New surprise at every step || A walk through the Okhla Bird Sanctuary

Last weekend, my nephew Nishant visited us in Noida and had a plan to visit Okhla Bird Sanctuary. We have been planning this visit for a long time and idea was to visit the sanctuary in migration period, which is mainly Dec/Jan. But this visit in March first week was also a very good experience. Let's check out this Photo Journey to experience the place and know more about it.

I visited Okhla Bird Santuary last year in January with my office friends, during our photography course and that was first time when I realized that we have a very good place to explore in Noida. So on Sunday morning, we headed for the sanctuary which has an entry gate from Noida side. This gate is very close to Mahamaya Flyover. If you are coming from Kalindi Kunj, this gate will be on your left, but just before Mahamaya Flyover. It opens at 8am and closes at 5pm. We checked online and timings for Sunday were mentioned - 9am-3pm. We confirmed from the ticket counter and there is no change in timing on Sundays.

This place is located on one side of Yamuna River. We took our car inside. Ticket for car is 100 Rs and it's 30 rs per person for a day. Just after entering we see these huge water patches on our left with different types of colorful birds floating around. Birds were comparatively less in the month of march but definitely you see major chunk of the water covered with birds during the month of Jan.

Nishant was all set with his Terrestrial Telescope and we had to stop the car at different places, to identify the birds and a keep a record. In a hurry, we forgot to pick the book on birding which helps in identifying  birds. We saw Northern Pintails, Red Wattled Lapwings, Intermediate Egret, Kingfisher, Eurasian Wigeon, peacock, maina, cormorants, Black kites, Purple Swamphen, sun-birds and many others, which are yet to be identified by us :) .

There were quite a few Black Winged Stilts around these water bodies, most of them continuously walking and picking something from water. 

The place is well maintained with strategically places dustbins, though the dustbins needs to be lined with a garbage bag as small garbage falls through the mesh.

Spot-billed Ducks were having fun during morning bath at Okhla Bird Sanctuary. There are small pond around the shoreline, where groups of birds were having fun. While writing this, I realized that I should have made some videos as well, wherein some of the birds were jumping on each other by spreading their wings. Spot-billed Ducks can also be seen in the lake at Hauz Khas Village in Delhi.

Sorry for bad quality of photographs, as all of these are cropped versions from long distance shots. We noticed few Kingfishers around us and could capture one of them sitting on the long grass around water ponds. The whole Eco-system inside Okhla Bird Sanctuary kept us involved through one or other way. After a while we parked our car on the other extreme. There is a huge tree with few rooms inside the sanctuary, where we could park the car. From this point, we had two options to reach two different watch-towers.

We got down form the main road inside the bird sanctuary and had to cross a bridge made up of bamboo. Above photograph - Nishant crossing the same bridge I just mentioned. 

It's quite long and interesting spot to pose. Now onwards, we had to walk till the watchtower through a narrow path surrounded by high grass with beautiful sounds of birds. There were lot of small and active birds around this grassland. We were keeping closer eye around us and then we experienced something unexpected.

One of us noticed a small antelope deep inside the grass and soon after he came out to the region where all of us could see him. He kept looking at us for a long time and suddenly a group of 10 antelopes appeared in front of us. This was amazing. We hadn't expected this :). After spending some time around this place, we moved towards the watchtower. 

The group of antelopes were walking parallel to us and as we climbed to the top of watch-tower, they started crossing the water body. At this point of time, we were not sure if they would be able to cross the shallow water or not. There were few birds floating on this water, so we were suspecting that water would be deep, but probably they were more experiences and finally reached the other side. From their walk, it seemed quite difficult.

We spent around 20 minutes on the watchtower and made best use Terrestrial telescope. Nishant was carrying it all the time and made sure that everyone gets a turn when he noticed something worth viewing/experiencing. We noticed that there is a specific etiquette to be followed when using the watch-tower. As we approached the watch-tower, we could see that it was occupied. But as we reached it the people who were using the watch-tower climbed down so that we could also experience it. We didn't have to ask for it and we also followed the same protocol.

While walking back towards the car, we heard a very strange sound which was coming from the marshland with high grass. The sound was very different and we started imitating the sound :). It was Purple Swamphen which usually makes loud, quick, bleating and hooting calls. These birds are considered as noisy during their breeding season. Purple Swamphen can fly long distances which doesn't match with it's size and the way this bird behaves on ground.

This visit was much more rewarding than we had anticipated. Even though most of the migratory birds had flown away by this time, this was a blessing in disguise because we were more aware of the other inhabitants of the sanctuary. For example, the resident birds, of which also a vast variety is present.The place is ideal if you want to sensitize your kids about the environment, biodiversity and the delicate balance on which the future of our planet depends. We would highly recommend a visit to this place during the winter and early spring.