Our intermediate stops in Delhi have all been arranged with Fred’s long-time acquaintance and friend, Vinod. He takes a few minutes from his busy schedule to meet with us on the morning of our first full day. Plans have been made for us to make the most of our time and head just a few kilometres out of the city to visit the tiny Sultanpur National Park.

Here, in just a few hundred hectares lies a spectacular RAMSAR wetland habitat with great facilities and comfortable walking paths around the main wetland ponds. It already looks promising as we approach the gate, for a small herd of Nilgai can be seen in the strip of woodland between the main road and the water. The car park is clean and well-maintained and our organised guide is waiting for us when we arrive.

After just a few moments for paperwork and paying for the use of our cameras, we are shown through into the park proper. Here there’s a visitor centre and space for people to relax and eat their lunches with a few tables beneath the trees. This isn’t what we’re interested in, however, and we are quickly spotting birds as they are expertly called. Initially, away from the waterside, these are mostly parakeets and the more typical urban and suburban fare of central India.

I may have often complained that, on most of my trips to Africa over the years, ducks and geese have been few and far between. In the first half an hour at Sultanpur, this is all changed forever as we spot species after species in quick succession – sometimes three or four different ones in the same photo frame.  Then there are the usual herons and egrets, storks and spoonbills, lapwings and smaller waders. It’s also not just about the waterbirds, as there are the parakeets, sunbirds, kingfishers and much more.

I’m far from being a natural birder, so it all becomes a little difficult for me to keep up with at times. Best to just take photographs of everything and try and figure it all out later. By the time we break for lunch, we all decide that we’ve probably had enough for our first day. The sun is now out with full force, having burned through the early-morning mists quickly. Going back out into that much heat after a good lunch would probably be a bit too much of a stretch.

We’re even lucky with the traffic on our return, as it is quite quiet by Delhi standards. We make it back to the hotel without incident with plenty of spare time to freshen up before dinner.

Sultanpur gets a nine out of ten from me. For anyone interested in birds with a day to spare in Delhi, it should be a no-brainer really. There’s unlikely to be a place where you can see so much, so well and in such a short space of time anywhere. Certainly not this close to the centre of a major city. There were enough species for us to decide to do our bird list as soon as we returned to the hotel, clocking in at 64 species for one day. First days are always good, as every bird is new for the trip, but this was, by any standards, exceptional.