Day 71/ 365 – Bird photography at Bhigwan

January 15, 2014 ~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

Last weekend I had an opportunity to do some bird photography at Bhigwan. This is place approx. 100 kms from Pune on Pune – Solapur highway. My friend Sid has visited this place a couple of times and always had good things to say about the number of birds that one can see over there. We had planned for this trip since December and this allowed me enough time to seek the right lens for the trip. I have a Canon 55mm – 250mm telephoto zoom lens and obviously for this trip it was going to be inadequate. Hence I decided to rent a camera lens. After checking at 2-3 places, I found Primes and Zooms who rent lens and other camera equipment in Pune. I registered myself online, submitted my verification documents and booked a Canon 100mm – 400mm L series lens for the trip. The people at Primes and Zooms were very professional and there were absolutely no hiccups in the entire process.

I along with my friends Sid, Rahul & Bhavana started early on Sunday morning to reach Bhigwan. The drive on the highway was good, except for some stretches where the road work is still going on. We reached Bhigwan around 8am. South of Bhigwan town, exists a widespread backwater formed due to a man made dam built on the Bhima river. The dam is called as Ujni dam. The backwaters is spread over a wide region and is mainly a shallow waste water reserve. The birding place is called Diksal and is approx. 2-3 kms away from Bhigwan. Once we reached the backwaters, we hired a boat and began our bird watching experience. Birds seen during the trip

Greater Flamingos
Sea Gulls
Grey Egret
Great Egret
Indian Pond Heron
Kingfisher
Bee Eater
Sandpiper
Black Headed Ibis
Black Ibis
Black Drongo
Rudy Shellduck (not captured)
Painted Stork
Indian Cormorant

PS: I may have got some names wrong. Please help me to correct them. Thanks!!

Green Bee Eater

Sandpiper

Day 59/ 365 – Peacocks at Chincholi Morachi

December 26, 2013December 26, 2013 ~ Akshay ~ Leave a comment

Last Sunday, we visited a village called Chincholi Morachi. The village is approx. 50 kms away from Pune on Ahmednagar highway. Chincholi means Tamarind trees and Morachi means peacock, thus translating name of the village as Village of Tamarind trees and Peacocks. The drive to the village is very pleasant with rolling hills on the side. I had been here earlier along with Saurav Roy in December last year. As soon as we reached the village, we spotted a peacock but before I could take a picture, the peacock ran away. We then parked ahead on the side of the road and then entered the fields to observe some peacocks. We also ran into a local villager who told us how he feeds the peacocks on the daily basis and they are running away because we are strangers. By this time, we had already spent like 45 mins there. The villager asked us to stay back for some more time and the peacocks would come. However, we decided to make a move and head back to Pune. Overall, we had a good trip.