The Deskbound Birder: Variable Wheatear

Showing posts with label Variable Wheatear. Show all posts

Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 12th February (Day 5)

This was to be a long driving day travelling from Jaisalmer to the Rann Riders Hotel to the east of Dasada ready for some time birding in the Little Rann of Kutch. We were to cover around 500km which was to take approximately 10 hours. Just outside of Jaisalmer we stopped at the Akal Fossil Wood Park, the park is designated for its fossil trees from the Jurassic period the largest being a tree trunk that is 13 meters in length and has a width of 1.3 meters. The park is meant to be site for Plain Leaf-warbler but we failed to see this species. Highlights here were Desert Lark, Isabelline Shrike, four Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Black-bellied Sandgrouse, White-throated Fantail and a female Variable Wheatear, unbelievably the first female we had seen despite having recorded in excess of 50 males. After an hour or so we returned to the car and relaxed into our journey watching the Indian lives and landscapes pass. The landscape changing from parched barren desert to lush acacia scrub and well irrigated fields. We added a few new birds from the car including Black-winged Stilt, White-tailed Plover, Common Crane, Jungle Babbler pus the usual range of egrets and herons. Eventually arriving at around 19:00 we checked into our hotel, Rann Riders, emptied our room of mosquitos and headed for our dinner of curry but to find that Gujarat is a dry state and there was no Kingfisher beer to be had – disaster!

Desert Lark

Akal Fossil Wood Park

Blyth's Reed Warbler

White-throated Fantail

Variable Wheatear

Striolated Bunting

Isabelline Shrike

Links to the other days of the trip:
Day 1 - 2 - Background and Travel
Day 2 (Part 1) - Desert National Park
Day 2 (Part 2) - Desert National Park
Day 3 (Part 3) - Desert National Park
Day 4 - Desert National Park and Jaisalmer Fort
Day 6 (Part 1) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 2) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 3) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 7 - Little Rann of Kutch and Travel Home

Friday, 19 February 2016

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 11th February (Day 4)

Having seen most of our target birds for the area during the course of yesterday, today was going to be a little more relaxed. We were up at 06:00 for a 06:30 breakfast and headed south-west out of Jaisalmer birding the desert as we went we added Black Redstart of the race phoenicuriodes, White-throated Fantail, Variable Wheatear of the form capistrata, had good views of more Desert Warbler and encountered flocks of several thousand Bimaculated Lark. We drove through dry, dusty desert villages with bedraggled men talking and smoking outside stores but pristine and colourful ladies gathering water, crushing wheat and generally carrying out productive duties.

We then turned north back through the Desert National Park where we scanned for Great Indian Bustard with no success. We enjoyed flocks of Bimaculated Lark, Greater Short-toed Lark and Black-crowned Sparrow Lark. And then, overhead, a stunning Laggar Falcon with its distinctive dark underwing coverts. We slowly made our way north stopping and scanning for bustard, counting ourselves fortunate that we had seen a pair yesterday. The drive out of the park produced nothing new and by 13:00 we were back at the hotel for lunch and a siesta.

The afternoon was spent at Jaisalmer Fort, a UNESCO world heritage site built in 1156 and is one of the largest fortifications in the world. The fort is 460m long and 230m wide and is built on a hill that raises 76m above the surrounding country side. The Fort was built by Rawal Jaiswal from whom the town of Jaisalmer takes its name. There is a very large colony of Greater Mouse-tailed Bat within the walls of the fort, we saw around 50 animals but judging by the smell and number of droppings in some areas there are many hundreds of animals present at times - not a very pretty looking bat!

Variable Wheatear of form capistrata

Black Redstart of race phoenicuriodes

Lesser Whitethroat - Not exactly sure of race/species of this bird any advice please email simon@ecosa.co.uk - is it Desert, Hume's or Lesser?

Common Babbler

Purple Sunbird

Southern Grey Shrike

Ladies and wind turbines

Typical desert village in area

Peacock common in the villages

Desert Warbler

Indian Spotted Eagle

Black Drongo - Commonly seen riding sheep and flycatching from their backs

Black Drongo

Bimaculated Lark

Lagger Falcon

Ladies collecting water

Sarah and I in Desert National Park

Typical habitat in Desert National Park

Entrance sign and habitat at Desert National Park

Camels at Sam

The following are all images from the fantastic Jaisalmer Fort

Links to the other days of the trip:
Day 1 - 2 - Background and Travel
Day 2 (Part 1) - Desert National Park
Day 2 (Part 2) - Desert National Park
Day 3 (Part 3) - Desert National Park
Day 5 - Travel from Jaisalmer to Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 1) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 2) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 6 (Part 3) - Little Rann of Kutch
Day 7 - Little Rann of Kutch and Travel Home

Thursday, 18 February 2016

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 10th February (Day 3) - Part 3

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.