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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