When we stopped off at Singapore on our way to Australia and New Zealand in
2020, there were reports of flocks of openbill storks flying over. At the time
I'd never even heard of the species and was intrigued and hoped to see them.
Unfortunately I didn't see any but today I made up for it! Just one bird but it showed
very well feeding in the dry rice paddies behind the hotel, in amongst the
myriad of egrets. I was so happy to see this bird, certainly one of the birds
of the holiday.
I love this photo, pity about the rubbish though!
The rice paddies right behind the hotel are very dry at the moment and are
being ploughed. I assume that they are about to be planted with the monsoon
season rapidly approaching. All this ploughing attracts many birds, the most
obvious of which are the egrets and ibis, with up to 200 cattle egrets
present, along with many intermediate egrets and black-necked ibis.
And they don't get much more obvious than this! It's easy to dismiss peacocks
because we associate them with zoos and stately homes, but here in India this
is an endemic wild bird. No trip to India is complete without seeing the
national bird.
Black-headed storks and intermediate egret. You can also just make out an
Indian pond heron in the extreme right of the photo. This is another common
species here.
Paddyfield pipit.
Western yellow wagtail, of the race M. f. thunbergi I assume.
Grey-headed yellow wagtail.
Black kites also come down to feed on invertebrates that are disturbed by the
ploughing.
Red-wattled lapwings are also numerous in the area. This one was on a nest
with two eggs.
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