Rare ducks seen at Chandloi jheel

We have now made 6 trips out to Chandloi jheel (see earlier blog for location) this winter 2010-2011. Have been seeing some really good birds, and the ducks and waders have numbered in the thousands.

Excited to report that on January 16th 2011 we were able to observe 5 Common Shelduck ( Tadorna tadorna). In my opinion a rare winter visitor to Rajasthan. On the same day a Short-eared Owl was also seen - again very uncommon in the vicinity of Jaipur. On January 26th 2011 a solitary Booted Eagle quartered over the jheel and surrounding agricultural fields.

Here are some record photos taken by me over the last few visits - still learning the ropes (!) and am only using a high-zoom point-and-shoot camera. All images have been cropped and resized.

Bar-headed Goose ( at times 200 + individuals)

White -tailed Lapwing (thanks for spotting this one Khem and Jai)

Greater Flamingo (juvenile) - solitary bird adopted by the Pied Avocets says Namrata

Wire-tailed Swallow

And yes, the Common Shelduck - that was a lucky day with Shatrunjai, Madhav, Maneka and Namrata. Photographed from at least 500 mts, 24x hand-held. The Shelduck are the 5 ducks with the chestnut band across the white body. At the left edge of the island. Almost as tall as the Black-winged Stilts standing alongside. Shelduck had greenish-black heads, reddish bills and pink legs. Not observed again on two subsequent visits despite several birders scanning the whole jheel.

If you have record of Common Shelduck from Rajasthan please do email me at sahdevsingh2004@yahoo.co.in