Lovely readers, hope you all are rocking and ready for festival season, get set to go for a Diwali vacation to explore our own nature.
So, you will be thinking what’s there in the bucket today, is it Tiger/Lion what else. Let me tell you this time no animals for sure but a different place with a unique offering.
You must have noticed the title of the
blog, it is about migratory birds and that is too from the land of Bhuj. The first time
I got an opportunity to visit Gujarat side to evaluate different types of
species. Let me take you to Bhuj directly to know more details.
BHUJ THE EPICENTER
Long awaited trip to Gujarat, I always
wanted to visit Run of Kutch but somehow the timing needed to match. This time
Prathamesh (from Nature Explorer) updated me with this wonderful opportunity
somewhere in May month, without taking more time I immediately confirmed my
booking in advance for the September end trip.
The main reason to visit here in this
season is to see passage migration, which means some birds while migrating from
Africa or European countries take a halt at Bhuj for a couple of months and they
continue their journey ahead. So this is the short time we get an opportunity to capture them
plus some of these birds are found only at Bhuj so all the more reason to visit
this place.
Now you would be thinking what is Epicenter.
So the place where we stayed (Bharat Bhai Kapdi’s owned Home Stay) is known as
Epicenter, the name is Epicenter because Bhuj was the Epicenter of one of the
most deadly earth quacks a couple of decades ago. In other words, you can also say
this place is the Epicenter of passage migration.
Now you are aware of what is special about the
place, let us move to the next step to see the virtual world through the lens of
this blog.
Birds, food, and dhokha
Birds
This tour is the 3D tour, I mean 3 dimensions
to it, or you can say 3 parts to it, I am sure with the title you got some hint. Let’s
talk about each dimension one by one.
Firstly, let’s start with Birds, as I explained
this place becomes special due to the arrival of special birds. We the gang of 13 including Abir (7-year-old Kido) who is equivalent to all of us started the
journey together from Dadar, with discussion on what would be the target, what we would get, etc.
Though this was the first time
experienced going to the field directly from the time of arrival, upon arrival first went to the hotel/homestay and the Safari starts at around 3pm,
but here due to harping on an opportunity for morning time, we did not want to let go
the chance. We reached out immediately and started evaluating the field. You will
not believe within 15/20 minutes the first target was achieved, we got Rufous-tailed scrub Robin and many other species in the next couple of hours.
We managed to get these things thanks to the efforts of
Bharat Bhai, all the groundwork he had kept ready, daily monitoring, and tracking
helped us to find birds easily.
The activity to find other targets continued in
two slots, morning and evening without any feeling of tiredness. The time came to search for the most awaited bird "Eurasian nightjar". We were trying to find this lovely
rare species but had no luck; even we tried at night and spent 45 minutes but remained without luck.
Now we had the last chance with a lot of
hope, Hope means “Ummid” Baba BT ne bola hai “Ummid pe Duniya Kayam hai warna
Kayam Churan hai” so what do you think what we had?. Finally, with an expert on roll, we managed
to find the key species of this land “Eurasian nightjar” It was like hitting 6
on the last ball so Kayam Churan's plan got canceled 😜
During the last visit the plan was to visit sun
temple to get mouse tailed Bat (Munni Badnam hui COVID tere liye) Bechara BAT
badnam hai COVID ke liye after the Bat, we got some glimpse of Weaver bird and
come back to homestay to bag pack return to the origin
Food
We just cannot ignore the food part of
this trip, to find a bird you need a lot of energy which comes from food, if you
get the best then your tempo goes high.
The food trail started on day 1 morning
when we had breakfast in the vehicle (the style we followed throughout the trip),
A variety like Upma, Handvo, Poha, Thepla with Thecha and fruits were
amazing, we just loved it.
After breakfast, the Kuchhi lunch and
dinner had their own charm, Bajri Rotla with Onion Papdi sabzi, buttermilk
(Kucchi Beer) Khichdi Kadhi, and many more were just outstanding, and the last
Bharat Bhai ended the food trail at Bhuj with Kutchi Dabeli, what more you can
ask for
The trail continued on the train as well,
if you have BT Food Art with you how can you miss Surti specialties, we had
Mejbani of Surti Locha, Sev Khamni, Samosa, Gathiya, and Kadhi and added with Start
fruits, this is how birding trip changed to food trip
Now you would be thinking yeh Dhokha
hai ya Dhokla confusion hai na?
Dhoka
Certainly, it is Dhoka, my camera body gave me Dhokha, though it was my fault for mishandling it but on day 1 it stopped
working so I had to borrow point in shoot camera from Bharat Bhai so somehow
could manage to get snaps. So now the question is where is the Dhoka, it is Dhoka
because it started working on the last day of the trip without doing anything to it. Dhoke Baaz's last day ko at the end of the trip started working fine but lost the moments, hope it will not give Dhokha again.
Special mention
This blog need to have this special mention, let me tell both these species need special mention their name is Abir
Sharma and Bharat Kapdi
Abir is special because, at the age of 7, his command over identifying birds that is too during bird flight is just god's
gift and his efforts of reading and getting into the depth of it. Without a Camera
and with Binocular the champion rocked. At this age normally Kidos take time to
adapt to hot weather and the comfort of their food habits but little Champ never
gave any discomfort to his father and enjoyed the trip most. Load of wishes and
blessings to the little champ.
Bharat Bhai owner of Epicenter Homestay, a person who is a businessman who got into wildlife and took himself to such a
level with in-depth knowledge of the field and detailing of species is commendable.
His personal attention during the trip in sighting plus giving comfort to travelers
at all stages is much appreciated and deserves special mention.
Vote of Thanks
Nature
Explorer (erstwhile Mumbai Travellers) and Team – Many thanks Prathamesh team lead
the tour, your knowledge of the field is truly amazing, keep it up
Co-Travelers
- Many thanks for such a great time
BT Wild Art
Dils se DSLR
Ashy Crowned Sparowlark
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| Eurasian Nightjar |
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| Europian roller |
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| Europian roller |
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| Hoopoe |
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| Blue-cheeked bee-eater |
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| Green Bee Eater |
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| Bay backed shrike |
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| Long legged Buzzard |
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| Mouse Tail Bat |
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| Red Backed Shrike |
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| Rufous-tailed scrub robin |
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| Variable Wheatear |
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| white-tailed Iora |
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| Baya Weaver |
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| Europian roller |
 | |
|
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| Isabelline shrike |
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| Isabelline wheatear |
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| Laughing Dove |
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| Red Backed Shrike |
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| Mouse Tail Bat |
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| Pratincole |
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| Streaked Weaver |
