Las Vegas & Grand Canyon were pretty much on top our list as we landed in United States few months ago. It did not took us to long to plan a trip on one of the long weekends and with both places close to each other, we decide to combine them in a single trip.
The Kaas Plateau; also known as “Kaas Pathar” is a biodiversity hotspot (also a UNSECO World Heritage site) known for variety of flowers that bloom in months of August and September every year. We at Wild India Eco Tours visited the plateau on 2nd weekend on September 2016, along with a half day session to visit Chalkewadi & Thoseghar Waterfall. Read more
It was our 1st trip to Goa after we got into birding, so obviously we were all eager and geared up to check-out the birds in Goa. Couple of birding friends also suggested some hotspots for birding in Goa; however due to Ganesh Chaturthi and just 6 days at hand, we had to drop quite a no. of these hotspots. We finalized on driving through the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wild-life Sanctuary right up-to Tambi Surla and also check the Carambolim Lake specifically for birding apart from being on look-out for birds at all times. Best part was that we had decided to drive down from Pune to Goa via Belgaum through Chorla ghats, which did turn out to be very eventful!
We started out journey from Pune at 5 AM. Just as we crossed Katraj ghat and sun was rising, I saw a Shikra perching on a branch right next to the road. That was the 1st stop of the many stops which followed later :D. As we approached Satara, we saw quite a no. of large grey babblers, laughing doves and long tailed shrikes all along the way. We halted at Karad for breakfast and then resumed our journey.
It was the Independence Day; hence we decided to do a relatively short trek to the birth place of Shivaji Maharaj, the Shivneri Fort..! The journey started at around 7:00 am where we took the Pune-Nashik road. The best road to Shivneri is to go via Rajgurunagar -> Peth -> Narayangaon -> Junnar -> Shivneri, however I took a diversion at Peth into village roads in a hope of capturing some landscapes and birds. After taking the village road from Peth, we were in for a surprise. The hot sunny weather in Pune suddenly became cloudy followed by heavy rains. Read more
It was just around three weeks since our last trek however it felt as if couple of months had passed by. Hence we decided to go for a relatively easy trek to Purandar fort. We even planned to cover Vajragad fort on the same day as we may finish early, however we were in for a pleasant surprise. Read more
This trip was due long time; and we finally started off for Tamhini ghats on Sunday at around 7:30 AM from Pune. The weather in Pune seemed to be overcast and sunny for most of the times; however we still hoped to get some rains at Tamhini. Another reason to go to Tamhini was to see the colourful Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher. As soon as we crossed Paud, we could see the lovely green paddy field all along the way. It did seem the area had got some rain in last couple of days. We stopped at couple of places to take some shots of swallows and black drongos. Read more