WanderLust: November 2013

Friday, November 8, 2013

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Birds in the Shivaliks of Himachal Pradesh

This diwali, I moved to a guest house (picture on the right) in the lower Shivaliks to escape the noise and pollution of the metro and to spare our 10 year old lab a traumatic week. The guest house is located in the settlement of Nehli Dheeda which as far as we can see has only a couple of houses and a general store. Nehli Dheeda is on the Nahan - Jamta - Dadahu -Renuka road and is a little over 1000m height as deduced from Google terrain maps.

This Jamta - Dadahu stretch of the road has thick forest on either side with isolated farms and houses. The area is rich in birds. Here are some of the birds I managed to capture on camera.

Great Tit.

Along with the Himalayan Bulbul, this seems to be the most common species here.

Scaly-Brested Munia (right) and Juveniles (below)

Chestnut-Bellied Rock Thrush pair (male - left and female - below). The identification was made easy by the fact that I spotted the male and the female in the same area.

Fulvous-Breasted Woodpecker

Chestnut-Bellied Nuthatch

White Eye - this bird is also seen often

My third morning of bird watching also yielded good results. I spent almost the entire morning 7-9 am at one spot - roughly half way down to the river on the jeep track going down from Nehle Dheeda.

Bush Warbler (?)

Himalayan Bulbul

Long Tailed Minivet - female (right) and males (below)

Ashy Drongo

Minivet (female) ??

Grey Bushchat - male (right) and female (below)

White-Crested Laughingthrush

These move around in groups of 3 upwards. Forage noisily under the trees and foliage like Bablers. They indeed seem to laugh (shrill mocking sounds joined by all). Very noisy but very shy on becoming aware of humans!