Saturday, January 20, 2018

Kheechan, DNP, Bikaner and Jhalana Birding (December 2017)

What started out to be just another birding trip to a new location turned out to be full of new experiences and lifers.

Desert National Park, is a place I have been hearing & reading about for many years especially in context of sightings of migratory birds not recorded much from remaining parts of India.

Also it being the major breeding ground for Great Indian Bustards was another reason of interest.

But our target was not just Desert National Park but also Bikaner. Many interesting sightings have been reported in recent years from outskirts of Bikaner, especially vultures & eagles in huge quantity.

And in addition covered in short visits 2 more interesting places.

Kheechan village (Jodhpur) - about 150km from Jodhpur city near Phalodi. It is famous for the large population of Demoiselle Cranes that it hosts every winter. It is estimated to host around 15000 cranes thanks to the villagers who feed them grains.

Jhalana Forest (Jaipur) - It is a forest very within the city limits. Just outside the safari gate is the Jaipurs industrial area. It is reported to host 20 leopards in addition to Hyenas, Blue bull, Peacocks and many other interesting animals & birds.

We (Me and Ritesh Bagul) started our journey on 19th December and reached Jodhpur by train on 20th Dec.

We had booked a cab (at Rs 4000) via Kheechan (making the journey longer by 40km). But as we finally wanted to reach Khudi (60km west of Jaisalmer) we paid additional Rs 1000 to directly take us to Khudi.

Note: We enquired with Pansari Resorts owner about travel from Jaisalmer to Khudi and he informed that local cabs would take anywhere between 1000 to 1200 Rs. Else we could travel by bus which runs only at 5pm or an Auto which would charge us 600-800 Rs.

Read about blog of each day at the following links

20th Dec 2017 - Land of Cranes (Kheechan)

21st Dec 2017 - Amazing dryland (Desert National Park)

22nd Dec 2017 - Land of Sandgrouse (Netsi Talab)

23rd Dec 2017 - Raptors Galore (Bikaner Outskirts)

24th Dec 2017 - Birds of dryland and water (Bikaner Outskirts)

26th Dec 2017 - Leopard Safari (Jhalana, Jaipur)

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