Off on the bus at 6:50 after a good breakfast. We are going to leave the park today and drive south to try for some rarities. We took off on a very bad, potholed road which went through many tiny villages and gave us a chance to see some rural life in India. We saw more artistic displays of buffalo fuel patties and small decorated mud huts in which to store them.
We also saw men collecting shafts of dead mustard plants and wheat to grind up for chaff to feed the livestock which is stored in tiny conical roofed straw huts. The main crop in this area is mustard for use as a spice and also as a skin-smoothing oil.
Roof-top Buffalo Patties
Our bus driver took us into towns with horrendous traffic: mopeds, trucks, camel- and oxen- drawn carts, plus wandering cows and dogs moving chaotically. We drew a lot of attention whenever we stopped and walked into a field to look for birds - sometimes we would take pictures of them and sometimes they would take photos of us!
After driving an average of 12 MPH for two hours we reached the town of Bayana, a very ancient town set at the base of high, red sandstone cliffs from which large red slabs are mined for construction (mostly illegally).
We were there to try to see the endangered Indian Vulture. There used to be thousands in the air, but after the cattle were injected with some kind of treatment back in the 90s, almost all the vultures suddenly disappeared - a crash of about 98% - as they live largely off the carcases of dead cows and buffaloes and the chemicals in the cattle ruined the vultures' livers.
However, fortunately for us, there were about seven vultures circling above the cliffs when we walked there. We passed by a boarding school for girls, and they all waved and "Hello!"ed us and then gathered on a balcony to watch us. A huge flock of wild Rock Doves, all slaty blue in color, flew in and out of canyons when suddenly a Bonelli's Eagle crashed into the flock and came away with lunch!
We kept passing over train crossings and saw lots of trains cruising by. We came to a crossing with the crossing gates down and sat for 30 minutes. We used the time to eat our box lunches of boiled eggs, veggie patties, chicken, and bananas.
Water Chestnut Gatherers
We continued on to a dam and parked by the lake the dam had made. From there we walked to the hunting palace of the Maharaja of Bharatpur. We walked along the water, birding, and saw some women floating in inner tubes, harvesting water chestnuts. At one point Harish spotted the much-desired Plum-headed Parakeet!! Really terrific! A green parakeet with a long tail and a beautiful plum-colored head!
Plum-headed Parakeet
We climbed up to the palace in the warm afternoon and reached the old palace which overlooks the lake. it is very run down and some squatters were living inside. The current maharaja still owns the property and has some vague plans of fixing it up as a resort which would take a lot of money, but could be really spectacular.
We returned to the bus at 4:30 and started back. Our bus driver took us a long way around, but on better roads he said. Even so the traffic was pretty dense with lots of large slow trucks and motorbikes. Our driver was amazingly skilled at maneuvering our large bus out and around trucks and back in to our lane without any collisions. We finally got home at 6:30, and Bryan gave us an hour to rest for dinner - most guide give you 30 minutes at most!
Delicious dinner, as usual, the bird list and bed.
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