This was designed as a trip to see tiger with as many birding sites as we could manage within the week. We were keen to see the spectacle of Bharatpur and had targeted Indian Courser, Greater Painted Snipe, Malabar Pied Hornbill and Indian Skimmer as key birds for the week.
We organised our trip through Wild About India and found Jo the UK representative (jo@wildaboutindia.com) to be very helpful and never tired of the constant emails about petty issues which concerned us in the run up to the trip. Wild About India operates through Asian Adventures on the ground. Asian Adventures never let us down. The cars and taxis were always on time with courteous, helpful drivers. The train tickets were bought in advance and led to two unforgettable experiences. All our accommodation was of a good to excellent standard. Tiger trails and The Chambal safari lodge were highlights in terms of food and accommodation not to mention birds. We knew we were very early in the season and that many migratory species would not have arrived. This had a big impact on the potential number of species we would see.
The lack of Monsoon rain also meant that Bharatpur was a massive disappointment from a waterbird perspective but we saw most of the expected species as well as a good number of important raptors.
We flew with Virgin Atlantic leaving LHR at 10pm on 23rd Oct to Delhi where Asian Adventures had a waiting air-conditioned vehicle to take us to Bharatpur. This was a long arduous five hour journey and a full-on introduction to Indian highway code (or lack of it!).
We flew in at 11.00am so by 3pm were getting peckish. Our driver had a place in mind – the New Maharaja Motel. This was not our idea of an authentic Indian Curry House and catered for the Western market with almost Western prices. However the food was very good. We did stop a couple of miles before the Maharaja Motel at some roadside lagoons and spent 20 minutes starting of the bird list. This turned out to be a very sensible move as we saw our only spotbilled ducks of the trip.
Other birds seen included purple swamphen, 2 spotbilled duck, Whiskered tern, black shouldered kite, wood sandpiper, Egyptian vulture, shovellor and garganey.
We arrived at Hotel Sunbird in Bharatpur after dark. Our guide for the following day – Rattan – was already waiting for us to discuss the following day. We were shown to our rooms which were chalet style accommodation at the back of the hotel. The rooms slept two and were well furnished in a colonial style. Most of our meals were organised in advance through Asian Adventures and took the form of a voucher which was given to us when we arrived at Delhi. The voucher was basically a letter outlining the meal tariff we had paid for. The Sunbird owner – Ranveer – was very helpful and we chose as many curries off the menu as we wanted. The food was excellent. Beers were expensive as in all the hotels we stayed in.
Sunday 25th October
We had spoken with Rattan about Indian Courser being a target species and he took us in the Asian Adventures vehicle to a spot some 16 Km down dreadful, pot holed roads where they had been seen earlier in the year. We saw no courser but saw asian koel, southern grey shrike, spotted owlett, chestnut bellied sandgrouse, variable wheatear, rufous treepie, ashy prinia, Indian robin, isabelline shrike, common buzzard, white breasted waterhen, red necked falcon and hoopoe.
This detour had cost us some time so despite the 6.30am start we were eager to get into Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur). We went back to Hotel Sunbird to pick up our packed lunches and at the park Rattan had negotiated us some bikes. These were standard Indian issue (everyone seem to be riding the same make and model). We were able to cover more ground than in the rickshaws and cycle down the smaller, untarmaced paths.
Despite the lack of water we managed to catch up with the follow species during the day.
Black necked stork (2), Eurasian Hobby (in abundance), Dusky eagle owl (1), greater painted snipe (male), Hume’s and greenish warblers, long tailed and bay backed shrike, greater and Indian spotted eagle, short toed, steppe and Bonellis eagle, white eyed buzzard, marsh harrier, Painted stork (1) was a lucky find, besra, shikra, collared scops owl. Wood and green sandpipers, common snipe, white tailed lapwing (2), crested serpent eagle, night heron, Indian pond heron, common and white breasted kingfisher as well as great white, intermediate, little and cattle (Eastern) egret.
Rattan was a good guide and was spot on with his ID of raptors. He was less sure about some of the passerines.
More curries at Hotel Sunbird that evening!
Monday 26th October
Our intention had been to go back into the park and look for nightjar early on and get to grips with some of the smaller phylloscopus warblers but we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Hotel owner Ranveer was aware of our disappointment at not seeing Indian Courser and had located a guide that knew a more current location. His name was Brajinda and he led us to a site some 20Km from Bharatpur (along much better roads) where we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours with 25 Indian Courser, long billed pipits, Tree pipit, Pallid harrier (1), paddyfield pipit, ashy crowned lark sparrow, Indian bushlark (1) yellow wattled lapwing (20+), Eurasian curlew (1), tawny pipit.
He then took us to the most hideous canal imaginable in the centre of Bharatpur where one of the world’s most beautiful birds – female Greater painted snipe and her mate were feeding along with redshank, greenshank, citrine wagtail, wood sandpiper.
That afternoon we drove to Agra where we visited Fhatepur Sikri and the Taj Mahal. The Taj is a fabulous site and well worth the visit. Asian Adventures had organised us a guide and he was excellent. We drove to Chambal Safari Lodge and after seeing a Common Palm Civet ate well on more curries.
Tuesday 27th October
We had an interesting night’s sleep as we were under a tree laden with Fox bats, which made a dreadful racquet on returning to their roost. The lodge owner is a well-educated and likeable man who helpfully confirmed our train tickets for later in the day.
Our guide for the day was Dalveer Singh – a friendly, knowledgeable young man based at Chambal Safari lodge. Paddyfield warbler and Sulphur bellied warblers were found on the banks of the Chambal (30 min drive from the lodge) but no red fronted prinia despite a good search. We also saw long-legged buzzard, desert wheatear and small pratincole on the banks of the Chambal as we drove down to our waiting boat. The boat trip in a small aluminium craft was enjoyable and we had good views of gharial, marsh mugger crocodile, river lapwing, great thick-knee, asian openbill, painted stork, pied kingfisher, black ibis (2) Bonellis eagle, blue rock thrush, brown headed gulls, white browed wagtail, sand lark (2), river and black bellied tern (a highlight), gangetic river dolphin (spectacular). Sadly no Indian skimmer, which do not arrive until late November. The trip on the boat had cost us £40 each. Even if Indian Skimmer had been present we all felt this was a great trip but not worth the expense. India is a very cheap country to visit and something like this appeared out of synch with the rest of the costs incurred.
As we had missed some key water species at Bharatpur, Dalveer took us to a site some 20Km further away. The extra drive was worth it as we had sarus crane (2), glossy ibis (4), woolly necked stork (2), black headed ibis (2), osprey, and 40+ demoiselle cranes.
Train journey from Agra to Umaria over night
Wednesday 28th October – Friday 30th October
After an interesting night on a train in 2nd class a/c accommodation we were met at Umaria station by a driver from Asian Adventures who drove us the 30 minutes to Bhandavgarh and Tiger Trails Camp. This was a wonderful encampment on the edge of the Forest with colonial chalet accommodation around a central meeting/ eating area. The site had been well designed and had a comfortable air. As it was so early in the season we were almost the only visitors.
After enough time to drink some Masalla tea and eat an omelette we were straight out in a safari jeep with a driver and our nature guide called Ram. We spent the next three days with Ram and found him to be highly knowledgeable about both tigers and birds. We had booked six safari trips over the following three days. The trips are organised from 6-10am each morning and 2-5pm each afternoon. The times of the safaris are dictated by the national Park. We spent the fours hours between safaris birding in the vicinity, relaxing and I visited a local school with Ram.
We saw 2 tigers during our visits to Bandhavgarh. Everyday tiger are seen but only 45 vehicles are allowed into the park at any one time. The vehicles follow 4 preset routes which are A,B,C and D. Every vehicle must at some point during the safari visit an area called centre point where there are toilets and locals sell food and drink.
We caught up with most of the local birds either at Tiger trails Camp or in the forest. Here are some of the highlights,,, Tickell’s blue flycatcher, large cuckooshrike, Crested treeswifts, Jungle owlet, Mottled Wood owl (2/3), dusky crag martin, red jungle fowl, lesser adjutant, chestnut bellied nuthatch, white naped flameback, Blyth’s reed warbler, yellow footed green pigeon, orange headed thrush, Tickell’s thrush, changeable hawk eagle, painted spurfowl, stork billed kingfisher, oriental honey buzzard, olive backed pipit, white rumped and long billed vultures, emerald dove, black shouldered kite, Malabar pied hornbill, pied cuckoo, bearded beater, little green beater, common hawk cuckoo.
Saturday 31st October
We took an overnight sleeper back to Delhi which meant 17hours on a train. We were exhausted by the time we arrived at Hotel Sunstar and could have visited a couple of sites around Delhi but chose to buys some gifts from the Cottage Emporium, eat well at Alfa Spice ( a local upmarket restaurant) and drink Kingfisher. We left for the UK the following morning
The complete list was 212 bird species