Sea fogs and bustards

On 3^rd morning we ventured into the Naliya grasslands on our Indian Bustard search. Heavy sea fog limited visibility at first but perhaps enabled us to drive very close to numerous pairs of Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse and small flocks of magnificent Bimaculated Larks among the Greater Short-toes. Interestingly three other Indian dryland specialities (Eurasian Thick-knee, Indian Courser and Yellow-wattled Lapwing) were in much smaller numbers than the sandgrouse throughout the area; indeed we saw and heard none of the former at all in Kutch. We had a couple of sightings of Desert Warblers in low scattered scrub as ever, numerous arenarius Rufous-tailed Shrikes, more wheatears and Rufous-tailed Larks. One of the best sightings was a fine Laggar eating a Spiny-tailed Lizard, which species seemed extremely numerous along the sand roads. Jugal found us the Indian Bustards without much difficulty. Four were picked up in flight at some distance and we found them or another five with limited searching. The five comprised 4 immature males and a female. With care we were able to drive close to them as the stalked haughtily through the long grass. We moved on to visit a Tawny Eagle’s nest with young and while viewing it had unusually close and open views of Common Quails in the patchy grass. We searched for Stoliczka’s Bushchats but only well marked Siberians Stonechats showed. In the warm weather some of these looked very attenuated and many females showed strong supercilia. It is not surprising that the females have caused confusion recently.