Goodbye Time, Keoladeo Ghana National Park -Day 3

             116, 117, 118.... Sitting in a cycle rickshaw, I was counting the number of species we saw in two days, as we headed towards the park.118, not bad, but when it comes to sighting birds, I am very greedy so I was just checking on what more can be spotted.And finally decided that the plan for the day was to try and see whatever I missed on the first day and of course photograph as many of them as possible.

                Reached park in 10 minutes and immediately started birding as we had time only

till afternoon.Checked a few bids off our list enjoyed watching them in the golden hours of the morning.On proceeding further a beautiful Indian Peafowl was waiting to greet us.Standing on a perfect perch it looked brilliant.A Riot of colours.

Indian Peafowl(Pavo Cristatus)

             Moving ahead, we were on a constant lookout for new birds hoping to get something new because even birds were very active during these early hours of the morning.And our search ended when we saw a flock of Yellow-Footed Green Pigeons roosting on a huge tree.Though we had seen them on day one, today the light was amazing and hence a good news for photographers.Without wasting a single minute, we started clicking and we knew we had some good shots.

Yellow-Footed Green Pigeon(Terron Phoenicoptera)

Yellow-Footed Green Pigeon(Terron Phoenicoptera)  roosting

             We spent almost half hour watching and photographing these colourful pigeons and even ended up concluding that it was a "chlorigastor" subspecies.Credits to the expert accompanying us.Then finally we decided to proceed as we had a lot of areas to cover before noon.Moving ahead, loud calls of Grey Francolin stopped us.We had heard the calls on the first day as well but were unable to locate them as these are very shy and secretive birds.But today the call was so loud that I decided to track this bird and guess what, I succeded.Could only manage a record shot because I couldn't go any closer to the bird.There is a funny story related to its call.The local cycle-rickshaw guys call it "Kapil Dev bird" because when it calls it sounds as if it's saying Kapil Dev.I didn't find it much similar.You can check its call here:

Grey Francolin Call.

Grey Francolin (Francolinius Pondicerianus)

             Following this we saw a lot of forest birds which we had seen on the first day new additions to the list were: Grey Francolin, Black Redstart(M & F).Also, we saw and photographed a lot of water birds.Instead of me telling about them let's just see what we got here.

Eurasian Coot (Fulica atra)

Garganey (Anser querquedula) Female

Garganey (Anser querquedula) Female

Glossy Ibis (Plegadis Falcinellus)

Great Egret (Ardea alba)

Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

           

             Just before we decided to stop for lunch, we saw a raptor flying past us.It was identified as Bonelli's Eagle.This eagle which falls in Aquila genus is a large bird of prey like other eagles.This mighty eagle's sighting was indeed awesome and an addition to our list as well.

Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata)

             We were happy and discussing this sighting when suddenly we saw another Aquila eagle hovering right above us.Our joy knew no bounds, it was a double bonanza for us it was a Booted Eagle, a large bird of prey from Accipitridae family.There is a fun ID feature about this bird, its white shoulder patches, which birders often refer to as "Headlights".You can see its headlights in the image.Delighted by these two wonderful sightings we proceeded happily for lunch.

Booted Eagle (Aquila Pennata)

             Lunch was rather quick as we wanted to see as many birds as possible.So instead of resting after lunch started searching for birds around the place.And little did I know that a wonderful opportunity to photograph a rather common yet not so common bird was right in front of me.I saw a Common Hoppoe foraging on the ground and best part was nobody knew he was there.I told my fellow photographer friends about it and immediately sat down and went on a clicking spree.Such opportunities are when one can experiment with the camera settings and we all did just that.Soon a lot of photographers hurdled it.But it didn't seem to care it was busy foraging and feeding.I don't even know how many photos I clicked.but some of them came out really well.

Common Hoppoe (Upupa epops)

Common Hoppoe (Upupa epops) Anting

             We were also lucky to witness a behaviour of this bird called "Anting" in which birds lie on the ground and let insects get on their body.These insects secret acids like formic acid which helps these birds.You can read more about it here :Anting.This particular individual was there for more than an hour, entertaining photographers.We finally decided to leave this bird alone.When you decide to leave a bird alone that means you have had a sighting for a lifetime.I am sure birders will agree with this.

             It was almost 2 PM, time to head back to our hotel.We were about to leave when a fellow birder, pointing to a Common Myna, asked me "Do you have a good photo of this bird?" I thought for a minute, and my answer was "No". So I decided to quickly get some shots.And I was pleased with the results. 

Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)

             I was happy with the overall sightings that day plus some good images was a bonus.But there was something more for us.On our way back we stopped at a place because 3 Glossy Ibis were sitting in wonderful light on an open mount.Everyone clicked their hearts out. and the results were pretty good.

Take A Bow 

                 Our final thing for the day was a visit to the museum inside the park.Anything written about Bharatpur is incomplete without the mention on Sarus Cranes.These are the tallest flying birds in the world.We could only get a glimpse of these birds on field as they were very far.But nonetheless we could see the sarus crane in the museum though not real, this life-size crane was gifted to the museum by Swarovski and is studded with gems.We can only guess its worth.

Life-size Sarus crane statue

            So, here I was standing at the main entrance of the park.Frankly speaking I didn't want to go back home.Those three full days of birding were the best days till now.Every birding day is special, even if you don't see anything it feels wonderful to be in the company of nature.I had no choice, it was time to head back home but with a lot of memories and stories to tell and not to forget an amazing bird tally of 122 species in two days.I had fulfilled my dream to visit this place.I started my return journey, promising myself to visit this place again.  

              That was all about my 3-day visit to Bharatpur and Chambal.I had a lot of fun, learnt a lot of new things, met so many new like-minded people.In short it was a brilliant experience. I hope you enjoyed going through this series.I hope I will have many more such experiences to write about in future. That's all for now.Subscribe if you want to read more.Comments and suggestions always welcome. See you next time. Enjoy some more images. Happy Birding! Cheers!

Couldn't resist clicking this cutie

Dr. Salim Mouzuddin Abdul Ali -"The Birdman of India"