(delhibirdpix) Dighal on Sunday

Ramgopal, Geeta and I began our journey to Dighal at 5.30 AM, with RG emphatically stating that we had too much of Basai and in any case I am not too enamoured with Sarus. Little did he know that he would get to see not one or two by 26 different individuals with one group as large as 20. While I jumped with joy he looked on with faint amusement. Since Sarus was not our initial target then what were we looking for. Well we went all the way to see Oriental Pratincoles' nesting and we were rewarded as we saw several pairs with nests and eggs. One even tried to pull wool over our eyes by pretending to be hurt though we were nowhere near its nest! They flew overhead, called out to each and even skulked behind ploughed earth which camouflaged them perfectly. What a sight. From sight I recall my fright as I nearly stepped over a snake (which Rakesh assured me was rat snake and therefore non poisonous) while trying to get close to Sarus.

As the sun continued to heat up, we moved on to check out other nests, namely those of Egyptian Vulture and Eurasian Eagle Owl. As we waited for the Mother/Father vulture to return to nest some gender based remarks were shared good naturedly alongwith breakfast consisting of Sandwiches, Egg Roll, poha, south India Mathri (Geeta to provide exact name and pronunciation), lychee, tea and masala soda. Given our preoccupation with food and speculation about gender of the hardworking parent, neither turned up and the baby kept its back towards us through out. We therefore proceeded to the owl location where the remains of the nest showed that it had been occupied till recently. A little patience gave excellent sightings of the owl pair.

Other key highlights included Painted Snipe pair out in the open, several fantastic and up close and personal sightings of Black Francolin, beautiful nests and antics of Baya and Black Breasted weaver, nest and fly past of Coucal, Large Grey and Jungle Babblers, Peafowl, Rufous Tailed Lark, Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark, Crested Larks, Spotted Owlet, Asian Koel, Sind Sparrow, Pied and Common Kingfisher, all storks - Painted, Woolly Necked, Open Billed and Black Necked and Balck and Black headed Ibis, tons of Little grebe and spot billed and an occasional comb duck.

Fellow Birders please add if I missed out something. From last week's trip, I missed out on Spoonbill and Thicknee at Basai.

My apologies for the picture size of Sarus. This was the biggest group I could get in my frame

 

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Vineeta Dixit

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