A Weekend for the Birds

Thanksgiving provided a long-awaited three day weekend (we had a teacher day Thursday) and a great opportunity for a change of scenery.  The air pollution in Delhi has been worse this year than last so any chance to get out of the city for fresh(er) air cannot be missed.

As Thanksgiving is a holiday dedicated to eating a bird, it's a bit ironic that our weekend destination was Keoladeo National Park, a 29 square kilometer bird sanctuary south of Delhi.  According to Google Maps, it's only 197 kilometers away and the drive should take three hours.  But this is India and road travel always takes longer than estimated.  That said, it was a very smooth trip - four hours each way. It's hard to imagine being able to do it any faster.  As always, the scene out the car window was a feast for the eyes a non-stop bombardment of images, each one unlike the one before. We eventually saw all three of our favorite Indian road trip animals: monkeys (many), a camel, and an elephant.

Our little hotel was just a two minute rickshaw ride from the entrance to the park. We spent the late afternoon Friday and the post-breakfast hours Saturday touring the pathways with our rickshaw drivers as guides.  The sanctuary was peaceful and clean, with relatively few people around. Of course we saw lots and lots and lots of cool birds. Also on the list of spotted wildlife: antelope, jackals, turtles, cow (of course), monitor lizard, and a python. For real.

Spotted owl in the tree:

Asa quickly took over the rickshaw and this was his favorite part of the trip:

Painted stork:

Nest of painted storks with young chicks:

Back in the garden of the hotel, Asa discovers a rusty push mower and gets to work. This was his second favorite part of the trip:

 

Getting started, the morning of day two:

Spotted owls basking in the sun:

Turtles:

  

AES colleagues catch up with us, then pass us:

And the most exciting part was saved for last. We came upon a python along the left side of the path. Not sure why we felt compelled to get out of the rickshaw to take a closer look, but we did. We did not need the zoom on the first photo:

After allowing us to gawk for a few minutes, he slowly doubled back and disappeared into the hole:

  
And the last creature spotted on our way out of the park, a monitor lizard:

 
All in all, it was a sweet getaway weekend. There is so much to see in India, but most destinations are far beyond our 4-5 hour driving limit and require a train or a plane. We'll get to planning those trips when we return from winter break. For now, just two more weeks of the semester and then we'll be away for three weeks of truly fresh air in the southern hemisphere.