The Deccan is hot, dry and wide open for most of the year, then soaked for four months. Here is what our members carry so the only thing that goes wrong is the bird flying off.
Without these, you are just a person standing very still in a field.
8x42 or 10x42. Use a harness. Your neck has done nothing to deserve this.
By nine, the Deccan has dusted your lenses a fetching shade of laterite.
For waders on the far shore. Also makes you look like you know things.
The Indian Courser will appear the second your battery dies. Carry a spare.
Because "small brown bird" is not an accepted species on eBird.
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. Heavier than it looks, settles every argument.
Download the India pack offline. The birds are excellent out here. The network is not.
Pens leak in the heat and quit in the rain. Pencils just keep going.
Your phone is a field guide, camera, map and torch. It will be tired.
Dress like a bush. A slightly stylish bush.
Olive, khaki or brown. That neon running tee is visible from the next district.
The grassland will try to come home with you as seeds, thorns and ticks.
Loose laterite and rocky outcrops. Leave the chappals for the chai stall.
Winter dawns hit 12°C. By ten you will be carrying it. Bring it anyway.
By ten, the plateau turns into a frying pan with good birds on it.
A cap protects your face. A wide brim protects your face, neck and dignity.
Once before you leave, once mid-morning. Tan lines are not a field mark.
For the drive and the walk back. Not while scanning, unless you enjoy dark birds.
June to September. A poncho covers you and the binoculars. Mostly the binoculars.
The best spots are, by design, nowhere near a chai stall.
More in summer. If you are thinking "I will buy some there", there is no there.
Tastes like mild regret, works like a charm on hot mornings.
Nuts, fruit, chikki. Not the crinkly packet that clears the whole marsh.
Take out everything you bring in. The only thing to leave behind is a checklist.
Early starts, late finishes, and the occasional argument with a thorn bush.
For 5 am starts, and for nightjars that refuse to show before dark.
Plasters, antiseptic, antihistamine. Babul thorns are very committed.
Spray shoes and cuffs. Ticks are also enthusiastic about grasslands.
Some forest gates need a permit. The guard does not care about your lifer.
Out at first light, home by ten. After that, only mad dogs, Englishmen and Red-wattled Lapwings stay out.
Cover everything, wear quick-dry, accept the mud. Leeches near streams consider you lunch.
Migrants arrive, dawns are cold, and everyone is suddenly very keen. Bring a layer.
Bag packed? Good. Now you need people to show it to.
