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Ladakh - Planning The Trip

Over 2000 Km by road, in around 10 days. Stunning landscapes, wonderful people. That sums up our Ladakh trip. But how did it actually work? How did we make it happen? Read on to find out!  Leh, the capital of Ladakh , is accessible by air and road. Flying into Leh is the easiest, and time-saving option, while the road is the time consuming one, but with the added advantage of driving past some of the most beautiful landscapes in our country. Each option has much to recommend it, and we chose the road for just one reason – altitude sickness. Altitude sickness was one of my biggest concerns, since I suffer from motion-sickness. Yes, I do travel a lot, but that is despite my condition, and, over the years, have learnt how to handle it. I struggled with it when we visited Nathu-La in Sikkim, and wondered if I would be able to manage a week at the even higher altitudes that we would encounter in Ladakh. This was the reason we stuck to a basic plan, of only 9 days in Ladakh, thoug...
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Asian Koel

The call of the cuckoo or koel is one of the nicest to hear. The bird itself is not so nice. For one, it is a lazy bird, laying its eggs in another's nest, leaving the other one to care for it unknowingly. Also, the male looks just like a crow, which does nothing to improve its looks! The female looks more beautiful, a combination of brown and white which helps in camouflage. However, this also makes it harder to spot. I have seen koels in our colony, but never close, and certainly not close enough to get a decent photograph. 



The Nehru Park on Fateh Sagar Lake at Udaipur was a bird haven, even in the sweltering summer heat. Apart from the lapwings, which I have written about earlier, we also saw many other birds.... Among these were a pair of Asian Koels....

The female was the easiest to photograph, as she stayed in one place....









while the male foraged among the other trees, coming back every now and then...


While the rains had yet to set in, it looked like it was time for mating already, for this was not the only pair of birds we saw, busily engaged in courtship. There were more, so keep coming back!!
Other Bird Posts....
Other Posts about Asian Koels on my blog....

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