Andamans Day 5 - The Andaman teals, and Daurian Starling show and other sidelights

 Continued from here.  

Feb 14th 2024 evening

There was no rest for the sleepy.  In order to maximise daylight hours and save time, we were stopping at Sippighat and Junglighat before calling it a day.

Many new sights awaited.  Sippighat looked very different from the last time we were here.  The inundation of Sippighat and the Tsunami effect was still evident in 2017, but not any more.  Now the whole landscape looked like a series of ponds,  on either side of the road.

We crossed Ograbhaj wetlands, but did not stop as there was not much activity here.  Jabili scanned the wetlands, and then we moved on.

It was 330 in the afternoon, the sun was doing its thing - bringing more warmth and sunshine than we wanted - and we saw all these little brown dots in the water.  So, sun or no sun we had to investigate if these were the endemic Andaman Teals.

The Andaman Teals of Sippighat

Yes they were! In the hundreds - in the reeds and in the water,   

on the posts,

they were splashing about, cooling off by having regular dunks

spreading their wings in the water, preening,

swimming around, and

flying from one part of the lake to the other.  

It was a joy to watch, some were busy, others meditated - very different tactics to stay cool.  
Andaman Teals are gregarious and the only duck endemic to Andamans.

And, they all had different levels of white - some only the white eyering, others with full white heads

We saw some Lesser Whistling Ducks too, but no other ducks on this trip.  

We had to move on to Junglighat, as Jabili wanted us to be there by 430 for the sunset show of the Starlings.

So off we went.

The Starling show at Junglighat

This is where we came to see the Starlings.  Very uninspiring indeed - low tide exposing the detritus of us humans - junked boats, plastic cans of various colours, old tires, discarded shoes and much more.  

We were on the opposite side of the Junglighat jetty.  Through my binoculars, the white ship in the background to the left - had the word "Bar" on a name board.  I idly wondered if it was functioning.  

A Whimbrel foraged among the cans, its long down-turned beak very evident.

Scan further right, and there were healthy and plentiful mangrove groves.  The cattle egrets were assembled on one bush in the foreground.

We waited on the embankment next to the mangroves, a little clearing.  Where we stood, there was a cricket net to the left, with 3 young children playing catch.  A banyan tree behind had a bunch of seated elders who eyed us with some curiosity.  

As we waited, we passed the time seeing the other birds - mynas by the dozens flew back and forth, a couple of white throated kingfishers streaked across, Plume-toed swiftlets zipped around in the air, sandpipers bobbed and hurried in the mud, while the reef herons stood stock still.

There were plenty of crows all around.  House crows with grey necks, we concluded, not the Large Billed.  

(I learnt that it is not just Large Billed Crow anymore - there is Eastern Jungle Crow Corvus levaillantii and Indian Jungle Crow Corvus culminatus found in Chennai, and the Corvus macrorhynchos of north India and rest of Asia.) And so, the black crows with large bills we were seeing in Andamans were the  Eastern Jungle Crow.  I think.  I will await clarifications from the others.

In the midst of the house crows that we were seeing Umesh said there were also Jungle Crows, which neither me nor the others had noticed.  Now Srinivas said he was not seeing any Jungle, only House.  And asked Umesh to show him a Jungle, and then Umesh snapped back you had to see for yourself and he cannot be pointing out crows!! 😀. And so ensued the" Crow Quarrel" which led to Umesh and Srinivas having a Cold War like two schoolboys, and the rest of us a trifle amused but also wary of the clashing chieftains.  The subject of crows was not mentioned on the remainder of the trip I think, and we were saved by the arrival of the Daurians!

Moral - Shouldn't bird when hungry and/or tired.  

 

The Daurian Murmuration

Suddenly, they were there, where did they come from?!  

Suresh summarises in his Insta post - 

"When Jabili Rao, our knowledgeable Bird Guide in the Andamans, was rushing us to reach a particular spot by 4.30pm, so as not to miss a murmuration, I was quite excited.

The location was not too far from our hotel, and by a Ferry landing, in Port Blair. It was low tide, and the muddy flats looked rather like our own Pallikaranai marsh, which the GCC uses as a garbage dump.

We were going to see Daurian Starlings (purple-backed starlings), coming to roost. The birds arrived as expected, and it was fascinating to watch them swarm, wheeling and turning, without any collisions! They reminded me of a squadron of WW2 fighter planes.

They were very quick, and despite their numbers, it wasn't so easy to get a fix on, and follow them, with our long telephoto lenses. Absolutely beautiful!

I learnt that they were not quite as numerous this time around. Nevertheless, it was a sight to behold as they made their very rapid, aerial sorties, before plunging into the mangroves, and disappearing without any trace! A little later I saw common mynahs, and house sparrows do much the same - plunging into the mangroves, as if they were a volley of arrows - I wonder if it is a trick to prevent predators from knowing their exact roosting spots."

With a photo bombing crow, oops.  Not so densely packed, when you see like this.

 

That "V" on the back, this is the way to id the Daurian from the other starlings, I learnt.

They are also called Purple-backed starlings - but I saw them as more brown than any other colour.  The females are more brown.

The delight that technology brings - zoom, freeze, capture for eternity.

Witnessing a murmuration - even a small one like this - filled me with mystery and awe.  Hundreds of wingbeats and soft class, a murmuration does make.   Is there some mental mind reading going on here?  How do birds know when to turn, when to dive and who is the leader?

Obviously I am not the first one asking these questions.  And I found these interesting answers.

The "How" answer

https://animals.howstuffworks.com/birds/starling-murmurations.htm

In 2013, a mechanical and aerospace engineer and her team from Princeton collaborated with physicists in Italy to study murmurations. "In a flock with 1,200 birds, it is clear that not every bird will be able to keep track of the other 1,199 birds," Naomi Leonard, the Princeton engineer, said back then, "so an important question is 'Who is keeping track of whom?'"

The Italian physicists used more than 400 photos from several videos to find out, plotting the position and speed of birds as they flocked. From that, they built a mathematical model that identified the optimal number of flock-mates for each bird to track.

Turns out the magic number is seven: Each bird keeps tabs on its seven closest neighbors and ignores all else. Considering all these little groups of seven touch on other individuals and groups of seven, twists and turns quickly spread.

"Birds have a much higher temporal resolution than we do," says Pesendorfer, meaning that birds take in certain information around them and process it much more quickly than humans. "They see much faster than we do."

When do they form?

https://www.lancswt.org.uk/blog/charlotte-varela/starling-murmuration-facts

Murmurations always form over the birds’ communal roosting site. As the number of starlings reaches its peak and the last of the daylight begins to fade, an unspoken signal seems to tell the group to funnel towards the ground with one last sweeping motion and calming whoosh of wings. Roosts can be anything from a reedbed to a seaside pier where the group can huddle together for warmth and chatter about the best feeding grounds.

But, why??

https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/birds/starling-murmurations/

There’s safety in numbers. It’s much harder for predators like the speedy peregrine falcon to single out a particular bird when they’re all flying together.

Starlings also gather together to keep warm and exchange important information – keeping up connections is key when you’re a bird!

There is a romance and joy that birds bring to the experience of the outdoors.

Finally at our hotel for the next two nights!  Our rooms were at a lower floor than the lobby, and the restaurant was one floor below the rooms.  I would forget if I had to go up or go down, at times.  

This was the view towards the rear of the building, through the window in the corridor.

Our room had interesting coloured lights for decor, but otherwise, it was nice and comfortable, and you can see the room here.  

A further surprise awaited Sekar - as a birthday cake was organised by Umesh via Jabili.  It was quite sinful, and even tempted Desi who doesn't eat cakes to have a go!  Desi was very systematic in cutting as well.  I loved the happy birthday marching song that the six men mustered for Sekar!  We kept away a bit for the drivers and Jabili who couldn't stay.

Sekar and I went off for dinner to Seafood Delights Andaman.  We hopped into an auto who took us there for 35Rs.  We had overlooked that it was Valentine's Day, and the restaurant was busy!  It is on the second floor with a nice airy feel to it.  The head waiter asked us if we would share a table, and we said why not.  At the other end of the six seater were a young couple with a child, and they left soon.  We had a mustard fish and some rotis if I remember right and some interesting soup.  It was nice to people watch.  These were not tourists, many were Islanders, familiar with the place and the menu and the staff.  There was a nice vibe to it.

Our return was a bit of a comic adventure with our driver not knowing where our hotel was, Google Maps kept rerouting since he was quick in turning where he should not turn, we came up some steep incline and through some private estate and finally arrived.  At which point he said, "Oh you should have said Haddo area, I would have known!"  

And so ended a super long day with many moments of wonder, some comedy and a whole lot of fun.

Ebird Checklist for the second half of 14th.

Assam Day 8 and 9 - Pobitora, adjutant storks and the civet cat

Pobitora - has been in the news lately.  Denotified as a sanctuary by the Assam govt, a decision then thankfully stayed by the Supreme Court.  I remember the sanctuary from our 2020 MNS trip, and realised I had not updated my trip notes here.

January 18th 2020 

Continued from here.

Beginning with Lesser Adjutants

We departed in the morning for Pobitara, a 200 km westwards drive, staying to the south of the river.
Around 10 in the morning, and the Innovas all suddenly pulled up to the side of the road.  Tubelight me, always last to see things - wondering what all the excitement was about, and then I saw them - Adjutant stork nests.  A silk cotton tree full of them!!  These are probably the most morose-looking birds I have seen.  Wetlands birds have a serious look generally, but these ones are in another league - they really looked grumpy and very unhappy with their state of affairs.

The Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) is less of a scavenger than the Greater. And found around wetlands, and November to January is there breeding season in Assam.  A rather messy mass of sticks formed the nest.  In many we saw little scrawny, unkempt heads poking out.  Since we were watching from below, it was difficult to see them, as the nests looked deep. (I came back and read that they could be as much as a metre deep, oh my goodness!). There were 10 nests - a few had been abandoned, done with.

Of course this called for a tea break, and we stopped at a place called Sugandhi, which took forever to produce the said tea.  The only advantage of this stop was that I saw a Nepali bridegroom and had a Skype call with some Chennai friends!

We moved along, making good time, and were at Jagi Road, (Whats with Assam calling places “road”, remember Barpeta Road?) just probably half hour from our destination when we ran into the Jonbeel mela crowds and road blocks.  It was the last day of the Bihu mela, which operates on a barter system, and is a BIG event for the indigenous communities.  We saw one side of the bund was allocated to parking - taxis, lorries, people carriers of all sorts, and on the other side was the fair.  So we were sternly told to do a U turn and use another route, as the road was blocked.  I was quite intrigued and wanted to return to see this mela - only to be told it would be disbanded that evening.

Detoured and all, and we crossed a river, with scores of brick kilns on either side, so I suppose the clay of that area makes for good bricks.  We came to the huge “Jheel”, which is outside Pobitara, and was full of birds!  

We reached Maibong Eco Resort, which is off in a little lane, and has rooms on either side of the lane.  Devika and I took a room in the main building - these rooms were compact with easier access to the food and reception - better for her as she wouldn’t need to walk much, given her hurt toe.  The rooms on the other side were more spacious and around a central open garden space.  To one side, the resort had created a “hide” where they promised sightings of the hornbill, for a mere sum of Rs 500 - I thought this was a bit rich, and as it turned out those staying that side got to see the hornbills even without going to the hide.

We had a hot lunch of puris and dal, overlooking a little pond - all very scenic.  The manager told us that the pond saws some interesting bird action in the mornings.  

And then we set off for Pobitora.  Mainly grasslands and good rhino territory, I for one was appalled at the extent of cattle inside the sanctuary.  Being close to Guwahati, this sanctuary is well visited, so why this neglect?  It is also relatively new and small - 38sqkm.  There has been some translocation of rhinos from here to Manas, due to overpopulation.

In the new context of COVID, it doesn’t seem like a great idea having cattle and rhinos and water buffaloes in such close proximity to each other one would think.

Anyway, there was all sorts of grass, short tall, in water, dry.  We saw yellow-footed pigeons, starlings, a tree full of ber was a great sight, a parakeet looked annoyed at having its peace disturbed by the noisy jeep.  I apologised.

Yellow-footed green pigeons

A bar-filled tree

A parakeet - staring at us rather annoyed.

As the sun descended in the sky, we stopped close to one of the jheels.  On one side water buffalo and cattle, on the far horizon an eagle on a tree, to the left were a pair of Greater Adjutants.  In between some wild boar and egrets.  And a lone black stork.

The incidence of the civet cat 

Back to Maibong then, and a nice hot bath.  We were told to come to the reception at 7pm - civet cats would show up!  This we were all very intrigued by.  So we passed time until then, on the grass patch in front of the rooms on the other side - I learnt about the latest squash players from Nayantara and Nethra, and then the manager came and told us it was time for the civet show.

Then we all went to the reception area, and were told to be very quiet, no flash photography, no movements, and the lights were dimmed.  Chairs were adjusted, so second row also had a view. We waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Some wild variety of banana was thrown onto the tin roof.  We spoke in hushed voices.  We were told not to take our eyes off. 

Waiting for the civet

After a while, there was a scuffle, a black shadow passed on the tin roof and one piece of banana was gone!  The manager looked pleased with a I-told-you-so look.  MNS members looked bemused.  Did you see it?  I saw the tail I think, it went up the pipe, no it went down the roof.  It was at the edge.  No see it too banana from here.  Clearly very few had actually seen anything - such was the disparity between sighting accounts.  

There was still much banana left.  It will be back we were told.  More waiting.  Pritam looked unamused and disbelieving.  Backbenchers made their way out…only the believers were left behind.  And were rewarded with five more visits by the scurrying shadow, whose presence was marked by the disappearing bananas.

And so ended the amusing episode of the palm civet of Maibong.  It was clearly there, living under the roof - because the souvenir shop had a strange smell about it.  I thought it was some native fragrance.  Pritam calmly said it was civet pee and poop!

19 January – Day 9

Our last day in Assam!

By common consent, we decided to leave for Guwahati slowly, lingering at Maibong, doing birding on the lake front.  Only Kumar and family went off to Guwahati early to do some sightseeing.

The pond revealed water hens, a kingfisher, a flameback, and then there was the curious case of the flycatcher that only Bhuvanya and I could see, and poor Sudar could not spot, much to the ire of his wife.  Try as we may we could not get him to look at the “right” tree at the far end of the pond.  And when it finally flew in disgust is when he saw it, and then was most annoyed that we were pointing to the wrong tree!

This was during morning tea.

7am with some light and we set off for some walking and birding.  It was a foggy morning, and the members were struggling along the bund at different speeds.  Ducks and cormorants in the water, doves, starlings and bee eaters in the wires above.  On the other side of the road, farmers were busy with paddy cultivation.  At some point, stomachs began to growl, and so we headed back for breakfast, bath and packing.  

I went to the souvenir shop and picked up some t shirts, tea and caps for family and friends, and hurried to pack them and load the bags in the car.  We finally left closer to noon.

Anti CAA march in Guwahati

Our final Assamese lunch

Stopped at Guwahati for a massive lunch, saw an anti CAA protest, reached the airport, bumped into a cousin of mine, and then it was a long ride back via Kolkata to Chennai airport.  Met by Vish at the airport, and home after dropping off Pritam and Shuba.

And so ended my Assam odyssey…..though I did end up with a rasping cough, thankfully it was in pre-covid days, or rather when the virus was still rampant only in China, or so I believed.  

My mother was convinced that I had picked up the Covid virus from Assam, and it might well be the case, I would never know.

Illalur morning

March 10th 2024

Hello said the sunbird!

The sun rose over Illalur lake, and we watched.

The magical shimmer of gold across the water, 

the silhouetted trees, 

Cormorants skidded across the surface,

Dew on the grasses, 

Dragonflies  hovering over the reeds

And I listened, to the

Gurgling chuckle of the White-browed bulbuls

Familiar francolins' call

Coucal hoot

Kingfisher's rattling cry

and the caw caw of the crows.

What's not to love in my morning meander

with others on a similar journey, together

Yet separate,

Enjoying our solitary discoveries 

Sharing our delights, 

and sandwiches!

Later at Mudayathur lake, the Thandri under water, unlike my last visit.

The Yellow Wattled Lapwings - an unexpected delight

An Osprey afar!

Cormorants aplenty

A brain fever bird after ages!

Oriental Skylark shot up from the grass, calling and hovering before descending

Smart and perky Indian Robins 

And a new discovery this time - the hillock near Vembedu Lake.  A lovely scrub area which we visited a little too late - next time we need to catch dawn here.

Returning via Nemmeli, and the flamingoes danced in the salt pans, on their amazingly long legs while the Spoonbills wagged their beaks and bodies, almost in time.  And what were the Northern Shovelers doing dabbling in the saltpans I wondered.  Aren't they freshwater, wetland ducks?

81 species for the morning - by Sagarika, Ramanan, Ramraj and me.  

My Visit of 2023 here.

Andamans Day 2 - Garacharma Wetland - waders

11th Feb 2024 - afternoon.  Continued from here.

A short post-lunch snooze later, we were headed out again.  We picked up Jabili along the way from Bathi Bastu.

A twenty minute ride down south from the hotel, through little colonies interspersed with vacant plots, small patches of marsh and we were at an unimpressive mudflat/water body with a lot of humdrum human activity all around.

Garacharma wetlands - further under threat than even Pallikaranai it seems.  

"White birds" were scattered here and there - no large flocks, just a smattering of solitary waders here and there.

Binoculars and cameras emerged, and the search was on, and before you know it, we had a dozen species!

As I scanned, all the 3 egrets I could see, plus what I call the usual Pallikaranai residents - Swamp hens, moorhens and waterhens.  Then we spotted the sandpipers and the wagtails, redshanks and plovers.

We walked around the periphery to another part, sat down on some construction stones on the sides, and now the lifers (for me) began - winter migrants.

Long-toed Stints - with their pale legs and mottled bodies.  I was happy to identify one - after much instructions - "left of the small yellow bucket, behind that plastic bag, walking to the left", and such like.  Finally we had a tally of 11 of them.  

Five Red-necked stints were shown to me - no red necks or anything, just a grey little wader, with a stocky bill, smaller stint size of course but with dark legs unlike the LT cousins.  (The red necks are in breeding season up north.)

Scurrying about in the grass were Red-throated pipits - their usual upright Pipit stance, quite heavily streaked.

A White-bellied Sea Eagle glided lazily above, and then moved out of view.

Click for a video view of the wetlands here.

We moved to a more scrubby part, away from the water's edge, and a bittern flew quite literally past my nose! It vanished into the undergrowth, but we did track it, and what a lovely sight it was.  A yellow bittern, absolutely still, trying hard not to be seen, and staring at us.  It was hard to point out to the others, so well camouflaged was it, even though we had a clear line of sight.

An Andaman cow came up to say hello in the meantime.

Desigan flushed a Snipe which went shooting off, and then another and then yet another!  Five Pintailed Snipes in all.

A bunch of Rosy Starlings came to roost on a tree as the sun sank low in the horizon.

I was sad to see this dump - as usual wetlands and marshes considered wastelands, and unprotected.

We stopped at a Tamil diner, for a dosai (which was pretty ordinary - it flattered to deceive) and some even more ordinary chai.  But our waiter was a master of hyperbole and provided much amusement.

eBird Checklist - 11 Feb 2024 - Garacharma Wetland - 44 species

We were off to Rangat the next morning - it was a 4 am departure!