The Captive Prince

One of the hazards of staying in a tea garden is the threat from a variety of wild animals ranging from the smaller feral cats to large leopards. There have been reports of even Royal Bengal Tigers being sighted and I have myself seen a rhino which had strayed into a Tea Estate. The fact is that due to habitat shrinkage and tea gardens being one of the few remnants of green cover we are right in the forefront of the man-animal conflict. The biggest threats come from wild elephants and leopards.In fact just about two years ago, our Mali's son was mauled and killed by a Leopard in front of our bungalow, tragically just 40 - 50 metres from where he was working. Apparently the kid had gone into the Estate to pick some berries where he was attacked.

So when, just around a couple of months ago, fresh sightings were reported the people around got pretty worried. I was cautioned about my morning walks in the Estate especially where our pet was concerned as Leopards appear partial to dogs. I had spotted some mongoose, flying squirrel and even a wild cat once but I really did not take the reports of a leopard seriously. 

However, due to the concerns expressed by workers who have to go into the Estate to pluck, one cage was organised and, under the supervision of the Forest Department, placed in the tea bushes in front of our Bungalow. Every morning, I would go upto it and have a look to find the goat (the bait) sleeping peacefully. However one morning I found that the goat had been killed. Apparently, a pair of leopards had come upto to the cage, without entering it, had pawed the goat to death through the cage bars. It was then I actually started beliwving that we had a wild cats roaming around. However the animals refused to be trapped and goats began disappearing from the labour lines regularly.

Continuous rain kept me in for some days and just some days ago (19th November 2009), I got a call early morning informing me that a leopard had been trapped. I rushed out to the sight and soon a healthy crowd had gathered there. The local police and Forest Department were informed as people sometimes tended to hurt captured animals. I was most worried about the leopard hurting itself as it hurled itself against the bars.

It was a magnificent animal and a part of me was sad to see it captured. However relocation was possibly the best of a bad bargain.

A Walk in the Beel - I

Ever since the people working in my Office became aware of my interest in birds they have been telling me, "Sir, aapuni Maijan Beel jabo lage. Taat dher sorai pore". Sir, you should visit Maijan Beel. Lots of birds are there.

A beel is an Assamese term for a lake or water body. These are usually inland low lying areas which get filled up due to the water overflowing the Brahmaputra during the monsoons. Several beels dry up during the winter but the larger ones are perennial containing vasts pools of swampy water forming the perfect habitat for birds of different varieties. If I am not mistaken most of the famous birding hotspots in Assam including Kaziranga, Dibru-Saikhowa etc are basically large beels. Villagers often fish in these waters and some have even been known to have wild ducks in their diet. I must hasten to add that, by and large, wild birds are not on the menu in Upper Assam.

As the monsoon intervened and being busy with work I could not really visit the Maijan Beel although it is barely 5 km from my place. Last Sunday (22-11-2009) I finally decided that the Beel ought to be looked at.

There are basically two beels and they are most probably interconnected. The smaller 'S' shaped beel lies within Maijan Tea Estate while the bigger one lies just outside the Estate towards Dibrugarh town. Just to give an idea of the topography; Maijan Tea Estate is located near Dibrugarh Town on the banks of the Brahmaputra and suffers an annual flooding from the river. It has lost a lot of land to the river and is still doing so. In fact, during the massive earthquake of 1952, the river changed course and swallowed up vast areas of the Estate and where the river now runs used to be planted with tea bushes.

As I lived behind the Estate I reached the smaller beel first. The sun was just coming up as I reached the beel and I could see several small canoes already out on the beel. As I sat there and soaked in the sun I could see several species of water birds on the beel. Asian pied Starling, Lesser whistling Duck, Bronze winged Jacana, Purple Moorhen, Grey Wagtail and the Common Stonechat were the most abundant species. I also saw the White breasted and the Common Kingfisher and the Little Cormorant. There was a ridge running alongside the beel, possibly used by man and cattle to walk around it and also to dam the water in. It was broken in several places by the water and hence it was not possible to circle around the entire beel. Will try that the next time!! While the high ridge is a good vantage point for spotting birds, the birds spot you too.

I visited the larger beel next. I had to drive across the Tea Estate and exit towards Dibrugarh town through the main entrance. It was similar to the smaller beel except for the size. This beel had a dyke built to protect Dibrugarh town and it looks motorable on a two wheeler and hence will try that one too the next time. Having had a look at the beels, I drove off towards the river. This area was scrub land and i could see that Tea had once been planted here. This is where I spotted the Common Kestrel, first for me here locally.

Having done the reconnaissance for a future visit I drove back home. I spent around 2 hours on the trip and  the birds spotted by me were:

Jungle Mynah
Common Mynah
Grey backed Shrike
Long tailed Shrike
Bronze winged Jacana

Grey Wagtail
Common Stonechat
Asian pied Starling
Purple Moorhen
Cotton pygmy Goose
White breasted Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher
Little Cormorant
Common Kestrel
Indian Treepie
Jungle Crow
Indian Roller
Lesser whistling Duck
Indian Roller

There were several other species that I could not identify. Have left them for the next visit.

Shrikes!!!

Just about a month ago as I came back from my Office, my wife exclaimed loudly, "The bandit back". Lest readers get alarmed I must inform them that the the Bandit is a name we have given to the shrikes that inhabit our Garden and the surrounding Tea Estate. I rushed out to see the bird as it happened to be one of my favourtites. Sure enough there he was, sitting quietly on a bougainvillea bush some 80-100 feet from us.

Shrikes had been a common sight when I first started birding some 8-9 months ago but had disappeared during the monsoon. The band of grey-black covering the eyes reminded us of masked bandits. The species that I have seen so far are the Grey-backed Shrike, Long-tailed Shrike and the Brown Shrike. I still have great difficulty in distinguishing between the first two. These birds were a boon for a novice birder cum photographer like me as they often perched on middle level branches and gave me an opportunity for those all important eye level shots. Although I must hasten to add that they can be an absolute pain as they act as sentinels and warn all other birds in sight with their harsh calls. The Grey-backed Shrike is the one with the harshest call while the brown shrike is relatively silent.

They are also quite shy and take flight easily. In the last 8-9 months of my rather limited birding experience, I have noticed that the predatory birds are quicker to take flight on approach as compared to others. The shrike also gives you a fair warning before taking flight. The moment it is alarmed, it suddenly makes its body horizontal for a second or so before taking flight. I have also noticed that it poops before taking flight. Maybe it makes the body lighter before taking off!! I have also observed this in other bird species.

They have been here since September now and can be seen all over the Tea Estate. Territorial fights often broke out in the first month of their return. These are noisy and full of energy. They seemed to have settled down and one can be sure to find them in the same location every day. I am hoping that, as they get used to my presence, they will allow me to get closer for better photos. I am also hoping to observe some of the behaviour which adds to the reputation of cruelty that these birds have.

Here's to the Return of the Masked Bandit!!

Birding at Wildgrass Resort

I proceeded on my annual leave on 1st october and after a long season it is a very welcome break. Since it is a long drive from Dibrugarh to Guwahati and our son being only a toddler on his first long trip we decided to break our journey at Kaziranga. Although the National Park was not yet open for the season, Kaziranga is just about halfway between Dibrugarh and Guwahati and being a tourism hotspot it has some decent accommodation for travellers.

To cut a long story short we decided to stay at Wildgrass Resort. The resort itself is quite basic and is obviously targeting the die hard wildlife tourists. No room service and no intercom so guests do have to walk a long distance for even basic requests.

After checking in, my first query was regarding the possibility for a short birding tour. The Resort organised a guide for me and we agreed upon a one hour tour considering my need to leave for Guwahati very early in the morning.

In short there are two birding possibilities, one through Kanziranga National Park itself while the other was through a mix of tea garden and open scrub areas. I had to choose the latter as the park was not yet open to the public. I was a little disappointed though as I lived in a tea garden and wanted a different experience.

We started at around 5:30 am for a two hour walk through a well established route. Some of the species seen were as follows:

1. Crested Serpent Eagle
2. Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
3. Common Mynah
4. Hill Mynah
5. Jungle Mynah
6. White-vented Mynah
7. Asian Pied Starling
8. Chestnut-tailed Starling
9. Indian Treepie
10. Grey backed Shrike
11. Cattle Egret
12. Black Drongo
13. Bronzed Drongo
14. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
15. Rufous-chinned Laughingthrush
16. Oriental Magpie Robin
17. Striped Tit Babbler

Quite a disappointment!

White-breasted Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)

It was just about the beginning of the pre-monsoon in Dibrugarh (27° 29'N, 94° 54'E). A group of us had just finished lunch at a nearby dhaba when I heard this trilling bird cry. It was coming from a bird perched high up on a cell phone tower and since I was not carrying my binoculars, I could not identify it. A more knowledgeable friend identified the bird as a kingfisher, White-breasted Kingfisher to be precise. Although I respected her knowledge, I doubted that it could be one as there were no water bodies nearby. In any case the bird looked quite drab and I had always thought, no doubt aided by the Kingfisher brand of a prominent corporate group, that Kingfishers were brilliantly coloured birds.

My first view of the brilliant blue back of the bird came just a few days later as I was trying to photograph some pipits on a nearby paddy field. Just beyond the field there were two artificial ponds carved out during excavation of earth for a railway project. On the edge of one of the ponds stood a tree which made a perfect perch for kingfishers. Although the ponds were quite dry due to the monsoon not yet having started, I could see that this tree was being used regularly by a pair of these birds. Upon further scouting I discovered that they were nesting on the banks of one of the ponds.

I found these birds quite shy in the beginning but as the season progressed more of them could be seen in the area and I got good opportunities to photograph them. Soon mating calls became more strident and desperate and they could be seen on telephone poles, wires, bamboo fences and even on the roof of my law college right in the middle of town! In fact, during the monsoon, they would be one of the commonest birds to be sighted as one drove along the highway. A high degree of adaptability and a diversified diet ensures the proliferation of these species.

The other species that I have seen here is the pied kingfisher but it is extremely rare. Sadly haven't seen any of the other species.

Somehow this bird has always fascinated me since my childhood and seeing them at close quarters has dispelled the wrong notions I had of the bird, but the sense of admiration for this beautiful but deadly bird remains.

Day Tripping - Tezpur and Back

We had three days of scorching heat and it started pouring by 2:00 am on Saturday, 5th September. How typical of Dibrugarh, I thought, slightly disappointed. I was to go to Tezpur on official work and I had planned to do some birding and maybe take some photos on the way. Tezpur is around 300 km from Dibrugarh and I wanted to leave early morning and return the same day. The road basically goes westwards on the NH 37 till it crosses the Brahmaputra at Koliabhomora. Tezpur is a beautiful town on the North Bank of the river on the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas. It is the gateway to Western Arunachal Pradesh and hence sees a lot of tourist traffic mostly making its way to Tawang.

The prime attraction of the journey for me was that the road marked the southern boundary of the Kaziranga National Park and offered an opportunity to see wildlife from the national highway itself. As I had official work at Tezpur and punctuality was of utmost importance I decided that all photographs would have to be taken from the vehicle and at no point would I go chasing after some bird.
 

I left Dibrugarh at around 4:00 am in the morning. It was still dark and the steady drizzle made driving a little difficult. Although it was too dark to see anything I knew from my previous experience that just after crossing Dibrugarh University there is a place which is usually inhabited by a flock of Slender Billed Vultures. Further down the road around 30 minutes from town is the village of Lezai which is full of water birds which can be seen from the roadside. I have, on previous occasions, seen egrets, bronze winged jacanas, lesser cormorant, lesser whistling ducks etc.

The first rays of the sun came out by 5:15 am. We had already reached Rajmai by then. Rajmai is close to the Panidehing Bird Sanctuary. I had gone there once a couple of months back to be bitterly disappointed as the place was full of domesticated buffaloes and other livestock. 

Things began to get interesting from hereon as we began spotting some birds in the paddy fields. We spotted a group of Greater Adjutant Storks huddling together. This bird, which was quite common earlier, is becoming a rarity now. The poor light did not allow a photo. As the sun became brighter my spirits rose and we could soon see a variety of birds amongst the paddy field. I must tell you a little about the topography. The road cuts across a landscape featuring paddy and tea plantations. Tea is grown in the higher areas (called baam mati) in Assamese whereas paddy is grown in the low lying land as it needs standing water. We crossed numerous rivers such as the Sessa, Dehing, Rajmai, Dhunseri etc. Most of these rivers are tributaries of the mighty Brahmaputra. At this time of the year paddy fields are a wonderful splash of fluorescent green, a colour that man has not yet managed to copy from nature. Amidst this sea of fluorescent green one can see dots of dark green which are unusally lone trees or bamboo groves containing little homesteads. Even more beautiful are the stepped paddy fields in undulating terrain which is quite unusual for Assam. However, to my mind, the most beautiful paddy fields are the ones tucked in between two tea plantations. The narrow strip of low land between tea plantations looks like a carelessly thrown string of green snaking its way into the horizon. It has to be seen to be seen to be believed.

The most abundant birds were the common mynas, sparrows, egrets (cattle and little), asian pied starling, common swallows, black drongos and the white breasted kingfishers. The starlings, swallows and kingfishers occupied the telephone lines running alongside the road while the drongos seemed to love the bamboo fence poles. I also saw flocks of herons sitting on bamboo fences and wild reeds on the the edges of the paddy fields. Some rarely seen birds such as the water cock, purple moorhen, lesser cormorant, red wattled lapwing and the lesser adjutant stork were also seen. My 'firsts' on this trip were the blue tailed bee eaters, common swallow and the bronzed drongo. I could also see several birds that I could not identify but the time constraint did not allow me to follow up.

Kaziranga, on the way up, was quite disappointing. I could see several asian open bill storks and egrets but no unusual birds. It had also become overcast now making photography very difficult.

As I settled in for my meeting in Tezpur, I had no reason to be really upbeat over the trip although I was not disappointed either as I had spotted some 'firsts'. 

The return trip was unbelievable although not from a birding point of view. We left Tezpur at around 3:00 pm. As we drove along the road near Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary, the vehicle ahead of us screeched to a halt. The passengers got out and began pointing towards the Park. As I got out my car I saw what the excitement was all about. A herd of wild asiatic elephants was crossing a little stream around half a kilometre from where we stood. The main herd consisted a mixed group of adults and calves numbering around 30 with a few bulls following them. The leading matriarch seemed a little apprehensive about crossing the stream. 

The calves had no such inhibitions and were splashing around in the stream to the consternation of the attending mothers. After half an hour or so the matriarch finally took the plunge and began plodding towards us. It was only then we realised that were parked right on the elephant corridor and it was this that was bothering the matriarch. We scrambled on to our vehicles and fled before we became the latest victims of the human-animal conflict. 

Further down the road the entire convoy of vehicles again screeched to a halt. This time it was the Indian One Horned Rhnicerous, the most famous denizen of Kaziranga munching along the highway. Further down where the grassland merged into the forest there was a nilgai grazing. Unlike the elephants the rhino was least bothered by our presence. I marvelled at the power of nature. For that brief period of half an hour or so we were not strangers driving to diffrent destinations but friends admiring the beauty of nature. We shared our knowledge and previous experience of these wonderful animals laughing and smiling all the time. Even at this day and age nature has the power to make humans of us all. As drove off separately and darkness fell I fell into a deep sleep till I reached home.

Of all the wonderful birds and other animlas that I saw on my trip my lasting memory as I write this is of that brief period of time when the beauty of nature made friends of a group of total strangers.

Lesser Golden Backed Woodpecker (Dinopium benghalense)

This is surely the punk of the birds of my area. With a flaming red top and a brilliant golden yellow back it stands out in the sunshine like a punk under the neon lights of a nightclub. It has a string of spots down its side from the breast which gives the appearance of a chain of a gentleman's hand clock securely tucked into the breast pocket.

This species made its appearance in the tea garden sometime just after the onset of spring. I heard its trilling call long before I actually spotted the bird. Of course I did not then know that it was cry of a woodpecker.

My first glimpse of this bird was when I saw this creature jump from one tree to another. I say jump because at first I mistook it for a flying squirrel or a monkey. It has a very peculiar looping flight which I learned to identify later. It also crawls up and down branches rather than hopping like other birds. As I approached the creature it shifted ever so slightly so that it kept the trunk of the tree between it and me. It was only when I took a full circle that I realised I had been spotted and very cleverly evaded. As it was a very overcast day, as it usually is in Upper Assam, the brilliance of the bird's colours was not discernible.

As I began to be able to identify call of the bird I started to track it down from the source of the call. However the nifty trick of keeping a tree branch between it and me did not allow a clear line of sight for a photograph.

It was only when nest building started in earnest that I finally managed a half decent photograph. I waited near dead trees and waited for sound of the hollow thumping to start. This would give the position away and it would be so busy pecking away that one could manage to approach close enough for a photo.

As the intensity of the monsoons picked up I noticed a substantial drop in the number of woodpeckers but now as I write this, their calls have become more frequent.

This is undoubtedly one of the prettiest birds that I have seen here.