Birding in New Delhi

Lodi Gardens

There is Hot, and then there is HOT, and then there is New Delhi in late April. Unless you perhaps spend a lot of time in Dubai or somewhere, then you just have no conception of quite how hot it is. I didn't, but like a fool, went out birding anyway as soon as I got there.

43 degrees centigrade. In many ways the human body is remarkable. We are able to adjust extremely rapidly to changes in our external environment. My body's initial thought was of course "FUCCCKKKK its HOT!!!!!!!!!!!! You are INSANE", but with a bottle of water and a hat, and a stack of new birds to see, it coped admirably with what I put it through, and it didn't even catch the dreaded Delhi Belly that Mrs L was certain would befall me.

Dross

If you read the wedding post you'll know that there wasn't much time devoted to birding, this really was a very short trip indeed - Sunday midday to Wednesday 10am, with a lot of wedding in between, but I managed about 4 hours at Lodi Gardens in central New Delhi, 4 hours at the Okhla barrage, just south of the city, and 3 hours at the Zoo. The end of April is not ideal for a birding trip - it is too hot to be out and about between the hours of 10am and 5pm, and most migrants and wintering species have moved through or off. Or at least that is my excuse for only notching up 76 species in the time I had, including such dross as Coot, Moorhen and Hoopoe.

But despite what seems a low triplist, I had a wonderful time just wandering about, knowing I could not be out all day (and knowing I would be up half the night), so taking it nice and slow, setting up a few photos and so on, and just letting the sights and sounds of a new continent wash over me.

As always, click on the images to make them bigger, and then if you hover in the bottom right corner, you can make them bigger again.

Black Kite

So, perspiring gently shortly after arrival in the middle of Delhi, I took a taxi to Lodi gardens. If you only have a short time in Delhi, this site is as good as any for an introduction to the species of North India, and on Sundays, to the amorous couples of New Delhi. Common Myna, Ring-necked Parakeet, Indian House Crow and Black Kite are by far the most numerous species, but a little searching reveals a lot more. The garden is centred around a few old Muslim tombs from the Mughal period, and has many shady walks and a small amount of water, which if you are lucky, might have a few Moorhen. Actually I also saw Little Cormorant, Spot-billed Duck, and White-throated Kingfisher here. Jungle Babblers scratch about in the dry scrub, and a search of larger trees produced Brown-headed Barbet, Spotted Owlet, Purple Sunbird, Rufous Treepie, and Indian Grey Hornbill. Oh and did I mention Hoopoe?

Spotted Owlet

House Crow

Jungle Babbler

Common Myna

Laughing Dove

Squirrel thing

Spot-billed Duck

Asian Pied Starling

Ring-necked Parakeet

The next day I got up early and took a car (£15 for the whole day, with a driver, Manu) out to the Yamuna barrage, near Okhla Village. The river has been dammed at this point, and has created a large wetland area. There is construction all around, and largely the area is filthy, but the main body of water is not polluted, and you can walk the entire length of the eastern side along a small road. You will get followed by locals wondering what on earth you are doing, but at no point did I feel threatened. The most disconcerting thing was having my car follow me at walking pace about 100 yards behind me, though eventually the guy gave up and just parked up.

51 Garganey

I started at 6am, when it was a cool 25C, and spent four hours (until it got too hot) walking up and down the road. I didn't have a scope, but I didn't miss a single bird. Those that I could not get enough on I used my camera on to get "closer" so to speak, the wonders of digital. This walked produced a whole host of new species, such as Northern Shoveler, Garganey, Tufted Duck, Green Sandpiper and Collared Dove. Excellent, glad I came.

Green Bee-eater

White-throated Kingfisher

Grey-breasted Prinia

Red-vented Bulbul

Shikra, like a Sparrowhawk

Red-wattled Lapwing

Yellow-bellied Prinia

Final day and off to the zoo mid-morning to shake off a bit of a hang-over. Zoos are always good for birds and Delhi Zoo was no exception. The waterbird colonies in particular were sensational - Black-crowned Night Heron's drip off every branch, huge Painted Storks stand sentinal-like mid-way up trees, and Black-headed Ibis are found in clusters. The best birding of the day by far though was a small concrete ditch that I found just next to one of the paths. Pretty unpreposessing but there was a thin layer of water at the bottom of it, and several dead braches and shrubs overhung. A steady trickle of birds came to feed and drink at the bottom of this ditch, and all I had to do was look down. Two species of Prinia, Common Tailorbird, Oriental White-eye, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Indian Robin, Red-vented Bulbul, Asian Koel, Oriental Magpie Lark and Black Redstart all came through at some point, and I must have spent 2 hours basically motionless just peering in. Luckily it was in the shade...

Painted Stork

Mrs Asian Koel

Mr Asian Koel

Oriental White-eye

Oriental Magpie Robin

Indian Pond Heron

Triplist:

Lodi Gardens
1. Pigeon
2. Black Kite
3. Common Myna
4. Ring-necked Parakeet
5. House Crow
6. Jungle Babbler
7. Purple Sunbird
8. Little Egret
9. Moorhen
10. Spot-billed Duck
11. Laughing Dove
12. Asian Pied Starling
13. Hoopoe
14. Red-whiskered Bulbul
15. Little Cormorant
16. Shikra
17. Spotted Owlet
18. House Swift
19. Brown-headed Barbet
20. Red-vented Bulbul
21. Indian Grey Hornbill
22. Oriental Magpie Robin
23. Alexandrine Parakeet
24. Large-billed Crow
25. White-throated Kingfisher

Yamuna/Okhla
26. Whiskered Tern
27. Black Drongo
28. Indian Pond Heron
29. Cattle Egret
31. Green Bee-eater
32. Greater Coucal
33. Collared Dove
34. Grey-breasted Prinia
35. Red Avadavat
36. Plain Martin
37. Red-wattled Lapwing
38. Great White Egret
39. Indian Silverbill
40. Blyth's Reed Warbler
41. Grey Heron
42. Caspian Gull
43. Shoveler
44. Common Tailorbird
45. Tufted Duck
46. Pleasant-tailed Jacana
47. Garganey
48. Indian Robin
49. Coot
50. Black-winged Stilt
51. Yellow-footed Green Pigeon
52. Citrine Wagtail
53. Purple Swamphen
54. Purple Heron
55. Green Sandpiper
56. Wood Sandpiper
57. Little Grebe
58. White-tailed Stonechat
59. Common Babbler
60. Pied Bushchat
61. Yellow-bellied Prinia
62. Long-tailed Shrike
63. Striated Babbler
64. White-breasted Waterhen

Delhi Zoo
65. Black-crowned Night Heron
66. Indian Cormorant
67. Painted Stork
68. Black-headed Ibis
69. Stone Curlew
70. Rosy Pelican
71. Asian Koel
72. Black Redstart
73. Ashy Prinia
74. Oriental White-eye
75. Indian Peafowl
76. Coppersmith Barbet

New Delhi Wedding

My new look

I have just returned from another extravagant trip, this time to New Delhi, for a friend's wedding. Given I have not even managed to write about my March/April trip to Australia on this blog yet, bar my lay-over in Singapore, this is going to disturb the chronology. But blogs are fluid instruments, the readership is no doubt intelligent, and I will get back to the Aus birds at some point, but the wedding was too good not to get up straight away. There were of course some birds, mainly Hoopoes.... but they can wait.

So, Andy marries Disha, Disha being the New Delhi connection. I received a phone call from Andy somewhat out of the blue, in mid Feb, saying that the family had finally relented (several years of pain and difficulty) and that it was game on. In April. No time like the present I suppose, and anyway best get it sealed before anyone has a change of heart. So would I like to be put up in five star hotel in New Delhi for three days? Yes, I rather think I would, despite the certain blow to the BP stash. A cheapo flight was procured, jabs were had, a Visa was granted, most critically a field guide to the Birds of Northern India was purchased, and I was on my way.

Monday Night - Engagement Party at Claridges

The swimming pool courtyard at the hotel was transformed over the course of the day by a small army. Serving staff recieved their orders, and at about 7pm the event kicked off with a ceremony which I do not confess to understanding. But whereas here getting engaged is a pretty casual affair between the happy couple, followed by phoning the families and then organising beers with your mates, for Hindus it is a larger and more formal event, with lots of exchanging of items, laying things on each others laps, and involving the whole family on both sides and several hundred guests.



As this was a formal occasion, the venue was fully decorated, and everyone dressed up, and the colours and patterns were simply stunning. There is no nice way to say it, but weddings in this country and incredibly dull and sterile in comparison.



This was followed by a Bollywood presentation performed by Disha's sister and cousins, which was a particular highlight, especially for the bachelors in the room. And for the married men actually... Again, none of the European contingent really understood the songs, but the storyline as I saw it, presented across several numbers presumably taken from incredibly well-known films, seemed to be "boy meets girl", "girl plays hard to get", "boy tries too hard and makes a prat of himself", "another boy comes along", "original boy becomes very sad", "girl takes pity on boy", "mother forbids daughter to see either boy", "daughter becomes very sad", "slightly illicit relationship starts to develop", "boy finally accepted by family", "they all live happily after (other than second boy presumably)". Possibly I read too much into it, or at least tried to draw too many parallels with Andy's particular journey, which thinking about it makes at least some of the themes slightly unlikely to get major focus at an engagement party, but it was great fun nonetheless, and got the crowd going. A quick bite to eat around the magnificently transformed courtyard, followed by a disco where I discovered that I cannot dance to Indian songs any more than I can to European ones.









Andy's Socks. What was he thinking?

Tuesday Night - Wedding at the Taj Palace

Andy and Disha's Engagement was very brief - about 15 hours in fact. The party ended at 3am and the wedding started at 8pm on the same day. When Andy moves, he moves fast! At 7pm we assembled for some special headgear, and a pre-wedding blessing by one of the priets (although I was unfortunately in the bar admiring my new look in the mirror when that happened). We then drove in convoy to the Taj Palace hotel, only to be waylaid by a party of drummers! Actually this is no surprise - throughout Hindu weddings a number of games take place, and this is the first - the Bride's family engage a troupe of drummers to drive the Groom and his party away. they get paid twice, as custom dictates that the Groom et al then pay the drummers to leave, which we did, but not before a lot of very loud drumming and dancing in the street. Once we dispensed with the drummers, the Bride's party then "realise" that nothing will stop us, so decide instead to welcome us, which they then do, with a lot of garlands and flowers that they have lying around just in case this eventually should occur. So we passed through a tunnel of cousins and friends and emerge into the most sumptuous place I have ever been in my life. Claridges down the road had previously held this honour, but the Taj Palace is on another level entirely.





Another small ceremony took place up the front, whilst dancers and a bangra band played in one corner. Then the bride and groom posed for endless photographs, and finally we could eat - it was about 11pm by now. No drink, but there you go. The wedding proper started at midnight, outside under an Mandap a kind of awning. There were four low couches arranged in a square around. On one side were the priests, opposite sat Andy (no Disha yet), his parents on the right, and Disha's parents on the left. A very complex ceremony then took place, involving lots of food items. Again, I don't pretend to understand what was happening, but there were many spices, some fruit, other food items, some money - all used as symbols around a sacred fire in the middle, and a lot of chanting of mantras from the Vedas. At certain points in the ceremony relatives stepped forward to perform various parts. I have to say it was fascinating, but given that it started at midnight and went on until 4am, it was pretty hard to follow. That wasn't a problem - you could engage as much or as little as you like - most people were chatting or wandering around, and some were actually asleep. The wedding ceremony in the Mandap is almost a peripheral event.











Anyway, a great night, and a real eye-opener. I'll show you a few of the birds later, they were pretty good too. Especially the Hoopoes.