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To see the sanctuary now is to fall in love with it again. The entire expanse is flooded, with Nilgai, cheetal and jackals wading in the water and birds nesting on flowering babool trees.

Monitor lizards try to find some sun and privacy and terrapins wait for tourist rickshaws to pass before crossing to the other side. Painted Storks, Cormorants, Spoonbills, Grey Herons, Darters and all four kinds of Egrets have returned to their favourite trees to nest. Bharatpur, the former duck-hunting reserve of the maharajas, is alive and well.

We set off in a contingent of rickshaws—one per person due to some heavy duty photography equipment—and after seeing a Shikra tear and devour a frog, Blue-tailed Bee-eaters feast on thousands of dragonflies, Bronze-winged jacanas walking on water with impossibly long toes and a waterhen with six fluffy black chicks, we hear a noisy clacking of beaks and flapping of large wings. We are at the Painted Stork colony.

The birds look freshly laundered with the white as pristine as it can be, bright orange beaks and reddish heads, brilliant fresh pink feathers, all new and none out of place. There are at least 500 birds in various stages of courting, mating, building nests, adding finishing touches and roosting. A few metres ahead is a colony of Indian Shags with around 10 Spoonbills for variety.

The smell and noise of the next heronry greets us before the sighting. On the right side of the road, the trees are full of nests of Openbills, some with chicks. All the birds except for the Openbills are in their best breeding plumes—we see the Great Egret with blue-green lores and red tibia; Intermediate flaring their plumes like peacocks and bobbing; Little Egrets with pink lores and orange feet; Cattle Egrets with red beaks and legs and Night Herons also looking flush with red legs. We could have spent the whole day just observing them but we get an urgent call from Anand—Nightjar!

Chasing some Pied-Crested Cuckoos and scanning the tree they had landed on, he had spotted a Nightjar roosting on a branch. The next half hour is spent clicking pictures, trying to set the scope on it and viewing and attempting to identify every feather and mottled pattern. Grey Nightjar appears to be the consensus. This apparently is the first Nightjar sighting for the season.

We also see two nests of Wooly-necked Storks—one obligingly makes it on a tree in front of Sunbird, where we are staying. Both nests have chicks.

The waters have brought life back to Bharatpur. It’s paradise regained. We must return for another visit soon.

(Nikhil Devasar runs Delhibird, a birdwatching agency)