Euphoria

Gandhari Visit – 09.10.2010

Remarks -

• Visit with new birder friend- Abhijeet Pachpande (Thane)
• Weather extremely foggy till 9 am.
• Sighting of Blue-tailed bee-eaters, Small Minivet pair, Pied Cuckoo, Asian Openbill Storks, an Osprey (near roadside flying along with kites)

Gandhari Visit – 10.10.2010

Remarks -

• Went alone cycling to Gandhari for the first time
• Sighting of ever elusive Painted Francoline for the first time and got decent shots :-)

Gandhari Visit – 11.12.2010

Remarks -

• Visit to Gandhari (for bird photography) after almost 2 months
• Advent of cold weather was soothing.
• Imp sightings – Common Rose finch, Cotton teal (5-6 individuals), Western Marsh Harrier, Black-headed cuckooshrike, Indian Grey Hornbill pair feeding on fig

Gandhari Visit – 05.06.2011

After a lot of confusion about deciding between Yeur and Gandhari, finally made it to Gandhari. Rain had already made a soil moist on the earlier evening and this resulted in some snakes making their appearance visible on a open land. (For the first time, I saw 4 snakes on a single day – 3 Rat Snakes ( Marathi – Dhaman), 1 Spectacled Cobra (Marathi – Naag)).

Pied Crested Cuckoo (Marathi – Chatak) pair was happily feeding on the ground insects – easy food for them after the first rain ! This was my closest encounter with this beautiful bird !! (This bird is a summer migratory bird – originating from East Africa)

Remarks -

• For the first time, encountered 4 Snakes in wild on a single day
• Rat snake caught a Toad but size, and moreover, determination of Toad to survive, saw Rat Snake loosing the battle. Those were the exciting 2-3 min for me and surely for the Snake & the Toad as well :-).
• Closest encountered with Pied Crested Cuckoo.  Pair was seen feeding on ground insects for a long time.

Gandhari 9th/16th/22nd/23rd Oct 2011

With extreme dew all over the area, spent 7 out of last 23 mornings at Gandhari. With Diwali approaching, there was hint of winter since last few days (just a slight hint indeed :-) ) and hence, Sun didn’t really bothered much.  Sept end – Oct are good months for macro photography (usually with no rain and ample sunlight). You can see butterflies, damselflies, grasshoppers,  flowers…everything so fresh!! These are the shots I managed to click over the weekends.

Remarks -

1. Blue-tailed bee-eaters seemed to have arrived in Oct 1st week.
2. Sighting/ Photo of not so commonly “seen” Eurasian wryneck by Dhanashri (21.10.2011)
3. Very good Booted eagle sighting (migratory eagle from Europe, north Africa wintering in Sub-Saharan africa and South Asia. Didn’t carry camera however photo is clicked by Santosh Gulvani (09.10.2011)
4. Pied kingfisher sighting after a long time (By Dhanashri – 21.10.2011)
5. Pied Crested cuckoo’s still at Gandhari
6. Painted Francolines’ activity was heard till 16th Oct but no activity heard on 22nd/23rd Oct. (This resident bird is heard only around monsoon season)
7. Asian Paradise Flycatcher was surprisingly seen on a comparatively open area
8. Uncommon mating of ‘Six spot ground beetle involving 3 specimens. (Sadly, didn’t carry camera and had to take photo using mobile cam…. For the first time realized that Mobile cam technology is not so useless :-)) – Evening of 02.10.2011