Birding at Kala Kho on Jaipur-Agra highway

Three of us visited this morning the Kala Kho dam and lake, about 60kms from Jaipur on the Jaipur-Bharatpur-Agra highway (Rajasthan, India). En-route the lush green surroundings, hills and ponds were a sight to see, certainly a sight one does not get to see too often in Rajasthan! The Kala Kho lake did not have as much water as we had heard, but nevertheless, the area under shallow water was almost as big as the one in Sultanpur National Park.

The weather was mainly cloudy and at first sight, we could hardly any sign of birds on the lake. The first bird we encountered was a Singing Bushlark – singing and performing highly entertaining aerial displays. North of the dam bund a leafy tree had a small group of White-cheeked Bulbuls. The first birds we spotted on the water were (of course) Black-winged Stilts, then we saw some Dabckicks (3) and a Little Cormorant. Two waders on a distant island looked like Common Sandpipers. Two Lesser Whistling Teals were flying about (once they went past us whistling) and later we saw six more in the air. The only other duck seen was a single female Comb Duck.

Near the bund, right next to a beautiful Palm orchard, we saw some of the greatest architects of nature – four Baya Weavers – at work building nests, and dressed really handsomely while at it! The orchard also had some really fresh looking Rose-ringed Parakeets and Red-collared Doves. A tree right next to the lake had an Asian Pied Starling nest and two Indian Silverbills visited us while we were looking at them. Ashy and Plain Prinias were heard calling.

While having breakfast in the large dining room of the adjoining resort, we noticed plenty of House Swifts and Dusky-craig Martins flying about and we later managed to find a nest of the latter. We couldn’t really scan the nearby trees for Spotted Creeper, a bird sometimes seen here.

With some more rains this monsoon, the lake should play a good host to winter migrants, which include Bar-headed Geese. Kala-Kho is a popular stop for tourists travelling between Agra and Jaipur and the large dining hall and an equally large balcony of the resort offers a great vantage point from which to view the lake. Birders travelling between Jaipur and Bharatpur often stop here, the resort staff told us. BTW, the Dining room walls were full of bird photographs!

Report by Mayank Bhatnagar and Gaurav Bhatnagar
(August 10, 2003)