INDIA Day 3 - 11th January

Made an early start and drove an hour out of town to some open agricultural fields for some different habitats; we soon connected with our main target species, a couple of stunning INDIAN COURSERS (we ended up with 30+ seen) – one of the highlights of the trip!   Other birds seen in this very dry, open area included flocks of smart ASHY-CROWNED SPARROW-LARKS, many Tawny Pipits, a couple of Siberian Stonechats, Indian Silverbills, huge flocks of 300+ Short-toed Larks, a few groups of LARGE GREY BABBLERS, a few Indian Roller, several Desert Wheatears and an Isabelline Wheatear, an INDIAN BUSHLARK, several YELLOW-WATTLED LAPWINGS, 10+ INDIAN STONE-CURLEWS (a potential split from our Stone Curlews), a really distinctive STOLICZCA’S BUSHCHAT (pretty scarce!), several Daurian Shrikes, a couple of Southern Grey Shrikes and 6+ BIMACULATED LARKS.

                We stopped on the way back to town at lunchtime at a smelly, polluted ditch in the middle of the town to get good views of 2 GREATER PAINTED SNIPE along with Redshank, Wood Sandpiper, Ruff, a few Citrine Wagtails and some Yellow Wagtails – probably M. f. beema.

                We then went back into the park for the afternoon to explore some further bits that we hadn’t got to yet (the biggest expanses of water) where new birds included 2 COTTON PYGMY GEESE with the thousands of other ducks and geese (especially big numbers of Pintail and lots more Garganey with big flocks of Bar-headed and Greylag Geese and Knob-billed Ducks), the one wintering White-tailed Eagle in the park, a few Siberian Stonechats, 2 PHEASANT-TAILED JACANAS, a YELLOW-CROWNED WOODPECKER, a couple of GREY-HEADED LAPWINGS with more White-tailed Plovers, Greenshank and Spotted Redshank, better views of Indian Spotted Eagle and Red Avadavat, 3 female-type BAYA WEAVERS (the only ones seen on the trip – again a factor of the dry conditions), several Little Swifts and a Red Collared Dove with a big flock of Collared Doves.

Ashy-crowned Sparrow Larks

Southern Coucal

Indian Bushlark

Tawny Pipit

Indian Roller

Stoliczka's Bushchat

Bimaculated Lark

Daurian Shrike

Crested Lark

Indian Courser record shot

Yellow-wattled Lapwing

Southern Grey Shrike

Indian Stone Curlew

INDIA Day 2 - 10th January

After seeing BROWN CHAT and several flyover Olive-backed Pipits from the hotel we got a rikshaw out to the edge of the wetlands in Bharatpur NP for a full days birding in the park, most of yesterday’s birds were seen again but with plenty more waterbirds added to the trip list including Grey Heron, Pied Kingfisher, Ruddy Shelduck, huge flocks of LESSER WHISTLING DUCKS, smart BRONZE-WINGED JACANAS, Little Cormorants, INDIAN CORMORANTS, Spoonbills, good numbers of Marsh Harriers, Pintail, Darters, several huge SARUS CRANES, Garganey, a Woolly-necked Storks, Greylag Geese, Black-headed Ibis, Wigeon, a drake Ferruginous Duck, Common Kingfisher, Indian Pond Heron, KNOB-BILLED DUCKS, Painted Storks, a couple of CLAMOROUS REED WARBLERS, Night Herons, Glossy Ibis, a stunning BLACK BITTERN, good views of a RUDDY-BREASTED CRAKE, Striated Herons, lots of wintering Citrine Wagtails and flyover Marsh Sandpipers.   It was pretty packed with birds throughout the day but apparently when its properly wet there are 60% more birds present with plenty of breeding activity going on.

                Other birds seen included a Hoopoe, a few PIED BUSHCHATS, a BAY-BACKED SHRIKE, a few Blyth’s Reed Warblers, a few Wire-tailed Swallows with plenty of Swallows and Plain Martins, a few Steppe Eagles, several Long-tailed Shrikes, a DUSKY EAGLE OWL on a nest, a single LONG-BILLED VULTURE (Indian Vulture) – apparently the first Vulture in the park for two years (!) after the catastrophic population crashes of Vultures in India, great views of a Crested Serpent Eagle, a few INDIAN ROLLERS, a roosting INDIAN SCOPS OWL, a cracking male EASTERN BLACK REDSTART (of the very black looking P. o. rufiventris), good views of an INDIAN GOLDEN ORIOLE (possibly a split from our Golden Oriole) and Common Stonechat.

Oriental Magpie Robin

Brahminy Starlings

Spotted Owlet

Indian Scops Owl

Brown Chat

Crested Serpent Eagle

Darters

INDIA Day 1 - 9th January

We arrived in Delhi early morning from where we got the bus to where our mini-bus was parked with many Black Kites floating around the city and the first new birds for me – a noisy group of JUNGLE BABBLERS feeding around the carpark and a gorgeous RUFOUS TREEPIE foraging in a bin!   We then drove all morning to out first stop of Bharatpur NP, everyone was an instant expert as we drove along with all kinds of claims flying around but birds that I definitely saw along the journey included a group of 6 BAR-HEADED GEESE (an underwhelming new bird after seeing lots of escapes in the UK), a single Black-necked Stork, Cattle Egrets, Great White Egrets and Little Egrets, plenty of Black-shouldered Kites perched up along the roads, GREY-HEADED SWAMP-HENS, Moorhen and Coots, Black-winged Stilts, Red-wattled Lapwings, Ruff, Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper and Wood Sandpiper, Collared Doves, my first proper wild Ring-necked Parakeets and loads of White-throated Kingfishers, Black Drongos, House Crows, Common Mynas, BANK MYNAS and Asian Pied Starlings.

                After dumping our bags, we walked round Bharatpur all afternoon, concentrating in the dry, scrub areas closest to the entrance; raptors were very obvious with much of the time spent staring upwards as birds included large numbers of Egyptian Vultures were seen along with smaller counts of GREATER SPOTTED EAGLES, INDIAN SPOTTED EAGLE (1), Eastern Imperial Eagle, Bonelli’s Eagle, Booted Eagle, Short-toed Eagle (1 – the only one of the trip that I saw) and several Shikras bombing around.   New birds in the scrub included coveys of GREY FRANCOLINS, YELLOW-FOOTED GREEN PIGEON, a single COMMON HAWK CUCKOO, several SOUTHERN COUCALS, a roosting SPOTTED OWLET, Little Green Bee-eaters, a single INDIAN GREY HORNBILL, BROWN-HEADED BARBET, LESSER GOLDENBACK, INDIAN JUNGLE CROW, PLAIN MARTINS, WHITE-EARED BULBULS, RED-VENTED BULBULS, PLAIN PRINIA, ASHY PRINIA, Common Tailorbird, COMMON BABBLERS, smart BRAHMINY STARLINGS, a stunning ORANGE-HEADED THRUSH, INDIAN ROBINS, Oriental Magpie Robins, GREY-HEADED CANARY FLYCATCHER, PURPLE SUNBIRD and RED AVADAVAT.

                There was also a good selection of wintering passerines scattered through the area including Siberian Chiffchaffs, plenty of HUME’S WARBLERS (the commonest wintering Phylloscopus warbler everywhere), Greenish Warblers, Lesser Whitethroats (presumably S. c. halimodendri), Bluethroats and Grey Wagtails.   We just made it to the edge of the wetlands – it was incredibly dry throughout India with no serious rains for over two years, severely affecting what we saw and what was breeding (there was nothing breeding while we were there where there should have been tens of thousands of Herons, Egrets, Pelicans etc.) but waterbirds we caught up on included INDIAN SPOT-BILLED DUCK, Gadwall, Shoveler, Teal, Little Grebe, Purple Herons, Intermediate Egrets (including a colour ringed bird from just outside the park four years ago), White-breasted Waterhen and a WHITE-TAILED PLOVER.

Eastern Imperial Eagle

Egyptian Vulture

Short-toed Eagle

Bonelli's Eagle

Indian Spotted Eagle

Marsh Harrier

Shikra

1st and 2nd January 2018

A walk along the river from Buildwas first thing was quiet on the 1^st (especially as heavy rain moved in part-way through) with just a Little Egret – my first in Shropshire for a long while and three Mandarin of note.   Venus Pool then had some good duck counts including 58 Shoveler (a record count for me here!), 27 Gadwall, 105 Teal and 12 Pochard with the usual birds in the top field including three Lesser Redpolls but no Corn Buntings..   I then drove down to Leintwardine where a walk before it got dark produced a Great White Egret along the Teme, just downstream of the village, a Green Sandpiper and a Grey Wagtail in the drizzle conditions.

                Persistent rain delayed things on the 2^nd until lunchtime when a look round Whitcliff, above Ludlow produced at least 30 Hawfinches flying around and sticking to the tops of the trees, not giving great views in the dull, damp conditions, there were also the common woodland birds throughout including Marsh Tit, Treecreeper, Nuthatch etc.   A look then at Bodenham Lake was also productive with another 3 Hawfinches seen well and great views of an Otter in the main lake the highlights along with several Green Woodpeckers, a couple of flocks of Redpolls and Siskins, two Goldeneye and 20+ Mandarins.

Great White Egret at Leintwardine

Terrible Hawfinch pictures

Otter