Jungle Safari @ Amba (आंबा)

Ambagaon (आंबागांव) is situated on Kolhapur (कोल्हापूर) - Ratnagiri (रत्नागिरी) highway (NH-204) near Malkapur (मलकापूर). It is around 230+ kms from Pune. The road condition is better than what I expected. It is upcoming hill station without heavy tourist traffic. Not sure but the region is part of Dajipur Bison Sanctuary.
 
I took jungle safari ride arranged by resort where I was staying. But my main interest was bird-watching. We (I & a local guide) started early morning around 5:30 AM from the resort and went in the direction of Vishalgad. It is better not to talk about road condition. We crossed Manoli Dam and climbed up the hill and parked our jeep on the road itself. Then we started walking and went almost 2 kms away from our jeep. It was very foggy and I was hoping that there will be better sunlight & fog goes away so that I can locate some birds.

While walking I noticed that some animal is grazing at a distance. We went closer and my guide told me that it is Indian Bison (गवा). But we had to run away as bison started talking few steps towards us. We came back to our jeep and decided go by jeep instead of walking. We went till Waghzara but due to the fog could not capture a single photo of bird.
We decided to start the return journey as there were no signs of fog going away.


On our way back I heard a loud cackling noise and asked my driver to stop the jeep. I tried to see in the direction from where the noise was coming and saw a Malabar Grey Hornbill sitting on top of 1 of the trees. I could hear many such noises and I am sure there were many hornbills but I could only spot. I was happy to click couple of photos as it was a new addition to our website.



On our way back to Manoli Dam, I spotted many birds like Scarlet Minivets, Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Red-vented Bulbuls, Bea-eaters, Pied Bushchats, etc. Clicked few photos as well but quality was not good. Near Manoli Dam, we were walking and I saw 2 Red-wattled Lapwings on the ground just next to the road. I also felt that there is 1 more small bird walking on the ground. To verify I just went off the road & started going towards lapwings. Both the lapwings flew away immediately and I also lost that small bird as I was not able to locate it. Both lapwings were flying with loud & scolding calls. I knew there must be a nest nearby and hence lapwings are trying to distract me. I kept walking hoping to see the nest. After scanning the ground found out this. A fledgling was lying on the ground. The fledgling was cryptically colored matching the ground pattern. The fledgling was lying still realizing the danger making almost impossible to locate.

It was 8:30 AM and decided to go back to the resort. On the way back clicked few more photos of paddy-field pipit, a lizard, and cicada insect on tree