A last chance

We got up for an early breakfast, packed the car up and then headed back to El Planeron for a last look for Dupont's larks. It was a bit windier but we still heard several singing. David managed to see one but by the time we got there it had disappeared and then Pete managed to find two on a bare patch of ground but again, by the time we arrived they had vanished. Everything went quiet by about 10.00 o'clock again so we headed off towards Bujaraloz. We stopped at the bridge at Sastago where the sky was full of raptors, mainly Griffon vultures but also Golden eagle, black kites and red kites. we carried on but there weren't the birds we expected to see and Laguna la Playa was dry however, we did see a field full of Lesser kestrels. As time was getting on we turned back along the N11 towards Zaragoza and the flight home.

Riglos and La Boca del Infierno.

As we had had good views of the Dupont's larks the day before we decided to head for the pyrenees in the hope of Wallcreeper and Lammergeir.On the way we stopped at Belchite as Pete hadn't been here before. It was very different this time as the sun was shining and there were birds singing instaed of the spooky, misty atmosphere of our last visit. Nevertheless, there was still a feeling of sadness and to see the paint and paper on the walls of the ruined houses made it just as thought provoking. Over 6,000 people died here in the civil war and it really emphasised the stupidity and futility of some of man's activities.

We then headed up the Rio Gallego valley towards Huesca where we turned left for Riglos. A much better trip than last time, when it snowed and visibility was not good. We had been told that the wallcreepers were still there last week so we had high hopes but although we saw lots of Griffon vultures and some egyptian vultures we had no luck with wallcreepers although there were at least 3 groups of climbers on the rocks. there were several stonechats, a Ring ouzel and some swallows to keep our attention. We hung around the back of the church until after 1.00 and then decided to try for the Hecho valley and possible Lammergeier.

What next?

After breakfast we decided to head for Gallocanta, where we had seen 1000's of cranes on our last visit. On the way we stopped at various likely looking places. We managed to see Great tit, Blue tit, Long-tailed tit and Crested tit as well as chiffchaffs and robins. We also had some nice butterflys, including Queen of Spain Frittilary, Green Hairstreak, lots of Bath whites and a blue which turned out to be Panoptes blue.
A very confiding Black redstart greeted us in a car park overlooking the lake and which was still quite full and we made our way along the lake and down a track to a hide which overlooked part of the water. There were still about 15 cranes, but also several ducks and waders including Lapwing, Ruff, ...........
We then returned back to the road stopping off at some trees to look for Green Woodpecker, seeing more chiffchaffs and a pair of Kestrel. We headed home for another great meal in La Gosolinera.

Larks at Sunrise.

Despite forgetting to change the clock forward an hour we managed to get up early and arrived at the reserve a little after sunrise.

El Planeron

Walking around we heard lots of short-toed larks singing but nothing that sounded like a Dupont's. After nearly an hour we were about to give up, thinking that the lost hour getting up had spoiled our chances when I heard the unmistakable sound of a Dupont's singing. It seemed to be coming from a clump of grass a few feet away, so I signalled to the others and waited until we were all close. The bird sang on and off and though we followed it across the 'field' we had no luck with seeing it. A very frustrating half hour or so followed when we could hear but not see birds singing. Finally we decided they must be singing above and one was eventually located about 500 feet up. Even then the sound seemed to come from the ground. We watched it slowly descend and then plummet to earth and crossing the vegetation we managed to locate it and watch it well for a short while.

Pam found another one running through the vegetation and we managed to watch that one getting a few pictures as a record. We kept wandering around seeing Pin-tailed sandgrouse, black-bellied sandgrouse but by around 10.00 it had gone very quiet and we returned to the hotel for breakfast.

Larkrise to El Planeron

Having tried twice before to see Dupont's Lark, we decided to have a short break and concentrate on trying to see this elusive bird.

We landed in spain around 1.00 and by 2.30 we were out on the steppes of El Planeron, a reserve just east of Belchite, which is a strange place. It was blasted to bits during the civil war and rather than try and rebuild it, it was decided to move the inhabitants down the road and to keep the ruins as a memorial. We drove down the tracks looking and listening but no luck. We did see lots of Lesser Short-toed, Calandra and Crested Larks. We saw griffin vultures, kestrels and black kites. We also had swallows and house martins moving through.
As the day was getting late we decided to try a track to the left and as we drove along a l.ark came towards us, what we were looking for!! but it dropped down and disappeared, never to be seen again. We spent the rest of evening walking around but nothing called.

Reluctantly we called it a day at drove to Lecere where we foundour hotel. Very comfortable and clean. We ate a lovely meal in the restaurant next door and went to bed, setting the alarm for 5.00 am.

Last day

As we weren't leaving until the evening we had a leisurely start to our last day with a new driver taking us to Okhla Barrage. We arrived at about 9.00 o'clock and were stunned by the sheer numbers of birds. Ducks and Coots in their thousands and the sky full of Black Kites.

We drove along the east bank and were then taken to a viewing platform in the middle of the marsh. We could see lots of birds which included Black drongo perched on the back of a buffalo, Ferruginous Duck, two Spotted Eagles, a White-tailed Lapwing, a few Brown-headed Gulls, several White-tailed Stonechats, three Yellow-bellied Prinias, Striated and Yellow-eyed Babblers and best of all, a Tickell’s Warbler, Purple Herons and Purple Gallinules were everywhere and there were also lots of Citrine Wagtails to study. We saw a couple of Red-throated Pipits. Little Bee-eaters and Pied Bushchats were everywhere and gave superb views.

We left at 3.15 for Indira Ghandi International Airport for our flight home at 7.05pm having seen 246 species plus 6 species of deer, 2 species of crocodiles, 3 species of turtle, monitor lizard and Rock Python plus several species of butterfly.

Homeward Bound

We had a 9.30 flight back to Delhi which meant a 4.00am start. Our driver arrived the night before and we were woken up with a cup of tea and biscuits. Our nature guide and the hotel manager were there to see us off, which was very nice. We made the airprt in plenty of time, in fact they hadn't really opened up, just opened the doors. It has to be one of the smallest airports I have ever been in, with the tightest security!! they even made us take out the batteries from our cameras. The flight back had one last surprise, the captaine came on explaining that those on the right hand side of the plane might like to look down as we were flying over the Taj. All those on the left were up out of their seats and trying to get a view - it was a long way down but still very recognisable.

We were picked up by a new driver and taken back to the Cabana Hotel, where we had a tidy up and then the driver took us to the Red Fort for a final monument hit. A much bigger place than I thought with lots of architecture reminiscent of both the Taj and Fatepur Sikre. Along with a plethora of Black Kites we also saw Red-vented Bulbul, parakeets, Asian Koel and a new bird, Red-whiskered Bulbul.

Last chance?

As we had had such a good time with the tigers, we asked for a more relaxed approach and more time to look at the birds. The guides were a bit disappointed but did their best - I don't think they had come across 'proper birders' before and didn't quite understand the desire to find and identify as many birds as possible. We spent the first 2 hours tiger searching and found lots of very fresh tracks, including some that overlay our gypsy track from earlier in the morning, so we were close but not lucky. Then we set off to do some birdwatching, seeing Crested Serpent Eagles, Vultures, Drongos and several Sunbirds and Scarlet Minivets - but a chance meeting with some other people sent us off in search of a Rubythroat - much to the confusion of our guides - who had taken the trouble to sort out the 'best' route for birds.

We did see 3 orange-headed thrushes but were unlucky at the bridge where the rubythroat had been seen. The afternoon took us out to a new part of the park where we did see citrine wagtails, snipe, large cuckoo-shrike and great tit, which looked quite different from our great tit. Our final treat was to see at least 2 wild dogs before we returned to the lodge for our last night.

Cats, Cats, Cats!

The afternoon was a bit more leisurely as we drove around the park looking at birds like Grey Hornbill, Jungle Babbler, Scarlet Minivet, flamebacked woodpeckers, Black and white-bellied Drongos, 3 species of parrakeet as well as spotted deer, swamp deer and Gaur. Towards the evening our guide and driver suddenly got excited and we were rushed round a bend to where some gypsies were standing. As we approached the guide kept saying tiger, tiger ... and there

lying on it's back just enjoying the evening sunshine was a male tiger. His tail kept flicking and he lifted his huge paws once or twice but otherwise just relaxed. As we were watching, there was a muted shout of 'jungle cat' and sitting on the edge of the road was a jungle cat, about the size of a domestic cat and very unconcerned about the fuss going on. As the sun set we watched a peacock 'lek' and then returned to the lodge very happy with our luck.

The next morning we set off with high hopes and just missed a tiger crossing the tracks so we drove around checking tracks in the dust and slowing the guide down by stopping for birds at regular intervals. We stopped to watch a Rufous woodpecker but our guides were a bit restless and encouraged us to move on. What they didn't tell us was they could hear something that implied tiger to them - so we rounded the turn to be met with at least 5 gypsies abreast of the road and 2 more opposite with a female, radio-collared tiger walking nonchalantly down the road. Our guide urged our driver to move and some very nifty cross country manoeuvres brought us out in front of the group!
Breathtaking!!!

We also decided to take another tiger show ride on an elephant. This time the tiger had settled in a very dense patch of grasses, showing exactly how well the camouflage worked, but allowing us to get within 5 feet of it.
In the afternoon we cruised round being shown how to tell age and freshness of pug marks, and seeing tiger scratch posts that show territory markings. We saw another jungle cat in the grasses and as we headed up one of the forest tracks, there was another jungle cat playing in the edge.

This one was definitly not going to be moved and stayed at the edge of the road, even sitting down and then giving us some very old-fashioned looks. As the number of gypsies built up we had to move on and the cat strolled across the road and then bounded past us down a storm gulley.
We were driving back along a track when we met another gypsy coming towards us, the guide very excited, a tiger had just crossed the road and was heading up a valley. We made the quickest 3 point turn and headed back along the road, turned left and headed slowly along a track that parrelled the valley, all eyes searching.

We stopped and slowly the tiger emerged from the grasses at the edge of the valley about 200 yards away and walked slowly along the stream with us moving forward to keep pace. We had some brilliant views of a tiger going about it's natual activities. She walked up to the head of the valley and had a drink from a pool. The hope was that she would carry on and cross the road but she turned round and walked back along the valley, turning to go up the hill and out of sight. An amazing 5 tigers and 3 jungle cats in 2 days. Magic!

Kahna Tiger Safaris - 1

The day starts at 5.00am with a wake up call, tea and biscuits brought to your door. By 5.30 we are aboard the gypsies and wrapped up in blankets ready for the short drive to the park. You wait at gate 1, the buffer zone, for about 10 minutes and then the bar is raised and everyone rushes through to be first at the inner gate into the core of the park. Only about 25% is open to the public but it still gives a large area to search. As the sun rises the bar goes up, you collect your park ranger and it's off!! Our driver, Ganesh and our nature guide, Sudir are both avid tiger seekers, being really keen to show their clients a tiger. We drive around the different areas watching out for tracks in the dust and questioning any other gypsies or a mahout on his elephant that we meet. A tiger has been spotted and it's off to see if we can be lucky. At about 9.30 all the gypsies converge on the Centre Point for packed breakfast and an exchange of news.

The first morning we didn't manage to find a tiger in the open so we were offered a tiger show, which is an elephant ride into the bush to where a tiger is resting.

We did some bird watching while we waited our turn and then we climbed a ladder onto the

elephant's back, a few paddles of the mahout's feet and the elephant was moving into the jungle to where a beautiful tiger was lying. As we approached, the elephant in front spooked the tiger and we nearly missed it. Luckily it lay down again and we were able to approach it to within about 5 feet. It then decided to move off and we had an exciting few minutes as the mahout urged the elephant to follow at top elephant speed. We were well satisfied and so returned to the road to be picked up by our gypsy and taken back to the lodge for lunch.

Kahna - day 1

We arrived at Jabalpur at 7.30 in the morning and were greeted by a driver who took us to a nearby hotel for breakfast before taken us the 3 hours over variable roads to the Krishna Safari Lodge. We settled in and explored the surroundings finding butterflies galore plus 2 collared scops owls in residence. We met our guide, Sudhir and went on our first safari ride that afternoon. We weren't lucky with tiger but had good views of spotted deer, gaur and sambar deer

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Agra

We spent a couple of hours being tourists and admiring the Taj with a very knowledgeable guide. It's a good thing that Agra has the Taj as the city just has to be seen to be believed.
We were then taken round the city before sitting round a hotel lobby until it was time to catch our train to Jabalpur. We got there an hour early and changed platforms a couple of times as Pramod wasn't too sure of where/when the train would arrive. When it came in there was a rush to find our sleeper, say goodbye to Pramod and sort out our stuff as the train set off on time.
We managed to sleep pretty well on clean sheets but our ideas of first class sleeper were not totally realised. As we were not feeling too good we turned in early and slept our way south.

Baratpur, Fatepur Sikre, Chambal

The last day in Baratpur we walked round outside first and managed to see an Indian courser. Then we went inside and were taken to the Nursery where we found Orange-headed and Tickell's thrushes. we also managed to see white-tailed robin, a first for the park.

As we walked through the forest we heard a strange call which was identified as Oriental Honey Buzzard. We got great views of it as it sat on a branch. We also saw a it's potential food source, a honeycomb hanging from a branch. We were taken to a spot for Indian Python. Eventually we spotted it curled up under a bush.

We spent the rest of the day walking around and had great views of painted storks, egrets, Indian spotted, imperial, greater spotted eagles and ducks among the other more exotic birds like, treepies, babblers and prinias.

The next morning we left for Chambal via Fatepur Sikre, an amazing place. It was built by Shah Jehan's uncle for his 3 wives, one Hindu, one Christian and one Muslim. It is an excellent example of the Mughal architexture.
Then we were on to Chambal where we settled in before having a walk round the grounds with our guide. We saw yet more butterflies but they were very difficult to capture as it was so warm they were very active.We saw Brown Hawk Owl, more Flying Foxes, Babblers and Treepies.

Next morning we were taken to the river for our 'cruise'. After rescuing a couple we set off down river seeing sandlarks, osprey, small pratincole and, one of the reasons for coming, Indian Skimmers.

We also saw gharials which slid into the water as we approached. We returned upriver, seeing turtles, muggers, Great Thicknee and the other reason, gangetic dolphins amongst many other birds. A magic morning.

The place where the boat was kept was obviously a main crossing point and quite reminiscent of Bithor. Camels laden with wood crossed one way and empty camels returned, the water level was around their tummies. Tried to find out what happened in the rainy season but couldn't quite communicate. There was also a ferry which was poled across the river carrying everything from people to motor bikes, although it seemed these had to be washed before embarking?? Any cattle were held from the boat and had to swim themselves across.

In the afternoon we went for a walk round and managed to get good views of Brook's leaf warbler as well as Barred Button Quail. In the evening we went to the back of the hotel grounds where we managed to watch civet cats as they emerged from a hole in a tree.
The next day our driver collected us and we made our way to Agra getting to the Taj around 8.30 am