On The Cheap ?

Out for a bit of a 'trial and error' by going to the lower reaches of the Chambal River, to see if you can get Indian Skimmer on the cheap... and you can't. The boat was costing me ten quid an hour and by the time I’d got far enough up river and away from any disturbance, it had cost me 50 quid! And all for some very distant views of 5 Skimmers.

The rest of the birding was OK ish, with 3 Egyptian Vultures, 300 Bar-headed Geese, 250 Ruddy Shelduck and lots of River Lapwings and Black-winged Stilts. And several Gharials and Marsh Mugger Crocodiles of course, in all sizes.

Egyptian Vulture

Bar-headed Geese

Black-winged Stilt

Gharial

Marsh Mugger

River Lapwing

Ruddy Shelduck

29th January 2010 Nal Sarovar.

All set for a full day at Nal Sarovar until we got a puncture about 4 miles south of Sanand, the driver then discovered that the spare was also flat and had to walk to Sanand to get it fixed ! This left us to bird at the side of the road for nearly 2 hours, which wasn't so bad with 20+ Red Collared Doves on the overhead wires, a fly-over Egytpian Vulture and 20+ Painted Francolin.
Hired a small boat at Nal Sarovar and was rowed over to one of the small islands, Where we spent about an hour birding - 20+ Citrine Wagtails, 200+ Yellow Wagtails, 20 Temminck's Stint,2 Moustached Warbler (the only sighting for the whole trip), 90+ Clamorous Reed Warbler, 5 Black-breasted Weavers, 50+ Rose-coloured Starlings and 4 Common Starlings.
Back on the lake there were 100+ Dalmatian Pelicans, 1 Asian Openbill, 600+ Greater Flamingo, 3000+ Coot, 100+ Pheasant-tailed Jacana and 5 Pallas's Gulls.
Scanning the distant marsh from the road between the lake and the entrance gate, there were around 800+ Common Cranes, 100+ Demoiselle Cranes and 9 Sarus. About 100+ Ashy-crowned Sparrow Larks were around the waste ground near the shanty town at the lake.
After leaving Nal Sarovar, we managed to get another puncture in virtually the same place as the earlier one ! This worked out really well, as there were 2 Sarus in the field right next to the road.

Black-winged Stilts (loads at Nal Sarovar).

Black-breasted Weaver.

Dalmatian Pelican.

Pheasant-tailed Jacanas.

Rose-coloured Starling.

Red Collared Dove.

Sarus Cranes.

13th February 2010 Valsura and Lakhota Tank.

We visited a place called Valsura, an area of salt pans just north of Jamnagar in the afternoon. The usual stuff was on the salt pans including - 50 Painted Storks, 150+ Black-headed Ibis and 200+ Greater and 50+ Lesser Flamingo. Also a fly over Pallid Harrier and 1000+ Slender-billed Gulls heading for a nearby roost, on the main road through the pans there were 12 Sand Larks.
The evening was spent at Lakhota Tank in Jamnagar, where there were - 350+ Spot-billed Ducks, a Mallard (the only one of the trip), 400+ Ruff, 20 Whiskered Terns, 2 Pallas's Gulls and a Common Buzzard.

Sand Larks.

Black-headed Ibis.

Slender-billed Gulls.

Black-winged Stilt.

Pallas's Gull.

Spot-billed Duck.

February 18th 2008. India.

A bit of an easy day - morning at Arpora, afternoon around the Biera Mar, evening at Diva Island.

3 Black-winged Stilt, 1 Marsh Sandpiper, 7 Little Stints and a Small Pratincole at Arpora.

1 Booted Eagle and a Laggar Falcon at the Biera Mar.

1 Osprey, 1 Peregrine, 2 male Pallid Harrier, 4 Yellow-wattled Lapwing, 1 Great Spotted Eagle, 1 Lesser Spotted Eagle, 1 Black-shouldered Kite, 72 Glossy Ibis, 1 Indian Darter and 2 Black-necked Ibis at Diva Island.