The post-lunch session is always one that requires a lot of motivation. Stomachs full of a good "saapaad", courtesy Anandi meals, day temperatures that were warm and humid and a good inviting bed and nice pillow, all made for what we in the marketing profession would call barriers and de-motivators.
However, our gang of 8 was made of sterner stuff and off we went, to Sabari forest. I assumed we were visiting a dense forest and I was looking forward to large trees, lianas and wild orchids.
However, I was initially a bit underwhelmed when we stopped on the side of a road. There was a little steep lane down which Jabili was searching for a specific endemic. Which warbler I forget. The road led to a village - I think Bharatpur - and we were checking the undergrowth on each side.
I wandered a bit further down the lane, chatting school girls passed me on the way back home and they were not surprised to see me. Here are some sights from my wander.
Andaman Mormon - Male. I just saw this butterfly which looked a little different from what I have seen in Chennai. We did not have a butterfly person - so it was iNaturalist to the rescue, upon return, when I discovered this was Papilio mayo.
According to the Wiki page - "The scientific name honours Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, who was assassinated at Port Blair the year before the butterfly was discovered." Oh my goodness, Sekar, this one's for you and your Mayo College buddies.
Common Snowflat - once again identified through iNaturalist - isnt it pretty? The Skipper butterfly perched on Siam Weed.
A bracket fungi was growing off some dead wood, and the leaf litter was so diverse and colourful. Everything recycles, gets reused...hmm.
I loved the colours of these leaves.
A Common Cerulean - there were many - perched on a yellow Burweed. I love to see their twitching delicate tails in the binoculars.
A Sponge gourd grew on wooden supports, probably harvested by the residents of Bharatpur.
If this is a Burweed, then it is not native and has probably come in with travellers. Aster family.
High up in the canopy, I saw my first wild orchid of the trip! Papilionanthe teres - of the Vanda family. What we pay and buy from the Chennai florists.
I was very excited by the beauty in the canopy, and was a bit crushed that no one else was. Oh well. I think they were a bit disbelieving of my id probably. 😆. I could see the aerial roots as well of this epiphyte.
A Climbing Aroid made a symmetric design on a tree trunk.
The warblers were calling from the undergrowth. But were frustratingly not in clear sight. On the electric wires, the doves cooed, long-tailed parakeets flew in and out as did the sunbirds.
Toothbrush orchids! In the Dendrobium famil, with all the flowers lined up on one side, like a toothbrush.
One of my favourite sighting was that of the freckle-breasted woodpecker - a lifer. We had good sightings via our binoculars, as they busily went around a horizontal branch searching for their evening tiffin - insects. These are not seen on the mainland.
Really delightful birds, so well captured by Umesh!
Trees. Without them no woodpecker, no bulbul, no pigeon, no eagle and yet we don't "see" them. Like this Papita tree (Pterocymbium tinctorium) - we usually saw a lovely bird on these trees, but didnt bother with the tree.
Cinnamon vines of the yam family were high up in the canopy.
I still have not figured out what this was.
Mangrove Date Palm Phoenix paludosa - i confused this with Nypa, (which we saw at Dhaninullah) but in this palm, the leaves are smaller and placed at the top.
Mangrove Fan Palm clumps were in plenty along the roadside, some flowering like this one..
As we strolled along the road, I was struck by this magnificent tree, filled with epiphytes. Seemed like the familiar Rain Tree, but I could not make out for sure.
And these canopy topping Dipterocarps would stick out every now and then.
As the sun sank, there was a final flurry of bird calls. A bunch of Adam Treepies flitted into a tree, along with Andaman Drongos and minivets
Andaman Treepie (Dendrocitta bayleii) looks quite different from its Mainland counterpart. This one is more slender I thought, more rusty all over, and the tail is definitely longer. I loved that little white accent om the wings.
Umesh saw this pair of Andaman Bulbuls as well, as the light faded.
A mandatory chai stop on the way back to the hotel. This lady was doing bustling business, catering to the requests for black tea, kadak chai, with sugar without sugar, - all with speed and efficiency. Milk - a scarce commodity on the islands. ANIIDCO does provide milk, and animal husbandry has started, but milk powder is more the norm than liquid milk.
If there are more settlers, there will be more cattle needed and that means more forests lost. Everything is inter-related...my craving for milk in tea/coffee is not good for the forests, sigh!
It was time to leave Rangat and get back on to that dreaded NH$ for our return journey. What a sad way to spend Sekar's birthday! But there were some nice moments, some fun as well.
Downtown Rangat as the day dawned, silhouetting the temple, the church and the cel phone tower!
Our bags were loaded, group photos with Inderjeet were taken - he was very keen on these photos - with the reception, the name board etc, packed breakfast was given, drivers looked fresh and ready.
We were supposed to bird in the nearby scrub looking for more elusive warblers, but the morning was misty and foggy. So of course what better way to pass the time then have some tea!
These dogs were on full alert and good behaviour waiting for our biscuits. We saw them even slurping tea dregs from the tea cups that were disposed!
I enjoyed the dawn, Sekar enjoyed a doze in the car - sleep more precious than nature's beauty at this point!
The "weedy" and scrubby empty plots where we heard the Dusky Warblers, saw them dart between bushes, 2- second views.
More pairs of eyes, more 2-second sightings
I saw a shrike - it was a Philippine Shrike I was informed. A greyer head differentiates it from the Brown shrike. The shrike gave us good Darshan, on different stalks, fence and posts. Water hens too - they basked on a parapet, quite unusually, along with two ladies who were chatting busily, quite unmindful of their clucking.
I loved this plant - it was growing wild by the roadside, and the flowers were a dramatic pink, with a deeper stamen. identified via iNaturalist as Caesar Weed on return.
An Andaman White-headed starling on the wire also gave us a good Darshan - and Sekar could click this right while sitting in the car, so cooperative a model was it. yellow legs, pale bill and greyish feathers on ack all seen. We saw these birds in plenty.
It was 7am now, and time to head out from Rangat. We settled in to our seats, mentally girding ourselves for the rough ride ahead. Past the roundabout with SC Bose, so important and ubiquitous in the Andaman Islands. Field and houses drifted by our windows as we got out of town.
Our Coucal moment
Mainland coucals always skulk, inside tree canopies and are most often well hidden, more heard than seen. Not so the Islander.
Just as we were exiting Rangat, we ground to a halt as this Andaman Coucal sat by the roadside, right atop a Mexican Sunflower plant, spreading its feathers and sunning. It had opted this strange posture, as if it wanted every inner feather to get some sun!
We also saw an Andaman Crested Serpent Eagle - well some of us did.
A glimpse of the forests abutting NH4.
Somehow the journey back seemed less tortuous - it is all a state of mind. 😁
A stop at Uttara jetty tea around 9 am, and we had our breakfast of sandwiches, boiled egg, and we found these bananas at the store rather interesting.
Of course we had chai, no need to ask. Then it was back on the road again, and this time we did not stop at Humphrey's bridge over the Creek.
We had a stop at Sundargarh village, a little before Baratang. Our driver had lost his aged grandma, and he wanted to pay his respects. We realised that both the boys are related. The family was waiting for these two, to carry the grandma's coffin for burial. The whole village had showed up to pay their respects. people were walking in from everywhere.
The Sundargarh area was dry and not wooded. There were raptors in the sky up above, soaring. We then set out again from there in about half an hour.
I asked our driver about his family and his life. I am mortified to say I have forgotten his name. The younger driver was Ojas, what was our driver's name? he said he had never been to the mainland, and had no desire to, either. (Smart! I thought to myself). He seemed content with his life, happy to have family in every village, north to south of Andamans! Wherever he went with his car, his guests, he would find someone he knew. He was confident, yet calm.
Our guide Jabili - she had been to the mainland to study but had returned - she loved the life in Andamans. Even Madhuri from ANET mentioned that this is where she belonged. This complete lack of need for "more" was a revelation to me.
We reached Baratang at around 11:10, just in time for the 1130 ferry. Enough time to be "blessed" by the Large Billed Crow (Eastern) which meant I had to use the public toilet, which I discovered were clean!! (More about the large Billed Crow and the trouble it caused in my next post).
This time, the cars and us took the ferry together, across the Middle Strait. It is so beautiful, I don't see myself ever tiring of the view - the waters, the forest, the sky - and the White Bellied Sea Eagle!
The white-bellied sea eagle (Icthyophaga leucogaster) - another Andaman sight I will not tire off. All along our ferry ride, one eagle circled the straits. As I watched, I counted - 8 wing flaps, glide, bank, 3 flaps, soar some more, another 8 flaps and glide some more...and so it went in a large circle, and then finally and effortless glide to the tallest tree where it perched itself.
We disembarked at 1150, and our cars joined the long and orderly queue of vehicles. There were also vehicles parked in the parking lot, waiting for tourists to return. We expected to catch the 1230 Jarawa Reserve crossing.
We were free to wander around Middle Strait but were told no photographing of the Jarawas. We did see a few of them. It was low tide, and the waters in the Strait were low enough for a couple of men to be wading in the waters - no crocodile concerns, I wondered. We sawn fishing boat, and as we were leaving, we saw a mother and son on one side of the road trying to cross to the other side of the reserve.
A large banyan tree stood just before the checkpoint where we could sit around, away from the strong sun.
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We went back to our vehicles, and it was time for the convoy to move. Our driver waited patiently - the buses went first, then the other line of cars, and then ours. The car in from of ours waited, as one of the cars from the parking lot needed to get in.
I marvelled at the complete lack of road rage and impatience. Why are we so impatient in Chennai? Why does a 10 second delay make us behave so badly and rudely? Honestly, we Mainlanders were tutting and restless, itching to get ahead, while our driver sat patiently and then followed the car in the front.
Back through the forests, more conversations on the Jarawas, tribes, development, pensive thoughts, some snoozing and in a couple of hours we were out at Jirkatang and heading to Port Blair.
Lunch? Ah now that was a problem. All those little shacks lining the road at Jirkatang, turns out they are open only for breakfast! They were all shut, except one that required a bit of a walk back and another with only Cuppa Noodles! So, we went in to the nearest shack - had Cuppa Noodles, along with some hot vadais and bajjis. I was so busy stuffing my face, I did not take any pictures! Jabili and the drivers did not care for this "junky" option - and went off to the far away place and had a proper meal, or at least so they said.
The day was still young - more experiences awaited - the Starling show, Teals and birthday celebrations in the next post.
Our son (a dramatis personae in many of my visits in two Nanmangalam) has "fledged" and the years have well, fled, and to my surprise, Nanmangalam looked better - cleaner, less garbage and more forested.
Left home at 530 am, picked up Sagarika along the way and arrived at the gates by 615, and as soon as we entered the gates there was that nice woody smell, and the air was cooler. Almost immediately, the road noises died, and were replaced by the calls of the Brainfever bird and an Asian Koel, almost like a welcome.
At the Interpretation Centre, I looked around and was astonished at the growth of all the little saplings I had seen those many years ago. How nice to see a tall Red Sanders, Teak trees and scrub too. Most of us do not appreciate scrub enough - it is such a wonderful host to bird and insect life.
Companions today were the MNS Backbencher gang, with some additions - Janani whom I met for the first time and realised that she was born after I graduated, and Vidya from Stella Maris. Srinivas it was with whom we went. Janani, Umesh and Sagarika were the photographers with their serious equipment, Vidya was making a list, pen-on-paper, Srinivas was logging directly into his e-bird list, Kalpana was busy with flora too....and I was the one who had no agenda... no responsibility...very nice indeed. Just binocularing and bipedding.
Everything was still in silhouette and shadow as we started towards the quarry.
Peacock calls filled the air - they seem to have come in to the city through the lockdown, and made it home. Janani captured this male in flight, in all its colourful glory.
There is a joy in malingering and dawdling when in a forest. Every step brings some new delight. Munias in large flocks sped by from east to west. At least 200 or more, probably scaly-breasted. The Francolins called from the scrub.
Ashy Woodswallows swooped and dived and then went back and perched back in their characteristic huddle together, like a rugby team ready for a scrum! (Photo by Janani)
While this one seemed to be curious about the cameraperson. (Photo by Sagarika)
Red Whiskered Bulbuls called cheerfully as I admired the different kinds of white flowers growing in the sides of the track.
Mealy bugs, whiteflies and carpenter bees, Aavaram poo, Carissa and Mallows. Dodonea bushes reminded me of Yercaud Youreka camp.
We even had a Spoonbill flypast. Photo by Janani
TDEFs are filled with white flowering plants, and so it was here too. I think this was an Ipomoea of some sort.
While this was a Carissa probably.
Lifers for me - Much excitement over a fleeting glimpse over a Forest Wagtail - which I have not seen in all these years, and that very uncommon Common Babbler.
My fleeting glimpse of forest wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus), was all that Umesh needed to capture this beautiful image, on a leafless tree in the early morning light. This winter visitor has eluded me all these years. As Janani remarked, we are used to searching for wagtails on the ground, but this one is unique, a "forest" one. And to add to that, its tail wag is also sideways supposedly.
The uncommon Common Babbler - Photo by Janani - that was spotted near one of the check dams.
A few more pictures - here with tail seen - Photo by Sagarika - on a different branch. I would have assumed it was a prinia, if not for Umesh's idying skills. The white throat, and streaked brown back (and that crotchety babbler look?!) are possibly pointers.
The common babbler (Argya caudata). Photo by Sagarika. The species has been moved from Laughing Thrushes (Turdoides) to Babblers. It seems to be endemic to India.
Seed pods in black filled a shrub,
while thorns galore protected this leafless Prosopsis cineraria,
a Laughing Dove seemed to think the thorns of the Prosopsis were a joke, (Photo by Sagarika)
and for these thorns, the sky was the limit.
The quarry waters were delightfully clean. The air was filed with birds calls - the white-browed babblers gurgled in the undergrowth, Booted Warblers and Blyth's too, a Pond Heron squawked, and on the opposite side, a pair of Indian Robins hopped around, the reddish vent of the male flashing every now and then as it flicked its tail this way and that.
A Cormorant sat atop a bare dead tree trunk in the middle of the quarry, preening itself, in-between extreme meditation. Photo by Umesh.
A Common Kingfisher of absolutely brilliant blue streaked by before settling on a branch on the opposite side. The Common Kingfisher - Photo by Janani
We scanned the quarry rocks for signs of the GHO, but no luck. The Forest Rangers said that hadn't seen them for three months now. I hope they haven't abandoned their roost.
The forest was filled with Siris trees. Some like this one were in flower, others were in pod. Blue-face Malkohas were sighted in one.
Another one seemed to have just had a dip in the quarry and was shaking the water off its feathers. Photo by Janani
The Forest Rangers were very knowledgeable, and we enjoyed their company. Umesh showed them pics through his camera LCD finder, and they were delighted too! I think the best moment was the all-round delight at the Malkoha with the ruffled, post-bath look!
The avaram bushes were like a shower of sunshine amongst the drying undergrowth.
They were all buzzing with active Carpenter bees, some with their heads looking like they were carrying a load of gold! The (male?) bee with a load of gold, (Photo by Janani)
..and a (female?) bee without. (Photo by Umesh)
A Fragrant Swamp Mallow stood delicately on the side, unnoticed.
We were reluctant to leave, enjoying the Shikras in the air, the Laughing Doves and Coppersmith Barbets calling, Drongos snapping up insects on the go, and that unbelievably brilliantly coloured Green Bee-eater. Srinivas gently trying to make us get a move on - its a difficult job getting MNS sorts moving - Sekar will vouch for it.
The Green bee-eater Photo by Janani
Now, the butterflies also began to appear, and our return was spent with Sagarika, Kalpana and Vidya trying to capture those flutterbys. I watched them, crouch and squat, crane their necks and focus, focus. They looked as industrious as the other creatures of the forest. I was the indolent day dreamer, the lotus eater, rambling with my binoculars!!
Common Cerulean that is actually brown - Photo by Sagarika
As we drove back through Velachery/Vijaynagar, I was also filled with other memories - of Navadisha, Montessori, yearly rain holidays, Mothi Travels, chittis. "Good old days", as my father always likes to say.
Our bags were loaded, group photos with Inderjeet were taken - he was very keen on these photos - with the reception, the name board etc, packed breakfast was given, drivers looked fresh and ready.
It was 7am now, and time to head out from Rangat. We settled in to our seats, mentally girding ourselves for the rough ride ahead. Past the roundabout with SC Bose, so important and ubiquitous in the Andaman Islands. Field and houses drifted by our windows as we got out of town.
