On the last day of January 2014, up to 2130 hours I was in office. This is not my usual time, but we have project release [Most common scenarios with software guys]. I finished my work and at around 2300 hours I was on my bed. I knew that I will not get enough rest as I have to wake at 0400 hours in morning.
I left my bed at 4:00 AM and up to 5:10 AM I was in office. Office… No no no … now this time not for any technical work but a trip for Bird watching at Bhigwan with office friends.
We were 15 guys including driver and left office premises at 5:35 AM. We have two guides who are husband and wife and ex employee of my company having 7 years of experience in bird activities.
From Pune-Solapur Highway, we covered 110 km distance and reached to Bhigwan Dam in just 2 hours as no traffic was there in early morning.
Mainly people are doing sugarcane farming around Bhigwan.
From last couple of months I didn’t experience sunrise. But at Bhigwan, I viewed sun was rising from east and its reddish rays are reflected in dam water. It was beautiful seen.
All guys stood in circle and quickly introduced each other. 2 Guys are from my home town. Good to see them. Up to 8:00 AM, we finished breakfast with Poha and tea.
We hired two fishing boats for 14 guys and cost is Rs. 1400 per boat. Each boat had one guide.
Main attraction in Bhigwan is Flemingo Bird having pink color on bid, wings and legs. Flemingos are migrated from Siberia. I was lucky I got a group of 40-45 Flemingos at one place.
I come to know new information about birds as
Why they are living in groups
How they can cover so much of distance
Why they are flying in V shape
How to identify male and female?
In all birds female look is dull while male is always beautiful. I was thinking about human species, it’s exactly opposite. God is great.
We were in boat for almost 3 hours and got a chance to look to different kinds of birds like Flemingo, stork, Drongo, Coramorent, dove, ducks, Lapwings, grey Heron etc. After that we are on land and spent 1 hour to see different birds.
While coming back, I tried my hands on manual boat with 300-400 meter. Nice experience.
We rest for 30 min and around 1:00 PM we left Bhigwan.
On our way, we had lunch at Kanchan Hotel. They have very delicious food. I tested Tandoori Roti, Veg Maharaja, Paneer Kadai, Lassi, Rice, Dal and Mango Pickle. Lassi was in Kulhad and very tasty. I recommended visiting this hotel on Satara Road.
From my childhood, I like sound of one bird but I was not aware of its name. Lucky I got that same bird at Bhigwan and when I ask its name to Guide, I come to know that it was Lapwing.
On next day I downloaded Lapwing and Indian Dove sounds from Internet. Whenever I am listening these sounds, I mind started to think about childhood memories related with village and farms.
With this Bird watching trip at Bhigwan, I got nice knowledge and experience about Mother Nature and birds. We all like birds but we are not familiar with them. Now I can say I am aware of some of them.