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We joined the main Kalka-Shimla Road at
Kumarhatti, and crossed the hill on the back road towards Sanawar and
eventually reached Kasauli. The rest of the evening was spent birding at
"Win Haven's" extensive gardens. The star sighting being an Asian Barred
Owlet being harassed by several Himalayan Bulbuls. A pair of Blue-capped
Rock Thrush had obviously built a nest in the rose-creeper and was busy
ferrying food to the young. Great Barbets (the only representative of this
species we saw in the entire trip) called raucously from all over, driving
us nearly insane.
It had not been
a bad day, though the birds had been rather thin and the diversity not too
great. We were not to know, at this point, that this was going to be our
most productive day of the trip.
The next morning
we left Kasauli at sunrise, and drove along the highway till we reached
Kandaghat. The only piece of excitement was that while breakfasting at the
"Kalol View" restaurant, a Spotted Forktail suddenly appeared close to us
and equally speedily flew away. The only other birds of any interest were
an inquisitive flock of Red-billed Blue Magpies that entertained us while
we ate our aloo-parathas.
We turned off on
the road to Chail. At first we were quite optimistic for we found a Shikra
straightaway and a Eurasian Cuckoo, who sat high on the electric wires and
called merrily. A Crested Bunting perched nearby. And then the birds
disappeared all together. It was not till we had descended the valley to
Sadhu Pul that we saw a Crested Kingfisher. We started the steep climb to
Chail. Not a bird in sight. This was very surprising as the habitat was
perfect with little or no disturbance. This was to be the pattern for the
rest of the trip. The only bird that was in abundance was the Large-billed
Crow, of the intermedius sub-species. We did come across groups of Black
Bulbuls (psaroides sub-sp) and a few Grey Bushchats, and while Himalayan
Bulbuls and Streaked Laughing Thrushes were not uncommon, other birds on
the ground were very thin.
We drove to the
'Cheer Pheasant Breeding Centre" at Keehum, a few kilometres short of Chail.
The road to this centre runs though some of the most pristine forests we
had seen and we expected a pheasant to appear any moment. No such luck and
to add insult the Chowkidar with the keys to the breeding cages had
disappeared. We hung around waiting for him to turn up. He didn't so we
turned back. The only interesting bird was an unexpected pair of Red-wattled
Lapwings and since we were close to about 9000 feet, it was probably a new
height record for this extraordinary survivor.
I had birded on
the Chail – Kufri road on several occasions, and based on past experience
assured Sumit, that our luck would transform on this stretch. No such thing
happened and as we walked for long stretches without seeing any bird, bar a
few Green-backed Tits.
I just could not understand where the birds had
gone. Only when we were close to Kufri, and walking through a forest of
Chilgoza Pine that a loud raucous call attracted out attention. We traced
it to a tall dense pine tree but could not see the originator of the
cacophony, who continued to cry away merrily. Suddenly a large bird with a
strong pointed beak flew away and we identified it as a Nutcracker,
probably of the multipunctata race. At last something to cheer about!
Kufri is
probably the best example of mass-tourism gone wrong. This pretty small
town, renowned for skiing in winter, turns into a nightmare in summer, with
several thousand tourists choking the narrow street. Cars were parked
waywardly at every point making passage extremely difficult. To add to this
mayhem were several hundred mules and it seems the visitor's favourite
activity is to ride these beasts and get photographed! The streets were
full of dung produced by this equine nightmare. We elbowed our way through
the throng, refusing several offers of riding mules, as we had a date to
visit the 'Nature Centre'. Sumit wanted to see the pheasants that are kept
here. A Koklass in good nick, as well as a few splendid Monals and a few
tatty Chir Pheasants kept us occupied for an hour and we had to content
ourselves with seeing them confined in cages.
With our current
luck the possibility of seeing them in the wild was non-existent and so it
turned out to be. We left the horrendous crowds behind and joined the
'Hindustan-Tibet' road as it is often referred. Our destination was
Narkanda, a small hill-resort, set prettily amongst Deodar trees. We drove
on, through well wooded, but birdless country, via Fagu and Theog and
finally reached the Hatu Resort at Narkanda, run by the Himachal Tourism
Department and it turned out to be extremely pleasant. The rooms were
adequate and the food and service surprisingly good. Highly recommended for
any future travellers. It also provided some much needed birds. The garden
of the resort overlooks a long sloping valley and we found nesting
Spot-winged Tits, Grey Bushchats and a Western Crowned Warbler.
Sumit even saw a
Eurasian Hobby and a Lesser Cuckoo called from somewhere deep below. We had
a few hours of daylight left and we decided to go up to the nearby Hatu
Peak, in the hope that we might see some birds. The road to the peak was
exceedingly narrow and we got into some tricky situations when on-coming
traffic appeared. The area appeared very promising, but we saw nothing bar
the said Large-billed Crows. Finally we reached the top of the hill at over
13000 feet, where we obtained the most spectacular 360 degrees view of the
surrounding area. We had expected to see Choughs at this height but it was
completely devoid of any form of life, other than a few Himalayan Griffons
circling in the distance. Disappointed we returned to our hotel, where an
excellent dinner helped marginally in improving our mood. It had been a
long day, with very few birds and we hoped that the next day would bring
richer pickings.
Next morning
started on a better note, and as soon as we left we notched up a few
Himalayan Greenfinches and managed to lure out a skulking Brownish-flanked
Bush Warbler, a bird more heard than seen. But that was where our luck
ended.
We drove through
Kumarsen, Sainj and Dutt Nager, stopping and walking through promising
looking stretches, including the banks of the Sutluj river, but the paucity
of birds continued. A few Rock Buntings and Streaked Laughingthrushes and a
single Eurasian Golden Oriole were about the only interesting birds we saw.
Continued.........
