I had heard a lot about Bharatpur so I was eager to visit the place and finally, we planned the visit in January since winter is the best time to visit any birding place. The place welcomed us with a heavy fog giving the indication that coming days will not be easy for us. But we don't bother about such things and keep our focus on finding something unique; such madness helped us with one of the best time with lovely birds. before I start the journey let me tell you about the unique point about this place, Here unlike other forests, you are allowed to stay a whole day in the park till 6pm because of which you get ample time to explore the place completely. The best part of the place is that you can take a bicycle or you can take pulled rickshaw with guide driving and help you to explore the right part of the location.
Our group entered the park with a pulled rickshaw and team of guide to find rare birds, the search begun with our own expert Saurabh along with best guides of the park. On day one we only had a post-lunch session which was spent to understand the location so as we can explore the same in the best possible manner. Next day started with fog with hardly any visibility because of which bird’s routine activity started a bit late but still, we found some beautiful moments with Darter and Jungle Babbler.
During the fog time, we decided to track Darter who is stylish fishing bird; it dives into the water and catches the fish in its beak. We almost spent an hour behind Darter, which rewarded us with some lovely pictures. It was a treat to watch diving darter catching fish, multiple time it jumped into the water but the fewer time it used to catch a lucky fish. After Darter we decided to capture Jungle Babblers, normally people ignores babblers as it is very commonly found in all forests but the way they were playing around in a group we could not stop ourselves to spent time with it. Babblers were posing in such a manner that you can not stop laughing, some pose reminds me of the Angry Birds game. We ended the day early as we had planned a visit to Chambal River for exclusive birds and aquatic animals, the experience was best ever till date. I will take you to Chambal journey in next blog.
Each day we used to get a surprised sighting of rare endangered species, the day started with the extremely lucky sighting of Saras Cranes. A bird who is symbol of marital fidelity, believed to mate for life and pine the loss of their mates even to the point of starving to death. The natural habitat with a little bit of fog with a lovebird performing courtship display is nothing less than the feeling of heaven. Along with Saras, we were gifted with an awesome sighting of Jackal, Eagle with a kill, Sambar fight, Bluethroat bird, Common Kingfisher, Marsh harrier with a kill, Nilgai, followed by a lovely landscape with the sunset of a winter season.
Apart from sighting, the best part was having lunch on open green grassland like a school trip, the USP of the park is that you can do whatever you want without any restriction. This how the trip rewarded us with wonderful memories, I hope I will keep visiting the place every year.
A World Heritage site
The Keoladeo National Park formerly known as the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary is located in Rajasthan. It was declared a protected sanctuary in 197 and It is also a declared World Heritage Site
It is a is a famous avifauna sanctuary that sees thousands of rare and highly endangered birds during the winter season
The sanctuary was created 250 years ago and is named after a Keoladeo (Shiva) temple within its boundaries
These diverse habitats are home to 366 bird species, 379 floral species, 50 species of fish, 13 species of snakes, 5 species of lizards, 7 amphibian species, 7 turtle species, and a variety of other invertebrates
The sanctuary is one of the richest bird areas in the world and is known for nesting of resident birds and visiting migratory birds including water birds
A message of the Day:
Very nice, keep posting ...
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot sir
Delete