How many birds can you shake a stick
at? Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary just
kept on giving today with hardly a moment when a new bird wasn’t trying to grab
my attention and make it onto the list. The final tally rounded out at 78(-ish)
with 2 red-letter species for my all-time roll.
The day started with the usual hassle
of trying to find a driver that knows the way. Confusion arises as there is a New Delhi suburb called Sultanpur,
whereas Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary is over 50kms and an hour’s drive further on
beyond the urban sprawl. Vinod Kumar drove today and we spent 15 minutes before
we left trying to make absolutely sure that we were going to the right place,
then another 20 minutes waiting at a gas station to fill up for the journey.
Despite his lack of knowledge of the countryside beyond the city, Vinod was
reassuringly enthusiastic in his use of the horn and displayed an admirable
sense of urgency once we were up and running.
We arrived shortly after 07.30 with
the sun freshly risen and a slight mist which never quite burned away. The
gates were locked and we found that the opening times have been changed. They
would not open until 09.00 today and not at all on Tuesdays. This is a new
timetable and I was lucky not to have been caught out. Immediately next door is
The Rosy Pelican, a tea shop and
gardens where I spent a productive hour or so waiting for the sanctuary to
open. They have made an unusual selection in choosing a pin-up to advertise
their birdy credentials, but there was plenty to see here.
Black-rumped Flamebacks were easy to find. The male, on the right, has a complete
red crest while the female, has a bi-coloured black and red crest. Oriental White-eyes flitted through the
alien eucalypts and small Phylloscopus warblers teased me with their similarities
to each other and aberrant markings when compared to the field guide.
I managed to pin down a constant
clicking to the Red-throated Flycatcher
and the Greenish Warbler was
identified by his rising two-syllable call “chaoo-ee”.
Rose-ringed Parakeets were plentiful
and approachable. They pair up at this time of year to search for nesting sites,
so these two, with the collared male on the right, may have been a bonded
couple.
At 09.00 I wandered around to the
main gate and stopped to take a quick look at a drab bird in the acacias on the
far side of the road. I was on the lookout for a Large Grey Babbler and there was a
small flock of them feeding in the trees and on the ground. This is a bird
which was absent from the field guide that I used during my formative years of
Indian birding and it didn’t stand out from the plate in my new book, so I had
never thought to look for it until I noticed it mentioned on an eBird
submission for Sultanpur. Separating it from the similar Jungle Babbler was to have been the target task of my day. Mission
accomplished!
A bird guide pointed out a Spotted Owlet just inside the gate
which took the pressure off. One lifer, one owl; already a great day. I headed
left along the track that skirts the north-eastern corner of the lake. The
water is slightly obscured by trees and undergrowth, but most of the action was
on the other side of the path where Black
Redstarts, Lesser White-throats,
Common Tailorbird and Hume’s Warbler were seen. A Common Hawk Cuckoo dropped down before
I could get a decent look, but was more approachable on the return journey.
Alarm calls betrayed more small
warblers with Blythe’s Reed Warbler
and a small flock of Common Chiffchaff
keeping an eye out for the young Shikra
prominently perched on a dead snag.
A female Nilgai and her two calves splashed across the shallow water towards
one of the islands. They wander freely around the sanctuary, but are wary and
during the day, they like the security offered by the small islands of the
lake.
A spit gives a good opportunity to
get closer to the colony of nesting Painted Storks that has been breeding here
for many years. It would also allow for good views of the waterfowl if only the
mist would lift. The weather can be an issue here sometimes with thick fog
hampering viewing during winter mornings. Today it was a bit hazy, and kept the
contrast of the photos low, but the storks and their large, greyish young were easy
enough to see at about 80 meters beyond the end of the spit.
The Sanctuary management has provided
small mounds across the lake for roosting waterfowl. From the end of the spit,
lots of ducks could be seen on the open water and there were plenty of Greylag Geese on the flat banks to the
south. I was a bit surprised that I had only seen a very few wading birds. Black-winged Stilt are usually easy to
find.
One Common Redshank showed its white wing pattern as it flushed from
close to the bank, but when I came to look at a small group of leggy birds on a
small hump, I saw the longer bill and light stripe above the eye that indicated
a Spotted Redshank amongst the White-tailed Lapwings and stilts.
In all, I had only walked a very
short distance and scanned across about 50 acres of water, weedy bank and light
scrub woodland, but had taken around four hours to do it. Vinod would be
waiting to take me back to New Delhi soon, so I had to start thinking about
heading home. Back at the gate, I couldn’t resist a very quick foray beyond to
see if I could see the cranes that I thought I had heard earlier. I was lucky
to run into Sanjay, a naturalist at the sanctuary who pointed out a Brook’s Leaf Warbler
which I would have struggled with on my own.
He also knew of a pair of Indian Scops Owls that roost in the
gardens, close to where the taxi was parked.
A few of the birds in the list below
were seen from the road as we approached the reserve, or as we drove home. They
were close enough to include as part of the Sultanpur list, but are italicised
for clarity. Lesser Spotted Eagles do
not appear as I was unable to confirm them through the mist at distance. I am given
to believe that the area around the sanctuary can be very productive, so if you
arrive early, it is well worth searching the environs until the gate opens.
Birds seen; 78
Greylag Goose 120, Comb Duck 15, Ruddy Shelduck 15, Gadwall 12, Eurasian
Wigeon 6, Mallard 2, Indian Spot-billed Duck 80, Northern Shoveler 10, Northern
Pintail 25, Green-winged Teal 60, Common Pochard 8, Grey Francolin 4, Indian
Peafowl 6, Little Grebe 4, Painted Stork 150, Great Cormorant 5, Little
Cormorant 60, Oriental Darter 2, Grey Heron 4, Purple Heron 3, Great Egret 5,
Intermediate Egret 2, Little Egret 2, Cattle Egret 8, Indian Pond Heron 6,
Black-headed Ibis 40, Red-naped Ibis 5,
Black Kite 6, Crested Serpent Eagle 1, Eurasian
Marsh Harrier 1, Shikra 1, Tawny Eagle 1, Eurasian Kestrel 1,
White-breasted Waterhen 3, Purple Swamphen 20, Eurasian Moorhen 120, Eurasian
Coot 80, Red-wattled Lapwing 4, White-tailed Lapwing 2, Black-winged Stilt 5,
Spotted Redshank 1, Common Redshank 1, Eurasian Collared-dove 2, Yellow-footed
Pigeon 2, Rose-ringed Parakeet 80, Common Hawk Cuckoo 1, Greater Coucal 2,
Indian Scops Owls 2, Spotted Owlet 1, White-throated Kingfisher 2, Green
Bee-eater 12, Indian Roller 4,
Eurasian Hoopoe 2, Indian Grey Hornbill 1,
Black-rumped Flameback 6, Black Drongo 6,
Rufous Treepie 1, House Crow 10, Barn Swallow 6, Red-vented Bulbul 1, Common
Chiffchaff 8, Brooks’s Leaf-Warbler 1, Hume’s
Warbler 2, Greenish Warbler 15, Blythe’s Reed Warbler 1, Common Tailorbird 2,
Yellow-bellied Prinia 6, Plain Prinia 2, Lesser Whitethroat 5, Oriental
White-eye 35, Large Grey Babbler 20, Jungle
Babbler 25, Oriental Magpie Robin 1, Red-throated Flycatcher 15, Black Redstart
6, Bank Myna 2, Common Myna 6, Purple
Sunbird 1.
Sultanpur Jheel or Bird Sanctuary can
be found approximately 30 Kms to the southwest of New Delhi’s Indira Ghandi International
Airport at Google Earth ref;28 28 4.73N 76 53 30.19E
It is open from 09.00 until 16.30, 6
days a week. It is closed on Tuesdays.
There are toilets at the sanctuary and a tea shop in the gardens next door.
Bring water.
It can still be productive to arrive
early as the gardens next door at the Rosy Pelican are very good and the area
around the sanctuary is said to have many birds, though I suspect that this may
be a seasonal (probably winter) abundance.
Cost for a non-Indian national with a
dirty great camera was IR 65. A guide offered me his services at IR 1000 (approx
US$ 18), but I usually prefer to look out for myself.
A taxi will have to leave the city
and cross the state line into Haryana. There used to be some permit issues in
this respect, but there were no problems today. A private hire car can cross
without any difficulties. Check with your driver.
