MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A very intense day and a half's conference (environmental management of airports) based in the truly excellent Delhi AeroCity JW Marriott on the outskirts of Delhi allowed me just a couple of hours at the the top and tail of the second day for some opportunistic birding. An unexpectedly productive tour of the airport delivered a decent range of spectacular, if common, species plus a surprise mammal in the triangular scrap of bush jammed between the Aerocity and the edge of town.
A 10pm arrival at the hotel on Wednesday 9th March killed off any chance of birding on the day before the conference started. But peering hopefully into a polluted dawn the next morning I did pick up my first birds on the narrow strip between the highway and the airport fence. Common Myna, Hooded Crow, Red-vented Bulbul and a Laughing Dove, all poorly seen through the double glazing were hardly the stuff of dreams, but the same most emphatically could not be said for the magnificent Indian Peafowl that sauntered along a path through the scrub to review the morning traffic before scampering hastily away as a perambulating commuter spooked him off the path. The only other bird was a much less twitchy and typically elegant Red-wattled Lapwing; a bird that had, much to my surprised, graced the roof of the hotel during my previous conference visit to Delhi some six years earlier.
Next morning, having used Google Maps to identify a better-vegetated corner close to the hotel, I walked past a couple of piles of loosely strewn rubbish and into an area of tall trees with a scrubby understory over a crazy tumult of holes, trenches and disturbed foundations of long-razed buildings. No matter, the birding was pretty good – starting with a quintessentially Indian scene as a tumble of dusty-brown Jungle Babblers picked their way over a pile of discarded marigold garlands, a trio of small stripy squirrels in close attendance. A female Black Redstart was exploring the ground a little further on, and a constant bubbling chatter and scurrying shapes finally revealed itself as a flock of portly and stressy Grey Francolins. I never got near a briefly heard barbet sp. but then scored well as an Indian Grey Hornbill floated into the top of an open-crowned tree and a female Purple Sunbird zipped up onto a branch to inspect me before zipping on again with equal alacrity. I was pleased to find a splendid male Indian Peafowl in the top of a tree, and another dragged its magnificent tail across the foundation of the abandoned orange-and-cream-striped water tower, which held impressively large bee colonies on the lofty underside of the tank.
A second Indian Grey Hornbill in a different tree turned out to be the first of a group of six that flatly refused to be spooked by a female Shikra that dropped among them, but was clearly too small to pose a threat. Other bits and pieces included a briefly seen phyllosc that was probably a Hume’s Leaf Warbler, a Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, and a treeful of House Crows silhouetted against the sky on the far side of the trees. Well-pleased with the return on my efforts I headed back to the hotel for breakfast and more conferencing. A Black Drongo perched high on a street light just outside the gate was the final bird of the morning.
Cheers
Mike
A 10pm arrival at the hotel on Wednesday 9th March killed off any chance of birding on the day before the conference started. But peering hopefully into a polluted dawn the next morning I did pick up my first birds on the narrow strip between the highway and the airport fence. Common Myna, Hooded Crow, Red-vented Bulbul and a Laughing Dove, all poorly seen through the double glazing were hardly the stuff of dreams, but the same most emphatically could not be said for the magnificent Indian Peafowl that sauntered along a path through the scrub to review the morning traffic before scampering hastily away as a perambulating commuter spooked him off the path. The only other bird was a much less twitchy and typically elegant Red-wattled Lapwing; a bird that had, much to my surprised, graced the roof of the hotel during my previous conference visit to Delhi some six years earlier.
Next morning, having used Google Maps to identify a better-vegetated corner close to the hotel, I walked past a couple of piles of loosely strewn rubbish and into an area of tall trees with a scrubby understory over a crazy tumult of holes, trenches and disturbed foundations of long-razed buildings. No matter, the birding was pretty good – starting with a quintessentially Indian scene as a tumble of dusty-brown Jungle Babblers picked their way over a pile of discarded marigold garlands, a trio of small stripy squirrels in close attendance. A female Black Redstart was exploring the ground a little further on, and a constant bubbling chatter and scurrying shapes finally revealed itself as a flock of portly and stressy Grey Francolins. I never got near a briefly heard barbet sp. but then scored well as an Indian Grey Hornbill floated into the top of an open-crowned tree and a female Purple Sunbird zipped up onto a branch to inspect me before zipping on again with equal alacrity. I was pleased to find a splendid male Indian Peafowl in the top of a tree, and another dragged its magnificent tail across the foundation of the abandoned orange-and-cream-striped water tower, which held impressively large bee colonies on the lofty underside of the tank.
A second Indian Grey Hornbill in a different tree turned out to be the first of a group of six that flatly refused to be spooked by a female Shikra that dropped among them, but was clearly too small to pose a threat. Other bits and pieces included a briefly seen phyllosc that was probably a Hume’s Leaf Warbler, a Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, and a treeful of House Crows silhouetted against the sky on the far side of the trees. Well-pleased with the return on my efforts I headed back to the hotel for breakfast and more conferencing. A Black Drongo perched high on a street light just outside the gate was the final bird of the morning.
Cheers
Mike
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