Rann ki Baat

It’s the last day of our birding tour with Experts Avinash Bhagat and Clara Correia and Praveen Vishe of Jungle Hikes, in the Little Rann Of Kutch. The enthusiasm and expertise of these people is amazing. Even from the running Toofan jeeps, they spot each and every bird.. from tiny warbler hiding in shrubs to cranes flying many kilometers high up in the sky.. they don’t miss a bird.

I am sitting in the grass on the banks of the Thol lake It’s very sunny all around. Two Pond Herons are moving and walking nearby, I can even touch them if I want. They don’t mind me. Their full focus is on finding their food. One of them suddenly becomes very still..no movement at all. Eyes stuck on the little orange dragonfly that has just rested on a leaf. With full concentration, the Heron lets it relax on the leaf, waits patiently.. I mean real, real patience and self control and then gulps it in a swift movement of beak ,then goes about to find other tasty food items.. From my camera lens the Heron looks very beautiful its greenish and yellow, brown body shining in the sunlight.

This lake presents a different world which vibrates with the activities of varied water birds.. innocent looking Ruddy Shellducks and Common Teals, the knob billed Comb duck, the Spot billed ducks who look as if they have just come from some haldi kumkum ceremony, Grey lag Geese, Beautiful Bar headed Geese, the handsome Eurasian Wigeons and Coots, the redheads Pochards, Pied Avocets, the slender Black winged stilts, the fatso Pelicans, Lapwings, Flamingos, Cormorants, Darter birds, Sandpipers, Spoonbills.. you name it and you have it. Around the bank you see various water hens like white breasted hen, Purple swamp hen, Common Moorhens foraging the grass for insects and worms… in the company of Bee -eaters and Sunbirds. In addition, the big flocks of Common Cranes and pelicans continuously pour in from the sky above crocking and cawing.

This year the rains were scanty and as such water is less in the lake.. but it provides ample food for all.. Algae for flamingos, aquatic plants and vegetable shoots for ducks, fish for the pelicans, shrimps and snails for spoonbills and likes. On different levels of water, a different species of birds feed. And each has its own small world amidst the bigger diverse lake world.

We are very near to water.. we can see all birds clearly with binoculars or even without . As the afternoon passes by, the activity in and around the lake reduces, a kind of somber calm spreads everywhere. Even the camera shutters slow down. A huge pelican comes floating and the little ducks fly sideways to make way for it. Then again the peace settles. But within minutes a fluffy black and white Pied Kingfisher appears on the scene. Suddenly the atmosphere is filled with energy and excitement. The tiny bird hovers about 10 to 12 feet over the water rapidly flapping its wings and as it sees the fish near water surface it dives quickly to catch it. This kingfisher bird is very swift and zooms around with gusto. All photographers are super happy to click it from so near a distance.

Finally as the day and the tour approaches the end, one more exciting catch is found by Clara. She spots a white tailed lapwing, which is a rare site. Avinash goes to the other side crawling very cautiously to take its photo. His movements remind me of the cautious Pond Heron.

Earlier in the Rann we experienced the bare, barren desert land with patchworks of sand. The glazing sun and dry land makes us wonder how can life survive here with no tall trees, just shrubs and thorny bushes… but there they are.. Warblers and small birds almost at the eye level. The mighty Imperial Eagle and Steppe Eagle resting on the little sand mounts. The Blue Bull (Neel Gaay),the Wild Ass keep a safe distance and you get just of glimpse of the desert Fox as it runs through the bushes with its furry long tail trailing behind. As the night approached, Pravin sighted a nightjar in the dark (their eyes glow a bit in the torch light). That turned out to be Sykes’ nightjar which was a lifer for many of us.