We continued our drive out of Desert National Park seeing further
Black-bellied Sandgrouse, a
Cinereous Vulture and an
Egyptian Vulture drinking from a roadside puddle and many more
Variable Wheatear,
Bimaculated Lark and
Greater Short-toed Lark. We stopped at a site near to Damodra approximately 8km to the east of Sam, this was a small rocky outcrop where Ganesh had previously seen Red-tailed Wheatear. We climbed the rock face and came across a
Striolated Bunting and then more
Large-billed Pipit a and a
Tawny Pipit and then I flushed a wheatear which flashed red in the tail as it flew and then landed on a rock up a small scarp –
Red-tailed Wheatear! Wheatear are a fantastic group but this bird was a little sombre with the main feature being the reddish rump and tail – features largely not visible when the bird was perched, still, it was a subtle beauty. Also here were
Desert Lark and
Desert Lesser Whitethroat. We headed on eastwards back towards Jaisalmer and I picked up a group of 10
Cream-coloured Courser in an area of stony desert, we stopped and headed towards them but they wanted to keep a good few hundred metres between us and them. Tired, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed shower, curry and cold Kingfisher beer after a great days birding.
Black-bellied Sandgrouse - male
Black-bellied Sandgrouse - Female
Cinereous Vulture
Egyptian Vulture
Variable Wheatear
Egyptian Vulture
Striolated Bunting
Tawny Pipit
Red-tailed Wheatear
Desert Lark
Cream-coloured Courser
Cream-coloured Courser
- Part 1 of this post can be viewed here
- Part 2 of this post can be viewed here
