To each his own: A morning at Badsa, Sultanpur outskirts

To each his own, they say. It’s true everywhere in nature,  as also among nature watchers. So this morning when we set out yet again towards Sultanpur outskirts,  it was understood that each one of us were there for our own thing.

This small lake/wetland is located north of Sultanpur, off the main Jhajjar road just beyond  AIIMS.

 

The approach this time was slightly beyond the Gulia cricket academy turning. There was a nice concrete road which stopped abruptly at the edge of a marshy area.

A spectacular solitary dry tree standing tall in the middle of the marsh was host to comb ducks, cormorants, open bill storks apart from the ubiquitous baya weaver nests. It was as if trying to say that i will continue to do my thing and stand tall no matter what.

As the cars stopped, out came the bazookas who went about chasing the perfect shot of the Pacific Golden Plover.

The macro lens dived into the grass for exquisite shots of the compound eyes of a mosquito.

Then came the charcoal paper with the most amazing sketches effortlessly taking shape. The subjects not necessarily only birds..

 

The young birders were most excited to be surrounded by sandpipers and lapwings.

 

 

Knob billed duck female

Rosy starling

Crested lark

 

Asian pied starling

 We were thankful simply just to be out there.

Tour operator: NINOX Owl About Nature

Birding guide: Abhishek

Camera: Nikon P 600 and Oneplus 7

 

 

Of Bee eaters and Butterflies: A morning at Sultanpur outskirts (Basai, Dharampur and Badsa)

 

Blue cheeked bee eater with a Plain tiger butterfly

The heat was building up since daybreak as we hurtled down the stupendous Gurgaon highway. It was a still and humid September morning in Delhi, but that was not going to deter us from trying to steal a few birding moments from what is on offer in and around Delhi as we headed to the Basai wetlands RV point. A short drive later we found ourselves negotiating the marshes of an area called Dharampur . 

 

 

It soon emerged that there was not much to be seen here today as the water level was high and the locals had taken to fishing in makeshift boats made of giant truck tyre tubes.  We were quite excited just to be in wetlands not lined by defecating humans!! 

 

Dharampur

 

A black capped night heron, seen in the distance,  evoked some interest. We felt quite entertained by the noisy flocks of bank mynas and asian pied starlings but it was decided to move to another wetland near AIIMS Jhajjar.

 

Even as we made quick headway on the very good four lane road, the incongruously large and imposing AIIMS building came into view. 

 

 

The side road exit after the AIIMS outreach centre turns right into a dirt track marked “Jitender Gulia Cricket academy, Badsa”. This revealed a serious looking lush green academy grounds complete with nets.  We managed to catch a glimpse of a Sunday morning big boys’ tennis ball cricket match, which was equally serious.  Every near miss at the wickets and every lofted shot was greeted with a loud BC and MC from the fielders....

My South Indian, South Bombay educated wife was scandalized - even as my childhood memories suddenly came welling up; I’m born and brought up in Delhi, you see.

I have never managed to fully explain to her before, why Bhajji would never have had racial undertones when he apparently called Andrew Symonds a “Monkey”.

 

Badsa trail

Mongoose

 

The track between lush green and waterlogged paddyfields soon revealed the low lying wetland in the distance. A black necked stork was spotted at its far end along with several grebes and common coots. The tall grasses revealed plain prinias and Siberian stone chats amidst the constant and irresistible Zitting of the cisticolas. There were impressive flypasts of flocks of black headed ibis, cormorants and even a knob billed duck.

 

Black breasted weaver

Plain prinia

Plain prinia

 

A cacophony of weaver birds froze us in our tracks. We could see several proud males advertising their perfectly tailored nests and raising their attractive yellow caps to the ladies!

We were explained that the streaked weavers build nests in tall water grasses whereas the baya weavers always build on the trees.

If only humans were to similarly learn to respect each other’s territories.... 

 

Baya weaver on tree

Streaked weaver on grasses

Streaked weaver

 

The eternal food chain spectacle of Nature played out right in front of our eyes with a classic NatGeo David and Goliath twist.

The lead predator in this plot was the handsome blue cheeked bee eater with its disproportionately long and sharp beak. The “hapless” prey was the plain tiger butterfly. Just as the bee eater snapped up the butterfly and was about to gobble it up, came the twist. The bird suddenly had a change of mind and let the petite lepidopter go!! No wonder it’s called a tiger, i thought. But what was its secret weapon, i wondered.

 

 

Blue cheeked bee eater

 

Our knowledgeable guide informed that these butterflies feed on the milkweed which contains a cardiac glycoside that doesn’t seem to affect them, but they are rendered toxic to the birds which try to eat them!!

A bit of googling later revealed that these butterflies therefore stay around the milkweed plants of genus Asclepias.

 

Isn’t it ironic that Asclepius, the Greek God of medicine and Asclepias, the toxic milkweed are so similar sounding!!  Probably Natures way of reminding doctors that the difference between medicine and poison is often so subtle!!

 

 

 

 

With the heat building up, we had to call it a day early, but not before having a bit of adventure with our low clearance car climbing over a rock lying on the road. Some of the things one has to learn when upgrading from an all weather Alto to a City car...

 

 

 

Tour operator: NINOX Owl About Nature

Birding guide: Abhishek

Camera: Nikon P 600 and Oneplus 7

Locations:

Dharampur: 28°30'12.7"N 76°57'56.2"E

Badsa:  28°30'31.4"N 76°51'46.7"E44+

 

Backyard Jungle birding at Aravali Biodiversity Park, Gurugram

 

Tucked away under the glitzy skyscrapers of cyber city Gurgaon (now called Gurugram), is this little piece of heaven called Aravali biodiversity park. (Not to be confused with Aravali biodiversity park, Vasant Kunj)

 

Aravali Biodiversity Park, Gurugram

It’s rare to see humans go against their grain and, for a change, do something that doesn’t destroy the environment. This is one such example. I’m reminded of the story of Auroville in the 1960s when a colossal plantation effort converted a piece of barren land into the piece of heaven that it is today. The story of this park is almost similar, though on a much smaller scale.

 

Some right thinking and motivated people managed to save this part of the denuded Aravalli range from the clutches of miners and builders in the 1990s and undertook major conservation effort resulting in what we see today.

The place is amazingly clean and well maintained. Surprisingly it opens at 0530 hrs including holidays, unlike most of the green spaces in Delhi which follow office timings!!. 

Even more surprisingly, there aren’t any entry or parking or camera tickets. It seemed to be a favourite among the Gurgaon locals out for a morning walk. There was an equal number of Nature and Bird watchers in evidence.

The greenery is spectacular and calming and one doesn’t help noticing that there is a plethora of species of plants and grasses. Something very different from the ubiquitous natural kikar scrublands that one is used to seeing around Delhi. 

That’s because it is a painstakingly planted forest, boasting of a huge variety of local trees and shrubs that have happily taken root. This variety is perhaps the reason for the abundant avifauna which affords ample habitat for the Sunbirds, Shrikes, Drongos, Weavers, Prinias and Cuckoos alike. 

We had a very satisfying morning of “backyard jungle birding” and came away marvelling at Mother Nature’s capacity to heal...if only given half a chance

 

Common babbler

Green bee eater

White cheeked bulbul

Baya weaver male

Silverbill

Cecalpinia bonduc

 

Senna occidentalis

 

Forsskals dayflower

 

 Asian spiderflower

 The place is easy to find at https://goo.gl/maps/2aeZDEVGdkxsrHNf6

Camera: Nikon Coolpix P900 and Oneplus7

Date of visit: 29 Aug 2020 

 

 

 

 

 

A morning at the river bank along the Yamuna Biodiversity Park and Shyam Ghat, Delhi

A chance mention in one of the travel magazines suddenly fueled our desire to visit the Yamuna Biodiversity Park- A park in Delhi which we had never heard of...
We also took it as a personal affront since here was a wooded/birding area in Delhi about which we had no idea!! How was this even possible as we considered ourselves seasoned Delhibirders of nearly two decades standing. Well that was exactly the point. This area has come up over the last ten years or so and we had returned to Delhi after 15 years.

The build up to the visit was equally interesting. Firstly there were hardly any hardcore birding blogs or trip reports. Also the googlopedia information kept mentioning visiting hours as 10 to 5 on weekdays. What kind of nature reserve/birding area works office hours?? There goes any chance of visiting, i thought and started making other weekend plans. 

 

The Missus at the Waterfront beyond Shyam Ghat

 
But once the missus has made up her mind,  no stone is left unturned. Moreover she has this unexplainable faith in systems...She persisted with phone calls and even sent an e- mail. Amazingly, there was a very polite reply and a request for us to schedule our visit on Saturday. She persisted again and replied that she was working on Saturdays and if Sunday is possible!. Then she gave me the task of actually calling up a number listed on the DDA website.  Taking pity on her hypersimplicity, i called up the number- twice, without response. Satisfied that i had done as directed and obviously it was foolish to expect a response, i set about planning the activities for the weekend.

That’s when my golf plans came undone.

 

One helpful Mr Mohan Singh actually called back on my missed call! He patiently explained that no one would be allowed in the park on Sunday and gates would be locked outside office hours. With some faint hope, i queried whether there was any access to the riverside marsh area if not the park area. That’s when he was overjoyed to share with us that they were actually planning a phase 2 of the park. As of now there was nothing organized there but we could easily access the area on our own. That’s how we ended up visiting the Jagatpur village bund road area this Sunday.

 

Yamuna Biodiversity Park area in North East Delhi

One needs to head for the Wazirabad area of north east Delhi and reach the Shyam Ghat via the Jagatpur Bund Road. The area is relatively clean considering its an Indian riverside ghat. We actually did not see any defecating humans.. 

It was a splendid winter morning with no mist and plenty of sunshine.  On reaching the Shyam ghat viewpoint we noticed several people bringing grain and spreading it around, a common soul cleansing ritual i understand. That explained the large number of bank mynas sparrows and wagtails voraciously making the best of the morning feast..

Pied wagtail

Bank myna

We also spotted what we thought were zitting cisticolas, but may well be crested larks. The tree full of fluffed up sparrows looked quite surreal.

 

Crested lark ?juveline

Crested lark

Farm track beyond shyam ghat

After breakfast, we moved along the farm tracts that had been deeply ploughed, thus liberating a feast for the insectivorous birds. The grey wagtails were making the most of this feast and sharing the spoils were the crested larks.

 We had good views of bush chats, plain prinias and a solitary ashy prinia.   The graceful prinia gave some good views in good light. 

Graceful prinia

Anti frost tech

As we moved closer to the water line we noticed a spectacular collection of pied avocets, gulls, ruddy shelducks, common coots and black winged stints. Common redshanks and blacktailed godwits seemed to be hiding the solitary ruff. A few sandpipers were also seen wading in the shallow waters. 

The red wattled lapwing was relentlessly calling and circulating above the fields. 

Red wattled lapwing

Common coot

Black tailed godwit and a Ruff

Pied avocet

Little ring plover

Black winged stilt

Grey wagtail

Common sandpiper

This morning we saw what any birder would describe as a few very “common” birds. However standing on the waterline of the Yamuna river on this crisp February morning, it became abundantly clear that the Joy of birding was never in ticking off lifelists. Rather we felt blessed that we could spend a quiet morning right here in the city, marveling at all of these feathered beings that we share this planet with. 

After all, the God Lord made them all.... 



Camera: Nikon P 900
Travel Tips:
The location is easy to find on google maps. Ask for Shyam Ghat.
Entry free
Carry your own water bottle and munchies.
Reasonably good road right upto the Shyam Ghat parking.