INDIA 2010: Bund Baretha

Nov 18 – We picked up Jag and his father Sohan at Keoladeo’s main gate and headed about 40 kms west for a full day excursion to Bund Baretha. With the exception of the first 5 kms the road is barely one lane wide, extremely bumpy and consequently the short distance we covered took well over 2 hours!

Most of the journey was through cultivated fields and small villages, the latter being very fascinating to all of us. Each village had a well where we would see either the girls pumping water to fill their silver jugs or boys bathing.

Cows and buffalo are the dominate domestic mammal, these being tethered close to the road next to their houses or free range in a small courtyard. The main source of fuel for the locals comes from cow dung, which is collected and shaped into large patties, left out on piles of stones or their roofs to dry, and eventually stores in a small hut made of, wait for it….dung! We named this stretch of road the Dung Cake Capital of Rajasthan!

One white cow looked as though it had the cow pox, but upon further investigation it was painted with red spots for the recent festival, Dewali.

A stones throw from the reservoir is a compound with a colony of Indian Flying Fox fruit bats (above), some of whom were roosting in full view. A few of these large bats, with 3 foot wingspans, could be seen flying around the canopy. A look around the gardens was very fruitful with a Verditer, Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher and Thick-billed Flowerpecker all seen well.

Yesterday’s rains had cleared out and the sky for the first time on our trip was blue! In spite of the short distance between Bharatpur and the Baretha reservoir, the water levels in both locations were completely different. We walked onto the dam breast and found the reservoir full of water. Good for the locals, but from a birding perspective it meant no shorebirds or waders or anywhere where ducks and geese could roost other than the water!

From our vantage point on the dam breast we could see a group of Spot-billed Ducks feeding in the marshes adjacent to the dam, while scope views offered a raft of waterfowl towards the southern end of the reservoir. We could make out the larger Greylag Geese but little else at that distance.

We drove around the east side and found the track to the Kishen Mahal Palace pretty waterlogged, certain too much to take the bus down it. We walked trying to find view points to scope the waterfowl, but alas the condition of the road deteriorated the further in we went and we had to abandon our effort. Our reward for the gallant try was a stunning male Bluethroat (above)  and an skulking aptly named Clamorous Reed Warbler.

Three River Terns flew past us and we had a Pied Kingfisher (above) hovering close by. In one spot we could see all three cormorants and a couple of Asian Openbills but little else. We returned to the dam and walked around the west side to get closer to the ducks as well as to have the light to our backs. This proved to be a wise move as we picked out a few Tufted Duck, Eurasian Teal and Eurasian Wigeon amongst many Gadwall and Common Pochard.

Being our first day with blue sky and sun there was a tremendous amount of butterfly activity, that included several Indian Crows, Striped Tiger, Glassy Blue Tiger and gorgeous Peacock Pansy (above).

On the return journey Pied Bushchats became a common sight in particular on telephone wires. Jag’s keen eyes picked out a flock of 9 Eurasian Thick-knees (above) hunkered down and well concealed in a fallow field. Sherry asked “What bird has a crest?” having just seen one beside the road. The bus came to stop and we all piled out and scanned the recently ploughed fields. Sitting on low berms we found a Bimaculated Lark and Sherry’s Crested Lark. The fact that we were here for longer than a minute meant that we drew a small crowd, including 6 on a moped!