6th Time Lucky? Masked Owl at last

Max and I have tried quite a few times for Masked Owl, from Bruny Island in Tasmania to Castle Cove only 30 minutes from home. Each time, we dip. A bit of a bogey Masked Owls are. Unfortunately, these beautiful birds are difficult to find. Max and I were invited by Grant up to *censored* for another shot.

Max had been birding all day with Grant and Rob, and managed to dip on both his main targets (Regent HE and Beach Stone Curlew). At 5:30, we met up and headed to the owl site, which wasn't where you'd expect to find Masked Owls to say the least. Under these streetlights, we searched for an hour.

Playback wasn't working particularly well in the wind (at least it wasn't as bad as the time we went to Dharug National Park on a windy rainy night), but then, finally, we heard a trill. Tense minutes passed, and suddenly, the characteristic rasping of a Masked Owl began not 100 metres from where we were standing. We stalked closer, and lit up the trees, which didn't reveal anything. Max asked if someone could shine closer to the tree trunk, and there she was. A beautiful female Australian Masked Owl! After 2 minutes, all high-fives had been exchanged and all photos had been taken, so we left her in peace to get back to whatever she might have been doing!!! As we walked away, she had a conversation with an unseen male a few trees away. What a fantastic night!

Birding Independently

Finally, the day has arrived. Max has his P's! No more restrictive parental driving, we are free birdwatchers! A celebratory trip was needed, though my parents refused to let us drive all the way to Botany Bay, so we had to stick with a Northern Beaches run.

I'd been up until 3:30 the night before, but I managed to rouse myself at 5:30 in the morning to meet Max out the front of my house. 40 minutes later we arrived at the Chiltern Trail, which was a bit brisk and windy to say the least. While the walk down the trail was relatively slow, the walk back provided some good birds brought out by some welcome sunshine, including Scarlet, Brown-headed, New Holland, White-cheeked, Yellow-faced, Yellow-tufted, Lewin's and White-eared Honeyeaters, plus Eastern Spinebill, Little Wattlebird and Noisy Friarbird - which was just about all of the regular Northern Beaches honeyeaters save two. A Bar-shouldered Dove back near the entrance completed our walk.

Next stop, Warriewood Wetlands, and almost as soon as stepping out of the car we were greeted by a pair of Powerful Owls, sitting in exactly the same spot (within a metre) of where we saw them late last year. 3 Varied Sittellas were seen briefly by Max while I was off in the bushes doing my best Lewin's Rail impersonation. Scarlet Honeyeaters were everywhere, and so were the lorikeets. Musk and Rainbow proved plentiful, but we couldn't get eyes on even one Scaly-breasted, even though we could hear them calling.

Pair of Powerful Owls and an unlucky Ring-tailed Possum

Across the road, the main wetlands were a little emptier than normal, but a high flying Grey Goshawk, an unseen Little Grassbird, and a Darter doing a very convincing Black Bittern impersonation helped break the monotony of hybrid Pacific Black Ducks x Mallards.

Not a Black Bittern, but a Darter... Damn

Over to Narabeen, where the resident Ospreys showed nicely for Max, as did Great, Intermediate, and 12 Cattle Egrets. More impressive however, was the group of 4 COMPLETELY PURE MALLARDS! Finding even one pure Mallard in Australia is a near impossible task, and to find 4 at once is essentially a miracle!

The miracle - ignore the dodgy bird second from the top

Nearby Deep Creek failed to give up it's Brush Bronzewings, but a pair of Rose Robins was a great way to brighten our spirits. A Dee Why sea-watch proved unsuccessful with only a few Gannets, but a very confiding Peregrine Falcon gave us both the best views we've had of this species.

Male Rose Robin

Peregrine Falcon in flight

Dee Why Lagoon had recently been emptied, so we decided to pay it a visit - which was a wise decision. Not only did we spot a Caspian Tern roosting with the Silver Gulls, but a Little Egret also surprised us with it's presence - a very good bird to see in Sydney. Long Reef was last, and with most of the waders gone for the winter, the best birds were Double-banded Plovers, 2 out of place Cattle Egrets, Sooty Oystercatchers and a flagged Red-necked Stint (banded in Bohai Bay, China, in 2009).

And so, our first day of independence ended, with a respectable species tally, some great birds, and no car crashes! All in all, a success.

A Taste of Fijian Birds

With my Grandma’s significant 70 milestone this year, the whole family headed over to Fiji, where she grew up, for a reunion. I was grateful at the privilege to be going to such a great place to get a spot of birding done.

Within a few seconds of the plane’s wheels touching the tarmac, a nicely breeding plumaged PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER was seen on the grass. The drive through Nadi to Denaru reminded us of the devastating floods the week before – furniture strewn everywhere to dry out, huge puddles, broken bridges. Denaru was quite empty (like our flight in), as many people had cancelled their trips. Luckily, the things we were doing had remained unaltered, and life seemed to be progressing almost as normal.

At Denaru Port, I quickly got onto a mixed flock of FIJI PARROTFINCHES and RED AVADAVATS. After an early dinner, the port car-park yielded two POLYNESIAN TRILLERS (the only ones for the whole trip surprisingly), PACIFIC SWALLOWS, and a pair a FIJI WOODSWALLOWS.

The next morning, the Yasawa Flyer was to take us out to Octopus Resort on Waya Island, where we would spend the next three days. On top of a yacht mast in the marina, a bird of prey took off. To my surprise, it was a PEREGRINE FALCON, a very rare bird in Fiji, the field guide says there are only 40!

I spent the next 3 hours looking for seabirds, with BLACK NODDIES, BLACK-NAPED TERNS, LESSER FRIGATEBIRDS (40 of them! Not normally in the Yasawa Islands, probably blown in by the previous week’s bad weather), BROWN BOOBIES, and some frustratingly bad views of what were probably Bridled Terns.

This wasn't taken on the boat, but when I was on Waya. What a sight it was!

The next 4 days were at Octopus Resort. In between snorkelling and relaxing, I managed SULPHUR-BREASTED MYZOMELA, COLLARED KINGFISHER, VANIKORO FLYCATCHER, as well as the ever-present RED-VENTED BULBULS, SILVEREYES and WHITE-RUMPED SWIFTLETS.

Male Vanikoro Flycatcher

Sulphur-breasted Myzomela

On the third day, my dad and I joined a hike up to one of the mountains in the centre of the island. Now, the field guide says there are Golden Doves on Waya, but I didn’t find any evidence of them… Anyhow, the hike was extremely tiring, lots of it a hard slog, but the end was worth it. Panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean, dotted with various islands, and to top it off, a couple of Fiji Woodswallows hawking around at eye level against a backdrop of coral reefs! The places the birdwatching brings you are just amazing!

Fijian Green Tree Skink

A very cool moth (species unknown)

From the top of Waya

Fiji Woodswallows in paradise

Two days later, after a boat trip back to Viti Levu and a late night taxi ride, I found myself waking up on the Coral Coast, at Korotogo near Sigatoka. Within the next 3 days, most of the family arrived and we had a wonderful time.

But that’s enough of that. The birds.

By far the standout of our accommodation at Tubaluka was the flowering tree 20 metres from our cabin. COLLARED LORY galore! What beautiful parrots they are. A large flock of Fiji Parrotfinches frequented the grass, and I saw them regularly.

Collared Lory

The flowering tree

Fiji Parrotfinch

On the second day, I went to check out the nearby Kula Eco Park, Fiji’s only wildlife park. As well as having some impressive native fauna and flora on display, it does some impressive conservation work (only here and at Taronga Zoo can you see Fijian Crested Iguanas being bred up for release), and with the cages and walkways set up in a nice rainforest, there are also some nice birds about. After a bit of searching, I located a small feeding flock, consisting of three FIJI BUSH WARBLERS and a single SLATY MONARCH. My grandma, being the kind and loving person that she is, introduced me to the manager, and so we arranged an early morning trip for me to look for Golden Doves in the park’s forest.

Take my word for it, it's a Fiji Bush Warbler

The next morning at 6:30, I met Pradeep, a great guy who has been working at the park for 9 years. He collects food from the rainforest, and regularly sees the resident Golden Doves there. 2 hours later, after a lot of slogging through rainforest, trekking up muddy banks and splashing through creeks, we had nothing to show for our efforts (and I literally mean not one bird was seen, of any species). Then, we found ourselves back at the gate (I had to leave for a family outing in 30 minutes), so I was ready to admit defeat, when Pradeep thought we should check out some bushes near the fence line behind the chook house, where he said the doves often feed. Sure enough, we had just turned our heads to look in that direction when a beautiful female GOLDEN DOVE flew up onto a branch. We crept round and had a look at the bird from less than two metres away at eye level as it fed on some small berries. Also feeding in these bushes was a flock of 7 WHITE-THROATED or METALLIC PIGEONS (one sat very nicely in the sun), and it took me a while to figure out what a REBA was (apparently there was one sitting in the tree above us, and I eventually spotted the young Fiji Goshawk perched there). Sod’s law at its finest!

The family outing to Suva followed, and after a day of driving along the coral coast and being shown where grandma grew up, we headed for a very quick trip to Colo-I-Suva Forest Park (pronounced tholo-ee-suva). Now, we had originally been going to stay here for one night, but the warnings of rape and muggings on the internet had put us off. Let me tell anyone reading this, that there is nothing wrong with the park. We talked to the manager of Raintree Lodge, and he said that it happened once 15 years ago and they can’t get rid of it from the internet. Moral of the story – make sure you spend one night at Colo-I-Suva, not one hour at noon!

That said, I stilled managed some great birds – MASKED SHINING PARROTS flew past, a pair of PACIFIC ROBINS sat quietly, a pair of AZURE-CRESTED FLYCATCHERS flitted about, and the ever-present hoot of BARKING PIGEONS eventually allowed me to see a few birds well (after a fair bit of stress!), and a female FIJI WHISTLER regarded me quizzically. I heard a few more species, including a male Golden Dove and a few Giant Honeyeaters, but time was short and I had to be satisfied with what I had.

Blurry Male Pacific Robin

The next few days were taken up by games, food, snorkelling, and relaxation. Also I got the dreaded travel bug… ;D

In summary, 22 lifers, of which 10 were endemic to Fiji. The whole Pacific Ocean is an amazing place in itself, and the birds it contains are just beautiful. I have made it my resolve to see that male Golden Dove one day, so I will be back (hopefully seeing everything else while I’m at it)!!!

Holy Grail: The male Golden Dove eluded me in the wild... for now

Easter Birding: Coonabarabran Area

While Josh went off to Fiji for a week, I spent a few days over the Easter long-weekend with the family up at my grandparent's property just outside Coonabarabran in northern NSW. I managed to get a bit of birding done around the property, but the highlight was an overnight camp out in Cumbil SF just east of Kenebri in search of  a Barking Owl.

I did the majority of the driving on the 7 hour journey away from Sydney. The heavy traffic through the Blue Mountains was to be expected, but I had consolation in a pair of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos (year tick) at Katoomba and a calling Blue-faced Honeyeater in suburban Lithgow - an uncommon bird so close to the mountains.

The roads cleared up after Mudgee and we made it to 'the farm' around 15:30. It was unusually hot and calm so I soon set off into the bush just east of the house and was shocked to focus in on a pair of Plum-headed Finches! I was very pleased to see them here as well as being only the third time I'd ever come across them. A Speckled Warbler then appeared, another great little bird and I began to realise just how 'alive' the bush was. There were Golden and Rufous Whistlers everywhere, White-eared, White-plumed and Brown-headed Honeyeaters feeding on blossom alongside good numbers of Little Lorikeets. I was almost expecting to come across a Painted Honeyeater with all the flowering mistletoe! However, a calling male Cicadabird was a very welcome substitute! I got some of my best views of this species.

Headed back very chuffed and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. Came across a pair of Brown Quail not far from the house, as well as a flock of almost 50 Musk Lorikeets flying over. The garden was pretty active over my stay, with Jacky Winters, Grey-crowned Babblers, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, Double-barred Finches and Diamond Firetails all seen.

The next morning I went out to the back of the property around Mt. Ulamambri and the surrounding forest. Highlights were a Spotted Quail-Thrush seen well, White-browed Babblers, Brown Treecreepers, Dusky Woodswallow and plenty of Autumn migrants - Yellow-faced, White-naped Honeyeaters, Silvereyes.

Later that day I watched a stunning adult Spotted Harrier cruise over the house. A great addition to the property list!

Saturday evening was set aside for owlin' so Dad and I set off towards Kenebri on the Baradine Rd. We got to the picnic/campsite called 'The Aloes' in Cumbil SF around 17:30 and set up camp. It was a really pleasant evening, hot and calm with a full moon already above the horizon - perfect conditions!

Australian Owlet-Nightjars called occasionally throughout the evening, but I didn't hear/see anything else on my half-hourly walks down to and along the dried up riverbed. It wasn't until 21:30, while Dad was fixing up his toe that he had sliced open on an exposed root, that I heard something. A Barking Owl was calling in the distance! I ran off down to the river and began walking down it, calling occasionally. I then heard one 'barking' further down the river. I barked back and it soon started calling from a large tree just to my right. I scrambled up the river bank, shone the spotlight up and there he was - perched on an open branch staring down at me! Aus tick number 495! A very cool bird who I soon left alone to continue his duet with another Barking Owl in the distance.

I returned to camp, my faith in spotlighting lightened (hah!).

It was a cool, calm morning the next day and the first bird I saw was a pair of Turquoise Parrots 'Turqs' flying over, calling. I got up and headed off seeing White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike, Speckled Warbler, Restless Flycatcher and some other decent species before returning to camp to pack up.

We set off via Carmel Lagoon where I added Plumed Whistling-Duck and White-rumped Miner to the year list.

The next two days at the farm were pretty bad, weatherwise, with strong winds and a big downpour, so that's about where my report ends.

Overall it was still a very successful little venture and just another step towards big 500...

Thanks for reading.

A Very Tropical Sydney Pelagic!

With the irregular weather present across the east Australian seaboard in late January/early February, the decision was made to book a spot on the first Sydney Pelagic of 2012 with the promise of tropical seabirds blown south by some 'lingering lows'.

Josh, I and then Henry and Nathan all booked in early February and the wait until the second week of the month edged along quickly, spurred on by mouthwatering reports from coastal sea watching locations around Sydney.

The day arrived and we all had high hopes after several days of strong easterlies previous and decent conditions promised for the day itself. We all met at Mosman Bay Wharf and were aboard the Halicat soon after and heading to the open sea after picking up the rest of the day's participants from Rose Bay.
Australian Pied Cormorant was added to the year list on the way out and our first real seabird of the day was a Pomarine Jaeger at the heads. Josh then spotted a White-bellied Sea Eagle high up, and not five minutes later, we got onto an Arctic Jaeger heading west and then we managed to get a couple of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters trailing the boat. The 'wedgies' became an ever present feature of the day, we had a group of 30 avg. following behind all day. Next, Josh got onto a Short-tailed Shearwater - a long overdue tick for him!

A few Flesh-footed Shearwaters soon joined our trail and then a couple of 'Fluttering-type' shearwaters were spotted off port.

The first tropical bird of the day came around half-way to the shelf - a single Streaked Shearwater. A tick for all four of us and many others on board, we had reasonable views of it as it followed the boat at a distance for a short while. Note: It was confirmed from photos that there were actually two Streaked Shearwaters near the boat at this time, not one!

We got to Brown's Mountain at the continental shelf around 10am and after a distant sighting of a Sooty Tern, started up the burley and cut the motors. Within about 15 minutes we had a couple of Great-winged Petrels join the foray of 'Fleshies' and 'Wedgies'. Then some more excitement as a beautiful White-necked Petrel was spotted off starboard. It circled around, about 30 metres from the boat and all on board got decent views - a tick for all four of us and our second tropical bird for the day.

Eventually we headed off again, north along the shelf. More jaegers then a Sooty Tern cruising along right next to the top deck! A great looking tern and my third tick for the day.

The next couple of hours were spent motoring around, pretty much in circles, following a couple of feeding flocks of shearwaters, but not seeing much else. We began a slick while heading north and around 1pm came the highlight of the day. The call of "Red-footed Booby!" came up as I was inside getting a snack, but I rushed out back and quickly got tickable views of the booby gliding north alongside the boat. I got back up on deck and was amazed to find it had all but completely vanished into the distance already! Nevertheless, a highly unprecedented tick for all of us and only the 10th record for NSW and the first (?) off Sydney!

From then on everybody was fairly content and we began motoring west. Neither Josh or Henry were feeling particularly well up until we saw the booby, but they soon forgot about their insides with that bird under their belts.

Just before the heads we added Hutton's Shearwater, our last seabird for the day and just before we were bucketed down upon by heavy rain. We got into Mosman Bay around 3:30pm and headed home thoroughly pleased with the day's outcome.

My faith in pelagics has been renewed!

Thanks for reading.

 Wedge-tailed Shearwater

 Wedge-tailed Shearwater #2

Wedge-tailed Shearwater #3

White-necked Petrel

Pomarine (?) Jaegar

Pomarine (?) Jaegar #2

Winter India Part 4: River, Building, Birding

Before we left the bus depot, I happened to glance out the window and spot an Egyptian Vulture circling above us. The bus journey to Haridwar was on a public bus, (read long and painful), but I did have a window seat, and somehow managed to see Bronze-winged Jacana, Asian Openbill, White-breasted Waterhen and Sarus Crane. Arriving in Haridwar (the most holy place in India), we went to check out the Ganges. A large flock of Pallas’s Gulls wheeled ahead and a pair of Ruddy Shelducks sat on a small rocky island in the middle, along with an Indian Pond Heron. While walking along the Ganges later that night to watch the ceremonies, and Indian Grey Hornbill fed in a fruiting tree, and a Pied Kingfisher flew past.

Another overnight bus to Agra (thankfully not a public bus) saw us arriving earlier than predicted… at 4:30 in the morning. With 3 hours sleep under our belt, a tour bus that we had booked picked us up and whisked us off to Fatehpur Sikri, a world heritage listed ghost town. While it was cool, my hopes were high for the second part of the day. Even though I was only allowed two hours, visiting Bharatpur, Keoladeo National Park, was worth every second. I have seen this listed as the best place to go birding in the whole world, and I could see why, especially since when I was there was a drought. In 2 hours (with a rented bike), I managed to power around and see hundreds of birds, with about 40 species including lifers such as Greylag and Bar-headed Geese, Lesser Whistling Duck, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveller, Common Teal, Grey-headed Canary-flycatcher, Rufous-throated Flycatcher, Grey Heron, Eurasian Spoonbill, Painted Stork (more than 300 nesting birds), Indian Roller, Little Grebe, and many, many more that were unfortunately too far away to identify, particularly waders and ducks.

The following day (our last full day in India) saw us queuing at 6:00 in the morning to get access to the Taj Mahal (no visit to India would be complete without it). We eventually got through, and had an amazing time. I even managed a lifer, going down on the list as seen at the Taj Mahal – a female Asian Koel. Agra Fort was next on the agenda, where I managed to pick out a Booted Eagle from the hundreds of Black Kites. We got picked up that afternoon to be transported to Delhi, but I didn’t go down without a fight, and bagged a final lifer – a White Wagtail feeding on the road at some toll gates we pulled up at!

Wow. It was a fantastic trip. I really cannot put into words how awesome it really was. This report mainly deals with the birds, but India was just so much more. Food, culture, architecture, history, fun and games with my friends, unforgettable experiences. But yes, the birds were very cool too ;)

Overall, 160 species (a few still being confirmed from photos), bringing my life list up to around 770, and memories to last a lifetime :)

 Rose-ringed Parakeet

 Egyptian Vulture

 Indian Roller

 Painted Storks

 Keoladeo National Park

Birding at the Taj, because you're a hardcore twitcher

Winter India Part 3: Himalayan Foothills

Arriving at our campsite on the Kosi River, I immediately set my sights on scanning the rocky river bed with my binoculars. Why? To try and spot an elusive Ibisbill. Unfortunately, the elusive Ibisbill remained elusive for the whole trip, although, like the Cheer Pheasant, I never really thought I’d spot one. One thing I did see while scanning was a large white bird flying past – a Common Merganser, quite a rare bird in India as I understand. Later, heading down to the river with our teacher and my friend, I walked onto a bridge and saw a flash of red on a rock face about 15 metres away. “It’s a bloody WALLCREEPER” were the words that popped into my head (though I didn’t say that out-loud, unless everyone else would think I was crazy). Instead, I said “I really need to go over there and look at this really cool bird”, which I did. And boy, are Wallcreepers cool birds!!! This was another I hadn’t really expected to see, but oh well!

After I lost the Wallcreeper, I spent the rest of the afternoon mostly on the river, and ticked off Brown Dipper, Crested Kingfisher, Common Kingfisher, Crested Treeswift, Eurasian Crag Martin and White-browed Wagtail. The next day was all spent relaxing, and again, I spent quite a bit of my time at the river, as did many other people, with a bit of swimming, skipping stones, etc. I added Nepal House Martin, Grey Wagtail, and got more views of Wallcreeper and Brown Dipper. As I headed back up to the campsite, a flash of orange alerted me to what was probably a Blue-capped Rock Thrush, though after an hour of scrambling around in the bushes, I couldn’t resight it. As consolation however, I finally found a pair of Great Tits (a phrase I have been wanting to say for a long time…), a party of Grey-breasted Prinias, and a Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker was very polite and sat only a metre from me while it pecked away at a tree for 5 minutes.

The next morning, we were whisked away by jeeps to the town of Ramnagar, or RAMNAGARRRRR as we preferred to call it. This is the gateway to Corbett National Park, where we would spend the next day. Ramnagar had some really good food, and showers, so we had a great time and went out for a substantial dinner. We were picked up at 7:00 the next morning for our safari. One of our guides was quite a birder, so I made sure I got in the jeep with him!

As we drove into the park, we spotted many animals, including Spotted, Sambar and Barking Deer, a Jackal, and a lot of Jungle Babblers. As we were in a jeep, I couldn’t really ask to stop for birds, but as KK (our guide’s nickname) knew I was a birder, he often pointed out the really interesting stuff to me. Before we arrived at a spot to have breakfast he broke suddenly for a woodpecker (not sure which one, I missed it), but what I did see was a Common Green Magpie fly up from the ground into a low tree. Then it disappeared… a very unsubstantial view of such a cool bird. We continued on, and when we got out of the jeep, everything was made better. KK says urgently, “come here, very good bird”. I walk over, asking what it is, to which he replies “Collared Falconet”, and I almost lose my sense of self control and almost have a panic attack when I can’t find it. Then I do, and have awesome views of this very very cool raptor. Even if I saw no other birds for the rest of the trip, I would have been happy with this bird.

On the river behind the breakfast café, I spotted a pair of River Lapwings, and a Black-winged Cuckoo-shrike feeding in a tree. We continued on towards our accommodation for the night, stopping for Tawny Fish Owl, Pallas’s Fish Eagle, Red Junglefowl, a huge flock of Pin-tailed Green Pigeons, and a Gharial (endangered crocodile). The middle of the day was spent resting, and getting our bananas taken by monkeys, before we headed out at 3:00 to attempt to find a tigress and her cubs which had been hanging around. A few Indian Peafowl on the way out was very cool (to see them in their natural habitat and all), but when the deer started giving alarm calls, the tension grew. We stopped and spread out, waiting for at least 30 minutes. An elephant came out of the bushes with people on it, who had just seen the tiger, and said that the cubs were less than 30 metres away under a tree. We waited. Then another jeep pulled up. They waited. And another 2. And then more. Eventually there were 9 jeeps waiting for a tiger to just walk out onto the road. We gave up and drove off after an hour. A Changeable Hawk Eagle preened in a tree, and a Woolly-necked Stork fed near a couple of Hog Deer.

The light was fading and we headed back to the tiger spot. Nothing had happened, and nothing else happened for 30 minutes. Then some alarm calls sounded from a kilometre down the road. Another jeep was already there, and they stood up and looked through there binoculars. There was a tense moment of silence, and then every single jeep (10 by this stage) gunned their engines and raced down the road to the other jeep. Almost every single one got bogged, but almost everyone saw the tiger stalking a small herd of Barking Deer. She stuck her head out of the long grass a few times, then disappeared.

The following morning, we left and headed back to Ramnagar. Not many new birds along the way, but a Jungle Owlet next to the road and some Red-whiskered Bulbuls were quite cool. We collected our bags from the hotel and set off on a very crowded public bus to Haridwar.

 WALLCREEPER!

 MORE WALLCREEPER!

 White-capped Water Redstart

 Kosi River

 Common Kingfisher

 Plumbeous Water Redstart

 Barking Deer

 Streak-throated Woodpecker

 India Peafowl

 Waiting for tigers to walk towards us...

Getting bogged looking at tiger

Winter India Part 2: The Lower Himalayas

After a very very long bus trip, we arrived in Nainital. As we got off the bus, it started to snow. This would be fine, except we spent about 2 hours looking for somewhere to stay which was open. Over the next day and a half, I found many of the more common Himalayan birds including Bar-tailed Treecreeper, Brown-fronted Woodpecker, Grey-hooded Warbler, Rufous Sibia, Plumbeous and White-capped Water Redstart, Blue Whistling Thrush, Dark-sided Flycatcher, Red-billed Blue Magpie and Blue-fronted Redstart.

On the third day, our guide, Diwan, picked us up from Nainital and we hiked to Mountain Quail Camp, Pangot (one of the best birding areas in northern India). Unfortunately for me, the snow meant that a lot of birds refused to show themselves, but I was still able to goggle at Eurasian and Black-headed Jays, Mountain Bulbuls, Striated, White-throated and Crested Laughingthrush, Spotted Forktail (one of my main target birds), Maroon Oriole, Yellow-breasted Greenfinch, Russet Sparrow and Altai Accentor.

After a rest day in Pangot, we headed out early in the morning for the start of our trek down to Ramnagar. As we descended into a valley, the snow disappeared, and the birds came out of nowhere! Rufous-bellied Woodpecker, Himalayan Woodpecker, Black-lored Tit, Black-throated Bushtit, and a hoard of unidentified warblers. I only ID’d one the whole trip, and I wasn’t allowed to slow down on the hike to look at these ones, or I might have risked being thrown off a cliff by the non-birders ;) After a quick tea break, we continued onwards, and I managed to spot the number one bird I was looking for – the Lammergeier. They truly are impressive birds. A bit further along, I spotted some pheasant tracks on the ground. I promptly remarked that if anyone spotted one to tell me. Straight after I said that, one flushed from the side of the track a few metres further on. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good look at it, and hence it has gone unidentified. That night we camped in the snow.

The following morning found us walking past Vinayak, a famed location in India for finding the elusive Cheer Pheasant. Unfortunately, this normally involves spending hours scanning grassy slopes, and I had to content myself with scanning for a few seconds every time I got the chance to stop! Needless to say, I dipped on the pheasant. Himalayan Griffon Vultures put on a show (possibly the only point in the trip that everyone was in awe of a bird), and Slaty-headed Parakeets flew over on occasion. A possible Hill Partridge kept me on my toes, but identifying the White-tailed Nuthatch turned out to be the trickiest part. Great Barbets were screeching all the time, and a Chestnut Thrush mixed in with a flock of Black Bulbuls was definitely the highlight of the day. We missed a leopard by 5 minutes (the porters ahead of us saw it), but we had to content ourselves with fresh footprints. Just before we got to the camp, it snowed heavily, so we camped in the snow again – but with a much nicer view this time.

I heard birds calling as I lay in my sleeping bag, so I got up very early (much to the annoyance of the others in my tent) and headed off. Firstly, I was rewarded with great views of a pair of Yellow-throated Martens (mammals, not birds). Also, Grey-winged and White-collared Blackbirds put on a show, including a few unidentified passerines. To avoid the -22 degree temperatures another group had experienced, we headed downhill rather than up to the 2700m peak. We camped on a ridgeline from which we had a clear view of the Himalayas, and I managed ot find a male Grey Bushchat, Blue-capped Redstart and Black Drongo.

Our last full day of walking was downhill again, through a few villages, and with some cool birds such as Grey Treepie and Long-tailed Minivet. We arrived at our campsite next to the Kosi River early in the afternoon.

 Mountain Bulbul

 Rufous Sibia

 Black-headed Jay

 Where the Lammergeier was

 Campground #2

 Himalayas

 Grey Bushchat

Himalayan Dusk