Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Great Himalayan Birdcount - 2010






Time: 11.00 AM Date: 27th October, 2010 Place: Manthan, Dehradun, Uttarakhand

The smile on Prateek’s face, this time, was more confident and charming, when he addressed the entire gathering of more than 120 participants and 30 students during the inaugural session of the 3rd Great Himalayan Birdcount. His dream/ambition of bringing Uttarakhand on global birding map seemed not to be remote possibility and his role of being a state coordinator of IBCN would definitely bring him close to his objective. Required is the help/support from the fellow birders of this great nation to concretize the road to the Uttarakhand – the entry gate of Migrant birds to India, through Himalayas. His role of managing the logistics of such great event was highly applauded from all the corners at Manthan. The logistics of putting 5-6 birders in every group, heading towards Himalayan kingdom, was perfectly penciled by the team of Dr. Banerjee, Mr. Kumar and Mr. & Mrs. Panwar.

Mr. Prateek Panwar had surprise question for me as and when I entered in the conference hall. He asked “Rajeshji what made you and your team travel 2000 Kms for the birdcount?.” My team, yes, my team travelled literally beyond 2000 Kms from Kalyan to Dehradun in search of birds and I owe thanks to Sanjay Kulkarni, Pradnyavant Mane, Paresh Gosavi and Harishchandra Mhatre for teaming up with me for this annual event of birding. My answer to Prateek’s simple question was little complex “Prateekji, I am here in search of what is unseen in the mountains of Sahyadri (Western Ghats). Himalayan Range is the gateway of Migrant Birds to India and Uttarakhand is such door, which welcome these feathered friends. Knowing the density of Birds being sparse, but status of these birds would be either rare or regional endemic or altitude migrants or local migrants”. With the same thinking I feel more then 50% of birders in the hall were from rest of the country and not only from North India. One such famous birding personality Mr. Abhishek Sahay Verma, thankfully brought and handed over Altimeter watch, imported from USA, which shall be helpful to me for reading altitude levels, temperature and wind pressure along with local weather forecast.

Finally after team allotment and birding and medical kit I, the team leader of Group No. 5 along with my team, asked our tour assistant-cum-driver Mr. Naushadji to take us to Yamunotri via Yamunapul, Barkot, Hanumanchatti and Janakichatti. At around 02.30 PM we all left Manthan and headed towards Musoori for some shopping of woolen clothes. Although we took little more than 2 hours for shopping in the Mussoori, but it was exciting to negotiate with local traders. Perhaps Naushadji was little annoyed with us for being late and was little hesitant for our vehicle being allowed to pass through Jamta after 08.00 PM, as restricted by the state government. And thankfully our vehicle reached Jamta 07.30PM and we were allowed to pass on through the barrier. The road from here to Barkot was in severe bad conditions due to recent heavy rains in September. The movement of vehicles was almost zero during this time. Perhaps this was the only opportunity for us to encounter wild mammals and one such sighting was a Fox and then it was road travelled with such more sightings of Jackals and Porcupine. We reached Barkot Forest Rest House (FRH) at around 09.30 PM, it was at 1264 Mts altitude and was built way back in 1965. The minimum temperature recorded here on this night was 15 degree Celsius. We are thankful to Mr. Rawatji – The FRH guard for his hospitality.

On 28th October 2010 from Barkot FRH to Hanuman Chatti we travelled apprx 25 KMS in vehicle birding at culverts, curves and streams. Listed below are the sequence and altitude and place of birds recorded on this route.

Sr. No.

Name of Bird

Location

Altitude

01

Grey Treepie (few)

All along the route

-

02

Red Billed Blue Magpie (few)

All along the route

-

03

Grey Faced Woodpecker (single)

Near Barkot FRH

1264 Mtr

04

Blue Whistling Thrush (several)

All along the route

-

05

Spotted Forktail (Single)

On the route (Stream)

1390 Mtr

06

Himalayan Griffon (several)

All along the route

-

07

Grey Hooded Warbler (Single)

On the route

-

08

Himalayan Bulbul (few)

All along the route

-

09

Great Tit (Single)

On the route

-

10

Grey Wagtail (Single)

On the route

-

11

White Capped Water Redtstart (few)

All along the route (Streams)

-

12

Whiskered Yuhina (Single)

On the route


13

Plumbeous Redstart (single)

Dodati Pool (sayanachatti)

1832 Mtr

At mid of the day, we reached Hanumanchatti – which is a small village with mere 20-25 families live and survive on the local product such as potato and peas. The village is situated near Ramganga River Project and is at height of 1947 Mtr. We had another cup of tea here and discussed with villagers about the local name of the birds. Hereafter we started our drive-cum-birding to Janakichatti, which is few kilometers of drive, uphill. Another list of birding follows on the route.

Sr. No.

Name of Bird

Location

Altitude

14

Green Backed Tit (Very Few)

On the route

-

15

Bartailed tree Creeper (Single)

On the route

-

16

Lammergier (Single)

Hovering above the route

-

17

Warbler (?)

On the route

-

18

Himalayan Wood Pecker (Single)

On the route

2113 Mtr

19

Small Raptor (?)

On the route

-

At 06.30 PM we reached Janakichatti FRH (at 2548 Mtr, Built in 1974) and were greeted by the hostile staff. Mr. Rana, who paid special attention to us and left no stone turned in our care. That night we were served food brought from outside and at 09.00 PM we went to sleep, whereas the temperature was just below 15 degree Celsius.

Next Morning 29th Nov at 06.00 AM the temperature was 6 degree Celsius and it was literally freezing our blood, but we were decided for birding from the FRH to Yamunotri shrine (3049 Mtrs). We were supposed to climb more than 500 mtrs through 5 kms of uphill trek. Ranaji excitedly agreed to join us for birdcount. After having our breakfast (maggi mania) and hot black tea, we left for yamunotri shrine at 07.00 AM. Below is the list of sighting.

Sr. No.

Name of Bird

Location

Altitude

20

Khaleej Pheasent (2 Male & 1 Female)

On the route to Yamunotri

-

21

Snow Pigeons (40+)

On the route to Yamunotri

2800 Mtr

22

Eurasian Griffon (Single)

Hovering above the route

-

23

Golden Speckled Warbler (One)

On the route to Yamunotri

-

24

Pink Browed Rosefinch

2 Kms from Yamunotri shrine

-

25

Rufous Gorgeted Flycatchers (Single)

Back to FRH

2700 mtrs

26

Golden Eagle (Single)

Above Yamunotri Shrine

-

These 5 kms uphill and reverse really took our entire day and we were almost exhausted reaching FRH at 06.30 PM. Pradnyavant Mane given up on his health, perhaps because of dramatic change of altitude pattern in oxygen. By 9.00 PM we decided to return back to Barkot FRH, so that we can cover next day for birding from Barkot to Dehradoon. By 11.00 PM we all reached Barkot and slept immediately.

Next morning 30th October, 2010 the climate was comparatively hot (18 degree C) and we drove down from Barkot (1264 mtr) to Dehradoon (635 mtr) in search of few more sightings.

Sr. No.

Name of Bird

Location

Altitude

27

Rufous Breasted Accentor

On the route

-

28

Russet Sparrow

On the route

-

29

Red Vented Bulbul

On the route

-

30

Hill Pigeon

On the route

-

31

Grey hooded Warbler

On the route

-

32

Little Swift

On the route

-

33

Himalayan Bulbul

On the route

-

34

Common Kestrel

On the route

-

35

Goshawk (?)

On the route

-

36

Scaly Breasted Munia

On the route

-

37

Oriental White Eye

On the route

-

38

Crimson Back Sunbird

On the route

-

39

Rufous Vented Tit

On the route

-

40

Variegated Laughing Thrush

On the route

-

And this was all an end, when we reached Manthan at 03.00 PM, here we promised and paid our token of next year’s birdcount in advance. And yes, on the way to Mumbai from Delhi, we saw 3 pairs of sarus cranes, wooly necked storks, Vultures and blackbucks near the railway tracks in Rajasthan.

2 comments:

Shantanu joshi said...

Superb report sir!
Inspired me, I will surely go to Himalayan BirdCount this year, Thanks.

House Sparrow Man said...

Hi Rajesh Bhai
You are coordinator for Mumbai
you can very well write that too in your intro and your blog.

thanks for sharing a beautiful report
prateek