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Asan Barrage |
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Asan Barrage
January 24 2007, Sheila |
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All Birders roads seem to be heading towards the Goldeneye and the added lure of the Greater and Lesser White fronted Geese was too hard to resist so an early morning depature found me whizzing our way out of Delhi. Even at this hour there was a fair amount of traffic with the trucks making up most of the volume and muscle power – at one point of time we found ourselves hemmed in by multicoloured behemoths each one blaring its horn continually and each one with a different, prolonged, as loud as it can get, tune – quite nerve-wracking! A quick stop for coffee and a longer stop for deep fried, dripping in oil paranthas at Kashyap Dhabha and we were at the barrage by 9 am. |
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Unfortunately, the skies which had been clear as we left Delhi had started getting overcast and foggy when we reached Kalesar and by the time we arrived at the barrage visibility was really low. The ducks close to us were silhouettes with only whites and dark showing and the birds in the distance were black dots in the mist. The sun was up in the sky, losing its battle and occasionally peeping out apologetically to show a silvery face. We made the best of a really bad situation and surveyed all the water fowl close to us. Plenty of Red-crested Pochards, Common Pochards, Ruddy Shelducks calling plaintively, two Great Crested Grebes with their heads stubbornly tucked in and
some active Tufted ducks. The Tufteds were preening which they do by lying on their backs or sideways in the water and showing their white bellies making them look quite unlike themselves. As we were watching this Bikram and I saw a preening duck turn upright and still look all white – no white spot on face so Goldeneye was out, the head was like the Tufted without the tuft showing …we had the Greater Scaup male which brightened our till now dismal day a little. We met up with two ladies from Meerut and Mr. Gandhi with another two gentlemen and we slowly walked along the side being entertained by a flock of bright Plum-headed Parakeets, busy Red Munias, a smart Grey Bushchat and miscellaneous water birds. The light had improved a little though the sun was still shy and conditions still grey but at least now we could see the colours on the birds. By now Arun P. Singh had arrived along with his family and a group of students doing the Water Fowl census. We went across the barrage to join them and saw many more Ruddy Shelducks and Crested Pochards and three Mallards swimming close to the reeds. We then went down a side path to find the nest of the Pallas' Eagle – this pair has been nesting here for a number of years though now perhaps as they have aged, the eggs are not fertilized and there have been no results. We saw the eagle sitting on a branch above the nest and could tell from movement within the large nest that his mate was in there and probably incubating. By now the sky had become even more overcast and rain threatened any minute so we decided to take a small break and warm ourselves with some tea and coffee. The orders were placed and as we waited we scanned the birds on our side of the shore and there he was - beautiful, bright and natty, standing out amidst the hoi-polloi – the Goldeneye. |
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| He was busy preening, seemingly quite self aware much like a film star flicking back his hair and presenting his best profile. The Common Pochards and Tufteds that surrounded him looked much like body guards with the female Tufteds providing the fan following and our little hero appeared to know of his celebrity status and front page coverage. The rest of us gaped through the fence, the tea and coffee went cold, scopes and cameras were positioned and bright sunny smiles were on everyone's faces quite changing the complexion of the day. The crazy wake up and endless drive was vindicated, our little friend making it all worthwhile. We stayed with him for another couple of hours, watching his every move, waiting impatiently for him to surface each time he dived and clicking cards full of pictures. With no sign of the weather improving and having had our fill of the Goldeneye we moved onto Dehradun and Bikram's exquisite home – it has to be the most beautiful and tastefully done up home I have ever seen - where we were pampered by our magnanimous host for the rest of the evening. The next morning was bright, sunny and fog free. We started by going uphill to Jadhipani and as I had not been to the mountains in a long while it was fantastic to reacquaint myself with some of the beautiful birds and meet some new ones. The trees were fruiting with edible berries and the most numerous birds were the Great Barbets, plucking and gulping incessantly. Each time we stopped to study a feeding party we found at least five Barbets on a tree, looking resplendent with all their colours shining with the sun on them. We found a huge party of hundreds of Himalayan bulbuls feeding and moving up the hill sides. Slaty- headed Parakeets flew around noisily; a Blue throated Barbet joined his cousins; Black Bulbuls shared the same trees; Buff barred and Grey-hooded Warblers flitted about; a Mountain Bulbul perched in the open on a tree top and stayed till we got our fill of this not so easily seen bird and moved away; Mrs. Gould's sunbird gave us good views; a female Ultramarine Flycatcher turned up at the roadside as did Red-billed Blue Magpies and the ever present Blue Whistling Thrushes……..all this before breakfast! We headed back, had a huge and sumptuous breakfast and set out in Bikram's lush garden to see some more birds – three different sunbirds (Crimson, Fire-tailed and Green-Tailed) feasted on the flowers, a Small Niltava and a Rufous-bellied Niltava surveyed the garden from the trees, a White-tailed Rubythroat skulked amid the lettuce and a Yellow-bellied Fantail flew around flashing at everyone. It was now time to head back to the barrage and look for the even more elusive and rare Lesser White–fronted Goose. |
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| We stopped en route for a Crested Kingfisher perched on a wire and had another halt for fresh keenu juice and a pair of Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpeckers and a Chestnut bellied Nuthatch on the tree behind the juice table. Rajneesh and Sharad had arrived from Delhi the previous afternoon and reported that they had seen the White fronted Geese but weren't hundred percent sure of a Lesser as the birds were flushed by the Pallas' Eagle. We arrived at the barrage and immediately started scanning and straightaway spotted three birds that were larger than the surrounding Ruddy Shelduck, dark and sleeping with heads tucked in. We stopped and scoped and the birds obliged by raising their heads and we had it– two Greater and one Lesser White fronted Goose! All credit to Raka who had spotted the birds in the reeds and pointed them out to Arun who immediately and accurately identified them making it possible for all of us to see these rare fowl. Of course now there was no moving from the spot. More phone calls were made and Sharad and Rajneesh joined us as we focused on them becoming quite the experts on the difference in the head shape, beak size, white mark and the definitive yellow eye ring. They rested, swam, first away from us, then towards us, then sideways and finally flew away releasing us from their spell. We went further to find our little hero but he was tucked in and fast asleep taking a break from his star performances. Before we knew it was time to head back with another stop for lunch at Kashyaps – the oil was substituted for butter with dal makhani and butter chicken but was delicious and is much recommended – it was a celebratory lunch after all! Then a long long long traffic filled snails pace drive back to the capital and we returned exhausted but completely satisfied. We are really fortunate to have these birds visiting a place which is accessible to us and I would strongly recommend that no birder should let this opportunity pass them by. Go get 'em guys, |
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