Bharatpur, Rajasthan October 2015

Happy Birthday Gandhi (and Scott)!  We took advantage of the long weekend by heading down to Bharatpur, Rajasthan (West of Agra) with some friends. Our goal was a weekend of relaxing and bird watching, which the area is known for. Our destination was formerly known as Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary and is now known as Keoladeo National Park.   We also hoped to see pythons, which live in the park and can grow up to 22 feet long.  Although we did not see any of the giant snakes, we did see the network of holes (built by porcupines) that up to 30 can live in. Lastly, a telephoto lens would be a great present if anyone is looking for an idea for us.

Here are some pictures we took while driving there.

We drove through Mathura, which is the birthplace of Lord Krishna

We almost ran into this herd of cattle that appeared suddenly from a hidden path/road.

And then the outing to the park.... 

Spotted Owl

Indian Monitor Lizard

Indian Painted Stork -- Sort of the Mascot for the Park

Purple Heron

Blue Bulls -- One of these almost ran over Drew and Scott earlier in the day 

Snake Bird (we think)

Grey Heron

Indian Roller

Taken at Hanuman (Monkey God) Temple.  There were lots of the little suckers there.

This was shot while looking for Pythons (15 -22 ft!) which we did not see.  However, A jackal in the bush scared the hell out of us.  Happy Birthday Scott!

.... and back to the hotel