Trip to North East India - Part 7 - West Bengal (Paschim Banga) - Darjeeling - Botonical Garden & Tiger Hills

Journey to Darjeeling was very hectic and tiresome, Road condition in West Bengal were very bad. To add to that as we reached Darjeeling we realized it was very crowed with narrow streets and large number of cards causing frequent road blocks. It took us 4 hours to reach the hotel. We checked it and took off to the botanical garden for birding.

Beautiful Nuthatch

Tree creaper



Type of Pipit



Tree creeper



Need ID for this Pipit



Indian Cuckoo



We stayed at botanical garden till sunset and returned to out hotel room, we had some delicious street food on our way and the called it a day.

We started next day with Tiger hill, took us aroudn an hour and half to reach Tiger Hill. We expected that we will get to view Kanchanchunga. Unluckly it was over cast and visibility was poor. On out way back we got to click couple of birds.

Black Bird Male

Links to the other related posts

Part 1 - Assam - Hoollongapar

Part 2 - Assam - Kaziranga

Part 3 - Assam - Nameri

Part 4 - Arunachal Pradesh - Eaglenest

Part 5 - Sikkim - Gangtok

Part 6 - Sikkim - Peling

Part 8 - West Bengal - Lava

Winged Scavengers' heaven - Jhorabheeri/Jhorbeer

There are only handful of places left on earth that are suitable for Vultures to survive. One of them is Jhorabheeri/Jhorbeer located 14 odd Kms from Bikaner, near Camel Research Institute also known as Camel Farm locally.

Reached Bikaner by train. Checked in at Bikaner Hotel. Struck a deal with a Auto-Rikshaw guy for 600 INR, 200 INR for one way journey and 200 for waiting at the field.

Caution: This place is full of feral dogs and these dogs arn't afraid of humans. In case you are planning to visit this place then carry a strong stick to protect yourself from these dogs. Do not visit this place after sunset or before Sunrise.

This image sums up the density of scavengers at this location

The smallest Bird Of Prey we have spotted here. A Lagar falcon feasting on fresh kill

Lagar Falcon in flight

Cinereous vulture

Cinereous vulture in flight The largest and the rarest Bird of Prey we spotted here. Its a Cinereous vulture, a migratory bird, a winter visitor in India from Pakistan. they stick to Rajasthan and go back to Pakistan.

A Eurasian Griffon

Eurasian Griffon gliding
 

The Egyptian vultures pair (Adult and Juvenile)

A adult Egyptian vulture gliding

A juvenile Egyptian vulture landing

The mighty Steppe

A Steppe eagle taking off

Steppe eagles hanging around

A close up of the mighty steppe in flight

An aged Steppe, this was the largest Steppe that we spotted at this location

Apart from these scavengers we have also spotted couple of small birds

A silver bill Munia

A Variable wheatear

And desert Jird