Velim Lake

 

The drive to Velim Lake is about 1½ hours from Baga and Lloyd picked us up at 6.00 am. We initially stopped on the western edge of the lake with rice paddies on the opposite side of the road. Although our main target was vultures, we saw a total of 60 species in the area including all the usual waterbirds. In India the vulture population has been decimated during the last few years with the major cause now identified as diclofenac, a drug used in the treatment of livestock. Velim is now the only reliable roosting site in Goa with just a handful of birds. As the morning heated up we had breakfast and then moved on to the opposite side of the lake where we had seen numerous raptors circling in the thermals.

Having taken a small road at the eastern end of the lake we walked out across dry fields trying to find any shelter from the sweltering heat. We saw 3 Yellow-wattled Lapwing, our only Hoopoe of the trip and I found a lifer for Lloyd – a single Common Starling. As we reached wetter paddies we had to halt but still enjoyed good views of c6 White-rumped Vultures with excellent close-ups of Black Kites and a White-bellied Sea Eagle. Driving away from Velim we had excellent views of 11 Woolly-necked Storks and 7 Asian Openbills feeding in fields by the roadside.

Bird List

 

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