Amidst the natural calls of Brown Headed Barbet, Grey Jungle Fowl and Greater Coucal, my mobile alarm at 6`o clock performed the role of perfect alien and played no difference to us since we were little tired and decided to sleep for another extra hour, which was beyond the schedule. This was the story of the second day`s start at Rajmachi, which had heavy cloud gatherings on atop the fort, for which we were planned to explore on this day, but couldn`t. The first day, given us many sightings, few of them lifer, few were uncommon and few were expected but the second day, was not that much promising.
The Rajmachi Nature Trek got 6 participants, a very decent number, ensured good sightings. Specially, at such famous trekking destinations, where hoards of people drop in during weekends and disturb the whole environs, we were much comfortable in this size.
The 10th September, 2011, Sarang Naik, Tushar Parab, Sushant More, Manish Nakhwa, Advait Ghaisas and me started our trek from Tungarli village, after having our breakfast at Lonavala city, at sharp 9.15am, as pre-decided. Rajmachi, was a long trek, covering 16 Kms of uphill walk, the closest point for Mumbaikars in Western Ghats. The sky was filled with clouds with slight rains and limited light for camera savvys. Our day started with as usual Red Whiskered Bulbul right at the base of Tungarli Dam and finished with a filmy type fight between multiple frogs at night, for an earth worm. The stunning Ulhas Valley and River, mesmerized all of us, with its fate, further down at Karjat, where it is most polluted. The short discussion with the local villager, confirmed the number of wild denizens have declined over the last 4-5 years, along with tree cover as well. He affirmed that Hyeana, Leopard and wild boar are still seen at occasions and predators were blamed for carrying away the local poultry occasionally. He denied to have seen vultures from last few years, which used to be abundant here, earlier according to him.
The second day 11th September, was spend much of trekking down on slippery hill slopes, on the way to Kondane caves and village, resulting in sudden fall on mossy rocks and getting hurt and obvious victims were Sushant, Advait and me. This day given us unforgettable sighting of an Orange Oakleaf, which was in my wish list, and was earlier recorded from Bhimashankar WLS. The surprising sighting was of Karvi, a single shrub, seen in blooming.
The two days nature trek went absolutely fine and all of us were very happy with the experience that we all had and promised to meet each other for our next trek to Kas (Maharashtra`s valley of flowers), Satara, scheduled in this month end.
Classified Sightings:
Birding –
Jungle Bush Quail
Grey Junglefowl
Indian Peafowl (heard)
White Cheeked Barbet
Brown Headed Barbet
Grey Hornbill (heard)
Small Blue Kingfisher
White Throated Kingfisher (heard)
Eurasian Cuckoo (heard)
Greater Coucal
House Swift
Alpine Swift
Laughing Dove
Spotted Dove
Yellow Footed Green Pigeon (observed at Karjat station)
Oriental Honey Buzzard
Pair of Common Kestrel (probably have killed a wolf snake)
Little Cormorant
Indian Cormorant
Rufous Treepie (Heard)
Large Billed Crow
Eurasian Golden Oriole
Large Cuckooshrike
Common Iora
Malabar Whistling Thrush (Heard)
Oriental Magpie Robin
Pied Bushchat
Dusky Craig Martin
Red Vented Bulbul
Red Whiskered Bulbul
Ashy Prinia
Grey Breasted Prinia
Jungle Babbler
Sunbird (?)
Wagtail (?)
Scaly Breasted Munia
Butterflies –
Plain Banded Awl
Malabar Spotted Flat
Common Spotted Flat
Tamil Grass Dart
Rice Swift
Chestnut Bob
Tailed Jay
Common Mormon
Blue Mormon
Common Grass Yellow
Common Jezebel
Glassy Tiger
Common Crow
Baronet
Common Castor
Chocolate Pansy
Great Eggfly
Lemon Pansy
Orange Oakleaf
Blue Oakleaf
Common Hedge Blue
Flora- (the name in brackets refer to local marathi name)
Costus speciosus (Koshta)
Clerodendrum serratum (Bharang)
Hibiscus Tetraphyllus (Ran bhendi)
Helicteres isora (Murud Sheng)
Carvia callosa (Karvi)
Ecbolium ligustrinum (Ekboli)
Lantana Camara (ghaneri)
Momordica dioica (Kartoli)
Thunbergia fragrans (Chimine)
Curculigo orchiodes (kali musali)
Curcuma Pseudomontana (Ran halad)
Hypoxis aurea (Sontara)
Zingiber neesanum (Nisam)
Eriocaulon sedgewickii (Gend)
Pinda Concanensis (Panda)
Begonia Crenata (Kapru)
Celosia argentea (Kombda)
Trichodesma indicum (Chhota kalpa)
Corchorus olitorius (Banpat)
Chlorophytum breviscapum (Phulkadi)
Habenaria longicorniculata (sheput Habe-amri)
Impatiens balsamina (Terda)
Impatiens lawii (Jambhala terda)
Exacum lawii (Lahan chirayat)
Exacum pumilum (Jambhli chirayat)
Aeginetia indica (Gulab-dani)
Conscora diffusa (Kilwar)
Senecio bombayensis (Sonki)
Commelina haskarlii (Kamalini)
Acacia Torta (Chilarwel)
Commelina diffusa (Gandologi)
Paracaryopsis lambertiana (Hirvi nisurdi)
Eclipta Prostrata (Bhringaraj)
Murdannia Spirata
Murdannia wightii
Murdannia versicolor
So, this was an end of the trip report………
Best Regards
Rajesh Sachdev
