530 am and the sun was already creating its special effects.
Long-tailed Parakeet (Psittacula longicauda)- we dont find them in the Indian subcontinent.
The Green Imperial Pigeons and the Andaman Green-Pigeon sharing perches on a Winged Boot Tree - Pterocymbium tinctorium. and is that a Minivet as well?
Rangat Dhani Nullah did we go
What we would see I did not know
Along the coast,
I made the most
And will narrate this blow by blow.
In Sundarbans we walked at Dobanki
Tigers around, so no hanky panki
Garjan, Khalsi, Avicennia
Peyara Bain, trees of Kankra
Mudskippers, kingfishers! Oh so grandee!
Wandered in Wandoor, in the grey mud squelching
But here on dry boards, happily airily mangroving
I did malinger
The roots were a zinger
We birders - the Ruddy KF were seeking, searching.
Anandi - south Indian meals. it was a good choice. Mrs Anandi ran the place, her mother helped with serving and baby care, her husband ran the grocery store across the aisle. The restaurant was in the aisle. The sambar was sambar, there was fish curry, Desigan got us buttermilk too
Kaziranga! A dream visit for me, for the last fifteen years, and I was actually here. Wishing Sekar was here, and of course Raji, my dear friend, how I missed her on the trip.
“Criterion (ix): River fluctuations by the Brahmaputra river system result in spectacular examples of riverine and fluvial processes. River bank erosion, sedimentation and formation of new lands as well as new water-bodies, plus succession between grasslands and woodlands represents outstanding examples of significant and ongoing, dynamic ecological and biological processes. Wet alluvial grasslands occupy nearly two-thirds of the park area and are maintained by annual flooding and burning. These natural processes create complexes of habitats which are also responsible for a diverse range of predator/prey relationships.
Criterion (x): Kaziranga was inscribed for being the world’s major stronghold of the Indian one-horned rhino, having the single largest population of this species, currently estimated at over 2,000 animals. The property also provides habitat for a number of globally threatened species including tiger, Asian elephant, wild water buffalo, gaur, eastern swamp deer, Sambar deer, hog deer, capped langur, hoolock gibbon and sloth bear. The park has recorded one of the highest density of tiger in the country and has been declared a Tiger Reserve since 2007. The park’s location at the junction of the Australasia and Indo-Asian flyway means that the park’s wetlands play a crucial role for the conservation of globally threatened migratory bird species. The Endangered Ganges dolphin is also found in some of the closed oxbow lakes.”
Highway 37 cuts through and the Karbi Anglong hills are the highlands needed during the high monsoon floods as highlands for the animals from the Bramhaputra flood plains. Now this migration land is cut by the highway.
A lot happened on the road even before we entered the sanctuary gates.
We started our Kaziranga exploration at the eastern gate - Agaratoli. These Owlets were at the gate, as we registered to enter the Gates.
A grey-headed fishing eagle surveyed the plains, sitting harmoniously with the parakeets!
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Wild buffaloes eyed us.
I would never tire of the river, the grasslands and the swamp deer.
The rhinos were there everywhere.
What a lovely sight of the northern lapwing.
The news of Kaziranga was that a “lesser white fronted goose had been spotted! And Gudung knew exactly where to take us - to see this “foreigner”, who was hanging around with the bar-headed geese, who didn’t seem to mind its presence, and all continued to forage in an amicable fashion. Its white face and barred chest made it stand out among the bar-headed geese.
The LWFG (Anser erythropus)was most unbothered at this paparazzi status, as the shutter bugs clicked away. What was it doing here? In 1968, an Englishman McKenzie had recorded it in Kaziranga in a different range. The bird is a native of Scandinavia and Siberia. It was a vagrant. And endangered vagrant.
Gudung was excited at having showed us this rare sighting.
He took us to the house of his mentor Manoj Gogoi. These are the experiences on MNS trips that are amazing, humbling and something that has opened my mind time and again.
He narrated the story of his meeting with a man from BNHS and then growing and rescuing snakes and birds, and now working in tandem with the forest dept. Recounting stories of Kaziranga then and now, over a feast of local delicacies.
A quick lunch stop at Dubori, wash, battery charge and it was off to the western range with Gudung. Bagori.
Hornbill sightings
A satisfied soul inside a tired body, as we headed back. Dinner and chatter - always fun - sitting with Yuvan trying to make a list - jaggery ginger candy from Mr NS. A throat thats feeling super raspy and painful.
So much to learn still, so little do I know.
17th January 2020. Off to the Bura Pahad range - Hoolock Gibbon morning it was.
On the road, even before entering the Bura Pahad range, we stopped by some fig trees as Gudung spotted the gibbons, and this was my first sight! What lovely eyebrows!
There was something so contented and peaceful about the way the gibbon took a fruit at a time, and ate with deliberation and “mindfulness”?
One of Kaziranga’s signature primate, India’s only ape. As I watched the male’s long arm go out and pick a fruit, I learnt that they can brachiate at high speeds - close to 50kmph, and in one swing, something like 6m!
For a creature that never comes down to the forest floor, the need for a contiguous canopy is so crucial. How would it cross a road, if the canopy was broken for more than 6m?
“Populations of western hoolock gibbons have declined by almost 90% over the last 30 years, and it is now considered to be one of the most endangered 25 primate species in the world. In India, it is listed on Schedule 1 of the Indian (Wildlife) Protection Act 1972. Enhancing protection for the species, the Government of Assam upgraded the status of the Hoollongapar Reserve Forest in the Jorhat District of Assam to a Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in 1997, making this the first Protected Area ever named after a primate species.” (WWF)
A skirmish and movement in the tree and we thought it was another family, but no it was a Giant Malayan Squirrel also feeding and going up and down the tree. What a tail! And it did one spectacular jump from one tree to the next. (Ratufa bicolor). I thought the malabar squirrel is more good looking, but this one is just large and dramatic. (Suresh's photo)
Lovely drive in the forest. Beautiful trees, lianas, a water monitor lizard and whistling ducks in flight. A group of black capped monkeys above.
A patch of water, and we saw more bar-headed geese. There were egrets, cormorants, OBS all cheek by jowl, minding their own business.
A watchtower close to the river. We got off the vehicles and took a walk along the river Diphlu. The stories that silting would tell. Many feet deep. There were a couple of ruddy shelducks on the bank. that caught the sun so beautifully, they were like burnished copper..
The squelchy mud revealed tiger pug marks! It was a long and hot walk, and we came back quite hungry. Dried fruits and kakhra to the rescue in our backpacks - and Suresh discovered a love for kakhra hitherto unknown. Pritam had some interesting fruit bars - mango and guava…I preferred the guava I remember.
As we drove back and out of the sanctuary, we saw swamp deer - unique to Kaziranga. Eastern swamp deer. Rucervus duvaucelii ranjitsinhi. Dolhorina in Assamese
Even better was the sunbathing otters we saw! What a delightful sight that was. We were the lone jeep on that path - and in a blink of an eye, they were all off the bank and into the water. Showing how easy it us to disturb wildlife, how sensitive to human activity. Shantharam got a great picture, I remember.
An adjutant flew overhead, stiff and stern. And suddenly there was a rhino eyeballing us from behind the grass. And vultures overhead!
Back for lunch and a short rest
Afternoon ride was to Kohora - the gate closest to us. We were in the last jeep. Sudar and his camera seemed to be magnets for the unexpected. A whole host of wagtails later, we saw a fishing eagle and most importantly a night jar. Spotted by Sudar. Even our jeep driver was awestruck at the spotting!
We went over this bridge I don’t think was meant for jeeps - it protested loudly. But the driver was cheery and confident.
And that evening, we waited for the tiger, whom the guides and driver felt were in the vicinity. I didn't mind. It was such a beautiful magic spot.
Instead we saw a baby elephants in the swamp - it waddled across, stumbling and moving quite clumsily and endearingly - the mother gently nudging him/her with her trunk.
As we watched, the rains stuck to a path they make. We saw a rhino midden as well.
Another beautiful Kaziranga sunset.
That evening, we went into the markets. I picked up two wooden rhinos as souvenirs. It was good fun to hang around with Bhuvanya as she looked for some kind of local Assamese knife, which she didn’t find, but she found a kutty little dish made from some alloy, which was a big hit with the other ladies - so much so that we had to return and buy some more! So many things I came to know - that Bhuvanya loves to paint, is a cheerful chatterbox and has a wonderful joie de vivre.
We would depart for Pobitara the next day.
Kaziranga - I could go back again and again. (I did go back, with Sekar, and I would be happy to revisit.) The flood plains, the grasslands, the vastness, the magnificent rhinos and elephants in such plenty, the gibbons, langurs, squirrels and all those birds.
Post lunch, we piled into the cars and picked up our birder guide Jabili Rao. She is a young birder from the Andaman. I wonder now, what first impression we made on her. One group of seniors, all of us perhaps twice her age! Or maybe she's used to it, since many seniors love to bird and love to photograph with their respective bazookas.
Off we went to Burmanullah beach, with Jabili in our car, along with Umesh, Srinivas, Sekar and me. Umesh was focussed with target species list and locations. I was busy looking out of the window and exclaiming at the views!
This Photo by Desigan. There were several on the beach, here and there, walking around with usual egret slow-motion intent.
In order to confuse matters, there is a "white morph", which looks like the Little Egrets, except they have quite a thick bill, greenish legs and a little squatter. Why would they display this dimorphism? And can the two morphs inter-breed - and will you get pied coloured variants then? Seems not, but why not?
As I pondered these deep "existential" questions, the others were more gainfully occupied.
I found a piece of dead coral in the grasses.
There were crabs and mudskippers in the tidal pools at the edge. If I am not mistaken this is a Mottled Lightfoot Crab. (Grapsus albolineatus) a coral-dwelling crab.
There were people wandering the shores collecting crabs as well. A common sandpiper landed on a rock nearby.
And this Collared Kingfisher also had found a crab. Photo by Desigan.
I marvelled at the towering trees and the winding lianas.
A red-collared dove sunbathed.
The hunt for the Amur Stonechat (Stejneger's Stonechat) Saxicola stejnegeri
We veered off the tar road and stopped before a little footbridge over a rivulet and entered what looked like fallow and overgrown agricultural land. We were tracking the Stejneger's Stonechat - a target species for our trip, I was told. It is a species seen in east Asia - but not in mainland India, only in Andamans. It breeds somewhere up in Siberia, and comes down to winter in the Andamans. (In itself, that fact renders the bird magical!)
It was a subspecies of Common Stonechat, and now it has been separated after genetic testing. And Stejneger was Nordic Steineger and decided he liked Stejneger better, went off to the Smithsonian and this little stonechat we were trying to see was named after him and now the common name has changed.
Jabili warned us that it was very shy, and we were to be very quiet. A farmer passed us in the opposite direction, and airily said oh you should come in the mornings for the birds. It was close to sunset, and the air was filled with bird call. Now and then one faint zitting cisticola-like call was heard, which was the Stonechat I believe. A flash here, a sudden appearance there. The photographers were frustrated. "See, near the fence, that pole!", "Which pole, there are so many" - came the retort. ""Arre, that short one, 12 o'clock." "The one below the tree with green leaves?" "All the trees have green leaves!" Such was the conversation. Srinivas' 6ft plus visual perspective quite different from Umesh's did not help matters. I wonder if they did manage to photograph the bird.
In the midst of all of this, for a change, I actually spotted the said pole and saw the bird quite clearly with my 10x binoculars for about 5 seconds, before it vanished into the undergrowth again! I registered a chestnut brown, "little brown job", with a little darker tail. This was the female.
Desigan took this great picture - how he managed in the midst of all the flitting and the instructions, one never knows!
Anyways, I was happy, kind of thrilled to catch this little messenger from Siberia. We did not see the male. I wandered on to see the other sights of the scrub.
There were a whole bunch of goats, feeding quite blissfully and happily, unmindful and uncurious about us.
I think this is Simpleleaf Chaste tree - a Vitex
And this false ironwort, we see in our city undergrowth as well.
There were very few butterflies for some reason, but many a dragonfly, including this Crimson Marsh Glider
We retraced our steps across the stream, and the sun gave the leaves such a lovely translucence. I wonder if this is Macaranga peltata - the parasol tree - the leaf arrangement seemed that way. It could be.
Back into the cars, and we went up along the road to Chidiyatapu. The scenery changed, as tall trees sped by on either side.
Stop! was the cry from Jabili - and we saw the Andaman woodpecker! (Dryocopus hodgei) silhouetted by the evening sun, high up on the tree stump.
Photo by Desigan. It was a beautiful 15-20 minutes, as we watched it make its way up the stump, its red head giving it a crown of fire almost.
What a stunning bird! We saw it a couple more times across the week, and each time it was a joy to watch. The bird is in on the IUCN "Vulnerable" list, threatened by loss of habitat.
"Little is recorded about the behaviour of the Andaman woodpecker. It lives in pairs, but also associates in small flocks. It forages on large trunks and branches, but has also been recorded foraging on the ground for ants. It has been recorded breeding between January and March, and breeds in a nest hole 6–14 m (20–46 ft) off the forest floor, in a dead tree. Two eggs are laid" - Wikipedia
We made our way back to the Chidiyatapu beach shacks for some welcome chai. We fell upon the vadais and bajjis and ordered strong chai from the Tamil tea-shop owner who did not waste time on small talk, as the tourists ebbed and flowed like the tide through his shop.
We saw foreigners, backpackers, middle-aged Indians from the north, scuba divers packing up for the day, and even a group of trainees from NIOT.
As we finished our tea...the sky was even more magical.
One more surprise by the roadside. Andaman Coucal! What a show we had. Quite bold, and unlike its mainland counterpart. It didn't seem to be bothered by us at all.
The fawn brown feathers were displayed, this way and that. The head is a duller colour. The Coucal was busy foraging among the leaves. I did not see any berries, it was probably on the hunt for insects. The foliage was a mix of short shrubby bushes. I could not identify from this.
The crickets and other night insects were out as the light faded. Some went off with Jabili to search for the owls, whilst some of us just enjoyed the night sounds around.
This cat moved from one side of the road to the next, listening to the night sounds - didn't waste time on me, but seemed intent as though listening for a particular sound. Maybe he/she was off on a night hunt. I did not see too many stray cats on our trip, but Port Blair was full of stray dogs, like any other Indian city.
Back to Shreesh for the night, it was good to have a shower and get out of our sweaty clothes - the humidity was high - and come down and wait for our dinner. It was lovely to meet Madhuri as well - an "Islander", who works at ANET, and was a friend of Umesh. She spoke about the road to Rangat being bad - and how her sister preferred to go by ferry, a conversation that made more sense when we did embark a couple of days later to Rangat!
These interesting lampshades were in our corridor, and I noticed them as we went off for the night.
It was a 5am start the next day, and I was much excited - we were to take a ferry and cross a strait and go off to Kalatang!
Plume-toed Swiftlets - Andaman special - not in mainland India. (Supposedly has a tuft of feathers near the rear toe - which I never saw, but shall assume in good faith that it is present)
Brown-backed Needletail
Amur Stonechat
Swiftlets and larger Needletails were zooming around above. The Swiftlets had white bellies and the Needletails - like this one on Umesh's camera display - were dark brown underneath.
