24.12.2010 : Day 4 ( Bustard Sanctuary & Naliya Grassland ) - The Lucky Day !!!
Morning we are started towards Naliya GIB Sanctuary. We was not knowing it will be so memorial day for us. In route we stopped at scrub-land near Naliya GIB Sanctuary to check if any sighting of White Naped Tit. There were good sighting of
Marshal's Iora, Common Woodshrike, Grey Necked Bunting but no Tit sigting
. Suddenly Mangal & Adesh called us to see very rare species in gujrat. We were lucky to see very healthy family for
Carcal (female) along with two young Carcal. They were going up in the hill inside thorny scrubland.
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| Caracal Family |
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| Throny Scrubland where Caracal Sighted |
Link of photo on INW http://indianaturewatch.net/displayimage.php?id=198083
Many commoner seen on the way
Grey Francolin, Yellow Lapwing, Rosy Starling, Chestnut Bellied Sandgrouse amongs them.
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| Grey Francolin |
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| Rosy Starling |
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| Yellow Lapwing |
For breakfast we stopped near waterbody where couple of waterfowls like
Northan Pintail, Northan Shovler ,Gadwall, Eurasiain Wigeon , Common Teals and raptors like B
ooted Eagle and Greator Spotted Eagle seen.
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| Northan Pintail and Gadwall behind |
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| Eurasian Wigeon |
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| Mixed folks of Waterfowls |
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| Booted Eagle - From Top ( See Shoulder lights) |
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| Bluethroat |
Threaten species
Stoliczka's Bushchat seen near scrubland near waterbody.
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Stoliczka's Bushchat |
After lunch we proceed towards Naliya GIB Sanctuary. Surprisingly there were no sign of GIB. Folks of three
Eurasian Thikknee seen in the bushes.
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| Eurasian Thick-Knee |
Single male
Nilgai seen at very far while feeding on vegetation.
As i mentioned earlier it was lucky day us, we able to see rare winter visitor Lesser Kestrel inside the sanctuary. There were 5 to 6 folks of birds seen perched on different trees 100mtr. apart.
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| Lesser Kestrel |
Common Hoopoe seen while leaving from sanctuary.
We started fast proceeding toward Naliya Grassland as only few time left for sunset.
On the way we sighted lots of Harriers every 50- 100meters aparts
Eurasian Marsh Harrier, Hen Harier, Pallied Harrier seen hunting in grassland. Naliya Grassland is preferred habitat for all these winter visitors as they enters Gujrat. Able to get some record photos of them.
We reached at Naliya Grassland at sunset time, able to see the amazing behavior of harrier roosting. 100+ all types of harrier from all over the grassland going towards roosting sight. The roosting site may be 1km distance from us. At roosting site 100's of harrier gliding in the sky. It is like cloud of 100's of harrier. With this ultimate experience of community roosting of Harrier, we started our return journey to hotel.
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| Harrier returning to community roosting site at Naliya Grassland |
