Birding Trail - Jim Corbett national park & Pangot

Corbett, Pangot, Sattal – Birding Trails

Trip date: 13^th March to 16^th March 2016

13^th March 2016: Lohachaur, Maidavan, Rathuadhab, Mundiapani

It poured heavily in Ramnagar that night. Our usual gypsy driver and guide Kaleem Khan picked us up from the resort at 5.30 am in the morning, it was raining & very cold. We drove past the Dhangari gate and through Mohan, we entered into Durgadevi tiger reserve at 6.30 am, it was still raining. We were lucky to have an opportunity to see & feel the Jim Corbett's forest during rains, the thick lush forest was in it's full glory.

We had the gypsy’s plastic hood on to protect ourselves and our gears from the rain, so no photography would be possible until rain stops and we remove the hood.  The vehicle was fully loaded with all our gears, luggage and groceries, there was very less space to sit.

This part of the Corbett tiger reserve is less visited, it does have a few tigers living here, but we were on a birding trip and we had no time to look for any tigers, moreover there are about 500+ species of birds which we could see in this area. Our stay was booked in the forest rest house of Rathuadab, it’s near the Maidavan village just outside the Lohachaur/Kalagarh tiger reserve of the greater Jim Corbett national park. This was going to be a very long drive through forests, hills, villages and rivers on a completely non-existent road.

As we went ahead all the Jim Corbett stories that I've read started to unfold in front of me, being a huge Jim Corbett fan these places takes me back into his books. So when our guide tells us the name of a place we crossed on the way or for any other reason name of a place get referred, I relate it to a story of a man eating tiger or a leopard that Mr. Corbett killed at that place or traveled by during his hunting expeditions. Like the Kanda man-eater, Mohan man-eater, some even out of the context like man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag, the list is long.

Mystic Lohachaur forest drenched in rain

After an hour or two of drive it stopped raining, so we removed the hood and started looking for birds. Even though the rain had stop the light was still very low for any serious type of photography with my camera.

In few minutes we were able to spot many birds like the River lapwing, Greater yellow-naped woodpecker, Scarlet & small minivets, Blue-winged siva, Great tit, Ashy & Himalayan bulbuls. 

River lapwing was on my "must-get-list" for this trip. We were photographing it from some bad angles and that too against the sun, but luckily for us it flew and came on higher grounds with some really good light on it.

Great tit, a common bird in the Himalayas, always wanted a clear shot like this.

Saw Oranged-bellied leaf (female) bird at a river crossings. 

Around 11 am we crossed the Lohachaur frh, which is visible from the Kosi river bed.

The place is so picturesque, I just couldn't resist changing to my wide angle lens so often.

Just outside the Lohachaur forest, near the Maidavan village we saw this Crested serpent eagle roosting.

Soon we reached the forest rest house of Rathudhab, we rested for a while and also had our lunch.

Light was good and rains had finally come to a full halt, so we were expecting a really good birding sessions to follow.

Saw one of the bee-eater species, which was new to me, sitting out quite in the sun.

Chestnut-headed bee-eater

We saw many birds, some which I've never seen before like Ultramarine flycatcher, Common rosefinch, White-tailed rubythroat, Crimson sunbird, White-throated laughingthrush, but the birds in this part were shy or for some reason we were not getting any good opportunity to make any good pictures. We went till Mundiapani frh and got some good pictures of Ashy bulbuls.

Ashy Bulbul

Here's the Mundiapani forest rest house, as seen from the place where we were shooting Ashy bulbuls.

Mundiapani forest rest house

We saw some Kaleej Pheasants on the way back, but couldn't get any good picture. We decided to go back and look for birds towards the other side of  the rest house, but as we were reaching the rest house it started to rain, so we decided to call it a day and drove inside the gates of the Rathuadab forest rest house. It rained quite a lot that evening. After a good dinner we went to sleep.

14^th March 2016: Lohachaur

We left Rathuadab very early as we had to enter the Lohachaur range by 6.30 am. As we were driving towards Lohachaur, few meters away from Rathuadab,  we saw a big owl sitting on a tree, at eye level, it was dark and foggy we couldn't even figure out what species it is, but one of IDX cam's on board took some great pictures, we initially thought it to be a Spot-bellied eagle owl, after looking at the pictures we figured it was a Brown fish owl.

We entered the Lohachaur forest at around 7.00 am, in few minutes we reached the same spot where we saw the female Orange-bellied leaf bird the other day, male was also around this time.

Orange-bellied leafbird male

White-tailed rubythroat, this was a difficult one, we had to wait a long time for this bird to come out in clear. It mainly forages on the forest floor, but after a while it did came out to show us his real colors.

White-tailed rubythroat

Yuhina's are a birders joy and I am no different. Wish i'd managed a better shot of this beauty.

Whiskered yuhina

Long-billed thrush, another lifer for me.

Long-billed thrush

We were trying to spot a fantail which was singing quite loud, but not visible, just then by the river bank we saw a River lapwing couple indulging in a tete-e-tete. They were done in no time unlike the horny parakeets we were to encounter the next day

These forests are full of woodpeckers, unlike I've seen anywhere else. One of my personal favorites from the trip. Shows the true vibrant colors of the forest.

Greater yellow-nape woodpecker

Lohachaur forest has a good prey base for the tigers.

Some of the less privileged denizens of the Lohachaur forest 

Finally I got a decent picture of the majestic Brown fish owl. It was sitting near a river bank, perfect place for fishing.

Brown fish-owl

We saw many Greater yellow-naped woodpeckers, but this one gave a good opportunity to make some pictures, it was digging inside a dead tree branch for worms & insects.

Greater yellow-naped woodpecker

After lunch we went towards the other side the rest house, village Rathuadab. We saw a Rubythroat, many Chestnut headed bee-eaters, Shrikes, Pied-Bushchat, Crimson sunbirds, but the light was harsh for any good photography.

Finally got a Ultramarine flycatcher resting on a tree at eye level from our vantage point.

Ultramarine flycatcher

Before dawn we went to check for any Owl's which might be sitting out near at the same place we saw one today morning.

Luckily we saw a Velvet-fronted nuthatch.

Velvet-fronted nuthatch

A bird we've been looking for ever since we entered the forest.
Spotted fork-tail

Spotted fork-tail

We heard a Blue-throated barbet from quite a distance, the position was a little awkward, but nevertheless an extremely beautiful bird.

Blue-throated barbet

We almost missed this, but happy to have spotted it myself. Asian barred-owlet is probably the most commonly found owlet in these jungles.

Asian barred owlet

15^th March 2016: Mundiapani

We went out late as it was mostly foggy in the morning. We went towards the Mundiapani frh. We heard a lot of Great hornbill calls, but no sight.

Our guide Kaleem spotted Common rose-finches in a nearby field. We walked in the fields to get close to the birds, managed a few shots.

Common rose-finch

One of the most cutest Himalayan mammals - Yellow-throated marten, we've seen them almost everyday but today was the lucky day when I managed to get a decent picture.

Yellow-throated marten

One of the cutest pygmy woodpecker - Grey-headed pygmy woodpecker.

Grey-headed pygmy woodpecker

We headed back to the rest house.

Our guide spotted this beauty right in front of the rest house, while we were having lunch he was taking pictures of this bird with one of our cameras, when came out I saw him and rushed back in to get my camera.

Lineated barbet

After lunch we decided to go further inside the Rathuadab village, it's a beautiful place.

Outside the village the forest of Kulmadi starts.

Red-billed blue-magpie

We didn't find a lot of birds in this part, so we decided to go back and look near the rest house.

Near Maidavan, which is very close to the Lohachaur gate, we found another Asian barred owlet.

Asian barred Owlet

This place is a woodpecker heaven.

Grey-headed woodpecker (female)

Another one, a lifer for me.

Lesser yellow-naped woodpecker

It was already quite dark, we found one of the most beautiful birds we've been trying to photograph all these days, this time they were sitting in peace for the first time. Probably getting ready to roost.

White-crested laughing-thrush

This was the last bird we photographed that session.

Blue-winged siva

With that we called it a day.

16th March 2016 : Last day in Corbett.

For morning we decided to do some birding on both sides of Rathuadab.

Lucky to get this cute bird that we missed so many times on our Sikkim trip last year.

Red-billed leothrix

After a quick birding session in the morning we came back to the rest house to checkout from there, for the next part of this trip we were traveling to Pangot. Its located about 15 kilometers from Nainital. The drive to here passes through the forested area of Cheena Peak Range via Snow View Point and Kilbury, which are birding spots. Pangot has about 580 recorded bird species.

On the way out of the Lohachaur range we saw many birds.

Finally a close shot of the brown fish owl.

Brown fish-owl

Another owlet

Jungle owlet

Another woodpecker

Rufous-woodpecker

On the way out we also visited the Lohachaur forest rest house.

Lohachaur frh

Switched to wide-angle for a while.

Lohachaur forest

Before heading to Ramnagar we stopped at Garjia to look for Red Ibisbill.
Unfortunately no Ibisbill for us this time.

Got a nice shot of this very common Himalayan bird at Garjia.

White-capped water redstart

This ends our Corbett trip.
We were able to record about 85 species in the 3 days we spent here.
With some very good memories we left Corbett region, onwards our way to Pangot and Sattal.

Tiger Trails - Tadoba national park - Dec 2015

Trip dates - 17th Dec 2016 to 20th Dec 2016

Tadoba national park also known as TATR (Tadoba-Andheri tiger reserve) has a special place in my life, this is the place where I saw my first wild tiger. Tadoba is a southern tropical dry deciduous forest, I've always found it green even in the warmest of the months. May be due to all the bamboo thicket that grows throughout the forest overall the forest always looks green.

This trip was planned 3 months in advance, initially we were 8 people who were supposed to be on this trip, but 3 people canceled in the last week, so finally we were 5 people, 4 traveling from Gujarat & 1 person was supposed to join us from Mumbai, this trip was floated on thesafarist.com website, one person contacted me from the website and joined us on this trip.

We planned for 7 safaris in the core zone of Tadoba entering from the Mohurli gate, which has to be approached from the Chandrapur side of the reserve. So our train bookings were from Ahmedabad/Vadodara/Surat to Chandrapur. We had our accommodation bookings at Hornbill resort at Mohurli, it's a very nice place to stay and the owner Mr. Manish Verma is a very knowledgeable person, he knows the Tadoba forest inside out, so he is a great guide for any queries that you may be having related to your trip.

Before a week to go I realized due to our train timings we will be reaching just in time to make it to the morning safari on 17th, which was not planned 3 months back, checked with Mr. Verma and he assured of making arrangements to do a buffer safari in the morning. I was particularly happy as the buffer part of Tadoba is one of my favorite places, it's a lush green thick forest and usually there are very less vehicles entering that part of the forest.

After a 18 hours train journey we reached Chandrapur at 12.30 am on 17th Dec. Mr. Verma had sent a vehicle for transporting us to his resort at Mohurli. Around 1.30 am we entered the first forest gate. At 2.30 am we check-in at Hornbill resort. Our buffer safari starts in a few hours, so we slept for a couple of hours and got ready by 5.30 am. I was under impression that we have to enter the park at 6 am, so I was getting a little worked-up by the vehicle not arriving by 5.30 am, I inquired with the resort manager and he assured the vehicle will come in time and we will be entering the park as soon as it opens at 6.30 am. At 6.30 am we entered the Devada buffer from Junona gate which is like a few hundred meters from the resort.

Buffer is a thick forest, so chances of sighting a tiger is a little difficult here, knowing this fact I was not much hopeful of a tiger sighting during this safari. On board I was the only one who had been to Tadoba previously, for the other three people it was there first time in Tadoba, they were enjoying the views of the thick lush green forest of the Devada buffer forest.

There was only one more vehicle other than us. They rushed ahead of us after entering the gate. Our driver immediately expressed his concern, he knows of a sub-adult male tiger who has been seen marking his territory in the way the other vehicle went and he was afraid of them spooking the tiger. So we followed the other vehicle for few minutes, but they were going faster than we thought. We ultimately lost their sight. After driving slow for some time we caught up with the other vehicle, they were waiting for us and to tell us that they saw the tiger, this came as a surprise to me as I was not expecting to see a tiger this early in our trip. For about 30 minutes we searched for that tiger in the vicinity, there were fresh pug-marks all over the place but no sight of the tiger. Ultimately we gave up on this one and went to check some watering holes.

  

We checked 3 different watering holes, ultimately we decided to wait at one of the watering holes. It was about 9.15 am, for some reason by then I'd given up any hopes of seeing a tiger, being tiered of the train journey and lack of sleep I decided to take a power nap in the gypsy.  While I was dozing off I heard one of the loudest 1DX's shutter gunning on something at full speed, I woke up to find the big daddy himself, the Waghdoh male walking towards the water body, other two people had still not spotted the cat yet, but they did eventually. So the whole time we were there up until now, the big cat was lying down in the meadows on the other side of the waterhole.

After quenching his thrust, he sat down for some time, looked pretty for the pictures. 

This was an exclusive sighting for us with no other vehicles being around.

In no mood to take a dip in the water on a cold December morning, the tiger decided to move. We positioned ourselves on the other side of the road where we were expecting it to cross into the thicket. Before crossing over it looked at us once.

While returning we also got to see Sirkeer malkoha, a very pretty bird, hope to get a good picture of it someday soon.
Overall it was a very successful safari for all of us.

We came back at the resort, one of our friend who came from Mumbai was waiting for us at the resort. He got all excited by seeing our pictures, he was joining us for all the rest of the safaris in the core zone.

At 3.00 Pm we left the resort to go on our first core zone safari, by 3.30 pm we were inside. We were more interested in seeing Maya and her cubs. Our guide suggested we must try to find Sonam's family as well. So we went in search of Sonam first. Telia lake is Sonam's territory, we went to Telia lake but there were no signs of her presence, Sonam is a shy tigress, not everyone gets to see her.

By 4.30 pm we reached Pandher pauni, this is where Maya stays with her cubs. As soon as we entered her territory we heard alarm calls and someone hushed - "tiger tiger", nearby under a tree we found Maya walking.

Maya is a beautiful tigress in her primes, her skin is flawless, a very agile hunter she is, later we saw her looking to stalk some spotted deers.

Before taking a swim in the lake, she came pretty close to our gypsy, it was so close that for the first time i felt a little scared of a tiger, could only manage a few head shots when she came close.

She swan across the P1 lake and went to get her cubs, who were hiding safe on the other side of the lake in a meadow.

Some of the pictures of her cubs I managed from the other side of P1 lake.

Finally saw two of the cubs running after Maya, I think the female cub was left behind. This was a joy to all the tourists present there at that moment.

We called it a day, headed straight back to our resort.

Next day morning safari : 18th dec 2015

We waited at P1 lake for almost 2 hours in the hope that Maya & cubs will show up again, but they didn't. After a wait of two hours we decided to leave Pandherpauni and look for other things. We drove in the direction of Mahurli, very close to Maya's territory we found a pack of wild dogs. This was my first ever sighting of these relentless canines.

While going back after the morning safari we did wait for Sonam at a different watering hole, but as usual no show by Sonam.

We came back to the resort and rested for a while.

After a not so good morning safari, except that i got my first ever shots of wild dogs, we embarked on our evening tiger trail.

Evening was eventful, Maya did show up, brought her cubs on a kill from morning/night or day before, which was lying close to P1 bank at tourist's side. But there were just too many tourists around to see Maya with her cubs. Pandherpauni had turned into a smaller but more louder version of kumbh mela (no pun intended).

I managed a few cub shots from far..well not that far this time.

Two of the male cubs, named Karan & Arjun, trying to climb up a tree. 

The shy female cub, usually she gets bullied a lot by the male cubs, she is usually seen with Maya, seems to be a momma's girl. Her name apparently is Manka.

These guys will surely be ruling Pandherpauni when they grow up, though tough times ahead for Maya now.

Met the wild dog family yet again.

Day 3 - 5th Safari - Morning 19th Dec 2015

We went straight to see Maya at Pandherpauni.

One the way to Pandherpauni there was a road block by this gaur family.

At Pandherpauni we waited for about 45mins and got only a glimpse of Maya, she walked across the length of the P1 lake on the other side.

Her cubs were also seen for a brief moment, but there was so much tourist disturbance on this side of the lake that we decided to flee from Pandherpauni.

A lot of areas like Kolsa were closed, so there were not enough options to explore. We went to look for another tigress named Geetha, yes one of the famous Telia sisters, in the waghdoh area, this is the place from where the famous Waghdoh male, also the father of Telia sisters, comes from. It's a very thick forest, we enjoyed the ride, but there were no big cat sightings on that route. We were happy that we at least explored a new place.

Going back we waited at one of the waterholes which Sonam frequents, but as usual no show by her.

Day 3 - 6th Safari - Afternoon/Evening 19th Dec 2015

We were speeding towards Pandherpauni, it was around 3.30 pm, there was only 1 gypsy ahead of us, rest either went to Telia or stayed behind exploring other places. There was a 100 meter distance between us & the gypsy ahead of us, all of a sudden they stopped and signaled us to stop as well. This was right in front of the Tadoba lake, we stopped on the road and towards the left of us was Tadoba lake. We moved slowly towards the first gypsy. From there it was possible to see whatever they had spotted, it was suppose to be something important, I was praying for it not be a sloth bear, they were all looking in the direction of the lake, all of a sudden it moved, so I saw - a leopard, my first time seeing a leopard in the wild, it was an important moment for me and for another person in our gypsy who has never seen a leopard before. It stopped at the lake and started drinking water, after filling his stomach it started looking for a way to cross the road. We moved back and gave it way, it came on the road waited for a brief second and walked into the thicket and disappeared. All this happened, while only two vehicles around, ideal.

At least 5 more gypsy's were rushing towards us, but they reached just as the leopard entered in the thicket. 

Without wasting much time we reached Pandherpauni, people from Navegaon side have already reached. We waited and Maya did show up, but I didn't get any good shots this time, it was far.

We decided to try our luck somewhere else, we went to Telia and waiting at one of the water holes for Sonam, but as usual no show by her. We retreated back to the resort smiling, leopard was a real prized catch of this entire trip.

7th Safari - Morning 20th Dec 2015

As usual we headed to Pandherpauni, no show by Maya at P1 or P2, some fake alarms and lot of drama happened at both P1 & P2 water holes. We decided to explore Tadoba lake and places nearby it, so we returned from Pandherpauni. While going back to Tadoba lake, we heard from other gypsy's of a tigress which was sitting on the road as per the ST bus driver, the people in gypsy didn't see it but ST bus driver told them about it, she got spooked by people shouting out of the bus windows and went up towards Jamun bodi area.(fyi Tadoba is the only national park through which a tar road runs and is also a bus route, connecting several villages inside the national park). We decided to check if that tigress crossed across to the meadows of Jamun bodi.

A classical view of Jamunbodi with it's golden grasslands.

There were several gypsy's at Jamun bodi, all looking for the tigress. In about 15 minutes we saw a lot of gypsy's rushing to the end of grasslands on the north side. We too decided to move there and check, from about a distance of 100 meters I saw a tigress rubbing herself against a tree. She moved quickly into the grasslands and looked at us. There were some 10-15 gypsy's at that time. This was a very good sighting, we were lucky to be there.

Guide told us that she is Sitara, one of the female cubs of Choti tara, she has recently separated from her mother, she might be of around 2 years old. 

She entered a bamboo thicket and remained hidden there in attempt to catch one of these sambar deer's.

No action happened for long so we returned back to the base.

Day 4 - 8th Safari - Afternoon/Evening 20th Dec 2015

This was our final safari, usually the last safaris are full of anticipation and excitement, but given that we saw so much in the previous safaris our expectation were low. In fact, we didn't even go to Pandherpauni this time, we checked Jamunbodi, couple of watering holes at Telia, waited for Sonam. But I guess it was not our day, we already missed a leopard family on the tar road.
I think this was the best picture from the last safari.

Red spur-fowls

After clicking some random shots we called it a day.

Tadoba is definitley the real land of the tiger and a jewel of the Vidarbha region.

We left Mohurli at 7.30 pm, had a train to catch at 12 am from Chandrapur.