January 2020

Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis)

Lonavala is famous hill stations in the state of Maharashtra, Lonavala is located in Pune district. It is about 64 km from Pune and 80 km from Mumbai.

Amur Falcon is a fascinating migratory raptor. Every year, the small, resilient birds make the daring voyage from breeding grounds in Russia and China to winter in southern Africa. It is supposed that the falcons cross the Arabian Sea during their migration, but much is still unknown about the patterns of their estimated 22,000 km migration. During this migration, it halts couple of days near Lonavala to enjoy the deciduous grassland filled with pogostemon flowers. I with couple of my friend planned a quick visit to photograph the once in lifetime opportunity to photograph amur falcon that closely, started from late night from Surat to reach early morning there.

Apart from Amur Falcon, there were different species of Birds like.

Common Kestrel (Falco Tinnunculus), Lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni), Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis), Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) and many more .