Bhigwan is a town on the border of Pune and Solapur districts in Maharashtra. It is famous for bird watching, especially flamingo and wildlife photography. You could see flocks of hundreds of Greater Flamingos, Common Cranes, Brown Headed Gulls, Painted Storks, Grey Herons and many more.. 🙂
We visited Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary on Saturday and reached Bhigwan at around 2:00 PM. Just after eating lunch, we reached lakeside, parked car near lakeside and started exploring nearby area.
We spent approximately 3 hours at lakeside, basically we were waiting for sun to go little down. We passed our time exploring lakeside, eating sugarcane offered by villagers and had random conversations. One should carry snacks and water bottles as there are no tea/snacks stall near lakeside. Till evening, I was hardly able to spot few birds from lakeside. I almost lost the hope to see flamingos !!
At 4:45 PM, we left the lakeside. All the lost hopes seems to be coming back. My heartbeats were increasing with excitement as we were going away from lakeside, there was drastic shift from zero to few to many birds 🙂
With all this excitement, I was sitting on the same spot in the boat for the longest time. I was bit afraid of boat oscillating both the sides and with each move in the boat I was trying to balance it in my mind (LOL)
How to reach
Bhigwan is connected via buses and trains from Pune and nearby cities. It takes 3.5 hours journey from Pune, one can travel by their own vehicle. The birding spots are 10 to 15 km far from Bhigwan’s main town. There are auto rickshaw and cabs available from Bhigwan to lake.
We preferred one day road trip from Pune 🙂
Best time to visit
The best to visit this place for bird watching is December to March. Flamingos love winter season and they need less water for fishing that’s why they chose only this season to come in India. Nature lovers could visit this place in summers as well for stunning sunrise and sunsets.
Expenses/Budget
Lunch, snacks, boat ride and travel by car on sharing basis – 740 INR
Also make sure that –
- Don’t shout when you are near birds.
- Don’t throw plastic bottles and random food in water.
- Turn off camera’s shutter sound.
- Carry water bottles and snacks.
- Carry 600mm lens to capture birds as they don’t come close🙃 This is the reason I am unable to post any close up shot.
Asif, Deb, Pooja and Anurag
CurlyGirlyTravely 