India; Northwest - Day 22: Gir National Park

   We had one more game drive in the Gir National Park, but this one was an early morning drive starting at 06:00 in the dark and then finishing at 09:00. For a change this morning we were driving on route three, as opposed to route two of the previous two days. If we were to find a rare mammal then today would be our best chance. Unfortunately that is not how it transpired in the end, as we did not even see any Lions today, only picking up common mammal species like Chital, Bengal Sacred Langur, Sambar and Wild Boar. It was disappointing, but that is the way of wildlife.

  The birding was nice, but it was all commoner species from the previous day. We spent some time looking at Tree Pipits at a watering hole, and had two cracking male Common Iora but there was nothing different. Two Indian Cuckooshike that flew past would have been notable, but the views I got were far from tickable, leaving them frustratingly as the ones that got away. The highlight of the morning was probably a large Muggar Crocodile in the reservoir in the middle of the park

  At 11:00 we left our lodge in Gir and drove the four hours to airport in Rajkot. Here we said goodbye to Pawan and Jaipal, our drivers for the last three weeks, and boarded an internal flight to Mumbai where we would have two more days birding before heading back to Europe. 

Species List:
Gir National Park: Indian Peafowl, Feral Pigeon, Spotted Dove, Greater Coucal, Crested Treeswift, Red-wattled Lapwing, River Tern, Greater Flamingo, Red-naped Ibis, Eastern Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Black-winged Kite, Crested Honey Buzzard, Asian Green Bee-eater, White-throated Kingfisher, Coppersmith Barbet, Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, Black-rumped Flameback, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Small Minivet, Common Woodshrike, Common Iora, White-browed Fantail, Ashy Drongo, Rufous Treepie, Indian Jungle Crow, Dusky Crag Martin, Red-vented Bulbul, Indian White-eye, Jungle Babbler, Brahminy Starling, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Black Redstart, Purple Sunbird, Yellow-throated Sparrow, White-browed Wagtail, Tree Pipit,