Birding ! Driving ! Soul-searching !: March 2023

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Drive from Lucknow to Agra

Lucknow – Agra – Lucknow

Total Distance: 330 (onward) + 330 (return) = 660 km

Total time: 4 hr (onward) and 4 hr (return)

Average fuel economy: 17.5 kmpl

Car: Audi A4 Petrol

Place of stay: Tajview Agra

The primary reason to do this trip was to experience the Lucknow Agra expressway. It took almost 4 hours to cover the 330 km stretch. The Tajview is a wonderful hotel to stay. It is very near to the expressway and one doesn’t even have to enter the city to reach the hotel. I stayed there for 2 nights and the view of Taj from the window of the room was really awesome. The hotel has 2 dogs of their own, Max and Maya and of course it is a pet friendly hotel. The food was good, there was ample space to park the car, I even saw 2 dedicated parking spots for electric cars.

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Drive from Lucknow to Dhanachuli

Lucknow – Dhanachuli – Lucknow

TRIP 1: March 2023

Total driving distance: 406 onward + 406 return = 812 km
Total time: 8 hours onwards and 9 hours return.
Average fuel economy: 14.2 kmpl
Car: Audi A4 Petrol
Passengers: 3 adults
Luggage: Full boot

Place of stay: Rituraj Homestay (https://goo.gl/maps/WNsLH41g5BW3HpPV7)

Dhanachuli is like a second home to us. My parents used to visit Dhanachuli every year and stay there for the entire summer. Incidentally, I never got a chance to visit until now. This time I was staying in Lucknow for about a month and I realized that it would be a wonderful opportunity for me to visit and see this place. I had the Audi too with me, so the journey should also be very comfortable. Apparently there is a problem with the 4G/5G connection, hence I planned to stay for only the weekend. A couple of days’ stay, only to know what the place is and what kind of potential it has for birding and the potential for a long term stay.

Dhanachuli is quite pristine, compared to Nainital / Mukteshwar, there is hardly any tourist traffic here and the village is not at all crowded. Perfect for a long term stay. Birding is phenomenal, at an altitude of 7000 ft, you can easily imagine how beautiful the bird life will be. If I list down the species that I saw in a matter of 2 days, anybody would be surprised.

The drive till Dhanachuli from Lucknow was smooth. Since it was the month of March, the summer vacation did not start yet, because of that the roads near Bhimtal were completely deserted. It might have saved us about an hour compared to the regular time that it takes usually. We left Lucknow at 5-30 AM and managed to reach Dhanachuli by 1-30 PM. The return journey wasn’t that great though. By mistake I took the route through Bareilly / Khutani and I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody. Too much of traffic compared to the road via Pilibhit. Onward journey was through Sitapur, Sitarganj and Pilibhit, which is much better as far as traffic movement and road condition is concerned.

The entire list of bird species that I saw is as below,

Ashy Drongo
Barn Swallow
Black Bulbul
Black Francolin
Black headed Jay
Black-throated Accentor
Black-throated Tit
Blue Whistling Thrush
Blue-fronted Redstart
Brown-fronted Woodpecker
Common Stonechat
Eurasian Collared Dove
Great Barbet
Green-backed Tit
Grey Bushchat
Grey Treepie
Grey-hooded Warbler
Himalayan Bulbul
Himalayan Buzzard
House Sparrow
Jungle Crow
Jungle Myna
Long-tailed Minivet
Long-tailed Shrike
Oriental Turtle Dove
Oriental White-eye
Red-billed Blue Magpie
Red-rumped Swallow
Rock Bunting
Rose-ringed Parakeet
Rufous Sibia
Russet Sparrow
Spotted Dove
Streaked Laughingthrush
Verditer Flycatcher

Enjoy some of the pics below.

Black-throated Accentor (lifer)

Rock Bunting (lifer)

Russet Sparrow male

Grey Bushchat male

Blue Whistling Thrush

Himalayan Bulbul

Green-backed Tit

Long-tailed Minivet female

Long-tailed Minivet male

Streaked Laughingthrush

Brown-fronted Woodpecker male

Brown-fronted Woodpecker female

Blue-fronted Redstart female

Black-throated Tit

Grey-hooded Warbler

Grey Bushchat female

Black-headed Jay

Common Stonechat female

TRIP 2: JUNE 2023

Total driving distance: 406 km onward and 406 km return

Total time: 8 hours onwards and 8 hours 46 minutes return
Average fuel economy: 15.5 kmpl
Car: Honda Amaze Petrol
Passengers: 3 adults
Luggage: Full boot

Place of stay: Rituraj Homestay (https://goo.gl/maps/WNsLH41g5BW3HpPV7)

This was our second trip and this time neither I had the Audi with me, nor I had my camera gear. Whatever i could click I did it with my mobile. Was lucky to click a lifer butterfly. It was a wonderful season to visit, harvested Peach, Plum, Apricot and Potato with help from Raju (owner and farmer of Rituraj homestay).

Green Hairstreak - Theclini

Peach tree @ Rituraj Homestay

French hydrangea

Dhanachuli Altitude

Apricot, Peach and Plum harvest @ Rituraj homestay

Apple tree @ Rituraj homestay

View of Himalayas from Rituraj Homestay

Glassy Tiger

Evening view from our home

Himalayan view from our home

Mother of Pearl Moth

TRIP 3: DECEMBER 2023

Total driving distance: 406 km onward and 406 km return

Total time: 8 hours 8 minutes onwards and 8 hours 30 minutes return
Average fuel economy: 15.0 kmpl
Car: Honda Amaze Petrol
Passengers: 3 adults
Luggage: Full boot

Place of stay: Rituraj Homestay (https://goo.gl/maps/WNsLH41g5BW3HpPV7)

The fact that I will be making 3 trips to Dhanachuli this year, is way too overwhelming, considering I did not make a single trip before this year. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every chance to go there and I'm looking forward to many more such occasions.

Once again, as it was last time, this was a totally unplanned trip. Since I was not aware about this trip, so I did not bring my camera gear from Hyderabad. Unfortunately, because of that, I missed to click a lifer Blue-capped Redstart male. It was so easy to see that bird all around multiple times, and everytime I saw it feeding nearby, I missed my camera so much.

Atleast, I got to ID it well and I'm sure next time I go to Dhanachuli in winters, I'm definitely going to carry the gear along.

Friday, March 3, 2023

Drive from Lucknow to Ranthambore - Chambal

Lucknow – Ranthambore (Chambal) – Lucknow

Total Distance: 604 + 606 = 1210 km

Total time: 8 hr 15 min onward and 8 hr 16 min return

Average Fuel Economy: 15.5 kmpl

Car: Audi A4 Petrol

Passengers: 3 adults

Luggage: Full boot

My last trip to Ranthambore in October 2015 wasn’t very encouraging. But there was a difference, that time I did not stay in Taj. This time however, I booked my stay in Taj Ranthambore. Since I booked my safari just 1 week in advance, and I wanted an exclusive jeep safari, I had to pay 80k for 2 safaris. But to be honest, I wasn’t disappointed at all. We managed to get some very good wildlife sighting, even some nice bird sightings too. I must say, Taj team really helped us out by booking our 2 safaris in 2 different zones. They were very helpful in confirming the safari bookings with just 1 week advance notice. All I had to do was to transfer the booking amount, rest everything else they managed on their own.

The drive to Ranthambore from Lucknow wasn’t bad at all. The last leg on the journey (say about 100 km odd) was without road dividers, however for the most part of the journey, the roads were too good. We started off on the Lucknow Agra expressway, all the way till Agra, had to cross the entire Agra city traffic, which was a little painful. After that it was mostly good. We even had a small stretch of run on the newly built Delhi Mumbai expressway which had a speed limit of 120 kmph. Lko-Agra had a limit of 100 kmph.

We left Lucknow early morning 5-30 AM and reached Taj Ranthambore at exactly 2 PM. On the way we crossed Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and it felt a good to go past that road after about 8 years. We booked a 3 nights stay at Taj with 2 jeep safaris and 1 boat safari for the Chambal river. Chambal river is about 1 hour drive and 40 km from Ranthambore. Boat safaris are available aplenty, we didn’t have to worry about the booking. Taj managed everything for us.

Safari in Ranthambore is quite different from all the safaris in MP Taj facilities. I remember in Bandhavgarh, we used to be the last jeep to come out from the gate at about 11-30 AM and our Taj naturalist used to carry our breakfast along. Here in Ranthambore, each safari is only for 3 hours max and the breakfast has to be done after we come back from the safari.

Enjoy the pics below.

Bird Sightings in Ranthambore: