Wanted to write blog for a long time, even made it a long time ago but as title suggests my laziness came across :P
But I couldn't resist today. Yesterday on 23rd January I participated in my first ever Bird Race and it was dombivli's first too! And what a coincidence it was my birthday. Let me tell you what is a BirdRace, you have to watch and report the birds you found on that day in the limited area but you can decide your route. I got a mail regarding this race and I thought we can nail this! I had to have min. 3 members, two were me and my friend omkar who is with me since childhood and a very good bird watcher at the age of 20. We needed third member, omkar got in contact with our third teammate through a common friend who was already a member of team. 3rd member Nikhil was from thane and knew the areas better than us also was equally good at spotting and iding. Also we were depending on him for transport. We did the whole birdrace on a bike!! Three people on one bike (My mom doesn't know until now she will surely panic!) , it still hurts you know where ;)
Now with actual Report.
Me and omkar both lived in girgaon, south of mumbai there was orientation on day before race, so we had to sleep at our relatives he was in thane and me in dombivli. After we attended the orientation we met our teammate and got our logbooks and decided our plan for the next day.
We decided that first we should cover the gandhari river and nearby forest/scrub. First I opposed this idea as I have never even heard of that place and sightings were no that good in number. But we took decision- Morning-Gandhari ,Afternoon-Ganesh ghat or the khadi. After that nilje, this was our original plan and we made some alternations to it too. I came to kalyan staion and we started the race they saw birds like, Tailor bird, Black-crowned night heron, On the way!
Gandhari-Morning we started at about 7.oo am as it was pretty cold. My first bird was Common sandpiper as we reach near the river then some white throated kingfishers, B.tailed godwits. Then we started to walk as we left the concrete road. We started with seeing general/scrub species Like munias, Common stonechat, Long-tailed shrikes etc. Also there was a marshy area around where we saw prinias, a lone bluethroat, many pied starlings. Also got some pretty good shots of Black shouldered kite. Saw grey heron flying, bay backed shrikes drongos etc.
Then, saw a pied bushchat male, Common teals flew as we saw them on a lake. Later, as we walked deeper we started to get forest species, like Yellow footed green pigeon, Indian grey hornbill, Paradise flycatchers, small minivets, yellow crowned woodpecker, black-nap monarch, sunbirds, black-headed cuckoo shrike to name a few. We frequently saw house and asian palm swifts. Also, got tawny bellied babbler which was a good catch and three prinias; plain, ashy and jungle. Few to add were common king fisher and paddyfield pipits. Also, saw a shikra while, coming to the road. As we tallied the count we couldn't believe it was 70!
#1 Ashy drongo
#2 Common Kingfisher
#3 Long-tailed shrike-Awesome moment we witnessed him catching this bug.
#4 Tawny-bellied babbler- I saw this bird second time and photo for first time!
While going to ganesh ghat a hawaldar caught us as we were three. Then after trying out our binocs and making sure that we were birdwatching he let us go.
Ganesh ghat- We had a lot of expectations for this spot as common pochard, mallard etc. were regularly seen here. But it was a ghat used for ganpati visarjan. In hot afternoon we added yellow wagtail, river tern and three swallows to our list; Barn, red-rumped and wire-tailed.
Nilje lake- Nilje lake is a medium sized lake situated inside nilje village once used to be larger in size. We knew certain species to add here. As, expected we saw, Comb ducks, lesser whistling teals, cotton pygmy ducks, Northern shovelers, Purple swamphen, Common moorhen, Common coot and both jacanas; Bronze-winged and a lone pheasant tailed juvenile. Both jacanas are lifers (Birds I saw first time) For me so I was quite happy.
Comb duck- Female
Purple swamphen, Bronze-winged jacana in back.
Our original plan ended here so we decided to do a new spot, Bhopar. I wanted to go to that spot after nikhil told us that white, oriental white and woolly necked storks are frequently seen there. That's something amazing. But it was pretty far away and we had to walk some distance in crazy hot sun..
Bhopar- It was quite a big lake with green patches and grass all around. While walking towards that lake we had to par the desertish sandy area. But, got lucky there to see rufous tailed larks, Paddyfield pipits and a crested lark. We started with seeing cormorants and purple heron at the lake. But it was looking empty and dissapointing. Then we decided to go other side which was more fruitful. As, we saw sandpipers, northern pintails, many spot-billed ducks and pacific golden plovers very far minutely seen only in photos. Pacific Golden plovers in there plumage was fantastic about 30-40 of them another lifer for me! suddenly we were seeing a lot of birds as evening came close. A raptor came and disappeared before we could ID him. Then a osprey put up a good show with diving and hovering in front of us. Eurasian marsh harriers were plenty too.
Suddenly we spotted two birds with a long white neck flying at a far distance all said at once "Woolly necked storks!" also, saw them chased out by a black kite, fabulous experience. Lifer no. 4. After seeing those we ended our hectic day as we were first ones to arrive on the venue.
On way to bhopar lake- Habitat shot of pipits and larks.
Shikra
An Osprey that we saw fishing too!
Eurasian marsh harrier, there were plenty of these.
We survived the whole day on water and a packet of bread-butter, Even I cannot believe it now! We were frequently visiting the experts for warbler ID's and some confirmations.
After taking a lot of time winners were announced 2nd price bird count-90. 1st price Oriental dwarf kingfishers with a count of 105. Which was our team!! We had won and it was a great feeling. The best birthday gift I can ever ask for. Thanks nyass org. for conducting it and thanks to my teammates.
These are my views you may disagree. Photos copyright shantanu, Nikon D3000, Nikkor 55-300 VRII.
Thanks for reading, Do post comments and suggestions :)
