Gill's Travel Blog

We were up at 6.30 for breakfast, then out for a drive round the Sanctuary. We loaded the car and went 5 minutes down the road, before turning into the entrance and driving up the track, which had some nice murals. We went through the gates of the visitor centre and then changed vehicles for two open sided jeeps. The sanctuary is an 800+ hectare grassland protected area mainly for Blackbuck. We drove round the tracks stopping for birds and several Wild Boar. It was quite misty first thing but the sun burnt it off and the light improved.

One of the first birds was a Rufous Treepie and a Spotted Owlet in a tree hole, asleep, near the entrance, then a Black Francolin was seen among the grass tussocks, which then dashed across the track and disappeared. There were also several Grey Francolin heard and seen amongst the grasses. As we drove along we saw some sounders of boar, as well as Stonechats, which were numerous as well as Greater Short-toed Lark, Long-billed Pipit, Crested Lark, Isabelline Shrike, Sparrowhawk, Buzzard, Indian Roller and a Desert Wheatear.

Spotted Owlet

Indian Roller

Black Francolin

Wild Boar

Long-billed Pipit

Stonechat

Large Grey Babbler

We drove around the far side of the reserve and visited a couple of water holes before making our way back to the entrance. On one stop we had Black-winged kite and then a Great Grey Shrike flew in giving both in the same bush.

Black-winged Kite and Great Grey Shrike

We came back to the hotel for Sean to sort his camera out and then went round the back of the sanctuary to the salt pans. The drive was through narrow, tortuous roads between the houses before coming out into a flat, dry area with some water. Stopping at a reservoir on the edge of town, we had Feruginous, India Spot-billed and Knob-billed Duck, Shoveler, Gadwall, Coot and Lapwing with Little Cormorants on and over the water. There was a noisy group of Great Grey Babbler in a bush.

Great Grey Babbler

Black-winged Stilts and Red-wattled Lapwing

The outflow from the dam attracted Buffalo, Nilgai and Black Buck as well as various waders.

Buffalo

Black Buck

Indian Roller

We spent some time scanning across the water and surrounding area, checking out a group of lads playing cricket, and then started walking across the salt pans, stopping for an Indian Roller, to be picked up by the van and driven on round more salt pans scanning and checking out various birds, like Grey Francolin, lark …. before driving back for lunch.

Lads playing cricket

Salt pans.

Grey Francolin

As we waited for the van we had great views of a Bank Mynah and Brahminy Starling.

After lunch we drove to some wetlands looking for a falcon. There were lots of birds, which we scanned from the side of the road, especially ducks on the sandbars, including Garganey, Shoveler, Bar-headed Goose, Ruff, Pintail. We spent a little time checking out a wagtail as it fed along the shoreline and and then some Cranes flew in and landed at a distance so we chose to drive round to find them.

As we arrived, there was a mongoose working its way along the bank, it disappeared up the ditch. After parking up we walked along a track, with Alan hanging around behind us. The Mongoose popped its head over the bank and he got a cracking shot of it before joining us as we walked towards the area the cranes were in. On the way we checkout a Thicknee, Black-winged Kite, Pied Bushchat and a Bank Mynah. We also stopped for a group of frogs congregating in the ditch. As we were walking closer to the Cranes we saw three White-necked Storks flying a little way away but they landed out of sight. We managed to scope the Cranes and then made our way back to the van. We spent a bit of time scanning round the area with a flock of Bar-headed Geese on a small pool and then a Black Francolin appeared on the wall giving great views but too quick for photos.