Tuesday, March 6
Our flights were
on schedule and though long we survived them rather well. It helped to have exit row seats for the
14-hour Newark-Delhi segment. We arrived
45 minutes early but lost the advantage this gave us when the driver from the
hotel was nowhere to be found. We had to
hire a taxi, and the driver did not know how to find the hotel. Fortunately, Vaibhav, our guide, was already
there and with a couple of phone calls we found it. It was a total dump, and at $92 was an
expensive one. We had found it on the
web, where the description sounded fine.
In reality there was no airport pickup, no credit cards accepted, and the
desk manager inflated the price above the advertised one, pretty much saying
take it or leave it. But it was way too
late at night to change. The room was
tiny and the shower over the toilet barely worked. The water was tepid at best. But we quickly turned in for 4 hours sleep.
 |
| White-rumped Vulture |
Thursday, March 8
 |
| Asian Pied Starling |
We were up at
2:45 am, had coffee and showers and left at 3:30 am to avoid the many religious
processions expected on this Hindu holiday of Holi. Along the way, we stopped at a wetland area
to photograph birds, including a White-rumped Vulture on a nest and some Asian Pied Starlings. But we still got to the edge of Corbett National Park at
about 9 am. We stopped at Tiger Camp lodge
for breakfast, went off birding for a couple of hours, then returned to Tiger
Camp for lunch. After lunch, our local
guide, Durga, and driver met us with an open safari vehicle, known as a
"gypsy" in India, and we headed into the park.
We had lots of good bird sightings including
some of our target species. And we even
saw a large male tiger for a few moments as it walked down the road well ahead
of us and turned into the bush. We made
it to Dhikala Camp inside the park just before they closed the electric fence
at 6 pm. Our room was basic but
large. There was a dry lightening storm
and we lost power to the outlets just as
we were turning in, meaning we couldn't charge anything overnight or make
coffee early in the morning. We saw 70
species today, 9 of them new.
 |
| Dhikala Camp |
Friday, March 9
We set off this
morning after breakfast at the camp. But
as we were moving toward our gypsy, Nancy spotted a small owl in a tree. It was an Asian Barred Owlet.
 |
| Asian Barred Owlet |
Then, just as we left the camp gates, we came
upon a Golden Jackal fawn kill. The
jackal was trying to bury it, and he pushed dirt with his nose just like
Charley does with a bone. The dead fawn
had attracted an Egyptian Vulture and to our delight a Red-headed Vulture,
which was new for us.
 |
| Egyptian Vulture |
A few hundred feet
further down the track, we spotted another small owl in a nearby tree.
It was another lifer for us, a Jungle Owlet, and it was posing well for
photos. It was barely light and we
enjoyed hearing the call of the owlet and being surrounded by natural land and
wildlife.
 |
| Jungle Owlet |
We returned to camp at noon
for a bit of a rest and to pack up and clear out of our rooms before
lunch. During the lunch break Nancy
photographed the Rhesus Monkeys running around the camp. She wanted to find some in the shade since
the noon sun was so hot and bright. She
found several females clutching very small babies to their chests. When she tried to take photographs, the
females barred their sizable teeth and acted aggressive. She decided to leave them alone and backed
off into a patch of stinging nettles. As
she then backed away from the nettles she almost walked into a very active
colony of bees. It was then she decided
to look elsewhere for monkeys. Near the
dining hall a troop of monkeys were moving through the trees and she was able
to photograph them without incident.
After
lunch, we set off again, this time to the banks of the Rama Ganges River to
enjoy the spectacle of a small cow herd of Asian Elephants, which we had never
before seen in the wild. We stayed with
them for nearly half an hour, watching them drink and bathe. It was a wonderful sight and made for some
excellent photography for both of us.
There
were many herds of wild deer grazing in the expansive grasslands. We then began our slow drive back the 35 km
to the park gate. Along the way, as we
passed through some mature forest, we were very lucky to spot two of our prime
targets, both of which had eluded us in Bhutan:
the Brown Fish Owl, and the Tawny Fish Owl. These birds were large and very impressive. The Tawny was especially interesting with its
very long ear tufts.
 |
| Brown Fish-owl |
 |
| Tawny Fish-owl |
We made it to the
gate just at the stroke of 6 pm, which is when the gates close for the night. We continued on to Tiger Camp, where we were
delighted with the luxurious chalet and wonderful hot shower. With jet lag still bugging us, we both got a
good night's sleep. We saw 80 birds
today, bringing our trip total to 127 with 21 new species.
 |
| Tiger Camp |
Saturday, March 10
Breakfast was at
6:30 am and we set off a little after 7 am, this time in our Toyota
Innova. On our way north from camp, we passed a sign that summed up a view of the world that we very much support.
We spent the morning birding
places Durga knew for our target species.
We started the morning at a temple area by the Kosi River that is now a
very wide expanse of tumbled rock several hundred feet across. We could only imagine what a raging torrent
it must be during the monsoons. Nancy
got photos of a Wallcreeper. While we
were out on the long bridge, a Peregrine flew through scattering pigeons far
and wide. During the rest of the morning
we birded wooded and moist areas along the road, and we saw such birds as
Brown-capped Woodpecker, Crested Kingfisher, Gray-winged Blackbird and Plum-headed Parakeet.
 |
| Crested Kingfisher |
 |
| Plum-headed Parakeet |
 |
| Gray-winged Blackbird |
 |
| Collared Scops-owl |
Then back to
Tiger Camp for lunch and a rest before heading up into the hills east of the
national park for more birding. The
dining area for Tiger Camp was a lovely open-sided building and you could enjoy
the breezes and feeling of being outside.
The food was buffet style with lots of choices and was very good. A pair of Collared Scops Owls day roosted in
a nearby patch of bamboo and did not mind being looked at. That afternoon birding was very successful,
with things like Streaked Laughingthrush, Pale-billed Flowerpecker and
Black-lored Tit expertly spotted by Durga.
Nancy managed to get some good pictures and even got a record shot of a
Chestnut-headed Wren-babbler way down in some dark bushes. We saw 65 bird species today, 9 of them new,
bringing our trip totals to 159 species, 29 of them new.
Sunday, March 11
We departed a
little after 7 am and headed back north along the park boundary. Durga heard a woodpecker out the car window
as we cruised down the road, and it was indeed one of our target species, the
Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker.
 |
| Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker |
 |
| Rufous-bellied Niltava |
We also
stopped to admire a juvenile Changeable Hawk-eagle perched in a tree near the
road. We climbed back up the mountain to
the same little valley we had birded the previous afternoon to look for more of
our target species, and particularly the Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler. We heard the bird, but it never came out
where we could see it. We did see a Rock Bunting,
another new species, and we enjoyed good looks at the Red-billed Leiotrix, the
Red-billed Blue Magpie and the beautiful Rufous-bellied Niltava..
We then drove down a track along the upper
reaches of the Kosi River to see the front view of a Brown Fish-owl, as we had
only seen it from the back two days ago.
The owl was on a day roost in a large shrub quite a ways up a steep slope. Nancy struggled for a clear view and managed
to get some good photos. We then walked down to the river, where we saw a Brown
Dipper. On the way back to our lodge, we
stopped again at a small wetland for another unsuccessful try at the
wren-babblers. It was then time for
lunch so we returned to our lodge.
 |
| MuntjacAt 2
pm, we boarded an open jeep and headed into the park, this time through a more
southern gate. Our driver went fast
along the track and we didn't know why, until we got to a camp, where we
learned we were to take an elephant ride, which was prepaid. So Nancy, Vaibhav, Durga and I all climbed up
stairs to a boarding platform and got on top of very large 40-year-old female
Asian Elephant named Ahsah, with her mahout, Wezzine. |
 |
Crescent Serpent-eagle at close range
from elephant-back |
We spent two hours up on a riding platform on
her back as she ambled through the bush. Your legs hang out over the platform onto the
side of the elephant. There is a low
handrail to hang on to as the elephant rocks back and forth as she walks. Her rhythm was somewhat like a horse and it
was easy for us to rock with her. It was a wonderful perspective, and we marvelled
at how Chital and a Crescent Serpent-eagle let us get extremely close, as they
saw us as just part of the elephant. Of
course, the mahout, who sits just behind her ears, was on the look-out for
tiger, and though we saw fresh tracks, we did not see any. Ahsah tried several times to snack along the
way, and Wezzine had to discipline her a bit when she tried to stop and feast
on small trees. She would wrap her
strong trunk around the trunk of a small tree and then just break if off. Then she would strip the leaves off to
eat. The entire afternoon was quite an
experience! On the drive out, we had
quick looks at another target bird, the Streak-throated Woodpecker. We went on into Ramnagar to get more cash at
an ATM. It turns out that much larger tips
than we had planned for are expected. We
said goodbye to Durga and headed back to Tiger Camp for a shower and dinner.
Our local guide for the next six days, Harry Lama, was waiting to say hello to
us. He will accompany us through the
hill country, where he lives.
We saw 62 bird
species today, 4 of them new, for a trip total of 176 birds of which 33 are new
for us.
Monday, March 12
Breakfast was at
7 am today. We loaded the car with all
of our baggage, and with 4 of us plus the driver it was cramped. We went through Ramnagar and stopped at the
dam, where we saw lots of Red Shellducks down in the water. Then it was back in the car for an hour to
Corbett Falls.
 |
| At Corbett Falls with Vaibhav |
It was a delightful small
park with lots of tall trees and was operated by the Forest Service. We got three new species there: Whistler's Warbler, Western Crowned Warbler,
and Dark-sided Thrush. Hari proved his
birding skills. He is without doubt the
best local guide in this area. We also
saw Greater Racket-tailed Drongo with his rackets, and Hume's Leaf-warbler with
a dark bill. By the way, the waterfall was lovely. We then drove two hours up
into the Himalayan foothills, climbing on a very narrow road to above 7000 feet
before dropping down toward Pangot. Along the way, we had a distant view of India's high Himalayas, reminiscent of our recent trip to Bhutan.
We
stopped just outside of Pangot for some road birding, where we picked up
Black-crested Tit and Black-throated Tit.
 |
| Black-throated Tit |
We arrived at the Jungle Lore Birding Lodge in time for lunch. We were given a very charming and rustic
chalet above the garden. The food was
nothing special, but sitting on our lovely balcony, Nancy spotted a
Black-headed Jay, another new bird for us.
 |
| Black-headed Jay |
 |
| Rufous-breasted Accentor |
In the afternoon, we drove down a narrow gravel road
carved out of the steep mountainside to some areas where Hari had
stakeouts. A scrubby valley produced
Pink-browed Rosefinch, a new bird for us, as well as Common Rosefinch and a
couple of gorgeous Rufous-breasted Accentors, which Nancy managed to
photograph. We also saw Gray-capped
Prinia, another new bird. It was also
fun to see some birds we saw often in Bhutan, like Whiskered Yuhina and
Blue-winged Minla. At another stop, we
saw Golden Bush-robin, a lifer, and a gorgeous male Blue Magpie with its
streaming tail that undulated when it flew.
We heard Collared Owlet, a common sound in the Bhutanese forest, and Hari
played its call but it didn't come in.
The last bird of the day was a female White-capped Bunting, which Chuck
saw but Nancy missed when she looked for it on the wrong overhead wire. Dinner was typical, and the young gal who
runs the lodge had us fill out all the paperwork required by the government at
every stop. We’ve now seen 206 species
with 9 new birds today for total of 42 lifers.
 |
| Our upstairs room with a big balcony at the Jungle Lore Birding Lodge |
Tuesday, March 14
Storms started at midnight. It was a ferocious mixture of rain, sleet,
hail, snow, and wind. The power was knocked out and we had only two small
lights in our chalet, powered by battery backup, so we couldn’t continue
charging anything. We delayed our
departure this morning as the roads were icy and dangerous but we eventually
headed up the mountain. On the way we
saw Koklass Pheasant, which was new, plus Kalij Pheasant, which we had seen in
Bhutan.
 |
| Kalij Pheasant |
We went up into the very high
grasslands in search of the Cheer Pheasant and spent a long time looking for
it, but without success. Hari Lama surmised
that it was put down by the bad weather.
We did see the mountain sheep Ghoral, which was a life mammal for
us, far down the hill below us. On our return down the mountain, we
had a flat tire and went birding while Lakmi, our driver, changed it. We saw Bar-tailed Treecreeper as well as two
life woodpeckers, Himalayan and Rufous-breasted. During lunch at the lodge, we had more rain
so Hari decided to take us down hill to an area we had visited yesterday. At the place where we parked the car, the dog
we had petted yesterday had been taken by a leopard over night. We saw a male Chestnut-breasted
(White-capped) Bunting.
 |
| Chestnut-breasted Bunting |
Back at the
lodge, we found the power was still out, which meant no hot water, no heat for the
room and no charging batteries. The
staff brought buckets of hot water for Nancy to shower with,
but Chuck opted against showering. It was
cold during the night, and we were very glad for the hot water bottles and the
heavy blankets. We saw 53 bird species
today, 6 of them new, bringing our totals to 224 for the trip with 48 new birds.
Wednesday, March 14
The storm system moved out overnight, and we went back up
the mountain to look for the Cheer Pheasant.
This time we found it, far down below us feeding in the grasses. We also saw a gorgeous Lammergeier perched on
a rock, then the Brown-fronted Woodpecker and a flyby by Besra. We had a lovely walk in the woods below the
grasslands looking for thrushes. At this
time of year winter birds are leaving and summer birds are arriving so it is a
gamble on what we would see. We did see
several noisy Eurasian Jays. In the
afternoon, we went to Killbury where the
British took activist leaders, executed them and buried them, thus the name
“kill” and “bury”. Our target was again thrushes. We had good looks at the beautiful Chestnut
Thrush but it was not new. The forest
was beautiful and as we walked through it we flushed a pair of Eurasian
Woodcock. On the way back to Pangot, we
walked up a streambed. We had good looks
at a Long-billed Thrush which we had seen in Corbett and flushed a Eurasian
Eagle-owl which was new.
 |
| Plain-backed Thrush |
Upon returning
to the lodge, we took a short walk down the road in search of a ground-feeding
woodpecker and while we didn’t find it, we did spot a Plain-backed Thrush in a neighboring
garden. Nancy and Vaibhav got some good
pictures of this target bird. The power
was finally restored at about 6:30 pm. The
dining room had a small fireplace and since it was still cold we enjoyed having
the heat during dinner. The garden just
below the dining room had bird feeders and during the lunch break Nancy enjoyed
photographing some of the birds there. With 40 birds today, 6 of them new, our
totals now stand at 239 total species, with 54 of them new for us, such as the
White-throated Laughingthrush.
 |
| White-throated Laughingthrush |
Thursday, March 15
We awakened at 5:15 am and with power restored, we were
able to enjoy coffee in bed for first time in Pangot. At 5:37 am we were surprised to hear a knock
on the door and found one of the staff delivering Chuck’s laundry! We guessed they saw our light on. We drove to the outskirts of Nainital where
we spent two hours looking for birds on the edge of a neighborhood where
residents unfortunately but routinely pitched their garbage down the steep
wooded hillside. After considerable
searching, Hari called in a beautiful male Hill Partridge. Nancy was disappointed that she hadn't
carried her camera. She went back to the
car to get it, in time to photograph another target, a Long-tailed Thrush. Then it was back to Pangot for lunch and to
pack up. We went back through Nainital
and on to Sattal, which is a small mountain resort community tucked into the
hills. In HindI, "Sat" means "seven"
and "tal" means "lake”. Thus, it is the community of Seven Lakes.
Along the way, we stopped at a garbage dump on the side of a steep hill, where garbage trucks back up to the cliff edge and send their load over the side. This is a great attraction to raptors, especially Steppe Eagles. Nancy stood among all the garbage at the cliff edge to photograph flying birds.
Our lodgings were at the Sattal Birding Camp,
a series of nice wall tents with ensuite bathrooms set on terraces spilling
down the hillside. The tents are bright
and airy in the daylight and cozy at night.
The climate here was much warmer than at Pangot. We had some problems checking in as they did
not seem to expect us. A light fixture
in our bathroom -- if you want to call a socket hanging from a wire a
"fixture" -- was broken and the camp cook replaced it at our
request. Then we found out the hard way
that we only had one propane bottle for the room and it was hooked to the
in-room heater so when Chuck went to take a shower, there was no hot water. He
had to pull on a pair of pants and climb the hill to the dining room to get
someone to move the gas bottle from the room heater to the water heater. These folks need a little more training!
 |
| Our tent at Sattal Birding Camp |
In the late afternoon, we went birding down by a couple of the lakes, in a park area. We were surprised to see Kalij Pheasants -- 8 of them in all -- out in plain sight feeding on the ground. Nancy got photos of them as well as of a vocal group of White crested Laughingthrushes. The whole area was a bit run down but quite nice nonetheless. We saw 38 species today, 2 of them new,bringing our totals to 243 species for the trip, 56 of them new.
 |
| White-crested Laughingthrush |
 |
| Vaibhav Mishra and Hari Llama, our birding guides |
Friday, March 16
We enjoyed a cup of coffee in our tent at 5:30 and
listened to the forest wake up. Breakfast
was at 6 am. The food here is more to
our liking as they go easy on the spices.
We set off in the car up the mountain to a residential area that is one
of Hari's special locales. Right off, we
saw Tickell's Thrush, a lifer, followed by a Fire-fronted Serin. We then walked down the narrow pedestrian
path between the houses to a ravine, where Hari called in a Scaly-breasted
Wren-babbler. The little bird came right
out in plain sight, very unusual for this skulker. We even could admire it through the scope,
and Nancy got pictures of it! Chuck had
had a glimpse of this bird in Bhutan, but it was new for Nancy, and Chuck got a
much better look at it.
 |
| Scaly-breasted Wren-babbler |
We then heard
the call of another lifer, a Scaly-bellied Woodpecker and found it high in a
thin tall tree. Finally, it was time to
get a good look at a male Dark-breasted Rosefinch, which was almost maroon in
color. After a walk along another forest
path, we returned early to our camp as bird activity had slowed and so Nancy
could work on deleting photos to make more storage space in the computer.
 |
| Verditer Flycatcher |
 |
| Ultramarine Flycatcher |
 |
| Dinner with Hans Peeters & Pam at Sattal Lodge |
In the afternoon we returned to the nice
park area, where Nancy photographed Verditer and Ultramarine Flycatchers bathing in a small stream. She was joined by Hans Peeters, a retired
ornithology professor from California.
He and his wife Pam are also staying at the Sattal Birding Lodge and we
enjoyed talking with them. Chuck went
off birding with Hari and Vaibhav and had a fast glimpse of a Gray-sided
Bush-warbler. We each got 5 new birds
today, bringing our trip totals to 256 species, of which 61 were new.
 |
| Jungle Babblers allopreening |
Saturday, March 17
This was a rather relaxed birding day. We started out hiking in a steep valley near
our birding lodge. To Hari's chagrin, we
found no bush warblers. We then went to
a stream where Nancy photographed forktails and dippers, including a spotted
juvenile dipper. We returned to camp
early for a good midday rest, then drove to Naukuchiyatal where Chuck just
happened to be interviewed by a local TV station about the terrible condition
of the road. We birded our way around
the lake, and Nancy found a pair of Jungle Babblers to photograph, recording their allopreening . We had several Phylloscopus
warblers, and Hari demonstrated his expertise by pointing out the salient
characteristics of each, including the Green Warbler, which was new for
us. We had tea at a Tourism Department
rest house, built in 1857 by the British as a hill station retreat. It is being beautifully maintained. Nancy photographed an Asian Barred Owlet and
a pair of Great Barbets in the garden.
Then it was back to our camp to pack up, eat dinner and say farewell to
Hari. After we returned to our tent,
Nancy spent 20 minutes peeping through the canvas door of our bathroom hoping
to see what kind of small animal came in each night to steal our bar of
soap. While we heard the pitter patter
of little feet, it did not come in until we were fast asleep. So far, we have seen 264 species, 62 of them
new.
Sunday, March 18
Today was a driving day, winding down out of the
mountains and onto the plains headed for Agra.
The roads and traffic were awful, especially in the cities. And as in much of Asia, we passed through
huge cities that we had never heard of.
With 230 million people and a relatively small land area, Uttar Pradesh
has one of the highest population densities of any Indian state. And our long trip through it was everything
one thinks of about India, and more so.
We were well off the tourist route and saw teeming cities in which the
quality of life is awful, reminiscent to Chuck of the back streets of Lagos or
Kinshasa. Infrastructure such as water,
sewer, maintained roads, trash collection, etc. is sorely lacking, attesting to
the corruption and incompetence that characterizes the political leadership of
this state. And the corruption extends
down to the local level. Our car was
from Delhi, i.e. out of state, and we had to stop at an office to pay a road
tax. In addition, our driver had to pay
a 100 rupee bribe to get the receipt.
Outside of the towns, the area was intensively farmed, with wheat, rice
and sugar cane among the main crops.
Saplings are also grown for matchsticks.
In some areas, the roads had so many potholes it was like Zambia after
the rainy season. We drove through a
seemingly endless stream of villages with people, motorbikes, 3-wheeled taxis,
ox carts, cattle, dogs, more dogs, monkeys and lots of people milling around in
the roads. It took forever. We stopped at a roadhouse at lunchtime. Vaibhav and Lakmi had food, but Nancy and I
opted against it as it was probably not safe for us to eat. Vaibhav concurred. Nancy and I ate power bars, fruit and had soda
from a bottle. Our earphones were the
saving grace for us. We both had them on
a good part of the time, listening to soothing music and cutting out the
constant blare of horns, loud trucks, etc.
We went 230 miles and it took us just over 12 hours to do so, meaning our
average speed was only 20 mph! In Agra,
we stayed at the Pushp Palace Hotel, with "Pushp" meaning
"flower." It was fairly basic
but had a good shower and was quite ok.
We had dinner in their revolving restaurant up on the 7th floor that
overlooked the city of Agra. Exhausted,
we fell into bed.
 |
| Bar-headed Goose |
Monday, March 19
We got up quite early and left with packed breakfasts for
the Chambal River. We first stopped at
the Chambal Birding Lodge, a beautiful old establishment with beautiful woods
and gardens and a main building bedecked with blooming bougainvillea. We picked up the hotel assistant manager who
was to accompany us on the boat ride. We
drove quite a ways down to a river access point. While getting the boat organized, Nancy photographed
a nice flock of Bar-headed Geese that had not yet set off on their
extraordinary migration over the 25,000+ foot peaks of the Himalayas. Once aboard the boat, we concentrated on
finding our targets. We first found a
couple of Red-crested Pochards,a Great Thick-knee, then a nice flock of the endangered Indian
Skimmer, a Pied Kingfisher, a Comb Duck and finally
a few endangered Black-bellied Terns.
 |
| Great Thick-knee |
 |
| India Skimmers |
 |
| Pied Kingfisher |
 |
| Comb Duck |
 |
| Black-bellied Tern |
We
also saw several big "muggers" or crocodiles, and the long-snouted
Indian Gharial, which superficially resembles an alligator.
 |
| "Mugger" |
 |
| Gharial |
By about half way through the boat trip,
Nancy had severe cramping and had to get off the boat and head behind a
dune. She made it back to the Chambal
Birding Lodge, where we arranged for her to have a room with a bathroom to rest
in while Chuck had lunch in the garden, with the other guests.
Chuck asked a nice British woman for some
Imodium, which she helpfully supplied, giving Nancy what she needed to make the
long journey back to the hotel in Agra.
In Agra, Chuck went out with Lakmi and Vaibhav in search of an ATM to get
more Rupees (the tips here this time are killing us!) and to look at a garment
shop. He found a nice shirt but did not
want to buy it until Nancy could have a look too.
They went back to the hotel, fetched Nancy,
and went to visit the Taj Mahal before it closed. The nearest ticket window was closed, so we
had to walk through a bunch of back streets, which was tough on Nancy in her
weakened condition, but she persevered.
Once inside the Taj Mahal grounds, we joined thouands of Indians and a
few foreigners to take pictures of this marvelous structure, gleaming in the
late afternoon light. Nancy took
pictures from many different positions, and Chuck took quite a few too. A very nice local gentlemen directed us to
several vantage points to get particularly good photos. He said he was an avid photographer and liked
helping others get good images. We then
went back to the shop, where Chuck bought the patterend silk shirt he liked,
and Nancy bought a tunic shirt. That
evening, Nancy, still not feeling well, skipped dinner and worked on deleting
unwanted photos from the laptop, while Chuck and Vaibhav went out to dinner at
a nearby restaurant Lakmi recommended.
We were up and out of the hotel with our luggage at 5:30
am for the 1 1/2-hour drive to Bharatpur and Keoladeo National Park. At the park, we picked up a seasoned bird
guide and boarded rikshaws to look for our target species. We did quite well. We saw 3 Dusky Eagle-owls and Nancy managed
to get some pictures of them. She got an excellent shot of another of our
targets, the Orange-headed Thrush and the Oriental Honey-buzzard.
Vaibhav spotted an Indian Vulture perched on a distant tree, and we had
good scope views. Then the guys found us
a White-tailed Lapwing. While we looked
long and hard for the Common Hawk-cuckoo and the Indian Golden Oriole, both
eluded us.
 |
| Orange-headed Thrush |
 |
| Oriental Honey-buzzard |
Then it was back to Bharatpur
to Vaibhav's house for lunch and to meet his family. It was really nice to meet them, after having
spent so much time with Vaibhav both this year and last. His lovely wife and mother cooked us a meal
fit for a king. It was the most
delicious food of the trip.
Then we said
goodbye to Vaibhav, with this part of our birding trip finished, and Lakmi
drove us the 4 hours to Delhi. We had
the VIP suite in the Star Grand Villa Hotel, which had been arranged for us by
Asian Adventures in lieu of that terrible hotel we had found on the web. With both of us tired, and Nancy still
recovering, we had soup and chocolate ice cream in the hotel restaurant before
turning in. At 9 pm, Nancy looked at our
e-tickets for our flight the next morning and discovered that Chuck had never
changed the time in his PDA from the earlier flight we had booked on
Kingfisher. He then had to call IndiGo
to confirm the later departure, then change the pick up time for our car from
4:30 am to 6:30 am and advise Harshad in Nagpur. With that all accomplished, we fell into bed
about 10 pm.
We saw 316 species of birds, 69 of them new, on the North
India part of our trip. We also saw 14
species of mammal, 5 of which were new.
 |
| Our room at the Royal Tiger Resort |
Wednesday, March
21
Our car was right on time to pick us up, and we headed to
the Delhi domestic air terminal where we promptly checked in for our IndiGo
flight to Nagpur. Security was a bit of
a drill, as they wanted us to take out all cameras, optics and electronics before
scanning our hand luggage. We then went
to the food court, where Nancy had fruit and Chuck had a cheese sandwich, as
well as reasonablly good coffee. Our
flight was great. IndiGo is a very
switched on airline. And Nancy's big
camera bag even fit in the overhead storage compartment. Once in Nagpur, we had to wait only a few
minutes for Harshad to come. We drove
straight to Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, after a brief stop for gas and
another ATM. Harshad had a copy of his
beautiful photo book on tigers for us, which Nancy had ordered. It just came out in the last week.
The drive to Tadoba took about 3 hours. The Royal Tiger Resort was basic but quite
comfortable, though the food was nothing to write home about and mostly too
spicey. We had a late lunch (late for us
but not for Indians with their very late eating schedule), and boarded an open
jeep, or gypsy, for our first safari into the park. We drove around looking for tiger, seeing a
huge Gaur along the way, as well as lots of Chital, Muntjac, Sambar and
Nilgai. An orphaned, semi-tame Nilgai
came up to our car and licked the salt off Nancy's arm.
We wound our way to a small pond where it was
known the tigress with her four 14-month-old cubs was hanging out. At this age the cubs look like adults but are
not proficient in stalking and making a successful kill. Mom still has to take care of them. After waiting some time, a cub was
spotted. But it stayed down in the tall
grass. Since the park closes at 6 pm, we
needed to leave this pond by 5:30 pm. At
about 5:28, the cub got up and came down to the water to drink. It was soon joined by a second cub. Nancy got some good pictures of both of them,
and then we had to leave.
Bandu, our
driver, put the petal to the metal to get us to the gate before it closed. What a ride, bouncing over the rough, though
paved, road out of the park! We did stop
once, though, for three Dhole, also known as Asian Wild Dog, that crossed the
road in front of us.
In getting back to
the lodge, we found that in typical Indian fashion, dinner was not served until
nearly 9 pm. But we had a good rest, a
walk around the lodge, and spent some time chatting with a Frenchman who comes
often to India to see tigers. Our room
is large, has a ceiling fan plus an air conditioner, which lets us be quite
comfortable in this very hot, arid place.
Thursday, March 22
It was up at 5 am for a cup of coffee in our room, then
some good Indian chai out on the lawn, and aboard our gypsy with Harshad to
head to the park and be first in line when the gates opened at 6:30 am. We learned that there are two strategies for
finding tigers. One is to look for
tracks in the dust of the road; the other is to go to a location where they are
known to be and just wait in hopes that they will appear. We tried the first strategy first, and though
we saw spor, we did not find any tigers.
So we went back to the pond where we had seen them the previous
evening. We saw one tiger in the
distance, but only briefly before it disappeared for good in the high
grass. Later, we talked to a couple of
Indian photographers who had found the tigress with two little cubs right out
near the road, and they had great pictures.
We were jealous and disappointed, but such is tiger "hunting"
in any Indian park. At least we have
seen tigers on both of our outings so far.
We returned to the lodge around 10 am for breakfast and a break in the
heat of the day. And the temperature at
midday is really hot, reaching at least 105 degrees Farenheit. The early morning in the gypsy, though was
quite cool, and we resolved to bring jackets tomorrow. We went back in the gypsy at 2 pm. As we careened down the rough road through
the intense dry heat it was a bit like being dragged through a convection oven
with its fan on high. We returned to the
pond with the four 14-month-old cubs. We
saw all 4 at different times over the course of a couple of hours. But best of all were two of them cooling off
and playing in the water. Nancy got some
great pictures.
Later, a Wild Boar came
down for a drink, and one of the young tigers began to stalk it from out in the
pond. The boar saw it and moved
off. On the way back, we saw two Sloth
Bear, one of which crossed the track so close in front of us that Nancy could
not get it all into a photo. Finally, we both got a quick look at a Jungle Bush
Quail despite an aggressive gypsy driver that rudely pulled in front of us and
cut us off.
We have now seen 321 bird species, 70 of them new, and 18
species of mammals, 7 of them new.
We began the morning with a quick look for the tigress
with the small cubs but to no avail. So
we headed north to where the four older cubs were. But we only had a brief sighting of
them. On the way back we had a good
sighting of the Sloth Bear. It was on
the right side of the road, then went through a culvert under the road right in
front of our gypsy and popped out the other side. Nancy got some good pictures. We ate breakfast at 10 am, then had a long
break in the air conditioning until lunch at 1:30 and a 2 pm departure for the
park again. We went straight north the
full 22 km to the pond with the young tigers.
They appeared briefly and Nancy got some pictures, but the viewing area
was very crowded with the weekend traffic.
There were many Indian photographers here, and we were impressed with
the number of high-power lenses and high-end cameras on display. The Indians really take their photography
seriously. The affluence represented by
such expensive equipment was also a reminder, especially as we thought back to
our long road trip through Uttar Pradesh, of the huge income disparities in
today’s India. On the way back, we had a
very good sighting of Asian Wild Dog and got some good pictures. We swung through the area with small cubs and
learned that we had missed by only a few minutes five tigers crossing the road,
including a male, the cubs and the cubs' mother, who apparently challenged an
approaching Sloth Bear to keep it away from her babies. We resolved to return to that area and stay
there all morning tomorrow instead of going back up to where the 14-month-old
tigers are, as we have done them rather well.
 |
| Chital, or Spotted Deer |
Saturday, March 24
There is third way of finding tigers, and it's to go to
the general area where there is a known tiger territory, turn off the engine, and listen for alarm
calls from Chital and Sambar. Then drive
toward the source of the sound and hope it means a tiger is moving. Of course, it could also mean a Wild Dog, a
jackal or a python. This is what we did
all morning and while we heard lots of alarm calls, we didn't see a thing. We did get a fleeting view of a Red Spurfowl
but not enough to count it. Our one new
bird of the morning was a White-bellied Drongo, which we saw quite well. In the afternoon, we explored the east side
of the park taking a less used road. We
checked out a number of remote waterholes where tigers have been seen recently
but there were no tigers and only a few distant alarm calls. While the area, known as the Kolas Range, was
remote, the forest service had conducted controlled burns over much of it, and
the animals were very scarce. On the way
back we did have a Jungle Cat close enough for Nancy and Harshad to photograph,
and we had a half dozen huge Gaur peacefully grazing in the bamboo forest.
 |
| Guar |
We
also had good looks at Red Spurfowl and a quick look at a female Gray
Junglefowl. As we neared the end of our
eastern excursion, Bandu got a phone call advising that the tigress with the
four young cubs was out. He took off at
high speed, and we careened and bounced through the forest hanging on for dear
life. We got to the meadow just in time
to see them all before they disappeared into the high grass. Our French friend, Didier, had spent the
afternoon at the meadow, as we had done in the morning. He was rewarded with the tigress fighting
with a Sloth Bear. We were disappointed
that we had not stayed there too, which was our original plan.
It was back to the young tiger cubs first thing this
morning and we were second out of the gate.
This was very helpful as there was a long string of vehicles waiting to
get into the park. Many of the roads in
the park are dirt and the vehicles kick up clouds of fine red dust that coats
everything. Nancy kept her cameras
covered when she was not using them. She
also wore a bandana across her face, like a cowboy, to avoid breathing the
worst of the dust. We did not see the
cubs, so we headed onto a track that was new to us west of the main road. There were some nice ponds there but no
tigers. We did have two excellent sightings of Gray Junglefowl cocks
resplendent in breeding plumage. Nancy
got photos of the first one in excellent early morning light. On the way out we had a nice pair of Dhole,
or Asian Wild Dog. We returned to where
the small cubs are and managed to get a quick look at two of them before they
disappeared into the shade of the forest to rest in the heat of the day. We then drove all the way north to where the
older cubs were. A couple of them had
been sighted crossing the road but we got there too late to find them. On the way, we did get the Gray-headed
Fish-eagle, another life bird.
We then decided to head
back to the lodge as the heat was becoming very intense, hotter than the previous
hot days we experienced at Tadoba. Didier, the Frenchman, once again had a very
close sighting -- this time of a Sloth Bear.
We are getting rather discouraged as we always seem to arrive somewhere
just after the good sighting. We need
our luck to change! When we went back
out at 2 pm, it was incredibly hot. Our
thermometer read 105 degrees in the shade of our truck seat, and we were
sitting in the sun. And the hot air was
extremely dry. We drank a lot of
water.
 |
| Sambar doe and fawn |
We tried for the small cubs again
but they were well tucked away in the forest, so we drove the 20 km north to
the pond with the older cubs. We were told
they were in the grasses near the water, in their usual place. But we didn't see them until a female Sambar
and her fawn came down to drink. She
sensed the tigers and gave an alarm call.
Two tiger heads popped up in the grasses, and we expected them to give
chase. But after a few minutes, they put
their heads back down and the Sambar doe and fawn slowly moved away. After that, no action, other than the noise
of a hundred Indians talking rapid fire all at once and the roar of diesel
engines from the gypsies. It sounded
more like the middle of Delhi than out in the bush. As the sun dropped lower toward the horizon,
we decided to go back and check out the small cubs. Bandu was off today and the substitute driver
was very timid and a slow driver. We
were rather exasperated with his unwillingness to pass slow vehicles, rather to
follow them in their dust. Guess we
should have been prepared, for this morning we were the first vehicle out of
the gate, and our guy went so slowly the second vehicle could pass us, meaning
we would eat its dust all the way around to the area of the small cubs. Anyway, we finally got to the impoundment and
the small cubs were out. We saw them for
a few moments, and Nancy managed to take some distant pictures before they
moved back into the forest. We then
returned to the lodge for the evening.
After each afternoon safari trip, the lodge offered Indian chai and
snacks. That was to hold us until dinner
at 8:30pm. Our routine was to have some
chai and then retreat to our air conditioned room, take showers to wash off the
thick red dust and then get a cold soda.
 |
| Gray Langur |
Monday, March 26
This was our last day at Tadoba, and we hoped to make the
best of it. The morning started out slowly.
We looped around where the young cubs were but saw nothing. So we headed north to the pond with the older
cubs. We saw them briefly in the grass
but nothing for photos. On the way back,
we had three close wild dogs which Nancy and Harshad photographed. It was hot by 9 but it didn't get as hot as yesterday because
of a haze from a forest fire somewhere in the area. In the afternoon, we headed straight for the
pond with the older cubs. When we
arrived, one was sleeping in plain sight on the pond bank and another was
mostly hidden in the grass. They got up
once to get a drink and then lay back down again. Nancy got some photos but
they were not the close shots she had been hoping for all week. When the two cubs got up and moved away from
us, we drove around behind the pond.
Just after we pulled away, the largest of the cubs emerged from the
bush, and we could see from the three vehicles waiting there that they had a
tiger. We raced and got into position in time for Nancy and Harshad to begin
photographing the approaching tiger. She
slowly walked towards the vehicles and then stopped at a large tree to rear up
and sharpen her claws. It was exciting
to watch her. She disappeared into a thick
patch of bush and emerged out the other
side to come even closer, making for
some excellent tiger photography. Nancy
was ecstatic! The young tigress slowly
padded towards the jeeps and you could fully appreciate her beauty and
power. Nancy watched through the camera
and fired off pictures as fast as she could.
The tigress was watching several Chittal deer nearby and seemed
oblivious of the excited crowd of people watching her. She was spectacular! We had been watching her maybe 15 minutes but
we all needed to leave to get out of the park by the mandatory 6 pm. The tigress walked back into the bush and we
all left in a hurry.
Bandu drove very fast, something he really
seems to enjoy. However this time he did not slow down for a troupe of langurs,
which had a bad habit of running around cars, somewhat like dogs chasing
cars. One langur hit the side of our jeep with a
loud smack and bounded off but must have been injured. He hit hard enough to dent the side
panel. It was an unfortunate way to end
our trip. But we were still elated with
such a spectacular close tiger sighting, which came literally in the 11th hour
of our trip.
 |
| Harshad Barve |
Of course, Harshad came
with us on all the safaris. He was a wealth of information on tigers and is
truly passionate about them. He is a
fabulous tiger photographer and knows
much about their habitats. More than
just viewing tigers, we learned about tigers and their habits, their needs and
how family groups and dominance change over time and how it affects tiger
viewing.
Tuesday, March 27
We left the Tadoba lodge at 3:15 am. Harshad drove us directly to Nagpur
airport. Before leaving the park buffer
zone, we saw an Indian Nightjar lift off the road ahead of us, and we saw two Indian
Hares with their black napes. We arrived in plenty of time for our flight. Chuck ordered what he thought was a cheese
sandwich. It turned out to be some kind
of spicy Indian concoction with lots of green peas. Who ever heard of peas on a sandwich???? And they kept falling out! Our IndiGo flight was great. It is an excellent airline. The Asian Adventures guys were waiting for us
and took us directly to the Star Grand Villa.
We had mutton, fries and chocolate ice cream for lunch and rested for the
remainder of the day. It was back to the
airport at 6:30 pm through Delhi's slow-moving rush hour traffic where we
waited for our flight in a superb lounge.
Our visit to India came to an end as our United flight to Newark lifted
off on schedule. It took us nearly 48
hours from Tadoba to our home in northern Colorado.
On the combined segments of our trip, we saw 332 species
of birds, 75 of them new, and 21 species of mammals, 9 of them new. In addition, we saw two reptiles, the mugger,
which we saw last year in Gujarat, and the gharial, which was new. What's more, we gained a much better
appreciation for the extreme contrasts that characterize nearly every aspect of
today's India.
Note: Harshard
Barve has produced a spectacular coffee table book of tiger photos, “Tiger and
I”. His desire is to engage everyone in
the splendor and beauty of the tiger and to convey the importance of conserving
this incredible animal and its lands. He
can be reached at harshad.barve@remarkableindia.com.
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