New Year's Eve with Flying Foxes
Some days back arrived in the Great Rann of Kutch - hot semi-desert, home to a few specials. Key target was Grey Hypocolius. Took a bus out to Moti Viram to a centre set up by an Indian birder, here accommodation and transport was available. Unfortunately the guy was out - so back to the footwork! Hiked and hitched 30 km up a maze of country roads, guessing at which direction to take, hoping I would somehow get to the correct place by dark. Somehow got there two hours before sunset, then had another problem - had no idea where the roost was, other than it should be in a 'toothbrush tree', whatever that might be. All directions looked the same - endless plains of bush scrub, so took a random guess again and headed off. Walked not so far when a villager found me, seemed to understand I was looking for a bird, then started yelling into the distance, whilst happily walking along beside me ...hmm, not going to help my quest to find this elusive bird I thought. Then the reason of his yelling materialised - another guy who uttered a few words of English, but pretty good words ... "Grey Hypocolius, this bush". Somehow, against all odds, I had stumbled to exactly the right spot! So I sat and waited ...15 minutes in flew a pair - what corkers, a mix of Waxwing, shrike and starling all thrown in together! Soon they dropped into the bush and went to sleep. Little later, a female popped in, then another. Wonderful. As the sun began to set, only one lingering doubt remained - how I was going to find my way back through the darkness to where I had dumped my bags 30 km back!
Next day, in this somewhat surreal landscape, bumped into Houbara Bustard, flocks of Indian Coursers and stacks more. Then, in the comfort of a jeep, returned to the Grey Hypocolius site for an eagle extravaganza - in the parched grasslands beyond the hycocolius roost, huge numbers of Steppe Eagles roost on the ground ...and really is huge numbers - drove out onto the open plain and just saw eagles everywhere. Ten sat there, a dozen in that direction, a scan that way another 30 or so. At a very conservative count, there were perhaps 150 scattered about, quite probably double that. Task was to find the few Tawny Eagles in with them - drive up to each one, check it out, then drive onto the next one. Big mighty eagles staring you out at just 10 or 15 metres away is something fantastic. In the evening, tried again for the Grey Hypocolius, but 'only' had a single female this time ...mind you, spent most of the time watching a cracking Cream-coloured Courser that came strutting up and put on a good show. A few Indian Nightjars finished the day off.
So to New Year's Eve, started the day with a twitch - two days before I had found a Red-tailed Wheatear, a particularly good bird, and later bumped into a British birder who was rather keen to get this one. So, hoping I would relocate which patch of arid rocks it was by, today we hiked the several kilometres back into the desert and I slightly surprised myself by refinding the spot, then was further surprised to fing the Red-tailed Wheatear was now two Red-tailed Wheatears! On the way back, ran into a darn good flock of Marchell's Ioras, easily 25 strong, so celebrated back in the village with a good cup of tea (Gujarat is dry in many a respect!).
Now returned to Bhuj, a small town on the edge of the Great Rann to prepare for the next leg of my trip ...but the last animals of 2005 were another of my favourites - flying foxes, hundreds of them. Emerging from a roost, these giant bats were coming over in waves, decending into a fruiting tree that hours before had supported a dozen or so Koels.
Happy New Year all!
Some days back arrived in the Great Rann of Kutch - hot semi-desert, home to a few specials. Key target was Grey Hypocolius. Took a bus out to Moti Viram to a centre set up by an Indian birder, here accommodation and transport was available. Unfortunately the guy was out - so back to the footwork! Hiked and hitched 30 km up a maze of country roads, guessing at which direction to take, hoping I would somehow get to the correct place by dark. Somehow got there two hours before sunset, then had another problem - had no idea where the roost was, other than it should be in a 'toothbrush tree', whatever that might be. All directions looked the same - endless plains of bush scrub, so took a random guess again and headed off. Walked not so far when a villager found me, seemed to understand I was looking for a bird, then started yelling into the distance, whilst happily walking along beside me ...hmm, not going to help my quest to find this elusive bird I thought. Then the reason of his yelling materialised - another guy who uttered a few words of English, but pretty good words ... "Grey Hypocolius, this bush". Somehow, against all odds, I had stumbled to exactly the right spot! So I sat and waited ...15 minutes in flew a pair - what corkers, a mix of Waxwing, shrike and starling all thrown in together! Soon they dropped into the bush and went to sleep. Little later, a female popped in, then another. Wonderful. As the sun began to set, only one lingering doubt remained - how I was going to find my way back through the darkness to where I had dumped my bags 30 km back!
Next day, in this somewhat surreal landscape, bumped into Houbara Bustard, flocks of Indian Coursers and stacks more. Then, in the comfort of a jeep, returned to the Grey Hypocolius site for an eagle extravaganza - in the parched grasslands beyond the hycocolius roost, huge numbers of Steppe Eagles roost on the ground ...and really is huge numbers - drove out onto the open plain and just saw eagles everywhere. Ten sat there, a dozen in that direction, a scan that way another 30 or so. At a very conservative count, there were perhaps 150 scattered about, quite probably double that. Task was to find the few Tawny Eagles in with them - drive up to each one, check it out, then drive onto the next one. Big mighty eagles staring you out at just 10 or 15 metres away is something fantastic. In the evening, tried again for the Grey Hypocolius, but 'only' had a single female this time ...mind you, spent most of the time watching a cracking Cream-coloured Courser that came strutting up and put on a good show. A few Indian Nightjars finished the day off.
So to New Year's Eve, started the day with a twitch - two days before I had found a Red-tailed Wheatear, a particularly good bird, and later bumped into a British birder who was rather keen to get this one. So, hoping I would relocate which patch of arid rocks it was by, today we hiked the several kilometres back into the desert and I slightly surprised myself by refinding the spot, then was further surprised to fing the Red-tailed Wheatear was now two Red-tailed Wheatears! On the way back, ran into a darn good flock of Marchell's Ioras, easily 25 strong, so celebrated back in the village with a good cup of tea (Gujarat is dry in many a respect!).
Now returned to Bhuj, a small town on the edge of the Great Rann to prepare for the next leg of my trip ...but the last animals of 2005 were another of my favourites - flying foxes, hundreds of them. Emerging from a roost, these giant bats were coming over in waves, decending into a fruiting tree that hours before had supported a dozen or so Koels.
Happy New Year all!
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