Birdwatching in Bundi

3rd August - Here’s a surreal & rather magical experience. We’re 30ft up a dead tree at sunset birdwatching outside Bundi.
It’s a little cruisier than that actually, we’re on a shaded platform, in comfy cane chairs, cold beer in one hand, binocs / telephoto in the other.
We’re the sole guests at a tented resort 10kms outside the town, which means there are at about 5 times as many staff as punters.

Clouds of dragonflies waft about us, there’s a parrot chirruping on a branch about 6ft away & before us is a lake about 2km long almost entirely covered in lotus leaves. There are a couple of ancient burial shrines on tiny man made islands in the lake & all around us are paddy fields being slowly filled by an ancient pump. A parrot just landed almost on top of a startled squirrel & monkeys are being shooed away from the restaurant.
A tiny falcon just darted through in front of us & disturbed a tree full of pigeons & sent a posse of parrots off at the double.
We’re sort of ‘behind’ the bowl of hills that cradles Bundi’s old town & the ramparts of the abandoned fort are peer over the ridge at us along the lake. There’s a rather large telecom tower up there also which I s’pose I should mention…
C snaps away with the Olympus, 1001 ways with a parrot on a stick. I borrow the camera & take the same shots all over again. Some drop-dead gorgeous shots emerge after much culling.
Being the only guests means there are several people dedicated to anticipating our every thought, often before we’d had them. When we climbed up to the treehouse this afternoon I’d only just decided to go look for a 2nd chair when I saw one, & a table being rushed along the path from reception. This evening C wandered up & within seconds there were chaps fluffing the cushions, putting linen head rests on & smoothing a table cloth down for us to rest our camera on. Frankly disconcerting but it’s bad form to complain don’t you know…