Birding with Ram Gopalakrishnan: 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!