Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary from Ahmedabad

Nal Sarovar lies about 64 km west of Ahmedabad beyond Sanand, an easy drive of 75 to 90 minutes that makes it the city's nearest serious wildlife outing. Declared a sanctuary in April 1969 and designated a Ramsar wetland of international importance in September 2012, the lake covers roughly 120 square kilometres of shallow water - much of it barely a metre deep - studded with around three hundred low islands. It is the largest wetland bird sanctuary in Gujarat and among the largest in India. The draw is winter migration: from November to February more than 200 species gather here, including greater and lesser flamingos, rosy pelicans, white storks, brahminy ducks, herons, bitterns, crakes, grebes, purple moorhens and several harriers quartering the reedbeds. The way to see them is from a flat-bottomed country boat poled by a local boatman from the jetty at the sanctuary entrance, drifting slowly between islands until birds fill the horizon. Dawn and the hour before dusk are by far the most productive; through the middle of the day the light is hard and the birds settle. The sanctuary opens early, around 06:00, and closes in the late afternoon. Entry, camera and boat charges are all modest and paid at the gate, and it is worth agreeing the length and route of the boat trip with the boatman before pushing off. Beyond birds, the surrounding saline flats occasionally hold blackbuck and, in dry years, wandering wild ass from the Little Rann further west. Bring binoculars, water and sun protection, because the boats offer no shade at all. By late spring the water level drops sharply and the spectacle fades, so the visit is firmly a cool-season one; the monsoon refills the lake but the migrants have gone.