19 Jun 2012

Bharatpur beckons.....

A world heritage site teaming with birds and wildlife- Keoladeo Ghana national park . It's a beautiful 30 sq km park of reservoir , swamps, wet and dry grasslands ! You can imagine the biodiversity there . Hordes of migratory birds make it their winter home... bar headed geese, pelicans ,whistling ducks -just to name a few guests.

Whistling ducks


I landed at Bharatpur ummm...when the migratory birds had not started arriving..That was the sad part...

There were hundreds of storks and cormorants which attended their nests at the water edges...



Painted Storks



Grey heron


open bill stork


 The surrounding woodland was also highly productive for passerines and I added to my list Brahminey starling ,pied cuckoo and a few raptors...





Pied cuckoo

Spotted eagle

Shikra

White-throated Kingfisher is common on the Ganges Plain, fishing in any conceivable water, from  drainage ditches to settling ponds.



While cycling down one of the trails bumped into Monitor lizard basking in the sun ....

 Monitor lizard


Small Indian mongoose

Soon my sojourn was over and it was time to return....I had not seen most of the species I had hoped to see, all the more reason that I have to get back to Keoladeo National Park...!


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