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Monday, December 24, 2018

A photo blog - of a day’s visit to Najafgarh drain


A photo blog - of a day’s visit to Najafgarh drain

A panoramic view of the Najafgarh drain - now a wetland
             Me and my friend, who is also a keen bird watcher, had been contemplating a visit to the Najafgarh drain, since last few weeks that is situated at the outskirts of Delhi, along the Gurgaon border.  My friend, Mr. Prabhat Kumar has immense knowledge about the identity of the birds and their habitats.  He is also a keen blogger, but had been bogged down due to personal difficulties being faced by him since the last one year, he has a blog running in the name of – Birds in Delhi (India) - here is the link to his blog - http://birdsindelhi.blogspot.com/.  We had planned the trip twice since November end, but due to some last minute glitches, the visit could not materialize. 
Long tailed Shrike

Greater spotted eagle
Territorial warrior - the black Kite 
A long distance shot of a group of Starlings
A Baya weaver bird (male)
             Finally, on the 22nd of December, 2018 we were finally able to proceed ahead with our proposed outing.  However, the sun light had started fading, due to the light veil of cloud that had covered most of north Indian plains and is an annual feature, at this time of the year, but being determined to make the trip, we went ahead as planned.  The stretch of drain is vast and the region has been declared as an ‘Wetland’ recently, the length that we traversed was about 20 odd Kilometres and we saw a plethora of Birds, some I was able to shoot, whereas some just scooted away before the camera could focus and the greatest disappointment for me was not being able to shoot the Red Munia (both male & female) that were visible at many spots.  I have spotted around more than 50 bird species during the trip and here are some of the photographs of the birds (albeit not the full repertoire), some of them shot against the light, so enjoy the viewing –
A flock of Common Coot

Woolly necked Crane
Purple Heron
Grey Heron
A Painted stork about to land
A Cormorant drying its' feathers in the sun
A Red wattled Lapwing
A Jungle Warbler
Great Cormorant in water
Baya weaver bird (female)
Black shouldered Kite
A Jungle Owlet
A Plain flower pecker
Indian Robin
A Plain prinia
A Common Stonechat
A Bluethroat
Siberian Stonechat
A Pied Kingfisher
A White throated Kingfisher
A Pond Heron
A Common Buzzard
A Common Shank
Purple Moorhen
A White Wagtail
A pair of Sarus Crane
A Black Ibis
A Oriental White Ibis
A Black Drongo
A Black shouldered Kite in flight
A pair of Grey francolin
A Spot billed Duck
A Purple Sunbird
Greater Flamingos
The ducks take flight
As the evening sets in the birds fly homewards in a formation
Greylag Geese roosting
The water birds take to flight - as the evening sets it
© S. Roy Biswas