Wednesday, December 28, 2011

BHINDHAWAS BIRD SANCTUARY HARYANA


Welcome to Bhindhawas bird Sanctuary !!!

Purple Heron

Shoveller

Rose ringed Parakeet

Tufted Pochard... without Tuft ... Non Breeding one...





Indian Moorhen



Egret -Medium one!


Pond heron


Coot



Grey Heron

Stilt, Black Winged



Spot Bill pair!!


Kingfisher , White breasted


Spotbill Duck

Purple Moorhen
Ashy Wren Warbler?




Purple Moorhen


Wigeon



On an accidental landing at A not-so-familiar bird sanctuary



When my friend, Mr Prasad, the ‘dancing’ Photographer (dancing because, he mostly captures dancers in action thro’ his magical lens….) called me over phone… “Hi Rajan, could we plan a Bird watching trip?”  I just couldn’t believe. Well.. I also wanted a break from my dry “Banking & Finance lectures”… I rang up to Murali, the born trekker, who always accompanies me, but this time, he said that he would not make it… due to his “Vigilance assignments” in his Bank! Sadly I had to miss him…  So Prasad & I planned it for Sultanpur on 26th Dec 2011. It was a Monday and we loved to brave the biting cold…

I waited at Airport Metro, Sector 21 Dwarka, near my home,  to receive Prasad. As expected, he came out of the station with his paraphernalia i.e., Camera, Tripod, hiding his round, barren head inside the typical Birder’s cap with a beaming smile. I was in my winter jacket covering inside a sweater, a shirt and an innerware, hoping to protect reasonably form an expected cold wave. My Wagon R was happy to have an outing…away from Delhi… After Manali in March, he could not go for along drive…. Poor guy.  With the typical mood for a Nature Trail, we wanted to venture into old rural road leading to Gurgaon but alas, from the beginning we were lost. Somehow we reached the Basai road and reached Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary … alas… the locked door welcomed us. There was none to receive us as guest. The In-charge came to say that the sanctuary was closed on Mondays. We cursed the Wild life Authorities….. for we were not told this earlier. Why could you not visit the website before starting… pat came the reply.  In fact I tried a website…. But as usual the message was “The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.” If you have doubts you try http://www.sultanpurbirdsanctuary.com/ .  If you are lucky, you may perhaps get the server open... try your luck before you go....    

But thanks to Anna, now no tips will work here, it appears.... Oh No Doubt me not... I did not try any tips, but a tourist ventured this to get a good “barking” in return. 

I was disappointed... and obviously Prasad too…I thought... but he was cool as he offered a home-made Sandwich and So we walked to the Haryana tourism restaurant.. it was not closed.. and.. so was the park  adjacent to the lake... We had a superb pot-tea inside the well maintained restaurant...Now I wondered as to what to do... Suddenly  I recollected my earlier visit a decade ago in a scooter with my son on the pillion to a nearby not-so-known bird site. Yeah... but I forgot the name.. what should I do? But god.. I too have memory.... It was.. I got it... Bhindhawas Lake Bird Sanctuary... about 15 Km away...? Yes. Prasad tried the browsing in my 2G mobile and he got it, but we were unable to track it. Passing old Haryanwi’s never knew having heard such a name. Driving ahead, we travelled about 25 Kms to reach Jhajjar because, a faint memory instinct told me that we did cross Jhajjar during our last trip a decade ago. Good... the villagers near Jhajjar told that it another 15 kms away.