Travel blogs: March 2015

Monday, 16 March 2015

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

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 on 22 Jan 2014 and our friend Bhavita Toliya accompanied us. 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

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.

16th March 2015: Bhigwan Bird sanctuary (Total distance travel by car: 230km):
As we had to cover around 105-110 km we decided to leave Pune by 3.30 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.

Greater Flamingo

Grey Heron

Small pratincole

When we reached the village at around 5.30 AM, I was surprise by looking at back water. Water level was drastically reduced from last 1.5 month. All birds went far inside for food and will only able to see it after 30 min ride. We were ready and in few min we were on boat for birds. 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.

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.