The dream to visit Corbett National park finally became reality. I had visited Sattal and Pangot earlier but not Corbett and hence when Nature India announced its trip the senses awakened. We got together at Delhi Station and boarded the Corbett park link express. In the train itself Adesh handed over our chklists and to see a whopping 557 species on that list , gave us goose pimples.
Next morning we met with Mr Manoj Sharma at Ramnagar the resource person for our trip. He led us to a jungle camp near Corbett where we refreshed and had breakfast and saw many birds. The oriental pied hornbill was the highlight. Next we proceeded to Sattal via Nainital and enroute stopped at a place where many raptors were perched and also soaring in the skies above. We ticked off Steppe eagles mostly juvenile and Himalayan griffons. The griffons were clearly larger than the Steppe eagles. This break served to relieve some of our motion sick colleagues .
The camp at Kumaon Mandal at Sattal was fine with all basics provided. A birding trail nearby revealed emerald dove, brown fronted woodpecker, white capped water redstart and oriental turtle dove for starts. Later we came across bronzed drongos, slaty headed parakeets, verditer flycatcher and beautiful black throated tits. Mr Manoj exclaimed and drew our attention to a pair of mountain bulbuls which supposedly were uncommon there. On our return we were held to ransom by red billed leiothrixes which were flitting in and out of the dry bushes challenging our photographic capabilities.
In the evening we had wonderful views of black bulbul, black lored tit and collared owlet. We winded up with grey headed woodpecker and asian barred owlets playing with turtle doves on the playground.
Next day we headed out to Pangot after breakfast. On the way we encountered small niltava, ultramarine flycatcher, treecreeper, spotwinged tit, and the highlight of the day the rufous bellied woodpecker with amazing colours. Thereafter we saw the Himalayan woodpecker, the mistle thrush and the altai accentor at Vinayak. We were hoping for the Koklass and the cheer pheasant but the snowball rolled over for the day.
One thing I noticed was some birds that I had seen earlier in October at Pangot and Sattal were not encountered in the same areas this visit. In hindsight maybe a nights stay at Sattal and a nights stay at Jungle lore birding lodge, Pangot where I had stayed earlier might have had a different mix of sightings.
The next day was for heading out to Corbett for breakfast and on the way we saw the barn swallow nests in the shop which is considered sacred by the shopkeepers for their businesses. Just outside Corbett, Manoj Sharma showed us White rumped vulture with its chick on the nest. It was a good beginning!
At Corbett nature camp we changed vehicles to the safari jeeps and the birding now assumed a motorized nature as no one is allowed to get down from the jeeps. The road to Dhikala was a long one and after the sumptuous late breakfast it was more dozing and less birding as it was also high noon . Just to interest us Manoj Sharma told us an anecdote on the longevity of the sal forest of Corbett which goes like this;
SAL: SOW SAL BADA, SOW SAL KHADA, SOW SAL PADA AUR SOW SAL SADA!
The Corbett safaris started thereafter at about 1530 hrs the same day after lunch. The first surprise was the savanna nightjar in the grasslands which was barely visible and Mr Manoj Sharma had to use all his prowess and guiding lights to make us see it. I wish I had taken the photos of the expressions on people’s faces on seeing the nightjar. Subsequently we were escorted all along by oriental skylarks and pied bushchats and stonechats. The red avadavats gave us flypast demos but no close-ups. Suddenly there was brisk activity among the jeeps and in the distance a flock of elephants could be seen. However the focus was on the opposite side and we all accelerated with bated breath! On reaching the site we were fortunate enough just to see a lone tiger disappearing into the forest thicket. Wow !
While returning to the camp I stopped Manoj Sharmaji to help me out with a bird on a top perch which turned out to be the collared falconet. A good way to sum up the day!
We had two safaris lined up the next day one in the morning and one in the evening. We did cover a lot of raptors on that day the changeable hawk eagle in close encounters, pallas eagle both adult and juvenile, cinereous vulture in flight , lesser fish eagle, common hawk cuckoo and crested serpent eagles. Highlight of the day were two tawny fish owls in clear sight on the tree and a brown fish owl in the afternoon. Soon after I had a lifer in the form of a brown crake near a water pond. Among the smaller ones was chestnut eared bunting which gave beautiful poses. In the afternoon we caught up with the beautiful river lapwing and some oriental honey buzzards soaring.
At night we were being incessantly called by the long tailed nightjar and since I had missed seeing it the previous night I joined Adesh in spotting it before dinner. After dinner and over a relaxing review of the species seen we were fortunate to listen to some awesome Hindi numbers belted out by Prajakta Shinde who is an effortless singer.
Next morning we started out with the streak throated woodpecker, the red junglefowl and good view of the red headed vulture. We did try for the himalayan rubythroat but there was no response. A close up of the plum headed parakeet did us some good. Close views of red collared dove with its female were rewarding . We did come across a couple of Egyptian vultures in flight. My wish list of seeing a green magpie was gnawing at me. After spotting the pallas eagle again and many male stags with velvet antlers we headed into the forest via Mota Sal tree. This was the territory of the tiger named Bhola. However my senses were keen on the green magpie though Bhola also could do. As was expected the jeep ahead of us spotted the green magpie and all we could see was green leaves. The greater flameback females did us some pacifying displays.
As a consolation prize we got beautiful , close and long views of the green billed malkoha right in the open and spent some time looking at it collecting nest material. Adesh always is reassuring and told us the green magpie is waiting for us on the route out of Corbett in the afternoon. It was time later that afternoon to wind up the rooms and get set for the journey out. The Ramaganga river bed still had something in store for us in the form of Black francolin and Black storks and bar headed geese in the distance.
As we boarded the jeeps with pleasant memories of the days that we had spent at magical Corbett a land of mix of forest, grassland, and river basin, the green magpie still haunted my mind. As we stopped at a place enroute journey to the gate, there was chaos among the jeeps that the green magpie was flitting around in the thicket. But as luck would have it the magpie chose a territory which was poorly lit and behind thick trees. My lucky colleagues who had spotted it could not describe the location in time for my visual and cortical cells to pick it up and it gave me the slip once again. Let bygones be bygones I thought and consoled myself.
A little ahead there was a rustle in the ground supposedly white crested laughing thrushes (icecream thrushes) and as I strained with my bins , the green magpie decided to give me a glimpse of its head and neck and I reflexly screamed out much to the surprise of my colleagues who had given up on me. But as I wished greedily to see more of the bird it moved deeper and away across the Ramganga to the tree beyond and I lost sight of it. But it was enough to pacify my magpie starved soul.
Later we caught up with Jim Corbett at the gate and took some photos with him ( I mean his statue). After we all filled up our baggages with some souvenirs from the shop we headed out to the Corbett Nature camp for dinner and debrief. All of us were sad that we were leaving for the mad, mad world except Adesh who was coming back for the second batch. That was an amazing five days in heaven.
A total of 182 birds seen, 44 lifers!
Birds seen:
1. Black francolin
2. Red junglefowl
3. Khalij pheasant
4. Indian peafowl
5. Bar headed goose
6. Grey capped pygmy woodpecker(L)
7. Brown fronted woodpecker(L)
8. Fulvous breasted woodpecker
9. Lesser yellownape woodpecker
10. Greater yellownape woodpecker
11. Streak throated woodpecker
12. Grey headed woodpecker
13. Himalayan flameback
14. Black rumped flameback
15. Greater flameback
16. Lineated barbet
17. Coppersmith barbet
18. Indian grey hornbill
19. Oriental pied hornbill(L)
20. Common hoopoe
21. Indian roller
22. White throated kingfisher
23. Pied kingfisher
24. Green beeeater
25. Chestnut headed beeeater
26. Common hawk cuckoo
27. Green billed malkoha
28. Lesser coucal
29. Roseringed parakeet
30. Slaty head parakeet
31. Plum head parakeet
32. Red breast parakeet
33. White rumped needletail
34. Alpine swift(L)
35. Crested treeswift
36. Brown fish owl (L)
37. Tawny fish owl(L)
38. Collared owlet(L)
39. Asian barred owlet
40. Large tailed nightjar(L)
41. Savanna nightjar
42. Rock pigeon
43. Oriental turtle dove
44. Laughing dove
45. Spotted dove
46. Red collared dove
47. Emerald dove
48. Yellow footed green pigeon
49. Brown crake(L)
50. River lapwing(L)
51. Red wattled lapwing
52. River tern
53. Osprey(L)
54. Oriental honey buzzard
55. Black shouldered kite
56. Black kite
57. Pallas fish eagle(L)
58. Lesser fish eagle(L)
59. Egyptian vulture
60. White rumped vulture(L)
61. Himalayan griffon(L)
62. Cinereous vulture(L)
63. Red headed vulture(L)
64. Crested serpent eagle
65. Shikra
66. Steppe eagle
67. Changeable hawk eagle(L)
68. Collared falconet(L)
69. Common kestrel
70. Peregrine falcon(L)
71. Great cormorant
72. Little egret
73. Intermediate egret
74. Indian pond heron
75. Black stork(L)
76. Woolly necked stork
77. Black necked stork(L)
78. Golden fronted leafbird
79. Bay backed shrike
80. Long tailed shrike
81. Grey backed shrike
82. Eurasian jay
83. Black headed jay
84. Red billed blue magpie
85. Common green magpie(L)
86. Rufous treepie
87. House crow
88. Large billed crow
89. Black hood oriole
90. Maroon oriole
91. Rosy minivet
92. Long tailed minivet
93. Scarlet minivet
94. Bar winged flycatcher shrike
95. White throated fantail
96. Black drongo
97. Ashy drongo
98. Spangled drongo
99. Bronzed drongo
100. Common iora
101. Large woodshrike(L)
102. Common woodshrike
103. Chestnut bellied rock thrush
104. Blue whistling thrush
105. Tickells thrush
106. Grey winged blackbird(L)
107. Red throated flycatcher
108. Ultramarine flycatcher(L)
109. Verditer flycatcher
110. Small niltava
111. Grey headed canary flycatcher
112. Oriental magpie robin
113. White rumped shama
114. Black redstart
115. White capped water redstart
116. Common stonechat
117. Pied bushchat
118. Grey bushchat
119. Isabelline wheatear(L)
120. Chestnut tailed starling
121. Common myna
122. Jungle myna
123. Northern Hill myna
124. Chestnut bellied nuthatch
125. White tailed nuthatch
126. Velvet fronted nuthatch
127. Bar tailed creeper(L)
128. Spot winged tit(L)
129. Great tit
130. Green backed tit
131. Black lored tit
132. Black throated tit(L)
133. Plain martin(L)
134. Barn swallow
135. Red rumped swallow
136. Red whiskered bulbul
137. Himalayan bulbul
138. Red vented bulbul
139. Ashy bulbul(L)
140. Mountain bulbul
141. Black bulbul
142. Zitting cisticola
143. Striated prinia
144. Grey breasted prinia
145. Ashy prinia
146. Plain prinia
147. Tickells leaf warbler
148. Sulphur bellied warbler(L)
149. Buff barred warbler(L)
150. Humes warbler
151. Blyths leaf warbler(L)
152. Whistlers warbler(L)
153. Grey hooded warbler
154. White throated laughing thrush
155. White crested laughing thrush
156. Streaked laughing thrush
157. Yellow eyed babbler
158. Jungle babbler
159. Red billed leiothrix
160. Blue winged minla
161. Rufous sibia
162. Oriental skylark(L)
163. Thick billed flowerpecker
164. Purple sunbird
165. Black throated sunbird(L)
166. Crimson sunbird
167. House sparrow
168. Russet sparrow
169. White browed wagtail
170. Grey wagtail
171. Paddyfield pipit
172. Tree pipit
173. Olive backed pipit
174. Common rosefinch
175. Chestnut eared bunting(L)
176. Pink browed rosefinch(L)
177. Altai accentor(L)
178. Mistle thrush(L)
179. Rufous bellied woodpecker(L)
180. Common wood pigeon(L)
181. Black faced warbler
182. Yellow browed tit
Others may please add whatever they have seen in additon
Cheers
Dr R Rajagopal
