Today was the day of the Hindu Holi festival, and as such our driver was keen to get moving nice and early to try and avoid any potential issues on the road that we might encounter, since we needed to be at the Gir National Park for 16:00 for our first game drive in the national park. However, since we had dipped the Indian Skimmer the previous evening, we decided to have a quick check of the various sites in the morning in the vain hope that we might be able to find them.
In the end it took
us about an hour to check the various salt pans and the lake where we had
birded the previous day. We did more birding of the lake since there were a few
more species to check through but overall a quick scan was all we needed to
confirm that the skimmers were still not present despite our best efforts. The only
new species for the trip of the morning were four Comb Ducks that were sitting
on a spit on the lake, a nice addition to our overall species list for our time
in India.
We started our drive
at 15:20, only so that we could have all the paperwork done for our entry time
at 16:00. Even then we were only able to enter the park a little later than that,
and whilst waiting in the office area we could see that the park was rammed
with weekend visitors enjoying the holiday. Whilst we were nervous about what
this might mean, we were pleased that our visit inside the park was very peaceful and we had no issues with other vehicles for the most part. The
only time that happened was when we found the parks main attractions: the
Lions!
In the end we saw eight
Lions, a female with two three-month-old cubs and a group of five. Apparently
they were all from the same family. The female and cubs didn’t do much, simply
lying by the side of the road dozing. But the other group was a bit more
interesting, as they were drinking before crossing the road right in front of
us at very close range. Considering that I expected to see them lying down and doing nothing, it was quite an encounter.
Most of the other mammals were already
familiar to us, with Bengal Sacred Langur, Nilgi, Axis Deer and Sambar Deer. But
we had two bonus right at the end with first a Ruddy Mongoose, which was a species
I had been trying to pick out from our various mongooses throughout the trip,
and then a nice Indian Grey Mongoose right at the end. In addition there were two
Muggar Crocodiles in a small stream at the furthest point along our drive.
In terms of birds we
knew that we were not expecting much of interest but had some nice owl action
with a roosting Mottled Wood Owl by the side of the road, and then a fantastic
Brown Fish Owl. While the latter was excellent, it was improved even more when
we saw two medium sized chicks in a hole in the tree behind, their small heads
poking out and looking at us. Otherwise it was mostly commoner species from the
region that we had got used to seeing over the past few days.
Jamnagar: Knob-billed Duck, Ruddy Shelduck, Garganey, Northern Shoveler, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Common Pochard, Eurasian Collared Dove, Greater Coucal, Eurasian Coot, Grey-headed Swamphen, Black-winged Stilt, Pied Avocet, Red-wattled Lapwing, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Snipe, Common Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Common Redshank, Common Greenshank, Ruff, Little Stint, Gull-billed Tern, Caspian Tern, Whiskered Tern, River Tern, Greater Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, Little Grebe, Asian Openbill, Painted Stork, Oriental Darter, Little Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Eurasian Spoonbill, Western Reef Heron, Great Egret, Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Eurasian Hoopoe, Red-vented Bulbul, Common Babbler, Rosy Starling, Indian Robin, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Purple Sunbird, House Sparrow, Western Yellow Wagtail,
Gir National Park: Indian Peafowl, Grey Francolin, Feral Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove, Spotted Dove, Laughing Dove, Asian Koel, Little Swift, White-breasted Waterhen, Indian Stone-curlew, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Red-wattled Lapwing, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Little Cormorant, Indian Pond Heron, Medium Egret, Crested Honey Buzzard, Crested Serpent Eagle, Brown Fish Owl, Spotted Owlet, Mottled Wood Owl, Asian Green Bee-eater, White-throated Kingfisher, Coppersmith Barbet, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Plum-headed Parakeet, Small Minivet, White-browed Fantail, Black Drongo, Bay-backed Shrike, House Crow, Cinereous Tit, Common Tailorbird, Red-vented Bulbul, Indian White-eye, Jungle Babbler, Brahminy Starling, Indian Robin, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Black Redstart, Yellow-throated Sparrow, Grey Wagtail, Tree Pipit,
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