Spotting wild life in a forest reserve is tricky. Usually, you will be forced to go in a sputtering and rattling caged van accompanied by a bunch of noisy tourists who care little for the environment and even worse not realizing that the best way to spot animals is to maintain silence. Such trips are apt to end in disappointments. The best way would be on foot or on an elephant. But the (previously known as Bharatpur Bird sanctuary) is refreshingly different. Vehicles are banned inside the park, sensibly, and one has to either foot it or take a rickshaw to traverse deep into the reserve. Bicycles are another option and they can be hired just outside the park.

Birds are aplenty as this reserve is one of the worlds greatest and most important heronries. More than 350 species of birds find a refuge in the park and about a third of them are migrants. Of the migrants the most sought after is the Siberian Crane, which I am told is a pure vegetarian. The Sarus Crane is a resident and this bird has been idealized in Indian poetry because these birds not only mate for life, they die when separated.

The park is obviously a bird-watchers paradise. Common water birds like Cormorants, Darters, Spoonbills, Egrets and the lovely Ibis rub shoulders and live in total harmony. One can see a Lesser Egret walking under the spread wings of a Darter. Cormorants dive and come up in unison with Dabchicks. Moorhens walk nonchalantly past Paddy birds poised for a kill while the Red Wattled Lapwing screams his head off did he do it did he do it? The larger birds like Black necked Storks, Painted Storks and Demoiselle Cranes keep their distance while the elite Sarus crane and ducks from Sri Lanka are star attractions. The Pied Kingfisher shows off his crazy diving skills dropping like a stone after hovering in the air like a rescue helicopter. The marshland supports not only water birds but also many other birds like Kingfishers, Spotted Owlets, and Mynahs.

One thing common to these birds, large or small, is that they are all shutter shy. They will let you come up close. Holding your breath you think you can go a step closer. The bird with all indifference will continue preening its feathers. But raise the camera to the eye, it will take off. Wild life photography can be very frustrating. One exception was this Darter below. This bird, commonly called the Snake bird, put on such a display turning round and round and let me take several shots of him sunning his feathers.

The rickshaw drivers are very resourceful and have developed quite an expertise in identifying the birds to the uninitiated. Abundance of foreigners visiting the park has necessitated use of English but mastery of this foreign language, pronunciation and grammar, is beyond these villagers, often leading to comical situations. My rickshaw-wallah pointed out a bird and said leevartun. I blinked at this strange specimen and he repeated syllable by syllable so that it will get into my dumb brain. Lee Varr Tun. Zilch. I gave up and so did that chap probably cursing my poor English. Much later, Salim Alis guide solved the mystery. It was River Tern.

Our attention was suddenly attracted by a pair of parakeets screeching loudly in the hollow of a tree which was obviously the home of the parakeets. Soon the parakeets recruited more of their clan and the cacophony was unbelievable. All of them were frantically circling the tree, screaming their head off. A crowd had gathered below the tree watching the drama. In a short while the reason became apparent. A huge Monitor Lizard had chosen to park himself in the hollow much to the consternation of the birds. The lizard was totally oblivious of the strong objections of the parakeets and happily snuggled into his siesta. We left with the birds still racking their brains for a way to get rid of the monster.