Birding around Sultanpur

It was meant to be a short exploratory trip to Sultanpur before the season started to see if there was any use of birding there on weekends. Madhu and me set off early morning in order to reach Sultanpur at 6.30, the opening time as given on the net. We were disappointed initially as two guides near the park explained that the park would only open in October and a group that had gotten in with special permission last week had made things worse with the article about lack of water there. In short, he explained animatedly that no more permission would be given and there was sufficient water as further water released would actually damage the nests on the banks.

As we pondered on other options and places as far as Asola Bhatti, one of the guides offered to show us spots nearby for 500 bucks. We tried to bargain but he said others often paid much more. Having nothing better to do, not wanting to waste the morning hours and expecting to see a couple of lakes with a few regular birds for a couple of hours, we said yes. We set out on triples on the pulsar, with two fairly large backpacks quite uncomfortably assuming it would be over soon.

 Five hours later as Madhu and me were ready to drop dead from the trip, our 71 year old guide was still pushing us to find a few more species. A pheasant tailed jacana will be generally here; Streaked weavers just around the bushes; Kentish plovers if we keep looking. Although those 3 were the ones that we missed, photography was difficult with overcast conditions and the birds quite shy as most were found in far off fields and lakes with less human activity. The spotted list though consisted of multiple painted snipes, little green herons, sarus cranes, little ringed plovers, glossy ibis, godwits, eurasian curlews, european rollers, eurasian thick knees, blue cheeked bee eaters, pratincoles, other waders and a lot more. The number of species we covered till noon was incredible considering migrants haven't even started arriving.

After some lunch and rest at the tourism department restaurant, we set out to get back home. The return journey wasn't pleasant with rains and the bike stuck in mud but we were glad it had started to rain only after the birding was done. A tiring drive later, we are hoping to probably have another shot at this again maybe even with some migrants thrown in.