I am still keeping ahead with the numbers - have posted 89 images of Sarus so far. I am sure I would hit a Century soon
as we see the hundred next visit - Kherli-Hafijpur and then Dadri and then Hasanpur on the same day.
Here is a pair of Juveniles, we had break-fast with.
Cheers.
Anand Arya
On 09-Jun-2014, at 2:31 PM, Sonika Jain crossingjain@gmail.com [DELHIBIRD] <DELHIBIRD@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
We (Anand Arya, Wingco, Vineeta Dixit, and myself Sonika Jain) met at 5.20 am at the bus stand after the Mahamaya Flyover on the Greater Noida Expressway rather than Amity School. The police petrol car was not happy seeing the parked car next to the bus stand. Luckily, we exited soon before they made enquiries. We drove up straight on the Expressway covered in dusty sky but pleasant weather. We turned right at Pari Chowk and kept going straight till we hit Kherli Hafizpur Canal Bus Stand. At the T-point, we turned right to pick Tauqeer (an upcoming local guide) from his mechanic shop who led us to globally threatened (Sarus Crane) and widespread residents (abundant Paddy-field Pipit and Common Coucal). As we were waiting for Tauqeer, we saw common tailorbird whose male and female version is hard to distinguish.
We saw our first sighting of 22 (24 acc to the pics posted online) standing Sarus Cranes on the edge of the field in the village tasrana in the Bilaspur region to our left side. We were on the narrow road that ran parallel to a small canal on right side. We also saw peacocks and peahens in the foreground and one of the peacock graced the peahens with his full splendour of coluorfully opened feathers for the courting dance. We heard the sound of Cranes on the right side of the canal but couldn’t spot them. Vineeta felt that there were at least 2 of them. We were eager to cross the canal but Tauqeer suggested another village instead. Meanwhile, we saw 4 adult Asian Openbills sitting on tree branches with their lone juvenile sharing space with 4 jungle crows in complete harmony.
We passed through green, barren, ploughed, cattle-feed patches of land, mango and acacia trees, and dusty narrow roads. And, then we reached ghanauri village which has a long and shallow pond that is surrounded by a 2 km single lane brick-layered circular road. We spotted Painted Stork, Woolly-necked Stork and majority of Sarus Crane in different posturings – gazing in the unknown, flying low, taking off, landing, drinking water, eating, walking elegantly, and of course courting. There could be duplications as they were active in this region. We were enthralled by them in the following order (4+2+2+2+9+2+2+3+4+1+2+3). We stopped near a pair of Sarus Cranes who posed for us patiently. Our breakfast break at around 8.30am was near to the pair under the shade of an acacia tree - the summer drinks, sandwiches and dosa, chocolates and pattisa were plenty in the characteristic Delhi BIrd tradition.
We saw smaller group of Sarus (5+1) as we carried on but another big group of 16 Cranes was waiting for us at gadhana village beyond isipur village. Wingco and I were standing on the edge of a small construction in the field and Anand and Vineeta walked up to a tree parallel to the Cranes. The shy creatures flew immediately and when we retreated from the field after few minutes these birds landed under a distant tree where we couldn’t see them. We pushed on wishing to hit a century so we climbed up the bridge to cross the Kherli Hafizpur Canal and re-entered another set of villages from another side near banjarpur village junction where we saw 2 and then another 2 Sarus on the edges of the field summing up to 83 (85). Our encounter with these Cranes was peaceful as they went about their daily business with much ease. There was no sign of aggression over food, territory, and mate.
Pied Kingfisher and wired tailed swallows were sitting on the wires running across the canal. Below, tanned and bony young boys were diving in the Kherli-Hafizpur canal adjacent to the thick-skinned buffaloes. The bridges across the canal were busy with vendors selling biryani and fruits that village menfolk were enjoying with a dose of early morning gossip and curiosity about two cars zooming past their territory. We were often asked whether we had come to buy land, which is now bought by the Yamuna Expressway Authority. Our last halt for cool summer drinks was a spot infested by monkeys in a run-down construction which houses many trees including a tree that has a hornbill nest. We waited for sometime but the bird decided to keep us waiting. This spot is on the right side while the canal is on the left side as we look towards the T-point. We crossed the T-point to drop Tauqeer to his shop - taking a promise from him of hitting a century next time. While packing the equipment, Wingco and Anand were flooded with curious village children. Their curiosity satisfied, goodbyes exchanged, finally the two cars zoomed towards the Greater Noida Expressway around 10.45am.• Ashy Prinia• Asian Openbill• Bank Myna• Black-breasted Weaver• Black-crowned Night Heron• Black-headed Ibis• Black-winged Stilt• Brown Coucal• Black Drongo• Cattle Egret• Chestnut shouldered Petronia• Common Myna• Common Tailorbird• Common Hoopoe• Dusky Crag Martins• Eurasian Collared Dove• Eurasian Spoonbill• Golden Oriole• Great Egret• Green Bee-eater• Indian Pond Heron• Intermediate Egret• Koel• Large Grey Babbler• Lesser Spotted Eagle• Little Cormorant• Little Egret• Oriental Honey Buzzard or Crested Honey Buzzard• Oriental skylark• Paddy-field Pipit• Painted Stork• Peacock and Peahen• Pied Bushchat Female• Pied Kingfisher• Pied Myna• Purple Heron• Red-vented Bulbul• Red-wattled Lapwing• SARUS CRANE 83-85 (adult and juvenile)• Straited Babbler• White Throated Kingfisher• Wire-tailed Swallow• Woolly-neck Stork• Zitting Cisticola• Common Moorhen• Purple Swaphen
Dr Sonika Jain
University of Delhi
M: +91-98-71760814
Email: crossingjain@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment