घुमक्कड़ मनुष्य

Heaven for birds , a must visit place for every bird watcher, Bhigwan is calm,  peaceful , far from the hustle bustle of the city, pure, serene, easily accessible and a beautiful village. Clear sky, amazing  backwater and boat rides complements its beauty. Plentiful of birds found, this place has black headed gull, red avadavat, grey heron, heron, purple heron, pond heron, Little Egret , Painted Stork, Asian Openbill Stork, Wolly-necked Stork, Open billed stork, Black winged Stilt, Pied Advocat, Spot billed Duck, Reddy Shelduck, Northern Shoveler, little cormorant, purple Swanphen, Eurasian coot, Ibisbill, Lapwing, Osprey,  and last but not the least- a great attraction for every bird watcher - Greater Flamingo . Bhigwan, Maharashtra is definitely a place to be.

Start of My journey

I started my journey from Bangalore , Karnataka purposefully on Wednesday  evening  14^th Jan 2015(Bus timing was 6pm) so that I will be able to visit Bhigwan at least one working day i.e. Friday(Tip - working day is less crowded so the place can be enjoyed peacefully ).  I booked my Ticket using KSRTC, Aravat Club house which hardly cost me 2300 for up and down journey .Bus was multi axial semi sleeper, separate TV is provided for each seat with Airtel dish TV connection .The bus was very much comfortable .I reached Pune early morning around at 8:30 am and stayed at my friend’s place for a day.

Pune to Bhigwan   

Next morning, I started my journey from Bhavdhan, Pune on Friday at around 2:30 am on bike as I didn’t want to miss the sunrise at Bhigwan. Being so early I didn’t get any traffic in Pune town. After crossing Hadapsar, Pune-Solapur National highway started which connects Pune to Hydrabad .  Road condition from Hadapsar to Bhigwan was too good and anyone can drive on an average speed of 60 km per hour. If you wish you can drive at a speed more than 60km as roads are smooth though it is not advisable because some trucks were also running.  Hadapsar to Bhigwan is around 95 km journey but for us it is around 120 km as we started our journey from Bhavdhan.  While on our journey, we stopped for tea break 20km before Bhigwan at around 4:30 am. There are a lot of road side Dhabas and tea points which remain open 24 hours. After 20 mins break, we started our journey towards Bhigwan.  We reach Bhigwan around 5 am early morning.

Bhigwan to Kumbhargaon bird point

Once we reached Bhigwan our next goal was to reach Birding point not other than Kumbhargaon, which is hardly 10km from Bhigwan, but being so early there are very less people to help you with direction. Luckily we have google Map which help us with the direction. We found one local person on the way who was very helpful and directed us towards Kumbhargaon. No need to say his suggested direction and the google Map direction both matched. Its takes another 10 to 15 minutes to reach our next destination, Kumbhargaon. Now at this point we are not sure where to go as MAP doesn’t show exact Boating point and roads are very dark ( Being a village road condition are expected be like this only).  Now 1^st time we have taken wrong direction and move ahead around 500 meters on wrong path, here also local people came into help (I was surprised its early morning around 5:15 am but people are out of their house with torch ) . They suggested to go back around 500 meters and take left so we again take U turn, while going back I again asked birding point from one local person. Instead of giving directions he just sat on my bike and directed to go ahead. I was little bit skeptical with giving lift as it was dark morning and I didn’t know the person but I took the chance. He directed us correctly to birding (in fact it is boating point) point Kirti Flamingo Point which provides the boat ride till the birding point.

Morning Break at Kirti Flamingo Point

Now we reached our destination very early in the morning at around 5:30 am and had some time left to take rest. Kirti Flamingo Point provides us one room and early tea to get fresh. Now I utilize my time to check my camera gear and ensure that everything was in place. As suggested by Kirti Flamingo point staff, our journey towards flamingo point by boat started at 6:15 am.

Starting of boat Journey toward flamingo point

We started our boat journey around 6:15 am as flamingo point is 30 to 45 mins far by boat. At that time little bit reddish color has come to sky and it is making perfect combination with Ujjani dam Back water. While reaching the flamingo point we witness the early sunrise and it was so beautiful that I wanted to capture each and every moment of this beauty in my eye. I have taken some photo of this moment and sharing with you. Little bit of red sky with dark blue color, C shaped moon and their reflection in water making it a perfect landscape.

Flamingo Point

Once we reached the flamingo point we witnessed beauty of Greater Flamingo. Seeing the flamingo flying and landing gives you a feeling like you are listening to some melodious song. It’s wings were light pink in color , but once it flies it shows it’s red color ( that’s why it is known as flamingo and in Hindi Agnipankh). Its size can go up to 187 cm and weight 4 kg (approx.) refers wiki.  Best time to see flamingo here is from December last to Feb- march. Apart from Flamingo you will also see other birds (I already mentioned their names in the beginning).

Night Stay at Kirti Flamingo Point.

We decided to stay one night there as we wanted to do boating next morning as well. Kirti point provided both veg and non- veg food and the cost is also reasonable. Veg plate was Rs.150 and non-veg was Rs. 200. Room cost was 700 for one night. It was dark night and sky was free from city pollution so I tried my luck with star trail photography. As it was my first time so there is lot of scope for improvement .One can also enjoy star photography and morning landscape photography here apart from birds. I am also sharing with you my star trail photography.