This was the big day as we went in search of a number of key target species in the fields near Sonkhaliya. After leaving the hotel at 5am it took over an hour to reach the first site, where we drove slowly along a dirt road that traversed a wide open plain of fields, crops and scattered trees. Within the first 15 minutes along here an awesome male Lesser Florican was located displaying in a field about 150 m away. We observed him from the car as he sprang high into the air, flapped his wings before stretching them right out, throwing his head back and puffing his body up into a ball before dropping back down to earth like a stone. A quite dramatic display accompanied by a strange clicking sound and which lasts just a matter of a few seconds.
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| Displaying Lesser Florican is something you just have to see... |
As luck would have it, after around ten minutes of watching him he decided to change his display site and came around 50m closer towards us. We just sat and admired this bizarre courtship display, and took a few photos too. Once satisfied with the views of this most wanted bird we explored the nearby area, finding a further 2 displaying males but all at quite some distance. We then checked a number of other locations, all in seemingly similar habitat hearing Painted Francolin and Rain Quail without being able to locate them due to the tall crops they were in, but a Singing Bushlark, several Rufous-fronted Prinias and Yellow-eyed Babbler were found along the way.
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| Yellow-eyed Babbler |
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| Rufous-fronted Babbler |
We ended our morning’s birding amidst a more arid area with scattered bushes and this site proved to be a little goldmine as we found a covey of Rock Bush-Quails feeding quietly underneath a bush that defied all attempts at a decent photo and a calling Rain Quail within just a couple of minutes of each other. The Rain Quail in particular was a little stunner as he called from the top of a small mound and after a bit of manoeuvring with the car we enjoyed fantastic looks.
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| Rock Bush-Quail |
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| Rain Quail |
There were also several flocks of Rose-coloured Starlings, including some incredibly pink adults, as well as Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark and a flyby White-eyed Buzzard. We then made a couple of abortive attempts at finding Indian Eagle-Owl but did see Streak-throated Swallow, Little Swift,
We spent the mega-hot midday period in an air-conditioned restaurant that had wifi, served good food and more importantly, cold drinks before heading out again at 3pm. This time we located an Indian Eagle Owl perched in a tree and not where we were expecting or had been looking!
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| Indian Eagle-Owl |
A couple of minutes later and a cracking Red-necked Falcon was seen perched on top of a dead tree, followed by the huge bonus of a confiding Painted Francolin that flew in right next to us, before flying over our car never to be seen again. What a bird and it’s one of those species that the field guides just don’t do justice to.
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| Red-necked Falcon |
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| Painted Francolin |
So by now it was 5pm and we made the decision to try a different area about an hour away for sandgrouse. Along the way we had the first rain of the tour but fortunately it had stopped by the time we reached the site where we quickly scored with 5 Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse and a bonus find with a pair of Indian Stone-Curlew to round off a truly great day.
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| Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse |
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| Indian Stone-Curlew |
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