[kittykat23uk]

Hi all,

finally getting round to writing up my recent trip to India. The tour was organised and led by my good friend Jo Thomas who runs Wild About India, a company specialising in tailormade tours to India (www.wildaboutindia.com). The group comprised, Jo, her 8 yr old twin daughters Emily and Becky, her parents, Sheila and Barry, fellow BFer Richard, some keen photographers, Gordon, Martin, Dave and Claire, another lady called Isobel, my friend Fran and of course myself. Joining us for the duration of the trip was Ranno, who owns Hotel Sunbird in Bharatpur.

Day 1

We arrived into Delhi just before lunchtime on the 11th Feb after our direct Virgin atlantic flight from Heathrow. I won't go into too much detail but suffice to say I was shocked by the poor service on the flight and would certainly not reccommed Virgin for this route (we went with BA last time and that was much better).

We had hoped to reach Bharatpur by late afternoon but, due to terrible traffic in Delhi we did not arrive until around 7PM that evening after a nice meal and some time getting aquainted we headed to bed for an early start the next morning. I would say in hindsiht that it is definitely better to arrive into Delhi on an early morning flight and escape the city as soon as possible. On our last visit we got in at 0520 and that allowed us to reach Hotel Sunbird in time for lunch and so gave us the afternoon to explore Bharatpur. On this trip we had two full days at Bharatpur so the lack of birding on our first day was not really a problem in any case.

I didn't bother with a bird list for this first day, given we were in transit but we did see several common species such as bank and common mynahs, black kite, black drongo, white throated kingfisher etc.

Day 2 Bharatpur

Last time I visited the park in November 2007 it was a real disappointment as it was completely dry. This time I am delighted to report that it was almost back to its former glory of the mid 1990's (minus the vultures of course!).

There was plenty of water this time and plenty of birds to keep all the photographers interested. Rather than write an exhaustive list (I'll leave that to the end) I'll just show you some photos:

From left to right, collared scops owls, Brahminy starling, pond heron, little cormorant, five striped bush squirrel.

[kittykat23uk]

Some more photos. Intermediate egret, white breasted water hen, Painted stork, Nilgai and juvenile purple heron.

[kittykat23uk]

And more from the same day:

Pond heron, jungle crow, little heron, oriental magpie robin, black crowned night heron.

[kittykat23uk]

A few more still the first day!! Yellow crowned woodpecker, sacred Ibis, common kingfisher, bronze-winged Jacana, adult purple heron. We also saw a black Bittern skulking in the trees with a large fish in its mouth. Sadly I didn't mmanage to get a shot of it.

[kittykat23uk]

Day 3 Bharatpur

Jo organised a guide for the group who happened to be the same member of the Bombay Natural History Society who had co-led my very first trip to India with the YOC back in 1995. he even still had a photo of the group which he showed to me. We spent some time looking for python, but sadly didn't see any. However we did get some nice opportunities to photograph purple sunbirds. We saw from left to right Indian Monitor lizardspotted owlet, (dusky eagle owl but not close enough to get a photo this time). We also searched the orchard for nightjars and saw both Indian Grey and large tailed nightjars.

[kittykat23uk]

Rhesus Macaques are common in the park and we came across a group of them along one of the wooded tracks. We also came across several different raptors including Honey Buzzard, Indian and greater spotted eagles, Egyptian Vulture Crested serpent eagle, shikra and black shouldered Kite.

[kittykat23uk]

Below are Crested Serpent eagle, Black shouldered Kite (Juvenile), Great white egret and Shoveler, white throated kingfisher, rose-ringed parakeet. Near the central temple is a tower viewing platform, from there you can view a huge swathe of flooded grassland. In the distance we saw Sarus cranes. There are loads of ducks to be seen from this tower, including many eurasian teal, wigeon, cotton teal, coot, pintail, both bronze winged and pheasant tailed Jacana, purple gallinules, white breasted water hens, garganey, shoveler, red-crested pochard, bar-headed geese, the list goes on!

[kittykat23uk]

Painted storks were everywhere- compare this to the two that I saw on my last trip- the difference is staggering! This one has an Indian Darter in the background sunning himself. There were lots of Grey herons too. A typical view of a stork rookery is shown below. Comb ducks were also common, and the last of this batch is a purple gallinule.

[kittykat23uk]

smaller birds were well-represented too. A few of note were black redstart, grey-headed canary flycatcher, common woodshrike, long-tailed and bay backed shrikes, common, large grey and jungle babblers, white cheeked bulbul, various mynahs and starlings and a selection of warblers.

[kittykat23uk]

Mammals were well represented too with sightings of large indian mongoose and several golden jackals as well as Rhesus Macaques, Nilgai and sambar deer.

[joannec]

Great report so far kittykat! I love that Black shouldered kite, what a beauty.

Looking forward to the next part!

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks Joanne. So the trip continues.

We saw a couple of painted snipe towards the end of the day and then finished the day with a bit of birding in the local fields outside the park along bird sanctuary road, between the park and Hotel sunbird. Key species we saw were Yellow wattled lapwing, and two Indian coursers.

Day 4 Bharatpur- beyond Keoladeo and on to Chambal

Our guide took us to a birding spot outside the park boundaries this morning which was a local river (which also seemed to serve as the local local latrine so it was essential to watch our steps when birding!) However, the birding itself was quite rewarding with another pair of painted snipe, and a selection of waders including Marsh and wood sandpiper, ruff, black winged stilt, red-wattled lapwing, Temminks stint, as well as white throated kingfisher, bluethroat and citrine wagtail.

[kittykat23uk]

Marsh sand, Black winged stilt, Bluethroat, and before we left Sunbird, we finshed off by birding the same fields so that some other members of the group who had chosen to visit a local school the day before, got the chance to see the coursers. We also added Tawny pipit, ashy-crowned sparrow-lark, chestnut shouldered petronia, Indian silverbill, yellow throated sparrow and crested lark to the list.

[kittykat23uk]

So, after lunch we then headed off to our next port of call which was the National Chambal Sanctuary and Chambal safari lodge. This was another of the sites I visited with Ian last time so I was looking forward to meeting everyone again and of course taking the boat trip along the river. With the boat trip scheduled for the next day, we spent what was left of the afternoon birding around the grounds. We saw Hoopoe, Plum-headed parakeets, brown hawk owl, and barred buttonquail, brown headed barbet and coppersmith Barbet amongst others. Mammals around the lodge included indian fruit bats and Indian palm civets- although the latter did not show as well as they had last time I was there.

[kittykat23uk]

Day 5 Chambal

The next morning we were out reasonably early for the boat trip on the Chambal river. This is a great site to find Indian Skimmers, Gharial and if you are lucky, gangetic dolphin. However, we were not fortunate on this occasion. Nevertheless it was a fab trip and here are a few of the photos:

Indian Skimmers, black francolin, red wattled lapwing, Lesser whistling ducks.

[kittykat23uk]

A few more, Greater thicknee, river lapwing, Black Ibis, Ruddy shelduck and Pied Kingfisher

[kittykat23uk]

A few shots of the reptiles, Marsh Mugger, Gharial, and a couple of river terns. We also saw a Blue Rock thrush.

[kittykat23uk]

There were lots of small pratincoles, a couple of long legged buzzards and a bank Mynah posed well for a photo. After lunch back at the lodge it was off to Agra for an afternoon of sightseeing. We only had time to visit the Taj Mahal (my third visit!). After wich we had a nice meal at a local restaurant before heading to Agra station to catch our train to Jabalpur.

Relying on Ranno to get us to our allotted seats proved not to be the wisest of moves as a mad scramble found us on the wrong part of the train which happened to be going to somewhere else (and about 10 carriages from where we needed to be)! After much discussion and with the porters' help, it was decided to move all of our bags as far down the carriages as we could get before the next station, whereupon we then had another mad dash with all our luggage a further three carriages down the platform with only four minutes to make the run before the train departed. Sufice to say that Jo and Ranno were hanging on for dear life as the train left the platform and if it wasn't for a judicious use of the emergency break we might well have left them behind!

After breathing a collective sigh of relief the majority of us decided to get an early night whilst Fran, Richard and Ranno got through gratuitous amounts of indian rum and another curry that Ranno purchased on the train.

[kittykat23uk]

A few pics from Agra/the train. Cobra at the restaurant in Agra, me in the wrong part of the train. Next installment- Kanha National park

[tjbirdofprey]

great report and great photos

[kittykat23uk]

Thanks! So,

Day 6 Kanha

we arrived into Jabalpur a little late at about 8am and were met and taken for breakfast at hotel Krishna and then we drove out to Krishna Jungle Lodge at Kanha. We arrive in time for lunch. In the grounds of the hotel we saw Hanuman languars, lots of different butterflies a pair of collared scops owl and some interesting looking lizards. After lunch we then commenced the afternoon jeep safari into this diverse National Park. Key species of mammal which I had not seen in the other tiger reserves but that are common here include Gaur (asiatic Bison) and Barasingha (also known as swamp deer). Other common mammals that we saw were wild boar, cheetal (spotted deer) and Sambar.

Given the size of the group, we were split between several vehicles. On this drive, I recall Fran, Issy, Ranno and I were in one jeep, Jo and her family were in another, Dave and Claire were on their own in one and the Gordon, Richard and Martin were in another.

That afternoon, none of the group were lucky enough to see tiger. However, Jo's group got really lucky seeing a pair of Dhole (wild dog) and two sloth bear. Dave and Claire also had a good sighting of a jungle cat. However, the vehicle that I was in was not so lucky and, whilst we did have a nice game drive, we missed out on the more interesting mammals.

[kittykat23uk]

We did see some new birds though including a Jungle bush quail and got good views of black-rumped flameback and Changeable hawk eagle..

[kittykat23uk]

The good selection of wildlife sightings had by other members of the group gave us all high expectations of the next couple of days.

Day 7 Kanha

We were up at 04.30 for an early morning game drive. As with all the tiger parks I have been to, the guides try and get to the front of the queue for when the park opens which in thic case meant that, after a quick cup of tea, we were in the vehicles by 0530 and at the park entrance just before dawn. The park opened at 0615 just as it starts to get light. As it was just before dawn it was freezing cold. Thankfully we came prepared with fleeces, Berghaus, hats and gloves. As with Bandhavgarh, there is always a scramble to get into the park and it’s reminiscent of the start of a rally- only more disorganized. Each group drives their “gypsy” along their own trails for about the first hour or so to check for pugmarks and listen out for alarm calls before then going on to the central checkpoint to pick up tokens for any elephant rides that may be on offer. At the same time as this, the Mahouts go off in search of tiger away from the trails on their elephants.

We were in the same groups as the day before and the morning got off to a great start for everyone when we found out that a tiger show was in the offing. Away from the roads, the Mahouts had found a five year old tigress relaxing in some bushes. We took it in turns for the elephant rides with Fran and I going first and Issy and Ranno following.

It was fantastic to see this most stunning of cats not more than a couple of metres away. As with the last elephant encounter I had with a tiger, the mahouts got too close and she snarled, stood and walked a short distance with several of us in hot pursuit. She settled again in some thicker scrub and we then watched as the mahout instructed his charge to clear as much of the vegetation as possible. But in the end she was still quite obscured from our view. After a few minutes our time was sadly up and we had to return to the jeeps.

But it was an amazing experience. Some people talk about tioger viewing being addictive. I have been lucky enough to see tigers on all three occasions that I have been to India as well as lions, leopards and cheetahs in Africa and I can tell you that nothing compares to seeing a tiger in the wild, it is something special and it will certainly keep me coming back to India time and again to get my fix!

It was also wonderful to share the experience with Fran as it was her first time in India and what a great expereince to share!

[kittykat23uk]

We also saw some good birds, such as indian roller, spotted dove, Little green bee-eater, Jungle owlet crested serpent eagle

[kittykat23uk]

We tried to find sloth bear in the meadow but sadly they had disappeared from view by the time we got there. We did find a Lesser Adjutant Stork.