![]() There is no dearth of colourful birds in this part of the country. They are also easy to spot almost anywhere one goes. If you observe it closely, you will that they too are really colourful. Then there was a Speckled Piculet that spent almost 5 minutes doing its feeding “dance” in front of us on an eye level branch enthralling to watch it! Look for it in the short video later in this post.Ī constant call that you will hear in the background is that of the Great Barbet. The less abundant ones we encountered were the Himalayan Woodpecker, Greater Yellownape and Rufous Woodpecker. They were a sight to behold with their colour. Almost always, its presence nearby was announced by its call. One of the loudest was the Grey-headed Woodpecker. The most prolific was the Brown-fronted Woodpecker. We did however see the Red-vented Bulbul and on one occasion also saw an Ashy Bulbul. ![]() The Bulbuls that we encountered the most were the Himalayan Bulbul and the Himalayan Black Bulbul. The sparrows that we see around usually are the Russet Sparrows. Sparrows, yes sparrows! Coming from a large city where it is not easy to get to see sparrows, it was a pleasure to see and hear them in plenty. Look for it darting around, It can also be seen putting its head into the flowering Rhododendrons. If you visit, it’s singing is not be missed!Īnother very common bird is the Rufous Sibia. I would be out by 6AM just to hear it singing. Here is a poor picture of it.įor me, the outstanding element on this bird, is its song. But if you were to get in the sun, one will then appreciate its beauty. It looks drab if you see it in the shade. They are also quite noisy well makes it easy to spot them □Īnother “omnipresent” bird is the Blue Whistling Thrush. It is also a bird whose beauty cannot be ignored, especially in flight and when it lands. One of the most wide-spread birds is Red-billed Blue Magpie. In this post, I will keep the “ Royals” till the last. The bird sightings that I share below is from across all these spots. These includes places like Chanfi, Sattal, Bhimtal, Bhawali etc. It was various locations around the area. It was not strictly only in Sattal that we birded. In this post, I will cover that of Sattal. Hence I will cover the sightings separately. So the sightings to be expected at these locations also differ. Sattal and Pangoot are at a distance of roughly 40kms and are at different elavations. Instead I will summarise, as a photo log, the sightings we had in the trip. ![]() It is surely something that the three of us will cherish. I will not get into the details of each of birding sessions. We usually had 3 birding sessions during the day and then ended with sitting out till dinner listening to the nocturnal birds calling. We would then head out to various locations for the first birding. I certainly did not want to miss hearing all this. But the calls of the birds would start morning calls of diurnal birds as well as the calls of the nocturnal birds like owls and nightjars just before they settled into their day roost sites. The day usually started at 6AM when we would be out. A picture of us at the station was mandatory before we headed on □. He had sent a member of his team to pick us up from the Kathgodam railway station. We had booked our stay and birding with Hari Lama. We flew into Delhi from Bangalore and then took the overnight train to Kathgodam, reaching there by 5AM. However a last minute medical emergency at home saw Vignesh sadly having to drop out. The four of us had planned to be part of the trip. It was an 8 days trip including the to and fro from Bangalore, with effectively 7 days of birding. So when my friend Ajit mentioned in our Birding Buddies (Ajit, Vignesh, Kumar and I) get together that he was considering a trip there, I needed no further cajoling.Īfter 8 months of waiting, the trip finally happened starting 29th Feb. I had heard so much about birding around Sattal and Pangoot from several people that they became “must visit” destinations for me.
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