Greater Rann of Kutch - The Unique Biodiversity -Part - II

23.12.2010 - Day 3 (Fulay Village & Chari-dhandh Wetland )

     We started our travel  early morning 6.30am towards Fulay viilage with packed breakfast with us.  Fulay village  is a habitat  with lot of Meswak, thorny  scrubs and Ber trees.It  is also of very rare Winter visitor Grey Hypocolius habitat  in India.

      Sighting Grey Hypocolius was very exciting , it was very busy  having its breakfast on Ber trees.

Grey Hypocolius

Some times it went  inside branches and  slowly come out  from top branches with feeding on ber fruits. Although sighting was very good but I did not get that much good photos because I forgot to change the settings of my camera.

Grey Hypocolius inside -Ber(Ziziphus mauritiana ) Tree

Other commoner like White eared Bulbul, Purple Sunbird, Small Minivet too seen near by bushes.
Bluethroat  and Lesser white throat  just give their glimpse and went  inside dry scrubs.

     While returning back towards vehicle  Rufoes Tailed Shike sighted  in near to Caster farm. Common Babbler, Laughing Dove, Black Drongo, Common Hoopoe was seen enjoying company together. 

Four's Company - (Black Drongo ,Common Babbler ,Laughing Dove, Common Hoopoe)

Common Babbler

 We  had our breakfast on the way to Charidhandh. On the way we stopped for some special species those were seen in the route. Desert Wheatear seen on top of bush at side of road.

Desert Wheater

 Common Crane was sighted very far  30mtr  inside  dry grassland.  

Common Crane

Common Crane

Common Crane In  Flight

50+ folks of Greater Short Toed Lark was seen feeding on ground, They were flying and returning to grounds as vehicle passing  creating tide like effect.

Greater Short toed Lark

In route we come across of habitat of  very special bird  Creme Coloured Courser. This highly  camouflage species only found  at semi -desert habitat.   

 Watching  this  plover  family bird was  great fun It was running on ground suddenly stop seeing up. Because of this behavior this species also called as Dhavarya in Marathi.
 As we came  near to wetland, Long leg Buzzard sighted in flight .

Long Leg Buzzard

At Chari -Dhandh already has well constructed watch -tower to make birdwatcher  sighting bit easy.

We reached  Chari -Dhandh  at 12.45pm it  was full of waterfowls  spread in depth of waterbody.
Common Coot ,Little Greabe, Great Crested Greabe  scattered all over. Whiskered Tern and Gull billed Terns was flying around. White Throated Kingfisher , Common Kingfisher, Yellow Wagtail , Little Cormonrant was sighted around. Two Dalmatian pelican sighted very far while were active  feeding  inside  waterbody.

Chari-Dhandh  Wetland Habitat - Photo Courtesy  Shobha Chavada 

In raptors we sighted Eurasian Marsh Harriar flying  over the mangroves but no sighting any other  Aquila  Eagles which very common to this  habitat. Mid noon we started  towards Hokada to having our lunch.
       On the way we came across amazing  Habitat  were sighted plenty of Indian courser.  It was so close to vehicle some less than minimum focusing distance of camera.

      White Stork which  is rare winter migrant to India also sighted on the route

White Stork 

         Adesh & Mandar already booked for us  very nice resort in Rann Shaam E- Sarhd  for Lunch which developed by UDEP.  Even-though we were already late( 3.30pm) but the nice eco -friendly resort with local food dishes   refreshed & energized all of us.

After lunch we started towards special habitat known as Banni Grassland.
For Short Eared Owl our jeeps  started driving inside rann. Short Eared Owl which roost normally in day light at  ground below the  bushes and active in night. Our two jeeps sighted it first very close by  but  it went inside before our jeep birders able see it.We decided to take different routes  so everyone can see it.

Really it was  wonderful experience to spot  this Big owl, which we sighted very near bush to left side of our vehicle. It was amazing to  see its head rotating  to 360 degree.  
           While returning back from Banni  to Nakhatrana Variable Whaeter given nice pose for all us to take nice photos. It was perched on Timber kept near to home in village. Here photo which only resized .

    Returning journy from Banni Grassland was thrilling we all  also experienced  the  well known phenomena of Chir-Batti in Rann.

Greater Rann of Kutch - The Unique Biodiversity -Part - I

      Greater Rann of Kutch is  amazing  marshy and grassland  habitat in Gujrat .The salt plain marsh land made by flooding of  rainwater in rainy season  and dry  in other seasons. It spread across 7505.22 Sq Km. Because of wide  variety flora of scrub and  grass land it is important habitat of migratory birds & rare  species in India like Grey Haypocolius,White Naped Tit, Marshal Iora, White Bellied Minivet, all raptors,Crane amongst them. It was on my wishlist  right  from year 2007  year which  i had started birding & knowing about it But  i could not able make it because every year either the unavailabilty of booking or sometime i can't find out time for same. Finally  in December 2010 the day has come to explore this wonderful habitat.
21.12.2010  -Travel Day ( Start of Journey)
    We were 12 birders along with Adesh and  Mander  started our journey from Bandra  with Kutch Express. It was a pleasure and a memorable travel for all of us having common interest of nature & birding. We spent time by knowledge sharing about nature conservation and birding.
22.12.2010 -Day -1   (Arrival at Bhuj )
    Finally with  half -hour delay  the train reached  Bhuj at 10.30am. Before that we  enjoyed  birding at both side of track  after Gandhidham Stn.. After having  lite breakfast near Bhuj  Station we started our road journey towards  Nakhatrana the last small town which only  having good lodging  facilities  in Kutch Rann.

We reached   Hotel JP  around 1.00pm . It is very simple but very well  clean and furnished hotel. Four more birders joined us out of them two from Ahmadabad and two from directly returning from Jamnager Trip. After having our delicious Kutchee Lunch, we were ready for our first trial around 3.15PM.At hotel  four new birder  joined  us  two from came from  Ahmadabad and other two directly coming  from their jamnagar trip. After having delicious Kutchee Lunch we were ready for our first trail around 3.15pm. 

         The first sighting of day  was Indian Pond Terrapin, it was crossing middle of road going towards  left side,looked like he  missed his way so we rescued it to near by pond. 

Indian Pond Terrapin

When we were stopped  for  turtle it was  4.10pm and  lot of bird activity already started around. Common Babblers was seen very active feeding at thorny scrubs. Although it is very common in GRK but  first lifer for me, so clicked  it for Record shot.

Common Babbler

    We  stopped our vehicle near to a  village locally calle Bada Vamuti  from there we moved ahead foot trail inside thorny scrub land to sight some uncommon Scrubland birds only seen at GRK. 

        Driver plus good birder and the  guide  Mangal sighted some movement of  tit in Cactus plants, before we spot it  went inside bushes. As we go ahead  there was lot of activity of  Baya Weaver , House Sparrows, Grey -necked Bunting or near by bushes. Adesh moved  ahead to scan around for the special species. And first very special species we  sighted was Marshal's Iora, It was  very shy  bird hopping on branches to branches moving towards  top of tree.Adesh was  keep explaining  how its characteristics and difference from  regular (The Extensive white on Black Tail).

Marshall's  Iora

 While we clicking  Baya Weavers  birds White -bellied Minivet just perched   top of bush branches for seconds then moved away  far  inside scrub land.

White -Bellied Minivet

 At 5.50pm with very nice sunset  sky shades we started our  return journey to hotel.