Birding ! Driving ! Soul-searching !: October 2014

BHARATPUR AND RANTHAMBORE:

Standing at the milestone of my life-list of 200, I was looking ahead to understand how far can I go and how fast can I go. How far was not tough, as it was way too far. For in India there are close to 1300 species. How fast, on the other hand was a difficult one.

In that quest of increasing my life-list, Bharatpur was planned. I knew my life-list number would shoot up very fast in Bharatpur. During this trip I breached the 250 mark. It could have been easily close to 300 if I was in the correct season. However Bharatpur was still thirsty and hot and birds still were not preferring it as their sweet spot. Nevertheless, I managed 50+ new species to my list in that 3 days and 4 night stay.

Some Info for Visitors:

Season or no season, anything less than 3 full days is too less for Bharatpur.
Must choose Hotel Sunbird, perfect location, beautiful ambiance, reasonable rates, wonderful staff and service. (Average food – but you are not there for the food I believe, you are there for the birds right!!)
Always take a guide along, although rickshaw can show you birds but guides can take you inside the treks where rickshaw cannot go. Rickshaws charge 100 per hour, guides charge 150 per hour and you can hire a cycle if you want for 25 rupees for 6 hours. Entry fee is another 50 per head.
Ask the hotel staff for the bird guide – they charge just 150 per hour and Hotel Sunbird has tie up with good guides, our guide Gajender Singh was brilliant.
Be ready for some really hectic and physically exhaustive workouts. The guide will make you trek for atleast 7-8 km and you also will have to cycle for an additional 10-12 km everyday. That’s the minimum if you are serious about birding.
At the end of the day not a single bone or muscle in your body will be without pain, more so if you carry a big lens, however the rewards are also commensurate.
Hotel sunbird will recommend you to hire a taxi and go for Birding at Nonera Village one day. Please visit there, it is a beautiful place worth every penny. Amazing sighting which is not present inside the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. (Around 70 km from Bharatpur)
Rickshaw is not that helpful for birding, so hire a cycle. It is fast you can pace it yourself and cover more distances in less time and you can even ride into the sub segments of the park where rickshaw cannot go. Unless ofcourse one doesn’t know cycling.

The total number of birds I clicked was close to 100, however for the purpose of this post, I will restrict myself mostly to the 50+ lifers I got there unless I want to bring about the diversities of a particular species.

Ranthambore was highly disappointing, we took 3 jeep safaris and still couldn't spot the Tiger. Even the birds were not that generous on us. Just spotted three lifer - the Indian Vulture, Southern Grey Shrike and the White Naped Woodpecker (Female), other than that nothing else. You are not allowed to get down from the jeep, hence birding depends on chance sightings. The guides and drivers were pathetic and had no knowledge what-so-ever. Gir and Jim Corbett was far more professionally managed.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR SECOND TRIP TO RANTHAMBORE

However I was not complaining much since Bharatpur had already satiated me.

Enjoy the pics below.