Pediatrician and a Forensic Expert. A passionate PHP geek. Currently CTO, SANIsoft. Also a photographer, bird watcher, nature lover and a FOSS enthusiast.
The critically endangered Sociable Plover - Vanellus gregarius
24th Jan, 2010: A day of “Super specialty birding” is what I would call the day! Swati and Aasim opted to stay back due to yesterday’s tiring drive. So I went along with Mr Jugal Tiwari to a thorn forest near Banni grassland searching for the first target species of the day. “White-naped Tit” – This species underwent a rapid population decline in the recent past. Its small, severely fragmented population continues to decline, although at a reduced rate, as a result of the loss, degradation and fragmentation of its tropical thorn-scrub habitat. It therefore qualifies as Vulnerable. Continue reading, has 14 more photos
23rd Jan, 2010: Started the day with an excyrsion to the Naliya Grasslands. The trip started off well with spotting of a Male Pallid Harrier soaking up the heat of the early morning sun. As soon as we had enough of the Harrier we spotted another beautiful lifer Black Francolin. Continue reading, There are 24 more photos
22nd Jan, 2010: The night was an uneasy one for Swati, she sweated out her fever, but that had the advantage – she was feeling much better in the morning.
We were up at 6:00 and out at 6:30 as planned. It was pretty cold in the Banni Grasslands. The first target species for the day was Grey Hypocolius Hypocolius ampelinus. A very interesting bird that migrates all the way from Middle East to Kutch, Gujrat to spend the winter. We had to walk about a kilometer into someone’s field to get to the spot. Our guide fro the day Mohammad, Yes – that was his name and he insisted it was just that, told us that just as the sun rises the Hypocolius will also rise to the top branches. We stood there for a while, except for White cheeked bulbuls nothing showed up. Continue reading, there are 26 more photos
This time I kept a daily journal of our trip and I am reproducing it here as it was written without any changes…
21st Jan, 2010: We started from home at 7:50am, a wee bit late by my estimate but Swati was cool with it so I did not say anything. Flight was on time, Security people did not question too much about the Camera gear we were carrying.
We had a 3-hour layover at Mumbai, while on the customary “browse the bookstore” round I found a new book by Richard Bach “Hypnotizing Maria” – more on that book perhaps in a separate post later. The flight to Bhuj was delayed by an hour. As we came into land at Bhuj, Aasim remarked, “Looks like we are landing in middle of no where!” We got out of the aircraft to the thundering sound of fighter jets on low flying sorties. The Indian Air Force shares the Bhuj airport. Continue reading Rann of Kutch: Day 1 – Arrival
Am sure I have missed some larks and warblers which I just didn’t care to note and a few waders which I could not identify. The thing I am most thrilled about is having 37 lifers
This is a picture I took on 27th Nov 2009 at Ambhazari Lake, Nagpur. The bird with the long beak is a ‘Western’ Black-tailed Godwit, Limosa limosa in it’s winter, non breeding plumage of this bird. These birds migrate from Central Asia (Far East Russia) to India for wintering.
In Nagpur we see them only in April when they are returning and are beginning to assume breeding plumage. However this year for the first time in nearly 8 years of my serious I have spotted them in November…. I hope they stay here throughout winter as it would present a great photo opportunity.
Saturday I wrote to someone
(06:47:09 PM) Tarique: life SUX – it is weekend and I am dreading it
After the *adrenaline and endorphin high* from foss.in of the past week waning, I was feeling kind of lost… Had planned to hook up with some friends to go a nearby village and see the Bar-headed geese but that fizzled out. So decided to sleep late….
Woke up at 9 which is late by everyday standards but still early enough to go bird watching – by 9:30 we were out, much to the annoyance of Swati’s hypothetical mom in-law. A three kilometer drive and we were walking the catchment area of Ambhazari lake. Seeing that the number of migratory arrivals has increased was heartening. We spent the next two and a half hours there and racked up a massive count of 104 species! including a pair for Bar-headed geese. Got very few pictures though as my D70 is now nearly dead and refuses to focus, doing a manual focus is too frustrating to be worth its while.
Between all this Swati could talk to her cook at home and we knew that there will be hot aloo parathas waiting for us. On the way we stopped at the DVD shop and picked up some DVD/VCD among them was 8 VCD set of “Yeh jo hai zindagi” and much to our delight Aasim is absolutely loving the series. Watched 2 episodes… post lunch time was spent watching the movie “Mumbai Salsa” an ok movie to watch once….
Evening? – thats best left out of a public entry….
It has rained throughout the night and the dry area of the pond has been turned into an excellent wading ground overnight. A pair of Bronze Wing Jacanas are the latest members for our yard list.
Since past few days we have been seeing birds which are #1 usually not so readily seen #2 not seen in places we have seen them… also all the sightings have been incidental
23rd Saturday – Spotted owlet near an ice cream parlour
24th Sunday – Dusky Craig Martins in our driveway
25th Monday – Little Grebe in the pond behind the new house
26th Tuesday – Common Hawk Cuckoo aka Brain fever bird sitting low on a wire while driving back to home
The most surprising for me was the brain fever bird because tracking it down in the field can be really really tricky, you can hear it all over but can’t see it, in fact this is the closest I have ever seen it, since I had a wee bit of doubt regarding its identification, it called out in its trade mark voice just as we stopped the car….
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 arefast 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….
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– 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 
