29th August, we left Ajmer after breakfast and reached Tal Chhapar by early evening. Fine drive and a fine lunch at a Dhaba on the way…
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| Tal Chhapar |
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| Inside Tal Chapper! |
Tal Chhapar is about 200+ kms from Jaipur. Easy drive. It is basically a small well protected grassland of about 8 sq kms. Surat Singh Poonia a wildlife officer working with the Forest/Wildlife Department of the state government of Rajasthan is the man in-charge. His passion is easily noticed as you enter the grassland!
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| Blackbuck (male) |
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| Blackbuck (female) |
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| Blackbuck inside tall grass! |
Over 3000 Blackbucks thrive in this area along with many other wildlife and a large number of specie of birds. Spiny-tailed Lizards everywhere! Certainly a must visit for any nature lover!
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| Fox |
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| Hare |
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| Monitor |
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| Spiny-tailed Lizard |
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| Spot the bird! |
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| Gazelle |
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| Dr. Gobind Sagar Bharadwaj enjoying the grassland! |
This was our last stop on this trip to Rajasthan (21st August to 2nd September, 2013). We spent 4 wonderful nights at the Tal Chhapar Forest Rest House and all we did was roam in and around the grassland in search of birds. This time Dr. Gobind Sagar Bharadwaj who helped us all along this trip was able to come over and spend some time with us and we enjoyed shooting some rare birds together. Thanks once again sir!
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| Forest Rest House! |
On the 29th evening, the first bird I was able to shoot was the Richard’s Pipit! I was able to get many new species in the area until the 1st September evening as I throughly enjoyed the company of Poonia Ji. There was great excitement on some IDs too!
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| Spotted Creeper Habitat... |
One speciality of this area is the Spotted Creeper that happened to us only because Poonia Ji led us directly to the area and spotted it after a brief walk. Thanks for all the help Poonia ji!
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| Movable Hide designed by Poonia! |
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| Hide in place! |
Pratap Singh as usual spent a lot of time walking and was able to add a few new species to his enviable collection of bird call recordings!
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| Morning Dance! |
September 2nd, we drove to Jaipur and after dropping Pratap Singh there, we continued to the Airport and took the 2pm Indigo direct flight to Bangalore. All is well!
Here are some images I was able to add to
Indiabirds:
Baya Weaver, Black Francolin (Male), Brown Rock Chat, Richard's Pipit, Rufous-fronted Prinia, Spotted Creeper, Stoliczka's Bushchat, Variable Wheatear, Tawny Eagle,Eurasian Roller, Rain Quail (Female).
Birding in Rajasthan is certainly fun, I will be back!
Vijay Cavale
September, 2013.
