It was the victory day of Bangladesh, and a government holiday. We have decided to have a birding at the other side of the river beside the Dhaka city. It’s Keraniganj (কেরানীগঞ্জ) that we have selected. More precisely, its Arakul Moth (আরাকুল মঠ). It was just an hour away from the busy Dhaka. After crossing the Postogola bridge (পোস্তগোলা ব্রীজ), we have taken a CNG driven public transport and it dropped us near the old Arakul Moth (আরাকুল মঠ). It was only a 12 Taka per person ride.
It was 10:00 am of the day. We have started our day with the moth (মঠ), GPS: 23°39’35.25″N, 90°25’21.42″E. Then we have started our birding. It was a long walking around the property owner’s project. There were hardly any shade. We were totally exposed to the sun (and it always likes me to burn). It was also a sandy area as they are developing the area for housing. From that area we have observed the Pipit, Siberian stonechat, and Silver bill Munia.
At the far sight we have found plenty of black things on the sand. They were moving, but was too far from us. So we have approached to those things and found a flock of Black kites on the sand. There were probably around 200 Black kites sitting. The more we were getting closer to them, the more they were flying away. In fact they have lured us more than a mile (or should I say we have pushed them back?).
Few local boys were also there. They brought some cold drinks with them. They wanted to celebrate the day on there, but I don’t know whether its a nice way to celebrate such thing or not. We have also found several helicopters were flying over us. Probably they were providing some mock for this special day!
During our long waking, we have found a canal like thing beside the road. It was filled with water hyacinth and profound with common birds. We have seen Brown shrike, Little cormorant, Kingfisher, Long tailed shrike, Silver bill Munia and few others. It was around 1:00 pm of the day and the women from around were having their bath on there. So for a certain time we didn’t use our camera. GPS coordinate of the canal like thing is (23°39’15.41″N, 90°26’9.84″E).
From there we have moved into another place (GPS: 23°39’3.71″N, 90°26’29.63″E) that was basically an abandoned house. It was beside a wet land and was too much breezy. We have had a sitting on there for an hour. During this period we have enjoyed the playing of Sandpiper and Little ring plover birds. I didn’t see them before.
Finally we have decided to return back to the home. So started moving again. We found a Banyan tree on our way. In fact we have taken the CNG driven vehicle from there to return back. But before leaving we have found a flock of Coppersmith barbet, and Asian koyel (female) on that Banyan tree. It was a nice last moment touch to draw a finishing. GPS coordinate of the Banyan tree is (23°39’3.26″N, 90°26’53.40″E).
This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icwow.blogspot.com/
