BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="richard jb" data-source="post: 1741214" data-attributes="member: 72753">5/12 - 13/12As this wasn't exclusively a birding trip we decided to head to Khajuraho next, and after a couple of nights on trains and a bus journey we arrived. The sandstone temples here are phenomenal and well worth the trip. Accommodation here is cheap and the small town is geared up for tourists while managing to be quiet and fairly hassle free. The usual common birds, including Indian Grey Hornbill, Coppersmith Barbet and Red Breasted Flycatcher can be found in trees and scrub around the temples. Brown Rock Chats are common.  Our next stop was Varanasi. We arrived at 3am after a horrendous overnight bus journey involving changes at truck stops. The train was fully booked for days as Varanasi is a big tourist stop.We made our way down to the ghats and watched a Spotted Owlet hunt until it got light. Pied Kingfisher and White Browed Wagtail were common. We didn't enjoy Varanasi at all. It's notorious for hassle and conmen but we got very little attention. It's famous for being a vibrant, atmospheric, holy centre of Hinduism but we saw little of this. It felt a bit like Indiadisneyland. The Ganges is in a sorry state here, I don't know if Gangetic Dolphin is still present but we saw no sign.We saw caged birds for sale for the first time.From Varanasi we took a train to Gaya, and then travelled on to Bodhgaya, which is famous for being the place of Gautama Buddha's attainment of nirvana (enlightenment). There was an international chanting ceremony on while we were there. By this point I was well and truly fed up with the lack of birding, but this area showed some promise, and even provided some new birds.Asian KoelPalm SwiftBrown Headed BarbetEurasian Golden OrioleAsian OpenbillPossible Slender Billed Oriole (it didn't call so I wouldn't claim it, despite noting a down curved bill. I didn't have my field guide at the time and wasn't aware of the distinguishing features from Black Naped Oriole) Bodhgaya itself is another 'holy' town full of tourists and all of the negative elements they inevitably attract in India.A man attempted to sell us some fledgling Scaly Breasted Munias out of a small cage. I admit to letting off a little steam after biting my lip during various unpleasant situations over the past few days (Italian junkies, the constant arm/hand grabbing by beggars, an attempted theft, a petrol bomb+riot situation etc). It fell on deaf ears and he ran away in the end.Our next stop was to be Chilka Lake in Orissa. Our train was 2, then 8, then 12 then 19 hours late. Gaya is not the kind of place you want to be stuck. At one point a crowd of about 40 men gathered around to stare, completely encircling us. It's fair to say there are more bad than good stories from this section of our trip, so I'll move on now! There may be some excellent, undiscovered birding in this region but I wasn't keen on finding out...</blockquote>

Verification