Road trip to Little Rann of Kutch (Part 3: Rajasthan - Gujarat Road Trip)

Every year, we plan a trip to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This year we decided to go for a long road trip and then we planned to explore Rajasthan & Gujarat. While return journey we took a halt in Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat.
Our road trip route was Pune - Udaipur - Haladighati - Kumbhalgarh - Jodhpur - Phalodi - Jaisalmer - India-Pakistan Border (Pillar No 609) - Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) - Vadodara - Daman - Pune
Without a doubt, travelers for this trip were me and my wife Renuka.

Little Rann of Kutch (LRK)

               To avoid length of Travel blog, I have divided it into 3 parts. First 2 parts were on Rajasthan and Third part was from Gujarat which was the last leg of our journey. In this part, will like to share my travel experience of Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) and Vadodara.

Travel Blog link for Majestic land of Rajasthan Part 1: Udaipur-Haldighati-Kumbhalgarh
Travel Blog link for Majestic land of Rajasthan Part 2: Jodhpur-Khichan-Jaisalmer

About Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) and Vadodara:
              Little Rann of Kutch is also known as LRK. It is Salt marsh and small in area as compared to Kutch hence known as Little Rann of Kutch. It is Famous for Indian Wild Ass and LRK is declared as the Indian Wild Ass Sanctuary. LRK is the home of local and migratory birds.
             Vadodara is the third largest city from Gujarat State. The city is famous for Laxmi Vilas Palace and a variety of local food.

Day 9: 16 Feb 2017 - Jaisalmer to Little Rann of Kutch:
               We left Beautiful Jaisalmer by 6 AM. We wanted to cover 500 km distance and reach before sunset. We choose route as Jaisalmer - Barmer - Sanchore - Tharad -  Bhabhar - Radhanpur - Dasada - Bhavna Resort & Farm. The road was newly built till Sanchore with less traffic. We took a lunch break at Radhanpur (Gujarat) and had tasty Gujarati Thali at Hotel Sagar. We reached Bhavna Resort by 3:30 PM which was a pre-booked resort. they have more than 25 cottages spread over a large area. Plenty of parking space is available.The cottage has 1 large Room, small room to keep bags and clean bathroom. All cottages are AC cottages and maintained well. They serve an only pure veg meal which was very tasty.
            We took some rest and then went to Nava Talaw (In English "New Lake") for bird watching. We booked next day morning safari in LRK. Nava Talaw is the home of much migratory wetland bird. We went there with very less expectation and just to enjoy the Lake area.
             My Camera was stopped working due to Error 20 and Error 30 on Day 6 (After a visit to Khichan Village). Fix was not possible which stopped me from doing Photography. Our further road trip journey was without my Camera so We decided to capture the moment on iPhone and on Handicam.
              The area around Lake is dry and similar to Rann. A personal vehicle is allowed. We followed the route instruction shared by Resort owner. Painted stork and Eurasian Spoonbilled stork welcomed us when we entered in Lake area.

              We approached towards lake.you can drive in Rann but better to keep watch on the road as well. Before we hit Nava Talav, We spotted a group of Greylag Gooses. They belong to Goose family and large in size. They are winter migratory birds travel from Europ and Asia.

               Soon Nilgai and Indian wild Ass appeared on Lakeside area. Indian Wild Ass is only found in Gujarat. We stopped for some tine to observe the activities of Duck and Mammals. After some time they moved away from us and we left them alone.

           We parked our vehicle and took a walk towards Lake. Lake was full of Wetland birds. From distance, we observed Geater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, ibis, and Pelicans. Slowly we went close to the Lake and settled down to observe them.

            We witness sunset at Nava Talav Lake and then returned to Bhavna resort. Birds sighting and mammal spotting were unexpected for us. We covered most of the birds and mammals in Lake area which was planned in LRK Safari.
            We had tasty Gujarati veg meal at Resort and took rest soon.

Expenses:

• Car Petrol: INR 2800/-
• Lunch at Hotel Sagar, Radhanpur: INR 213/- (1 Panjabi Thali, 1 Gujarati Thali, and 1 Curd)
• Bhavna Resort Package: INR 5383/- for 2 people (1 Night stay in Cottage, 1 Dinner, 1 Lunch, Breakfast and Safari for 2 people)

Day 10: 17 Feb 2017 - Little Rann of Kutch & Vadodara:
            We woke up by 5:30 AM and left the resort for morning safari. Open jeep picked us from the resort. After few km drive, we entered in LRK area. On entering to LRK, Wooly neck stork pair welcomed us. We have seen many wooly necked storks around our city so we stopped for a couple of minutes and moved ahead.

There was no fix wish list of bird or mammal but the main focus was on Birds. We spot common crane in the way to LRK's waterbody. On the first waterbody, we saw wetland birds like Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, northern shoveler duck, ibis etc. Here are few Videos from LRK

We spend more than 3 hours in Little Rann of Kutch. We saw Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo in the Lake area. Marsh Harrier and Montagu Harrier has joined the Lake. It was a wonderful place for bird watching. We searched a lot of Owls and Indian bustard in Rann but unable to spot them.

              We took some rest after safari and then had Lunch in Resort. After a tasty meal, we left Bhavna resort for our next location. Our next location was Vadodara. We had a visit to Ahmedabad 2 years back and now our focus was to cover return distance rather than tourism so we choose Vadodara.
            Ahmedabad to Vadodara highway was beautifully built. We reach at Vadodara by 4 PM. We searched few hotels and then booked a room at hotel Kalyani. We left the room at 6 PM for shopping. My wife had a good time in local cloth market. After shopping, we had dinner in Mall followed by "Ghazi" movie. We just returned from various sites which were involved in 1971 war and this movie was also based on 1971 war.

Expenses:

• LRK forest Permit: INR 400/- for 2 people (Camera Charger is INR 200/-)
• Gujarat Toll 1: INR 14/- (Bhavna resort to Ahmedabad road)
• Gujarat Toll 2: INR 85/- (Ahmedabad to Vadodara Expressway)
• Hotel Kalyan: INR 1226/- for 1 night
• Pani Puri near Hotel Kalyani: INR 70/- for 7 plates (He served 6-7 types of different Pani in Pani Puri)
• Sharing Auto from Hotel Kalyan to Sursagar market: INR 20/- for 2 people
• Non-Sharing Auto from Sursagar market to Hotel Kalyan: INR 40/-
• Auto from Hotel to Inorbit Mall: INR 50/-
• Dinner in Mall: INR 366/- for 2 people
• Movie Ticket: As per Rate
• Uber from Mall to Hotel: INR 78/-

Day 12: 18 Feb 2017 - Vadodara:
            It was a lazy start and nothing much to do in Vadodara for us. Our only destination of the day was Laxmi Vilas Palace. We visited the palace at around 10:30 AM. Laxmi Vilas Palace was built by Gaekwad Royal family who ruled Baroda (now name change as Vadodara) State. Palace was completed by 1980 by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III. It is said that Palace is four times the size of Buckingham Palace. Palace was built with Mix of Indian, Islamic and European architecture style.
            Photography (by camera or mobile) is strictly prohibited. Palace also has a museum which has Kings personal belongings, painting and sculpture. It also has a replica of toy train which was princes personal toy train. Original toy train was donated to SayBagh. Visiting hours of the palace for the public is from 11 AM to 5 PM. The audio tour is available for detail exploration.
           After a visit to Laxmi Vilas Palace, we started our return journey to Pune. We took night halt in Vapi at wife's relative house. Also, my father's best friend's house was close to Vapi which was on our list. We had a quick visit to Devka Beach, Daman for sunset. Beach was neither clean nor brown/golden Sandy. We spend some time and returned to Vapi

Expenses:

• Gujarat Toll 1: INR 85/-
• Gujarat Toll 2: INR 65/-
• Gujarat Toll 3: INR 55/-
• Gujarat Toll 4: INR 65/-

Day 13: 19 Feb 2017 - Vapi to Pune:
              We left Vapi by 10 AM and started the journey to Pune. We chose route as Vapi - Thane - Navi Mumbai - expressway - Pune. We reached home safely by 5 PM with memorable memories from Majestic land of Rajasthan

Expenses:

• Car Petrol: INR 1500/-
• Maharastra Toll 1: INR 60/-
• Maharastra Toll 2: INR 55/-
• Lunch at Barbeque Nation, Mumbai: As per Rate
• Expressway Toll: INR 230/-

Contact numbers for your reference:

• Bhavna resort: +919427216059, +919099459137.
• Kalyan Hotel: +919998222968.

I will try to upload more and more travel blogs. Thanks for reading this Travel Blog.

Pritesh Kulkarni 

Pune

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Bird watching @ Kumbhargaon and Diksal, Bhigwan 2017

I visit Bhigwan at least once a year for bird watching and this year was not an exception for my activity. I and Renuka decided to visit this place January 2017. To avoid crowd we decided to visit on weekdays. Every year, I visit Diksal village from Bhigwan. I heard a lot about Kumbhargaon village which is developed as a bird sanctuary and professional people to handle all type of tourists.
We decided to visit Kumbhargaon in the morning and sunset time at Diksal village. From last 9 years, Bharat Nagare from Diksal helping me for a boat ride. We developed good friendship bond hence Diksal visit was mandatory.

About Bhigwan Bird sanctuary:
Bhigwan, a catchment area of Ujani Dam, is about 105 km from Pune on the Pune-Solapur highway (NH 9). An area of about 18000 hectares has been proposed as a sanctuary for migratory birds. It is an amazing place to see wetland migratory birds like Bar-Headed Goose, Greater Flamingo, Ruddy Shelduck, many spices of ducks and many more birds.

To reach Diksal village (near Bhigwan), the easy way is Pune – Hadapsar – Join Solapur highway – Drive your vehicle 100km from Pune on Highway – Do not use Bhigwan flyover – Take a left at Bhigwan square on highway – Drive 3 to 3.5km – Take right for sanctuary. How to identify correct right turn is; you can spot water tank tower (yellow colored) on that T junction on the left-hand side of the road.

GPS Location for Kumbhargaon: 18.263426, 74.803876
GPS Location for Diksal: 18.295129, 74.806933

Greater Flamingo at Diksal

Jan 2017: Bhigwan Bird sanctuary:
               As we had to cover around 105-110km so we decided to leave Pune before 5 AM and we managed to leave on time. Soon we touched Solapur highway. Road condition of the highway was excellent. Due to the wide and smooth road, we were able to reach Bhigwan in less than 2 hours. We reached at Kumbhargaon first. We have informed Datta Nagare for a boat ride. Soon we took a boat ride. Electric pole-wire was occupied by Whiskered Tern.

Grey Heron after sunrise at Bhigwan

Whiskered Terns

We traveled towards Diksal village as all Flamingos and other birds were landed there. While going there, I got few flight photos. Soon we approached towards Flamingo. Every year I visit Diksal and my expectation was to see birding activity near Kumbhargaon. Got to know that most of the time, boats from Kumbhargaon visit Diksal for Flamingos.

Northen Shoveler Duck

              We spend around 1.5 hours watching their activity without disturbing them. By any chance, if they noticed us, they were just moving their position. A couple of times they flew away but again settled down close to our boat.
              Greater flamingo is the largest species of flamingo. It is found in Africa, on the Indian subcontinent, in the Middle East and southern Europe. Average Life of Flamingo is 60 years. Greater Flamingos are pinkish white but Dark pink feathers with black feathers are covered under wings. You can see beautiful Display of pink color during their Flight. Using its feet, the bird stirs up the mud, then sucks water through its bill and filters out small shrimp, seeds and blue-green algae. Greater Flamingo can be seen in Bhigwan but Lesser Flamingo observed rarely here.

Greater Flamingo

Glossy ibis

Greater Flamingo in flight

Take off flight by Greater Flamingo

             We left that place to spot other birds. We went on another side of catchment area by boat. We saw a huge group of Painted stork. We spend around an hour and watched their morning activity, sun basking etc. Besides Flamingo, we spotted Woolly Necked Stork, Coot, ibis, bar-headed goose's, Ruddy Shelduck (aka Brahmini Duck), Northern Shoveler, Garganey Duck, northern pintail and much more.

Northern pintail duck at Bhigwan

It's a Wake-up Time

Northern shoveler Duck

Open-billed stork at Bhigwan

ibis gang - Glossy ibis and orientail ibis

We returned to Kumbhargaon after spending more than 2-3 hours. When we reach close to the village, we saw a small group of Comb Duck. We spend an hour to observe their activity.

Comb Duck

Comb Duck

Photo finish race...Greater Flamingo

               We had a small break and then left the place. We drove the car towards Baramati for few km and took an afternoon break at newly open Food mall. We had lunch and then required power nap in a car. By 3 PM, we begin our journey towards Diksal village for evening bird sighting
               Our Friend, Bharat Nagare was waiting for us, Soon we board the boat and went for birding. My intention to capture Flamingo during sunset. I'm completely aware that capturing such a moments required luck. We decided to go for other birds until sunset time.

Oriental ibis

Open Billed stork

Northern shoveler Duck

               We saw around 5-10 Bar Headed Goose along with few Brahmin Duck busy with their breakfast and some of them were resting. We kept a safe distance and I clicked a lot of Photos. We enjoyed for an hour observing their activity. An astonishing fact about these birds is that they are one of the world's highest flying birds; they migrate over Himalayas (flying higher than 21000 ft.) to spend the winter in parts of India.

Bar-headed goose yoga

Bar-headed Goose

Let's Fly high...Bar-headed goose

               We spot a group of Flamingo and went close to them keeping a safe distance between us. Idea is to wait till sunset and capture sunset movements. Slowly large number of Flamingo groups started gathering in front of me. I was happy as everything was going into my favor. I clicked few photographs. Just before half an hour, all of sudden all decided to take a flight and went away. I missed an opportunity to capture the beautiful sunset. In wildlife photography, experience matters a lot than the opportunity.

Greater Flamingo at Diksal

Greater Flamingo at Diksal

Greater Flamingo with Sunset at Diksal

               We left the Beautiful place after sunset and had dinner at my favorite restaurant hotel Kachan. we reached Pune by 8 PM safely.

Bye, Bye Diksal...Greater Flamingos

Expenses:

• Car Petrol: INR 1000/- (Avg INR 68/Lit, Total distance cover by car was 230km)
• Toll on NH-09: INR 30/- (Return toll)
• Toll 2 on NH-09: INR 50/- (Return Toll)
• Boat ride at Kumbhargaon: INR 1000/- for boat for 2-2.30 Hrs
• Breakfast at Kumbhargaon: INR 50/- for 2 Poha
• Coffee at Kumbhargaon: INR 30/- for 1 Glass
• Lunch: INR 200-400/- for couple based on your order
• Evening boat ride at Diksal: INR 800/- for boat
• Dinner at hotel Kanchan: INR 440/- for couple

Contact number:

• Bharat (Boatman from Diksal): 9766292989. 
• Datta Nagare (Boatman from Kumbhargaon ): 8087767691.

I will try to upload more and more travel blogs. Thanks for reading this Travel Blog.

Pritesh Kulkarni 

Pune

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Pune’s Bird Paradise - Bhigwan, Diksal bird watching in 2016

I visit Bhigwan at least once a year for bird watching and this year was not an exception for my activity. I and Renuka decided to start New Year 2016 with visit to Bhigwan. Plan was to spend 4-5 hours in Bhigwan (main location is known as Diksal village) and come back home by late afternoon.

Greater Flamingo... Clicked in year 2015

About Bhigwan Bird sanctuary:
Bhigwan, a catchment area of Ujani Dam, is about 105 km from Pune on the Pune-Solapur highway (NH 9). An area of about 18000 hectares has been proposed as a sanctuary for migratory birds. It is an amazing place to see wet land migratory birds like Bar-Headed Goose, Greater Flamingo, Ruddy Shelduck, many spices of ducks and many more birds.

To reach at Diksal village (near Bhigwan), easy way is Pune – Hadapsar – Join Solapur highway – Drive your vehicle 100km from Pune on Highway – Do not use Bhigwan flyover – Take left at Bhigwan square on highway – Drive 3 to 3.5km – Take right for sanctuary. How to identify correct right turn is; you can spot water tank tower (yellow colored) on that T junction at left hand side of road. Otherwise ask local villagers about Diksal / “where can we see Rohit bird (Marathi name of Greater Flamingo bird)?”

You can spend half day or full day along with your camera and binocular. More than 60 bird’s species can be found in this backwater.

Travlers for this trip were Me, Renuka and Father-in-law Girish ghospurkar.

1st Jan 2016: Bhigwan Bird sanctuary (Total distance travel by car: 230km):
               As we had to cover around 105-110km so we decided to leave Pune before 5 AM and we managed to leave on time. Soon we touched Solapur highway. Road condition of highway was excellent. Due to wide and smooth road, we were able to reach Bhigwan in less than 2 hours. We told our boatman friend Bharat Nagare to arrange some breakfast. We were excited to see the migratory birds.

Ruddy Shelduck at Bhigwan

Painted Stork

              When we reached the village at around 6 AM, I was not surprise by looking at back water. Water level was quite low as compare to last year and main reason was fewer monsoons in India in year 2015. After some tasty breakfast we left for bird watching in the boat. Since it was a first day of year 2016, we were the only bird watchers in the catchment area.
               We got to know that very few Flamingos were landed in Bhigwan backwater hence less chances to spot them. We were totally fine as every year we saw a lot of Flamingos groups. We saw a group of Woolly neck storks and we went in that direction. Every year we hardly manage to see Birds like Wooly neck stork, bar headed geese but this year then came in large numbers. We spend more time on clicking them.

Woolly neck Stork

Woolly neck stork and bar headed geese at Bhigwan

Northern Pintail at Bhigwan 

Northern shoveler

bar headed geese at Bhigwan

               We left that place to spot other birds. We went on other side of catchment area by boat. We saw huge group of Painted stork. We spend around hour and watched there morning activity, sun basking etc. Besides Flamingo, we spotted Woolly Necked Stork, Coot, ibis, bar headed gooses, Ruddy Shelduck (aka Brahmini Duck), Northern Shoveler, Garganey Duck, Comb Duck, northern pintail and many more.

I got my catch...Sea gull at Bhigwan

Painted Stork

              It was quite bright now, and we slowly made our way back to village by boat. During our return journey, we decided to take a walk on the bank of Dam. Bharat left with our extra bags to his home and we joined him after an hour. After some nice click during trail, we came back. Our trail ends on a good note.

Open billed Stork

Bar Headed gooses

We returned to Bharat’s house and had lunch on highway and returned home by 4 PM. If you want to witness beauty of migratory birds (Our guest) then what you are waiting for.

Bird List which we saw in Bhigwan:

Greater Flamingo	Garganey Duck	Wire-tailed Swallow
Pueple Swamphen	Pochard Duck	Common Swallow
Common Moorhen	Bar headed Duck	Red Rumped Swallow
White-breasted Waterhen	Common Teal	Purple Rumped Sunbird
Glossy Ibis	Northern pintail	Red Avadavat
Black Ibis	Domicile crane	Spotted Munia
Oriental White Ibis	River Tern	Black Drango
Asian Open bill Stork	Common tern	Red-Wattled Lapwing
Painted Stork	Gull billed Tern	Yellow-Wattled Lapwing
Woolly Necked Stork	Grey Heron	Osprey
Common Sandpiper	Purple Heron	Western Marsh Harrier
Spotted Sandpiper	Pond Heron	White Throated Kingfisher
Curlew Sandpiper	Cattle Egret	Common Kingfisher
Black Tailed Godwit	Median Egret	Pied Kingfisher
Black Winged Stilts	Large Egret	White eye Pochard
Northern Shoveler	Eurasian Spoonbill	Pallas Gull
Ruddy Shelduck	Little Cormorant	Brown headed seagulls
Spot-billed Duck	Yellow Wagtail	Black headed seagulls
Common Coot	Grey Wagtail
Comb Duck	Green bee-eater

Below are snaps taken during my various visits to Bhigwan 

Boating at Bhigwan for bird watching

Close up of Painted Strok

Spoon Bill

Woolly neck stork

Ruddy Shelduck

Mile sur mera tumhara....Sea gulls at Bhigwan

Lets fly home...Open bill stork

For More Photos, Click here

Expenses:

• Car Petrol: INR 1500/- (Avg INR 67/Lit, Total distance cover by car was 230km) 
• Toll on NH-09: INR 30/- (Return toll) 
• Toll 2 on NH-09: INR 50/- (Return Toll) 
• Boat ride: INR 1200/- for boat (Normal chargers are INR 1400-1600/- per boat) 

Contact number:

• Bharat (Boatman from Diksal): 9766292989. 

I will try to upload more and more travel blogs. Thanks for reading this Travel Blog.

Pritesh Kulkarni 

Pune

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Pune’s Bird Paradise - Bhigwan, Diksal bird watching in 2015

I visit Bhigwan at least once a year for bird watching and this year was not an exception for my activity. My travel year begin with this trip. I and Renuka decided to visit this place on 12 Jan 2015. To avoid crowd we decided to visit on weekdays. Plan was to spend 4-5 hours in Bhigwan (main location is known as Diksal village) and come back home by late afternoon.

Greater Flamingo at Bhigwan

About Bhigwan Bird sanctuary:
Bhigwan, a catchment area of Ujani Dam, is about 105 km from Pune on the Pune-Solapur highway (NH 9). An area of about 18000 hectares has been proposed as a sanctuary for migratory birds. It is an amazing place to see wet land migratory birds like Bar-Headed Goose, Greater Flamingo, Ruddy Shelduck, many spices of ducks and many more birds.

To reach at Diksal village (near Bhigwan), easy way is Pune – Hadapsar – Join Solapur highway – Drive your vehicle 100km from Pune on Highway – Do not use Bhigwan flyover – Take left at Bhigwan square on highway – Drive 3 to 3.5km – Take right for sanctuary. How to identify correct right turn is; you can spot water tank tower (yellow colored) on that T junction at left hand side of road. Otherwise ask local villagers about Diksal / “where can we see Rohit bird (Marathi name of Greater Flamingo bird)?”

You can spend half day or full day along with your camera and binocular. More than 60 bird’s species can be found in this backwater.

12th Jan 2015: Bhigwan Bird sanctuary (Total distance travel by car: 230km):
             As we had to cover around 105-110km we decided to leave Pune by 5 AM and we managed to leave on time. Soon we touched Solapur highway. Road condition of highway was excellent. Due to wide and smooth road, we were able to reach Bhigwan in less than 2 hours. We told our boatman friend to arrange some breakfast. We all were excited to see migratory birds.
             When we reached the village at around 5.30 AM, I was surprise by looking at back water. Water level was quite low as compare to last year. After some tasty breakfast we left for bird watching in his boat. Since it was an odd day, we were the only bird watchers in the catchment area. Soon we spotted a group of Flamingoes. We set our cameras and kept pin drop silence. Slowly Bharat took us close to birds. He promised me last year that if we came on an odd day he will take us close to birds. He is an expert to handle such conditions just that he doesn't want to do it on weekends due to crowd. Also birds get disturb quickly.

Sun rise at Diksal, Bhigwan

Early morning light on Flamingo couple 

Love...Greater Flamingo

            Soon we were so close to birds that we were able to hear they movement as well. It was an amazing moment for me to witness flamingo hardly at 15-18 feet distance. We spend around 1.5 hours watching their activity without disturbing them. By any chance if they noticed us, they were just moving their position. A couple of times they flew away but again settled down close to our boat. I wanted to click some close up clicks so I entered in 4.5 ft. water whereas boat sailed away from me. I was in the middle of water catchment area for 45 min and got some nice clicks. I was in front of at least 3000 Greater Flamingo. What a treat to eyes.

Lots of Greater Flamingo at Bhigwan

Greater Flamingo

Greater Flamingo

Sea gull at Bhigwan

Sea gull close up

             After spending a lot of time with greater flamingo, we left that place to spot other birds. We went on other side of catchment area by boat. We saw huge group of Painted stork. We spend around hour and watched there morning activity, sun basking etc. Besides Flamingo, we spotted Woolly Necked Stork, Coot, ibis, bar headed gooses, Ruddy Shelduck (aka Brahmini Duck), Northern Shoveler, Garganey Duck, Comb Duck and many more.

Art of Wings, sea gull

Ready for take off - Greater Flamingo

Painted stork colony  at bhigwan

Marsh Harrier with kill at Bhigwan

Glossy Ibis

Ruddy Shelduck (aka Brahmini Duck)

           It was quite bright now, and we slowly made our way back to village by boat. During our return journey, we saw huge group of Flamingos. After some nice click we came back. Our trail ends on a good note.
We returned to Bharat’s house and had lunch on highway and returned home by 4 PM. 

Bird List which we saw in Bhigwan:

Greater Flamingo	Northern Shoveler	Little Cormorant
Pueple Swamphen	Ruddy Shelduck	Yellow Wagtail
Common Moorhen	Spot-billed Duck	Grey Wagtail
White-breasted Waterhen	Common Coot	Green nee eater
Osprey Western Marsh Harrier	Comb Duck	Red Avadavat
Brown headed seagulls	Garganey Duck	Spotted Munia
Black headed seagulls	Pochard Duck	Black Drango
Pallas Gull	Bar headed Duck	Oriental Ibis
Asian Open bill Stork	Black Tailed Godwit	Glossy Ibis
Painted Stork	Black Winged Stilts	Black Ibis
Woolly Necked Stork	River Tern	Common Sandpiper
Common Kingfisher	Common tern	Spotted Sandpiper
White Throated Kingfisher	Gull billed Tern	Curlew Sandpiper
Pied Kingfisher	Grey Heron
Red-Wattled Lapwing	Purple Heron
Yellow-Wattled Lapwing	Pond Heron
Purple Rumped Sunbird	Cattle Egret
Wire-tailed Swallow	Median Egret
Common Swallow	Large Egret
Red Rumped Swallow	Eurasian Spoonbill

Below are snaps taken during my various visits to Bhigwan

Greater Flamingo portrait

3 Idiots - Painted Stork 

Painted Stork close up

Bar headed goose at Bhigwan 

Woolly necked stork  

Black neck Ibis

Greater Flamingo in flight

Basking in sun light - Painted stork

Ruddy Shelduck in flight

Flamingo

Let's Fly - Greater Flamingo

Only and only Greater Flamingo at Bhigwan

Expenses: 

Car Petrol: INR 1500/- (Avg INR 67/Lit, Total distance cover by car was 230km)
Toll on NH-09: INR 30/- (Return toll)
Toll 2 on NH-09: INR 50/- (Return Toll)
Boat ride: INR 1000/- for boat (Normal chargers are INR 1200-1400/- per boat)
Lunch: INR 420/- per person (Masala papad + 2 vegetables + Rotis and Cold drink)

Contact number:
Bharat (Boatman from Diksal): 9766292989. 

After this trip, I had 2 more trips to Bhigwan in which I took corporate groups (from other IT company) to teach them how to identify birds, Basic photography tips and to increase awareness about nature. I am sharing some photographs from my 2-3 visits. If you want to witness beauty of migratory birds (Our guest) then what you are waiting for?

Prits at Bhigwan - Photo clicked by Wife Renuka

Me busy with Sea gull - DND me :)

Wildlife Photography is not an easy job...I was in 4.5 ft water alone for around hour. Thanks for wonderful click Renuka Kulkarni

Click here for 2014 Bhigwan trip Blog

I will try to upload more and more travel blogs. Thanks for reading this Travel Blog.

Pritesh Kulkarni 

Pune

Read More