Western India (teaser)

The greater part of February 2020 has just been wonderfully well spent in India – mostly in Gujarat and Rajahstan.

Almost certainly, your assumptions about this particular crocodilian  are wrong!

Singularly weird and critically endangered, but not at all dangerous to humans, the gharial eats only fish.

We probably encountered a statistically significant portion of the entire population, in its major refuge.

The Chambal is the Ganges’ system’s only major river which is still in a tolerably good condition.

Of which, much more to come on Pelican Yoga.

This post is just a tiny taste….

 

 

In a single day at Bharatpur we saw 100 different bird species.

 

 

 

In a very much drier place – Khichan, in the northern Thar Desert – we saw what is almost certainly the world’s largest congregation of Demoiselle Cranes.

The reason for this involves some very unusual human behaviour by local villagers, over several decades.

Pictured below are just a very few of the assembled multitude.

 

 

In the Thar Desert birds’ presence is almost always evident, even when no actual bird is within view.

 

 

We enjoyed many memorable encounters with owls.

 

 

and with other birds –  some  “glamorous”, some not.

 

 

 

 

Although birds were our primary focus, mammals and reptiles also provided many memorable moments, as did the land itself, and its human inhabitants.