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BLACKBUCK NATIONAL PARK

A male Blackbuck pronking at Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar

BLACKBUCK NATIONAL PARK CONTINUES TO GROW IN POPULARITY, thanks to its wonderful nearby lodge of the same name. This place is one of our favourite lodges in India and, as well as the plush surroundings, complete with lovely open-air showers, we also enjoyed some more great encounters here. Photographically the best were the numerous Blackbuck, including some fine males, followed by Nilgai against the lovely grassland landscape, however, this is also probably the most reliable place in the world to see wolves and again we managed to see one, which as usual only allowed a brief distant opportunity. Jungle Cats also put in a couple of brief appearances in the long grass.

Blackbuck, Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar

Nilgai, Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar

The biggest avian surprise was a Sykes’s Nightjar, which flew past our jeeps in broad daylight and dropped down just ahead of us. It is rare to see one here, mostly owing to the park being closed after sunset but it may be a regular visitor? Squadrons of Common Cranes lined the horizon and a nearby wetland hosted Great White Pelicans, Greater Flamingos, spoonbills, Pied Avocets and a selection of common shorebirds. A few birds in the mesquite-lined avenues included gazillions of Black Drongos as well as Siberian Stonechats, Brown and Bay-backed Shrikes and there were still a few harriers (Pallid and Montagu’s) floating around, some of which take a short-cut through the middle of the lodge grounds on their way to and from their grassland roosting area. Unfortunately Striped Hyenas are no longer reliably seen here though, the regular male having died some time ago. Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from this fabulous place and head northwest to the vast salt flats of the Little Rann of Kutch.

Sykes's Nightjar, Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar

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THE ASIATIC LIONS OF GIR FOREST

Asiatic Lion cubs, Gir Forest NP, January 2015.

A SHORT FLIGHT ACROSS THE GULF OF CAMBAY took us from smoggy Mumbai to Rajkot on Gujarat’s Kathiawar Peninsular where we began our latest Indian adventure, as usual, with the first of many spicy masala omelettes and masala chai (India’s popular ginger and cinnamon-spiced milky tea), in a rather grand local hotel. Soon we were on our way south to Sasan Gir, our base for the next two nights. The forests of Gir hold the last remaining population of Asiatic Lions, a subspecies of lion whose range once extended from Central India as far west as Macedonia. Whilst very similar to its African relatives Asiatic Lions have a distinctive longitudinal fold of skin along their belly, generally thinner faces and the males have a shorter and more blackish mane. The lions of Gir are also renowned for their approachability, which usually makes them good photographic subjects.

Fortunately Gujarat is now back to a more normal water supply situation following the failure of the 2012 monsoon taking pressure off the dry deciduous teak forest. However, the lions were not as co-operative as usual but thanks to our very helpful local contacts, we still managed a very good encounter with a pride of nine of these impressive cats. Terrific stuff! Birds are always a feature of our jeep safaris at Gir and we had a few good photo subjects, including Crested Serpent and Hawk Eagles, Indian Thick-knee, Yellow-wattled Lapwing and a fantastic battle to the death between a Common Woodshrike and a mantis. The latter put up a good fight but eventually succumbed. Other mammals at Gir included many Spotted Deer (or ‘Chital’) as well as a few Nilgai (or ‘Blue Bull’ – the massive Indian antelope) and Sambar deer.

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HIGHLAND IVORY GULL

Ivory Gull, Ardmair, 20 January 2015

I CAN'T RESIST IVORY GULLS! On my way to talk to the Skye Scottish Wildlife Trust group about Svalbard (of all places!) a detour took me to Ullapool, where at  nearby Ardmair Salmon Farm a first winter Ivory Gull had been hanging around. It was originally found by one of the workers on the farm, who sent a photo taken on his Iphone to the local 'wildlife man' and the guys have been feeding it since then. As usual for Ivory Gulls, it was ridiculously confiding but it spent all the time I was there around the farm, which is in the lee of Isle Martin in Loch Kanaird and about 1km offshore. Also around here today were: Great Northern Loon (2); White-tailed Eagle; Glaucous Gull (3cy); Black Guillemot; Snow Bunting (2) of note as well as plenty of European Shags, Common Eiders; Goosanders and Rock Pipits. Driving through the Highlands for a couple of days was magic, the landscape turned into a white snowy winter wonderland and the roads only just cleared of ice and snow. On Skye itself an Iceland Gull (2cy) near Portree harbour was the only bird of note before the rain came down.

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SNOWCAPPED PENDLE

Snowy Pendle sunset

SOME BIRDS ARE TOUGHER THAN OTHERS and Snow Bunting is one of the toughest of the lot. With a foot of snow in places on the summit of Pendle Hill today I wondered if they would still be in their usual places and they were! I had two birds in more or less the same place as last weekend, scuttling around on the deep snow, eating grass seeds protruding above it. They were very difficult to keep up with as they moved around quickly, never in the same place for long even though I kept my distance and eventually I lost them, disappearing into the whiteness of their winter home. I was stunned to see a tight flock of at least 55 Red Grouse as well, maybe the whole population of Pendle in one place? Two ravens were the only other birds up there today.

A Snow Bunting picking seeds from grass heads on Pendle Summit, they are amazingly hardy little birds.

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