Quick trip to Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary and Bhuleshwar Temple

My last trip was on 2nd October and then I was completely busy with office work. During Diwali festival, we got a day free for outing. We decided to visit Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary and Bhuleshwar Temple which is just 75 km away from Pune. Our friends Abhijit Joshi and Manasi Joshi joined us for this trip.

Chinkara at Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary

About Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary and Bhuleshwar Temple:
               Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary is located near Baramati, Pune district. Forest type is Dry bush forest. The sanctuary is famous for Indian gazelle (Chinkara in Marathi). Other animals found in this forest are hyena, Indian gray wolf and Indian fox. It is also home for a variety of birds.
               Bhuleshwar Temple is located near Yavat and situated on a hill and was built in the 13th century. Temple is of Lord Shiva. It is famous due to classic carving on walls and Nandi statue. Base of Bhuleshwar hill is home for a variety of birds.

To reach at Mayureshwar wildlife, easy way is Pune – Hadapsar – Join Solapur highway – Drive your vehicle 60km from Pune on Highway – take a left at Kedagaon – Drive 20 km – look at right for arch – Take a right for Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary.

To reach at Bhuleshwar Temple, Pune – Hadapsar - Join Solapur highway – Yavat – Take a right at Yavat – Drive 8 km and take a right for Bhuleshwar temple hill.

You can spend half day or full day along with your camera and binoculars.

12th Nov 2015: Pune - Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary - Bhuleshwar Temple – Pune (Total 200km drive):
               We woke up by 5.30 AM and left Pune at 6.30 AM with our friends Abhijit and Manasi. Soon we reached Solapur highway. The highway was in excellent condition. Due to wide and smooth road, we were able to reach Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary in 1 hour. I was aware of permit process so I parked my vehicle at the forest office. Hiring a guide for safari is not compulsory and you can visit park with your own vehicle as well. After all mandatory process, we entered in the park area.

Entrance gate of Sanctuary

               Drive around 1.5 km from forest office and there is narrow rough road takes you into forest area. There are two water trenches in the forest which are drinking water source for animals. We decided to visit these places first. When we entered in the sanctuary, we saw few Indian gazelle. They were quite far away from us but we were not expecting so early sighting of them. There is a mud road inside the sanctuary with huge grasslands and some areas with shrubs, a very good area for Chinkara and other grassland birds & animals.

Chinkara

Chinkara

               We started our Safari towards the water source. It was nice experience to explore dry bush forest area. We spend more than 3 hours in the park. We saw more than 25-30 Chinkara in mammals category whereas in birds, we spotted Steppe Eagle, Grey-necked Bunting, Sykes’s Lark, Tree Pipit, Indian Thick-knee, Red Collared Dove, Common Hoopoe, Small Minivet, Common Kestrel, Rufous Tailed Lark, Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark, Grey Wagtail, Yellow Wagtail, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Asian Koel, Long-tailed Shrike, Bay-backed Shrike, Scaly-breasted Munia, Little Egret, Red-breasted Flycatcher, White-throated Kingfisher, Laughing Dove, Green Bee-eater, Common Woodshrike, Yellow-wattled Lapwing and Black Drongo.

Green bee eater

              I was carrying my 55-250mm lens hence was unable to click any bird photos and it was my first visit in Mayureshwar sanctuary hence the focus was on Chinkara. Another attraction in the park is Indian Courser. It is known as Dhavik in Marathi due its special walking style which is like running. We unable to spot him but decided to visit again for Indian Courser. We enjoyed our safari till 11 and decided to leave this place.

Common Hoopoe

Ready for crossing...Chinkara

               Our next destination was Bhuleshwar Temple near Yavat. We were hungry and took lunch break in famous restaurant named Kanchan near Yavat toll booth. Food here is very tasty and definitely worth trying once when you’re on Solapur highway.

Tent stay at Mayureshwar wildlife sanctuary

Forest route

               After a delicious lunch we came at Bhuleshwar Temple. This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. As per mythology it was a fort which was called as 'Mangalgadh'. It is said that Parvati danced for Shiva and from here they went to Kailash and got married. Temple was built during the period of 1230 AD during Yadava Rulers. The temple is made in two layers. The first layer i.e. the temple wall structure which is Yadav era is made from black Basalt stone, while the second layer i.e. the shikhar structure is made in lime and gypsum, and was constructed during the Maratha-Peshwa period.

Bhuleshwar Temple

              Entry to Bhuleshwar Temple is quite interesting. While entering in the temple shrine, you can see a huge wall and immediate steps on left as well as right side which take you inside the temple. Idol of Nandi is very beautiful which is placed in front of the shrine. It serves as the mount (Vaahan in Marathi) of the lord Shiva and as the gatekeeper of Shiva and Parvati.

Idol of Nandi

Beautiful carving at Bhuleshwar

               Carvings on the temple walls and pillars are stunning and every picture is different than the other. There are depictions of scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata on either side of temple like “Sita-haran”, “Bharat-Milap” etc. Apart from its awesome architectural standpoints both from inside and outside, the most mesmerizing thing one can notice about it is that there are several sculptures of Hindu male gods which are represented in female body and attire, especially the lord Ganesha, which is very rare to experience..!!

We spend around an hour and left this place by 3 PM. We reached home safely by 4 PM

Expense

• Car Petrol: INR 1000/- (Approx. 14 Lit)
• Car toll: INr 37.50/- return entry
• Mayureshwar sanctuary Entry fee: INR 30/- per person
• Mayureshwar sanctuary Vehicle entry fee: INR 100/- for car
• Mayureshwar sanctuary Camera charges: INR 50/- per camera
• Kanchan Veg hotel: INR 690/- for 4 people (Masala Papad, 2 south Indian dishes, 1 veg Panjabi, Roti, Lassi, lime soda and milk shake)

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

Pritesh Kulkarni

Pune

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

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

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

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 

Whiskered Tern

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

Portrait

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.

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

Looking for something? - Stilt bird

Purple Moorhen

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

            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

I am too Shy - SeaGull

Spoonbill

SeaGull in Flight

Bay Backed Shrike

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