Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Migratory Birds at Bhigwan and Matoba

Second Internship at Nevis.
First Outing - Bird watching at Bhigwan and Matoba.

Well, this was my first experience of bird watching but to admit, it was a wonderful experience. I loved it a lot. The event was organized by a group called InSearch. I came across this opportunity from Raghu, who is a very senior member at Nevis. Fun was added with Atul in company, a new friend I made. So you see, I got to see bird-watching and made a very good friend too.

Every year, from September through February, Pune and it's surrounding wetlands give home to a number of migratory birds. These birds travel thousands of kilometers (many of them non-stop!!!) to escape the inclement conditions of Europe, Northern Asia and Himalayas.

Bhigwan: Situated about 100km from Pune, the waters of Ujani dam provides a healthy habitat attracting Ducks, Pochards, Storks, Sea Gulls, Marsh Harrier, Herons, and the most famous of all, the Flamingoes.

Matoba: Is a big lake situated about 50km from Pune. You get to see plenty of Brahminy Ducks and Shovellers here.

With Raghu's Nikon hi-fi SLR, Nikunj's Nikon SLR and Atul's Fujifilm digicam, we got some amazing photographs. I am putting the best photographs here. Enjoy!


Kingfisher with blue colours


Another kingfisher with shades of red and orange


Bee-eater: Just look at its tail


A beautiful duck



An unexpected guest! A water snake. Don't worry. Its non-poisonous. :-)


The split-beak migrators


The split-beaks in flight


A beautiful pond heron standing in shallow waters


The same pond heron in flight. Just look at its feathers. Awesome na !!


The lesser spotted eagle


Hello Mr Black!
O Hello Mr White !!


What a camouflage !


Birds fishing for food


The twin trees at Matoba


Honey, does it look good ?
The weaverbirds nests (only the helmet). The male completes the nest only when the female apporves of the helmet.


Beautiful Flower


Awesome sunset at Matoba

Photocredits: Nikunj Vaidya - Bee-eater, Water snake.
Atul Talesara - The rest except the flower and weaver bird nest.
Myself - Flower and weaver bird nest.


For higher resolution of some photos, visit my photoblog:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skyknight/

5 comments:

Mihir said...

Hehe ... i thought bird watching was of the other kind :P

sky-knight.blogspot.com said...

Well, there's more to it...
These birds are more rare to be spotted :)

Btw, ppl, as soon as I scan Raghu's pics, I will add them to the list.

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