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.