A hotel-husband in Oman

Wadi Darbat

“Want to be a hotel-husband for a couple of days?” my wife asked me; she was off to Muscat, Oman to give a couple of lectures at a conference. People sometimes choose to be a house-wife or a house-husbands for long periods: somehow hotel sounded more fun with no chores! When she added for good measure “believe the birding there is pretty good”, it didn’t take me too long to say yes though I had my doubts – birding in a desert? 

So off we went to Muscat, which has a picturesque location on the Gulf coast with a backdrop of hills. Don’t miss Qurum Natural Park, we were told: that’s where most birders head tick off a number of species. The highlights among the 20 odd species we saw there were a Pallid Scops Owl and some Arabian Green Bee-eaters. 

We headed off to Salalah, on the coast to the west of Oman, the next day: all reports pointed to this small town as the birding headquarters of Oman. Mr Siva Prakash, a resident of Salalah and superb bird photographer, was a most gracious and knowledgeable host: he knew exactly where each species is found and how to get the best shots! He first took us the next morning to a coastal area packed with waders and shore-birds, all keeping a watchful eye on a Western Marsh Harrier. The Sooty Gull was a lifer for me. A drive through the desert was most productive: the lovely Cream-colored Courser strutted around, a majestic Imperial Eagle perched regally on a shrub as if the British empire still existed and Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouses dotted their favorite morning watering hole. We were satiated even before the breakfast that followed. 

Siva Prakash took us to several habitats that afternoon: a meeting point of a rivulet with the sea near Salalah Port (where we saw Greater Flamingos) and Salalah’s garbage dump and sewage treatment plant (where White Storks and Abdim’s Storks abounded). Eurasian Oystercatchers did their thing on the coastline. 

Next morning we headed off to Wadi Darbat, where a cascade transforms the desert into a green oasis. The birding was rich and varied and the greenery bewitching. Cinnamon-breasted Buntings glistened in the sun. The river abounded with fish on which River Terns and Ospreys were feasting. As we dragged ourselves away from this green paradise back to the desert and on the coast to our hotel, I’m glad I took the hotel-husband option: if you’re ever in the Gulf and fancy a bit of birding, Salalah is the real deal!

African Paradise-flycatcher

Cinnamon-breasted Bunting

Cream-colored Courser

Crested Lark

Pallid Scops-Owl

Wadi Darbat

Wadi Darbat

View of the coastline from the hills near Salalah

Eurasian Spoonbill

Great Cormorant

White-spectacled Bulbul

Imperial Eagle

Manila and Kaladhungi: jewels outside Corbett's crown

 

In Corbett? Not exactly

We alighted on a nippy November morning at Ramnagar Station, and drove north past the main entrances to Jim Corbett National Park: we must be nuts, I thought. Tiger and birding heaven was a simple turn away, and here we were putting miles in the opposite direction. How can any place possibly offer better birding, I morosely wondered.

We soon found out. We watched in frozen excitement with only the clickety clack of camera buttons as Mr Koklass Pheasant, with his bottlegreen head and long crest, swaggered across the road in front of us. Mrs Koklass scurried away more demurely from the prying eyes of our birding group. Buntings (Rock and White-capped), an enormous Scaly-bellied Woodpecker and the endemic Upland Pipit kept us busy through the day. Later that evening, a once in a lifetime encounter with the reclusive Mountain Scops Owl followed: his distinctive two pitched call was a give away to his presence as he watched us unperturbed by the bright spotlight on him.

We were on a birding trip with Adesh Shivkar in the Himalayan foothills at Manila (pronounced Maa-nila), Almora district, northeast of Corbett. Spectacular views of Mount Trishul and Nanda Devi were at every turn. Located at an altitude of 1850 m, Manila Birding Lodge offers a convenient base to scout around for a variety of higher altitude Himalayan species, especially pheasants. White-throated Laughingthrushes noisily competed with Grey Treepies and Black-headed Jays at a water tank near the lodge which also had a flowering cherry blossom tree that attracted Rufous Sibias and a Brown-fronted Woodpecker. The handsome male Kalij Pheasants, much bolder than other pheasant species, led his five ladies away from us. We wondered whether to rename the male Rufous-bellied Woodpecker as Tomato-headed: so similar was it to a tomato! The Spot-winged Grosbeak migrates towards lower altitudes in winter and was expertly tracked down by our guide Vivek Rawat as it engorged itself on a berry tree with its grossly oversize beak. A Chestnut Thrush was a personal lifer.

Spotting the iconic Cheer Pheasant was a different matter though. Globally threatened, these handsome large pheasants with their bright red eye patch and long tail, can only be located by their distinct loud squawking calls and are difficult to see in most of the Himalayas. We searched extensively before finally capturing five of them in one frame: a moment of sheer magic! Piping hot ginger flavored tea in the field that evening tasted even sweeter.

 Pine forests: a green desert?

The chir pine Pinus roxburghi covers vast stretches of the Himalayan foothills, upto 16% of forested area in Uttarkand. It does not allow any vegetation to grow around it by making soil more acidic through its fallen needles, and its shallow roots retain water poorly and can contribute to drought. We noticed far less bird diversity in these forests compared to oak forests. Besides, the pine needles are highly inflammable and have a propensity to set off forest fires. Many oak forests were replaced by pine during British times for commercial reasons: time to declare pine an exotic alien and replace them with more eco-friendly mixed forests?

We offered thanks (and prayers for more sightings ahead!) at the Manila Devi temple and headed back to Ramnagar. As the altitude fell and the temperatures rose, pine and oak gave way to sal. A sole Cinereous Vulture circled overhead in the company of numerous Himalayan Griffons. A stop at a rivulet revealed a Green Metalwing damselfly displaying its iridescent wings in the sunlight. A foray to the river Kosi was tremendously productive with an Immaculate Cupwing (formerly the Nepal Wren Babbler) giving away its location with its metallic call. Crested Kingishers, the largest of the Indian kingfisher clan, looked like the adjacent Pied Kingfishers on steroids. Resisting the temptation to detour into Corbett, we headed on to Kaladhungi.

No trip to Kaladhungi is complete without a visit to Jim Corbett's museum, his former house converted into a repository of memorabilia from his lifetime. My father, who passed away in July, was a lifelong fan of Jim Corbett and visited his museum in Kaladhungi in 2007 with his brothers, also diehard Corbett fans. Love for Nature and a dedication to conservation flowed from Corbett to dad and on to me. Remarkable how one man improved the lot of not only his generation, but of many to come. 

Our birding base at Kaladhungi was the comfortable Milieu Villa Birding Lodge run by Rajesh Panwar, adjoining the reserve forest. Next morning was Jim Corbett's Jungle Lore personified: dense sal forest with the river Baur running through it and a cacophony of bird calls. This forest to the east of the Tiger Reserve is at a meeting place of Himalayan and subcontinental habitats, and you can find species from both. We saw Gray and Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpeckers, Lineated and Brown-headed Barbets and Rufous and Gray Treepies on the same tree. The maniacal cackling laughter of a bunch of beautiful White-crested Laughingthrushes reminded us how they got their name.

We drove up into the foothills for a bit to find a globally threatened species: "just" a rather drab prinia. The Gray-crowned Prinia is found in India only in patches of Uttarkhand and is an undergrowth skulker very difficult to see outside the breeding season: even a brief sighting and a record shot was cause for celebration.

Our last day was spent at Baur Reservoir created by the Haripura Dam: a totally different trio of mini habitats that swelled our bird count many fold. The fields adjoining the reservoir were teeming with Bengal Bushlarks, Rosy Pipits, Striated Babblers and Zitting Cisticolas. The marshes and reed beds at the edges were home to a set of their own specialists: Paddyfield Warbler, Yelow-bellied Prinia, Clamorous Reed Warbler and the lovely Chestnut-capped Babbler. A variety of Pochards (Common, Ferruginous and Tufted) in the middle of the reservoir rounded off the bird count.

We were after the endangered Finn's weaver but what we got was as rare: the West Himalayan Bush Warbler, a rather drab warbler with a characteristic call which winters in reedbeds in a small area of the Western Himalaya. Baur Reservoir truly qualifies for an IBA, we thought.

So next time you go to Corbett, a diversion will be well worth it!

Bar-tailed Treecreeper

Black-chinned Babbler

Black-throated Tit

Blue Whistling Thrush

Bluethroat

Brown-fronted Woodpecker

Cheer Pheasant Male

Cheer Pheasant family

Chestnut Thrush record shot

Pine forest: a green desert

Mount Trishul

Gray-crowned Prinia: a rarity

Green Metalwing damselfly

Himalayan Buzzard

Himalayan Prinia

Himalayan Woodpecker

Immaculate Cupwing

Kalij Pheasant male

Koklass Pheasant male

Mountain Scops Owl

Rufous-bellied Woodpecker

Streaked Laughingthrush

Striated Babbler

Upland Pipit

West Himalayan Bush Warbler: a rarity

White-throated Laughingthrush

Yellow-eyed Babbler

The Silk Route and East Sikkim

 Birding on the Silk Route sounded like a heady cocktail of history, geography and birding: I'm in, I said as soon as I heard about it. Known from ancient times as the land trading route from the Bay of Bengal through Sikkim into Tibet, the name conjures up visions of intrepid explorers trading horses, silk and spices through breathtaking mountain passes into exotic foreign lands. The ancient route from Sikkim to Tibet leads east from Lingtam to Padamchen, and onwards through the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary to Zuluk, the Nathang Valley and finally Nathu-la Pass. Spice it up with the prospect of seeing some exotic higher altitude Himalayan species such as pheasants, monals and parrotbills, and you can look forward to as thrilling a journey as the ancient traders must have experienced.

Having driven from Bagdogra to Rangpo, where the road turns east along the Rangpo river, we joined the Silk Route just after Rongli at Lingtam and halted for the night at a homestay in Padamchen. The first rays of the sun split through after a night of heavy rain, lifting our spirits as we gazed at the steep and towering green mountains of the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary on either side. Pheasants prefer taking their morning constitutional at daybreak and our waking schedule had to be adjusted accordingly. Surreal views of Khanchendzonga, snow powdered mountainside all-around and the impossibly winding road we left behind us distracted us from the birdlife. The acute hairpin bends took us past the military camp at Zuluk (alt 9400 ft) and Thambi Point (alt 11600 ft) but iced-up roads, courtesy overnight snow, forced us to turn back at 12000 ft.

Great God, it's the Great Parrotbill! - exclaimed our group leader Mandar Khadilkar of Nature India. This largest and most difficult to spot member of the parrotbill family looks more like a babbler and favors bamboo and rhododendron-covered high altitude slopes: a long awaited lifer for me. When the sun lights up the flowers on a rhododendron tree, who do you expect? The Fire-tailed Myzornis of course, coming almost within touching distance! A Gray-sided Bush Warbler was a lifer for me and Rufous-breasted and Alpine Accentors permittted close-up shots. Hordes of Plain Mountain Finches took off and landed in unison. The male Himalayan White-browed Rosefinch shone bright pink in the sunlight. The birding was even more satiating than the ensuing lunch.

Afternoon was spent racking up a number of commoner lower altitude species in the Sanctuary fringes around Padamchen. A single spot yielded yuhinas, minlas and warblers at a staccato pace. What we hoped was the rare Blue-Fronted Robin, turned out on close inspection of its tail in our photos to be the commoner White-tailed Robin. A Black-throated Prinia was another personal lifer.

Rain gods having relented, we returned to Pangolakha and were promptly greeted by a lovely little Golden-breasted Fulvetta on the way. A resplendent Himalayan Monal contemplated the valley for a while before taking off in flight, white dorsal patch glistening in the sun. A Fire-tailed Sunbird could not make up its mind whether to display its "on fire" back and tail or it's golden belly to the rays of the sun. The long down-curved bill of the Slender-billed Scimitar-babbler would surely be identified by even the beginner. On the way back to Padamchen, photographs of the Rufous-winged Fulvetta preceded an even more treasured sighting: Brown Parrotbills clambering up and down a bamboo tree like little monkeys. As the altitude rises above the tree line, the numbers and species of birds drop, but spectacular indeed are the specialists that inhabit this zone. 

We retraced our steps back along the Silk Route, and headed north to Pakyong and then east to a homestay at Khimseeka (alt 7500 ft) for birding in the forest fringes. Morning luck or beginner's luck, whatever you may call it: first bird of the day was a Bay Woodpecker throwing back its head, opening its large ivory-colored bill and letting out its loud shrieking call. The Red-faced Liocichla, an intoxicating mixture of burgundy red and brown, stopped long enough for photos. This being the month of April, a panoply of unseen but raucous cuckoos (Indian, Himalayan, Common and Large Hawk) kept up an unrelenting background score. A Little Pied Flycatcher and a Fire breasted Flowerpecker were seen right near our homestay. Piculets are pocket powerhouses of the Woodpecker family and we saw both the Speckled and the White-browed: the latter permitting us detailed shots while pecking away in staccato fashion at its favorite bamboo. The Golden-throated Barbet had even more golden on its head than it's throat. A Pale Blue Flycatcher obligingly settled on a twig and allowed us to video its call. The piercing metallic tweets of the Pygmy Cupwing were a dead give away for this tiny undergrowth skulker. Fifty-one species for the day! 

When you get three different Laughingthrushes in a row (the common White-throated and Striated  as well as the rarer Gray-sided) crossing your path, excitement levels run high. After hours of almost going cuckoo from continuously hearing four species of them, we finally saw one: the Himalayan. One led to two, after we managed to survive the brain fever we almost got from struggling to locate the Large Hawk-Cuckoo by its shrill manic rising tones. Surely this one must take the prize for "heard but not seen". Our guide Suraj Khulal took us on a hike through the forest to a remote spot for a magnificent prize, the Spot-bellied Eagle Owl gazing down from its perfectly hidden perch. And there literally was dessert after the main meal: a delicious home-cooked meal with completely home sourced food including ghee, curds and vegetables at Suraj's homestay. Not done yet: its distinctive two toned metallic call led us to a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, and a Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush followed. What a finale to four days of birding! 

Sikkim's natural wealth is under clear and present danger, a matter more acute that ever in this era of climate change. Richly forested land is public and not necessarily under the Forest Dept as Reserved Forest, and therefore subject to rapid depletion to construct houses and to grow crops in terraced fashion. We saw just this, with houses carved out of the middle of dense bamboo forest. There is an urgent need to restrict development to designated areas and enforce forest conservation measures in as yet untouched areas. The rich forest in East Sikkim, east of Pakyong needs sanctuary or at least RF protection before it vanishes. Even on the main road through Pangolakha Sanctuary, uncontrolled tourism, building activity and widespread military presence (an unfortunate necessity in border areas) was obvious.

Meanwhile, the Silk Route and East Sikkim await!

Alpine Accentor

Black-throated Tit

Blue-fronted Redstart

Record shot of Brown Parrotbill

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo

Fire-tailed Myzornis

Golden-breasted Fulvetta

Great Parrotbill

Green-tailed Sunbird

Himalayan Monal

Pygmy Cupwing

Red-faced Liocichla

Rufous-vented Yuhina

Slender-billed Scimitar Babbler

Small Niltava

Spot-bellied Eagle Owl

White-browed Fulvetta

Himalayan White-browed Rosefinch

White-browed Piculet