Bhigwan 23/1/2011

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Places visited: Bhigwan, Mayureshwar Abhayaranya
Date: 23/1/2011
Purpose: Pakshinirikshan (birdwatching)
Persons: Harshal, Juilee with Insearch Outdoors

I have received the mail regarding birdwatching at Bhigwas but I deleted that mail. But later, when I got the same mail second time, I suddenly thought of going for this event, I don't know why!!!!
I booked the trip on 20th January and paid them full money. They accept the online payment through net-banking.
We woke up very early and drove car to Siddhi Gardens at 6:15 AM. Opposite to the Siddhi Gardens, there is a big empty space, where I parked my car. It was dark and pleasently cold. Only few people were arrived. I thought of 40+, but there were only 15. The bus came at 6:30 AM. Mr. Rupesh Balsara (amche pakshitadnya) came at 6:40 and we waited for one more person till 6:50 AM. We started at 6:50. We took the solapur highway and we passed by Uruli-Kanchan -> Patas -> Kedgav -> Kurkumbh and then Ravangav.
In the road, there is Nasle Bandhu Dhaba (Nasle bandhu from solapur). Out trip leader already bought Upama and Pyatis with him. So we had a heavy breakfast. Upamya var shev pan hoti. Chan hota upama. Just behind the dhaba there is also a water body with few birds (which I could not identify) In the dhaba premises we saw "Praying Mentis" (Khandoba cha Ghoda) - ek kida - naktodya sarkha - jo namaskar kelya sarkha basto. We also had a small round of introduction.
After that when Bhigwan came closer, we took a left turn on a kaccha road, which is in front of "Hava Ashram - Mallinath Swami". This ashram is ar right side, you need to take left kachha road. At Chincholi, took left turn and then at Bhilarwadi one right turn. You arrive at Ujani Dam backwaters. These are a huge backwaters. We got down from the bus. People had very high power bianoculers and cameras. My camera was like an insect in front of those dianosour SLR cameras. Yet, I tried to take photos of birds, but those came out very blurry and faded because of bad ISO speed and bad zoom and bad skills. We spotted many birds:
Open Beak: their beak is open.
Varkari: they have white strips on the head.
spot beal
gray heron
black wing
pond herons
Indian shag = pankh valvat basto.

As we were walking, I borrowed a good binoculour from one of the kaka. (We also mate with one one kaka who is father of an JD employee). From the durbin, the birds look amazing. The mother nature had not saved a single shade of color for her. She gave everything to us..... and we are destroying all it. I recommend parents to send their small children for such nature outings, so that they will feel responsible about the nature.
We kept on walking sometimes and sometimes in the bus, and saw more birds like:
Rivertern,
Bea Eater: Veda Raghu
Pan-kavla
Kamalpakshi - Kamalachya panacha adhar ghet chalto.
Later we can to a place where, there are small huts of fish-killing (masemar) people from Maharashtra and Andhrapradesh.
We divided in 2 groups and sat in 2 boats. There were around 6 people in each boat. (I was expecting a lot more crowd than this.) We requested Rupesh to come in our boat, as we all were new. It was a hot afternoon and sun was shining like anything. The navadi started to valhav the boat. When we got into the middle of the water, many birds started appering. And we heard from other navadi that there are no Flamingos. We got disappointed. But still we could see many birds like hornbill, rivertern, brahmni duck, etc. I was feeling boaring, as flamingos were not seen. Because of the big rains, there were no shallow water bodies which is required by them.
We went to the middle of the backwaters and then turned back. It was around 1:30 PM, we retured back to the shoer and started our journey back to Nasle Bandhu dhaba.
At dhaba, there is a big crowd, and the waiters were very buzy serving everybody. So we quickly ordered as a group and the people, started running behind the watiers to get the dishes, spoons and other things. We ordered pithla-bhakri - it was ok.
After lunch, we went towards the pune and then at Nasrapur phata we turned left towards Mayureshwas sanctury. During the journey, Me and Juilee first started chatting with eac other, which later got converted into a huge fight. :-(
In Mayurshwar I got more boared as the chinkaras were seen from very far. They are very shy and they run away as they hear sounds of vehicles or humans. We were there for more than 1 and half hours. We saw some more birds and some trees. Ek kaka ni undirmari cha zaad dakhavla, tya zada chya jaminit undir-ghushi nahi yet asa mhantat.
Before sunset, we started our journey back to pune. On the way, we paused for a coffee break and then returned back to siddhi gardens.
This trip was somewhat boaring because of my poor camera, no binoculer, no flamingos, chinkara from far away and Fight with Juilee.
Contacts:
Insearch Outdoors,
26/9 Ketan Heights, Rahul Nagar Lane, Near Karve Putala,
Kothrud, Pune 411038
Phone: 020 25443096/97
020 65007956

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