[W.A.G.7]

6 Months down the line from the Tadoba trip in May 2012, I was already bored because I hadn't been out in nature. Out of that boredom, this idea was born. Keoladeo National Park at Bharatpur is already considered a birder's paradise. With many migratory ducks and birds coming there from Oct-Nov to March; December 2012 seemed the right time.

The trip was done from 26-31st Dec 2012 (easier to get leaves from office!) and was arranged entirely by Foliage Outdoors http://www.foliageoutdoors.com/. The total expenses for 5 days came to 13,855/- + 4,745/- airfare from Delhi to Pune. I have already mentioned on my travelogues, about them so I won't again put in the information here.

Stay and arrangements were fantastic, and the only regret now is that I wish the trip was for a few more days. Apart from Foliage Outdoors, I wish to mention here the name of Maan Singh.

This guy works as a guide over there, and I must say that in those 2-3 days he showed me the maximum amount of birds. He knows his job thoroughly and he is one of the most experienced persons out there. If you happen to go to Bharatpur/Keoladeo N.P, please call him and see the jungle with him. Don't take any other guide. He charges around 850/- a day (9hrs) and will show you some very rare birds and the jungle in detail.

Now without much intro, I am putting the photos. Phone numbers and map of Bharatpur are put in the last post; and the equipment used was a rented Canon 500D body with the Sigma 150-500mm zoom lens.



Our resort... Hotel Kiran Villa Palace


The resort was very clean and nice and had good food.


Keoladeo N.P is a UNESCO world heritage site.



Are these birds silverbills?


Yellow footed green pigeon, the state bird of Maharashtra.


Rose ringed parakeet.




Spider webs in dew


Wind in your hair experience


Laughing doves (?)


Beautiful flowers


Shikra


Painted storks feeding


Spoonbill


Spoonbills feeding with a grey heron in the background


The jungle look on the face of the bird!!


Painted stork


Little grebe with a big fish !

[W.A.G.7]

Photos contd from the previous post...

This is my best photo from the entire trip !


Little grebe


Great Egret (?)


Indian shag (?)


The jungle is absolutely beautiful and you can keep on wandering here for days on end with a camera


Crazy cold and fog throughout the trip. This picture was taken at 2.00PM! Needless to say we never saw the sunrise on that day.


Common coot in a sea of aquatic fern azolla


Grey herons


Painted stork


Spoonbills


Grey heron in breeding plumage


Little egret


Bay backed shrike


Common moorhen


Spotted Owlet pair


Nice Flowers


Black redstart (?)


Indian roller


Which dove is this ?


Crested serpent eagle (?)


Oriental Darter/Snake bird


Common Moorhen


This is how the resort looked at night time.



The rooms were excellent and very clean


Peacock male


Brahminy starling


Comb duck female. They have fanstastic shades of blue and green under their wings


Comb duck female.


That's a purple heron. Some of the most beautiful birds

[W.A.G.7]

Contd from the previous post...

Black redstart


Spot billed ducks


Oriental Magpie Robin


Purple heron


Grey heron


Little cormorant with a fish


Greater coucal


Oriental magpie robin male


A colony of painted storks


Juvenile painted stork


Little cormorants drying out their wings.


Black crowned night heron


Oriental darter/snake bird


Pond heron


Jungle babbler


Marshes view. There was fog throughout the day; and on all days.


Pelican. Which one?


Comb ducks. Magnificent birds with equally magnificent under wing parts


Pelican once again


Oriental darter/snakebird


Is this a barn swallow?


White throated kingfisher


Pelican


Pelican landing and another one which has caught a fish


The first one lands and the other one stores the fish in the beak pouch.


Common coots and a group of pelicans feeding


Spot billed ducks


Common coots


Purple moorhen


Northern pintails, Brahminy duck and spot billed ducks

[W.A.G.7]

Contd from the previous post...

Purple moorhen closeup


Brahminy ducks feeding


Blue throat


Blue throat female


Blue throat male. So called because of the blue necklace



Spot billed duck


Which raptor is this?


Comb duck male showing the coloured under wing parts.


Glossy ibis


Bay backed shrike


Black headed ibis


Is this a rufous breasted prinia?



Swallowing a bigger fish than your mouth!


Glossy ibis


Brahminy ducks once again.


Great egret


Spot billed ducks flying in sync


Nilgai


Brahminy duck closeup


Indian rock python


Oriental magpie robin


Oreintal darter/snake bird cleaning itself


Painted stork colony, assorted photos





Little Egret fly-by the painted stork colony


Mother painted stork sheltering the chicks

[W.A.G.7]

Contd. from the previous post...

A painted stork trying to take first steps in flying


Northern Shoveler female


Painted stork juveniles



Our common house sparrow, which is now not so common in large cities!


Indian flap shell turtle basking in the sun


A group of pelicans resting after feeding


Purple moorhen


Black headed Ibis


Painted stork fly-by. There must be thousands of these birds


Norther shoveler, male, juvenile


Norther shoveler, male, adult


Norther shoveler, female


Which bird is this?


Spotted deer


The sun sets on the jungle


White breasted water hen


Sambar feeding


The sunsets are spectacular, with many colours !


The general scene of the marshes. It's hard to believe that this is a man-made jungle


Laughing dove


Rhesus monkey, frozen because of the cold


White throated kingfisher showing the blue backside.


White breasted waterhen


Which bird is this?


Oriental darter/snakebird


Brahminy starling



Pond heron


Red throated flycatcher (?)

[W.A.G.7]

contd. from previous post ...

Pelican. Which one?


Common coots, northern pintails, northern shovelers and assorted ducks



A group of northern pintail ducks


The 4 friends


Purple moorhen closeup


Nilgai male and female in the water



A huge group of pelicans fishing. I was lucky to observe them from close quarters.






Common moorhen


Glossy ibis


Comb duck


After fishing for a while and whiling away time, the pelicans decide to fly away. They look just like plastic toys with plastic painted beaks!







This photo I owe to Maan Singh; the most amazing guide I have ever met!


Blue throat male


Marsh harrier


A family of rose ringed parakeets.




Black headed Ibis


Python in the bushes

[W.A.G.7]

Contd. from the previous post ...

Bay backed shrike


A male spotted deer with horns covered in velvet


A serious looking crested serpent eagle


A grey night jar. We were lucky enough to see this bird


This pair of jackals visited the spot, where we had our lunch in the jungle on the last day.


This butterfly is known as a plain tiger.


Which sandpiper? They all look so similar!!


A case of too little too late. With the last pair of Siberian crane not seen in Bharatpur, after 2001-02, there can be no doubt that the western race may be already extinct...


This one is a yellow orange tip.


This butterfly is a striped tiger


This is a plain orange tip.


And this one is an indian cabbage white.


A white cheeked bulbul, something which we don't see in the cities at all.


Another of those sandpipers. But our luck suddenly changed on seeing this little fellow...


Rounding a bend in the road, we suddenly came across this pair of Sarus cranes. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful birds, and the definite highlight of the trip. They were hardly 20-25 feet away from us and gave loud calls twice or thrice However in the excitement, I accidentally set the exposure compensation to -1.3EV for the first few minutes In those 10-15 mins I must have shot about 300-350 photos of these birds.

It was also nice to see the crowd that gathered to watch these magnificent birds; similar to the crowd that gathers in jungles like Kanha or Bandhavgadh; to see the tigers. They are definitely the stars of Bharatpur and a must see attraction of the place. So just enjoy the pics, I won't bore you all with bad captions.

[W.A.G.7]

the last set of pics from the trip...

Once again they give their loud trumpeting calls before flying away.



After the show of the jungle was over, we started walking back, because it was already getting dark. Spotted this Nilgai again somewhere...


Baby sambar following it's mother somewhere.


A parting shot of Bharatpur.


This is me; for the record. Taken by my friend at Taj Mahal.


And this is the magnificent Taj Mahal. The fog was too much even at 12 noon to take proper pictures from the front.


That's all folks! I hope you've enjoyed the pics. This time I have tried to put in more pictures and less captions. If you ever happen to go to Bharatpur, please stay at Kiran Villa resort because it's one of the better resorts there and please hire Maan-Singh as your guide because you'll absolutely enjoy the company of this person. I am not affiliated to either of them, but I am sharing the information since I found them to be good.

[W.A.G.7]

Here is the map of Bharatpur. It is ~55kms from Agra.


Given below is the phone number/contact details of Kiran Villa resort.


Maan Singh's Number is - 0-92149-17602. This person knows the jungle like the back of his hand, and is easily the best guide over there. He charges 100/- an hour, so a day's charges will be ~900/-, but it's worth every penny...

And below is the tariff card. Note that this will change, so please call the owner before hand and get the latest details from him

[Vik0728]

W.A.G.7 I got no adjective that I think would fit the description your snaps bro. I think they are simply DIVINE !!

Can you please provide the details of the Camera & lenses used. I think I got a lot to learn in photography now, especially after seeing this thread.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

Now without much intro, I am putting the photos. Phone numbers and map of Bharatpur are put in the last post; and the equipment used was a rented Canon 500D body with the Sigma 150-500mm zoom lens.

W.A.G.7...this is amazing stuff. The photographs are majestic! This is professional work, there is no doubt about it.

Last but not the least, I like your handle- WAG7...sounds like raw power!

Regards.

[sach.sri]

nice pics bro. You have just inspired a trip again to Bharatpur - i really want to see the pelicans and knowing that they are in Bharatpur really makes a compelling case to visit Bharatpur

[parsh]

My heartiest thanks WAG7 for sharing such astounding captures. Just speechless.
Quite a few of them are moments captured at right time, hard to catch generally.

Kindly share the way bird tracking is done, how does trek take you through the areas, are there specific areas of permanent habitats of the birds that give their sureshot glimpses, ways of spotting them and anything else related to bird spotting there, only if you could. Would be a good guide.

Thanks again.

[W.A.G.7]

Originally Posted by Vik0728

W.A.G.7 I got no adjective that I think would fit the description your snaps bro. I think they are simply DIVINE !! Can you please provide the details of the Camera & lenses used. I think I got a lot to learn in photography now, especially after seeing this thread.

Thanks for the wishes! The camera was a borrowed Canon 500D body with a rented Sigma 150-500mm lens. I rented out the lens from this person in Pune here - http://primesandzooms.com/

Initially I carried a tripod with me, but after 2-3 hours, found the setup to be too cumbersome. Hence the remaining shots were taken hand-held, the tripod, I dumped back in the resort room.

And what I learnt about the lens? On a 1.6x crop factor body, even at the extreme telephoto end, the focal length of 800mm, is just not enough! When it comes to birding, any focal length is not enough.

Originally Posted by saket77

W.A.G.7...this is amazing stuff. The photographs are majestic! This is professional work, there is no doubt about it.
Last but not the least, I like your handle- WAG7...sounds like raw power!
Regards.

Thanks buddy! But I am no professional, just a person, who cannot remain away from nature for more than a month! And, yes, W.A.G.7 is my favourite Indian Railways locomotive!

Originally Posted by sach.sri

nice pics bro. You have just inspired a trip again to Bharatpur - i really want to see the pelicans and knowing that they are in Bharatpur really makes a compelling case to visit Bharatpur

Thanks! You should go there 110%; not only to see the pelicans but also to see the Sarus crane and other birds. If you do go there before March, then don't go into the jungle without Maan Singh. This person will show you the jungle and birds in a very different way, and he has the most knowledge amongst all those guides over there

Originally Posted by parsh

My heartiest thanks WAG7 for sharing such astounding captures. Just speechless.Quite a few of them are moments captured at right time, hard to catch generally. Kindly share the way bird tracking is done, how does trek take you through the areas, are there specific areas of permanent habitats of the birds that give their sureshot glimpses, ways of spotting them and anything else related to bird spotting there, only if you could. Would be a good guide.Thanks again.

Thanks Parsh! The thing over there is that vehicles are not allowed. So you can either

[1] Walk around the jungle (~22kms start to end from the main gate). The best way to see the jungle but also the most tiring way. We lost track of how many Combiflam tablets we ate during those 4 days!

[2] Hire a bicycle. Old Atlas cycles, but also a good way to see the jungle, except that you cannot venture into the off beaten tracks and deep inside. A lot of foreigners were using this technique.

[3] Hire a cycle rickshaw. Another good way to see the jungle, but just like gypsy's they don't go beyond a certain point. Beyond that point, you have to walk

[4] Basically it's a man made marshland... The whole area is divided into 8-10 marshes, each controlled with sluice gates to regulate the water flowing from block to another. The birds are everywhere, literally everywhere. And they are quite bold enough that they don't fly away when you approach them. Just enter the park and you immediately see the whole area is filled with bird life, thousands of them! A paradise for birders definitely! There are no specific areas as such, you see all birds everywhere, which is the best part.

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by W.A.G.7

Initially I carried a tripod with me, but after 2-3 hours, found the setup to be too cumbersome. Hence the remaining shots were taken hand-held, the tripod, I dumped back in the resort room.

.

Hi WAG7,

Thanks for this thread. Bharthpur is on top of my "bucket list", and your photos affirmed/recemented that position.

Not that there is anything wrong in your picture and they are truely nice.

I am no Guru but I think "monopod" should be a good answer to your requirements.

Give us more of shuch wonderful glimpses.

Best Regards and Drive/Ride Safe

Ram