Birding in Bhutan and other travel stories: In search of the lesser florican: A trip to Sonkhaliya (Ajmer, Rajasthan)

In search of the lesser florican, we were to go, but we ended up finding much more.

Among the various things that we discovered after landing at Jaipur (en route to Ajmer) is that it is not a north Indian shanty town in a Bimaru state. On the contrary it comes across as a well planned and manicured capital. We drove around the main streets and saw the imposing new vidhan bhavan. The walled city was equally spic and span and painted in the official colours and could be easily mistaken for a film set. The Hawa mahal was a bit of an anti climax and resembled the mockup buildings which one finds in film studios. Dinner at the exclusive Rambag Club Golf course was an uplifiting experience, the high point being the Paan Kulfi. No wonder we could feel the sense of pride and belonging about the city in our most gracious hosts.

Our hosts at Jaipur: Neetu and Rana

The plan was to land and spend the night at Jaipur and then take an early morning train to meet up with the group at Ajmer.

We rolled into Ajmer station on time and immediately the stark contrast hit us. Inspite of being a well known tourist destination, the place is a classic north Indian mofussil town, cows on the road and all. Luckily our accommodation was quite decent and not too far from the station.

Our ride was a Toofan which was quite spacious and appropriate for the terrain.

We set out immediately after breakfast along the Ajmer Nasirabad Sarwar road and picked up our local resource person Mr Rathore at the Nasirabad bypass. The road condition is very good along the national /state highway, but not so along the small village roads (understandably so).

The weather was cloudy and very pleasant. In fact it had been raining heavily for the past few days in the evenings. This probably explained why the countryside looked like anything but the typical image of Rajasthan in our minds eye.

There were lush green fields as far as the eye could see. Entire farming families including women and children could be seen helping with the various activities. Canals and pumpsets were conspicuous by their absence. Our local expert informed that the entire farming activity was based on nature and the monsoon , and that there was no plan B. Suddenly the movie Lagaan started to make sense.

Roaming around the villages dotting the vast farmlands, we city dwellers begin to understand the saying that India is a rural/agrarian country, and the most important annual event is not the budget or the IPL or Independence day (which it was incidentally ) but the monsoons.

The first stop was the bayaweaver point. The topography is typically farmland, interspersed with slightly elevated rocky uncultivated areas strewn with what looked like meteorites. (The mystery of the meteorites was solved a little later). The expert male weavers in their glorious breeding plumage were busy giving finishing touches to their dwellings and females could be seen taking their time to decide. The silverbills who hoped to occupy the unused nests were also seen nearby seemingly placing the bets.

Baya weaver pair

We moved over unpaved roads in scrubland areas and were soon rewarded with views of ashycrowned sparrow larks, rufous fronted prinia, the European roller in its resplendent colours and a pair of Indian coursers.

European roller

Rufous tailed lark

Moong flower

Ashycrowned sparrowlark

Indian courser

Brahminy maina

The terrain was strewn with enormous thorns (as duly warned) and I experienced one which managed go right through my brand new Quechua trekking boots specially acquired for this terrain.

The four varieties of larks which have typical breeding displays were all around. We were told that being scrubland birds, and totally exposed, they cannot afford to put on brilliant colours and so the mate-seeking strategy had evolved differently. In this case it was the way that the males take to the skies and then descend like a parachute or dive like a bomber. In case of the lesser florican it was the rather spectacular jump which made it suddenly shoot out of the moong fields by about ten feet and then descend down making a damru like sound (the exact origin of which is still a matter of debate).

Rock bushquail

In fact the famous mating behaviour of the floricans, was the very reason that we had travelled all across India and it looked like it was going to be on display very soon. The conditions that had to be fulfilled were very specific. It had to be the right season (monsoon of course); the field had to be moong adjoining a patch of bajra. The moong (being short enough) was ideal for the females to be able to see their potential suitor. The bajra being tall enough affording the perfect hiding place in case of danger (the bird being rather shy). For the male to indulge in display, the weather conditions had to be cool enough (since a lot of energy was spent in the jump) but not actively raining.

Moong and Bajra side by side

Moreover the landing spot had to have been made soft enough by the rains so that the undercarriage did not suffer too much damage. The male patrolled his chosen area (known as leek) and was obliged to display not only as a mating behaviour but also as a territorial reminder for other marauding males.

Soon we reached an area of expected sighting and it was not too long before we heard the familiar damru sound and the male floricans display was witnessed, though at quite a distance. Even at that distance, we were left spellbound, though the photographers thirst was hardly quenched. Knowing that we were in the able hands of an experienced guide, and that more sightings would follow, we were quite happy to be driven to the lunch stop. This dhaba was quite neat and provided all essential facilities. The food was actually quite good as well.

In the afternoon as we passed by many of the temporary waterbodies, we got very good views of the Indian moorehens in breeding colours, the shocking red beaks looking almost like artificial stuck-on appendages.

Indian moorehen breeding

Yellow wattled lapwing

Grey francolin

Purple sunbird male breeding

Angry bird?

Large grey babblers

In the evening we headed for the quarry. Suddenly the reason for the strewn meteorites became clear. This area (which is basically a part of a very denuded Aravalli range) is home to several quarries. Incredulously the same rock yields four different kinds of minerals (quartz,feldspar,mica and soda) of commercial use which are totally different in their consistency and appearance. Somewhat like four siblings in a family of common parentage who are usually totally different.

Quarry

Mica; soda;quartz;feldspar

Eurasian eagle owl

The purpose of the quarry visit was ,of course, not geological but ornithological. This particular quarry was home to a pair of Eurasian eagle owls for whom it was too early an hour to be active. Closeby we were alerted by the unwieldy flight of the Sykes nightjar which obliged by settling down amongst the feldspar rocks.

Sykes nightjar

After a good days birding and sumptuous meal, we woke up early the next day to catch the activity of the florican. After negotiating impossible looking field tracks for almost an hour we reached the “spot”. These spots, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, are not random moong fields but are a result of long years of continuous observations by our expert who patrols these areas on a daily basis. We settled down and within minutes spotted our target, and quite closeby as well, relatively speaking. The jump of the florican was all that it was promised to be and the male not only obliged repeatedly, but gave close up views as it crossed the very path that we were standing on, to move into the fields on the other side.

Lesser florican

Leap for love

After a clicking frenzy which went on for an hour or so, we now decided to whet our physical appetite with a basic but filling “field” breakfast.

Now that the official target of the trip had been captured, we quite enjoyed the play of the clouds and rain which started to build up by afternoon.

The spotting of the dazzling painted grasshopper, eurasian thick knee and a pair of painted snipes brought lot of excitement. After lunch we proceeded to check out a large lake, which surprisingly held a number of greater flamingos.

Common kingfisher

Shrika juvenile

Comb duck

Greater flamingo

Painted grasshopper

Painted snipe

Cattle egret breeding

Eurasian thicknee

By late evening it started pouring and put paid to any plans of getting another closer look at the floricans (one can never have enough I suppose). On the way back, mother Nature put on another spectacular display in the form of dark multilayered clouds with lush green fields swaying in the foreground. No wonder the professional photographers amongst us, did not mind some calisthenics in order to get a better perspective!!