Thursday 30 January 2014

Bird Paradise - Bhigwan, Diksal bird watching trip 2014

I visit Bhigwan at least once a year for bird watching and this year was not an exception to my activity. I and Renuka decided to visit this place on 22 Jan 2014 and our friend Amit Gujar accompanied us. To avoid crowd we decided to visit on weekdays. The plan was to spend 4-5 hours in Bhigwan (the main location is known as Diksal village) and come back home by late afternoon.

Greater Flamingo in take off position
Greater Flamingo in take-off position

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 the highway – Drive 3 to 3.5km – Take right for sanctuary. How to identify correct right turn is; you can spot water tank tower (yellow coloured) on that T junction at the left-hand side of the 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 binoculars. More than 60 bird’s species can be found in this backwater.

Greater Flamingo
Greater Flamingo

22nd Jan 2014: Bhigwan Bird sanctuary (Total distance travel by car: 230km):
            As we had to cover around 105-110km we decided to leave Pune by 3.30 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 told our boatman friend to arrange some breakfast. We all were excited to see migratory birds.

cormorant
Cormorant 


Whiskered Tern

Whiskered Tern in Flight
Whiskered Tern in Flight

              When we reached the village at around 5.30 AM, I was surprised by looking at the back water. It was looking like the sea. We took some rest at Bharat’s place and after some tasty breakfast, we left for bird watching in his boat. It was a tough task for him due to the high wind. 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 the crowd. Also, birds get disturbed quickly.
             Soon we were so close to birds that we were able to hear the movement as well. It was shallow water hence Bharat hid behind the boat (In the water) whereas we took a position in such way that only our head was out of the boat. 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.

Check my Neck - Greater Flamingo
Check my Neck - Greater Flamingo

Portrait
Portrait

Talk and walk - Greater flamingo
Talk and walk - Greater Flamingo

           After spending a lot of time with greater flamingo, we left that place to spot other birds. Besides Flamingo, we spotted Woolly Necked Stork, Coot, ibis, painted stork, bar-headed gooses, Ruddy Shelduck (aka Brahmini Duck), Northern Shoveler, Garganey Duck, Comb Duck and many more.

Spoonbill
Grey heron and Spoonbill (L to R) and Cormorants and egret at bottom

Stilt bird
Looking for something? - Stilt bird

Purple Moorhen
Purple Moorhen

Bar Headed Goose
Bar Headed Goose and Open-Bill in flight

             It was quite bright now, and we slowly made our way back to the village by boat. During our return journey, I saw a duck in the middle of the water and he was trying to run from that spot. When I asked Bharat, he told that duck was trapped in a fishing net. Either he will die or when fisherman will come they will eat him. I didn’t like that and I told him to sail the boat towards duck. It’s time to save him. Now we were in our rescue operation. The duck was a male Pochard duck. When we reach close to duck, they started struggling to get rid of fishing net. We slowly approached towards duck and started moving net from a boat. Now he realized that we were helping them. Now he sat claim which helped us to remove the net. I and my wife able to remove some part of the net from a duck but still his fins were trapped badly. Bharat came and he cut the reaming part of the net by hands. It was difficult but somehow we manage to free him. When we released him, He ran away and we were watching him with smile and satisfaction. He went away from us, settled in shallow water and looked at us. It was like he wanted to say thank you. It was a great feeling. Flamingo sighting and Pochard Duck rescue operation made our day. Our trail ends on a good note.

Our Rescue operation
Our Rescue operation

            We returned to Bharat’s house and had lunch. After some rest, we went in wetland area on foot to spot more birds. We saw a lot of ducks, heron, ibis etc. After some quick photography, we returned to his place for rest. It was 3.30 and we decided to leave this beautiful place. During our return journey, we had our snacks at Kanchan Dhaba and returned home by 6 PM.

            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 the beauty of migratory birds (Our guest) then what you are waiting for.

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 were taken during my various visits to Bhigwan

SeaGull
SeaGull

SeaGull
I am too Shy - SeaGull

Spoonbill
Spoonbill

SeaGull
SeaGull in Flight

Bay Backed Shrike
Bay Backed Shrike

Black ibis
Black ibis

Landing is an art - Brahminy Duck a.k.a. Ruddy Shelduck

Let's Fly - Greater Flamingo

Flamingo Airline

Expenses:
  • Car Petrol: INR 1500/- (Avg INR 72/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)
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 

Sunday 26 January 2014

Bird watching at Kavadi-Pat, Pune

Along with Pashan and Veer Dam, Kavadi-Pat is another place to spot numbers of scrubland and wetland birds. It’s a small Village near Pune city. The place is skirting but the best place to see Ducks closely. This is my practice ground for photography along with Pashan Lake. I visit this place twice in a month.

About Kavadi-Pat:
Kavadi is a small village at about 20 Km from Pune which is full of water birds. There is a small bridge on water body from where you can spot birds on both sides.

To reach at Kavadi-Pat, route is Pune- Swargate – Pune-Solapur highway – Do not take Pune-Saswad road – Cross first Toll on Highway - Continue to drive slowly after toll – Drive for around 500m – Watch out for Manali Resort – After Manali Resort take first left turn – There is hotel 9th Mile / Milestone 9 after you entered in Len - Fallow the same road – cross Railway line – Drive till end to reach Kavadi-pat.

Common Teal
Common Teal

 Dec 2013 - Jan 2014: Kothrud to Kavdi-Pat (Distance is approx. 30 km)
Good time to visit this place is from Dec to Feb end and early in the morning from 7 am to 11 am. You can walk across a small narrow bridge to get a better view of the birds but be careful as the bridge does not have railings and you have an occasional two-wheeler ride across the bridge. My advice will be to walk along the riverside for a better view of birds and photographs.

Do Not Disturb them just to have a nice click. I have seen a lot of people (Mainly beginners) approach directly towards birds.

I enjoyed photography there and treat to the eye to watch their activity in the early morning.

I don't know what to write more on Kavadi-Pat so I will post a list of birds which you can see in Kavadi-pat.

Little Grebe 
Grey Wagtail 
Indian Robin 
Spot-Billed Duck 
Yellow Wagtail 
Little Ringed Plover 
Ruddy Shelduck
Cattle Egret 
Pied Bushchat
Common Teal 
Rock Dove 
Common Tailorbird 
Northern Shoveller
House Sparrow 
Black-Winged Stilt
Lesser Whistling Duck 
House Crow 
Purple Moorhen 
Oriental Magpie Robin 
Black Kite 
Glossy Ibis
White-Breasted Waterhen
Shikra
Jungle Babbler 
Common Moorhen
Indian Peafowl
Spoonbill Stork 
Common Kingfisher 
Greater Coucal
Openbill stork
White-Breasted Kingfisher 
Laughing Dove 
Black Drongo
Pied Kingfisher 
Long-Tailed Shrike 
Common Myna 
Little BlueKingfisher
Scaly-Breasted Munia
Brahminy Myna 
Spotted Fantail Flycatcher
Indian Hawk Cuckoo 
Pied Harrier 
Little Green Bee-Eater
River Tern 
Red-Rumped Swallow 
Pale-Billed Flowerpecker
White Wagtail 
Red Avadavat
Rose-Ringed Parakeet 
Indian Roller 
Little Egret 
Red-Vented Bulbul 
Purple Sunbird 
Grey Heron 
Red-Whiskered Bulbul 
Little Cormorant 
Pond Heron
Purple-Rumped Sunbird
Indian Cormorant 

Oriental Honey Buzzard 
Common Sandpiper 

White-Eyed Buzzard
Wood Sandpiper 


Below are snaps were taken during my various visits to Kavadi-Pat.
Sandpiper
Sandpiper

Common Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher

Spot billed duck
Reflection - Spot billed duck

It's Yoga Time - Spot Bill Duck
It's Yoga Time - Spot Bill Duck

Meri aawaj hi meri pahachan hai - Spot Bill Duck

Yello Wagtail
Yello Wagtail

Brahminy Duck a.k.a. Ruddy Shelduck
Brahminy Duck a.k.a. Ruddy Shelduck

Common Teal Female, Common Teal Male, Northern Shoveler (From Left to Right)

Common Teal Male
Common Teal Male

Common Teal Female
Common Teal Female

Brahminy Duck
Brahminy Duck

White Wagtail
White Wagtail

Northern Shoveler in flight
Northern Shoveler in flight

Brahminy Duck in Flight
Brahminy Duck in Flight

Spot Bill Duck
Spot Bill Duck

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

Pritesh Kulkarni
Pune