were off!
OK! let me put the things in context here. A few days earlier some birdwatchers had reported White-Rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis ) sightings in Nagpur district and we were told that it is just 50Km from the city. Raju had finally managed to extract the details – I don’t know why but the older bird-watchers are very reluctant to share knowledge 
- of the location and that is where we were going. I am sure that if you are least bit interested in birds you will know that Vultures are fast disappearing from the Indian sub-continent and that our excitement was understandable.
We reached the first landmark village Umred about 45Kms fast enough and asked around. To our dismay we found that no one had seen or heard of Vultures being around for years… to further add to the disappointment we found that the next landmark village we were told about was in fact about 35Km further away instead of the wrongly reported 5 – the bright light at the end was the affirmation that the entire road was tarred and motor-able. Which indeed proved to be true, once again the when we reached the second village the actual site was still about 10Km and the description given to us matched to what the villagers described.
Our spirits perked up when after about 5Km we caught the first glimpse of the cliff we were supposed to reach. We were still in time despite being mislead about the distance. We ultimately reached near the base of the cliff at 9:15am, about 90Km from home.
Raju scanned the cliff face with his Binocs but I could spot 2 of the Vultures almost immediately with my naked eyes, Raju spotted 2 more – our excitement knew no bounds.
Even as I took out my camera we started walking up the hill to reach as near as we could. We knew we had just enough time with no room for errors – the air would soon be hot enough to generate thermals and the birds would glide out in search of food…
We took several pictures when suddenly Raju recalled that White-rumped Vultures preferred trees, besides these looked a bit different – so these had to be Long-billed Vultures (Gyps Indicus) and indeed he was as usual correct. At 9:45 they took to the air and it was then that we realised that there were actually 7 of these critically endangered birds!
With the birds gone we explored around the base of cliff and the cliff face a bit more. From the looks of it, Vultures have nested at the spot in the past and the numbers were probably much more.
We gobbled our breakfast while discussing how the spot can be further studied, interspersed with some lurid boyz jokes 
Since we had come this long and we still had time, we decided to climb to the top of the cliff and see for ourselves how the view looked for the Vultures… This was also a sort of personal triumph because I am a wee bit scared of climbing (note: climbing not heights 
)
We started back for Nagpur at around 12:00 noon and reached back by 2:00pm as promised to Swati – right in time for a lunch of finger licking good Chicken Korma. Aasim and Swati had invited some of his friends over with their mother for lunch….
Hmmm… may be more of her someday.
Tags: birdlife, life, photography
Great way to spend the day!
Indeed – but better would be if Swati and Aasim could have also managed to make it…
Great going guys. Though I’m back in the city, I’m yet to do any serious birding here. Hopefully this coming weekend
Thanks, looking forward to your pictures!
amazing capture!
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Seen on my Flickr home page. ( ?² )
very good work….
save tree! save life!
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stunning! beautiful birds
gosh–stunning pair
Fine post Tarique.
An exciting read. I like your narrative that brings in the story telling element without losing focus on the serious side of things.thanks for sharing
Didnt realise it was a 2005 image….great that you shared it.
Any updates?
Yes there are updates and not so good news I am afraid. Last year we visited this site and it was abandoned….
Amazing !!
Read the blog, really a nice way to spend the day
fantastic capture…
Really a nice capture, thanks for sharing
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Seen on your photo stream. (?)
Wow, very nice photo!
Good catch n gone thru ur blog as well, nice story tellin qualities u have
. Vey well explained and described 
.
a wonderful capture and a well informative notation.
Another amazing bird shot from you – I like it.
excellent catch!
wow..
lajawab Tarique my friend…
bird photography me aapka jawab nahi..well done.
Excellent capture! Like a statue
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Seen in my contacts’ photos. ( ?² )
Nice capture and writeup.
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Seen in my contacts’ photos. ( ?² )
Super tres belle photo Animalière
Jolie mouvement, belle dynamique et l’ambiance animale y est tres bien représentés
Belle photo,
Couleurs et piqué irréprochable
Agréable à regarder…
félicitations
very nice capture & thanks for sharing the picture….
Cool shot
You are invited to
Sapphire Awards
*Post 1 Award 3*
Awesome catch! Excelent foto! Make me remind the voltures on a movie calles the book of the jungle! I love these fethery odd personality guys! Saludos desde México!
This photo is great !
Beautiful to see these up-close.
Interesting birds and a sad story too!
fantastic exposure!!! beautifully taken!!!!
N!!!!!!!!!!!Ce
keep it up
Ugly bird! Good shot! Great work!
nice shot! We have few in Bangalore too. Really treat to watch them take off , fly off, and become dots in sky…
great shot
Excellent work!
GOLD STAR AWARD (invite needed)
You are invited to add this exceptional image to
GOLD STAR AWARD (invite needed)
please add the tag GoldStarAward
feels great to see these shots …very nicely captured
Bravo!!! This will make any birder happy.
Great shot of these birds, not easy to capture.
I think this bird image is really excellent. You are invited to post it to Excellence In Avian Photography. Please read the rules before posting your image.
Please remember to remove this photo from the Photograph "Invite Me Please" Thread in EIAP. Thank you!
awesome capture!
(Seen in the Excellence In Avian Photography Group)
Wow, thanks for sharing this endangered species my friend….very nice shot.
Great pair; nice place too.
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Seen on your photo stream. ( ?² )
Awesome capture of a very rare bird!
Wonderful capture!
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Seen on your photo stream. (?)
excellent capture of this rare species of Bird and thanks for the interesting information!
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Seen on your photo stream. ( ?² )
Wonderful capture!!! Rare bird, you are lucky!!!
so sad for such a majestic bird, thanks for sharing Tarique..
Very fine image!
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called ONE PHOTO, and we’d love to have this added to the group!