Dharamkot and Tushitha

Finally we traveled like regular tourists. We went to Dharamkot, a small village further up from Mcleodganj just after the Bhagsu Nag mandir. We stayed in a homestay and what a different world it is. Mcleodganj is way too crowded. Narrow roads, traffic and congestion, shopping places, restaurants all squeezed into the hill top and no wonder people claimed that it is no longer the small non descriptive tibetan hamlet it used to be.

We stayed at a homestay run by Ria, a german who settled in india some 26 years back after marrying an Indian. It's a decent place  and doesnt hurt your pocket and bonus being able to taste some yummy cakes prepared by Ria. Her children are sweet and we had a great stay at their place.

One day we went up to Gallu temple from where the trek route to Triund peaks will start. Tirund trek is one of the easily accessible treks to himalayas. I birded for an hour at the temple and bagged two beauties - the rufous sibia and the black-headed jay. The rufous sibia calls echoed in the valley, the breeze, the view of the valley and the mountains, the music from the sitar being played in one of the hotel rooms all made the two hours spent a top the hill memorable. I vowed to return to the place to bird for couple of days and probably sight the Himalayan monal and trek the Triund peak sometime.

Black-headed Jay

Rufous Sibia

Green-backed Tit

Bar-tailed Treecreeper

After these lifers (birds), we headed back to the homestay and had lunch enroute. Since our kid cannot trek up all the way we had to hire a taxi, but the next day went to check the trek route which is different from the motorable road till Gallu Devi temple. As we were about to reach the homestay, dark clouds covered the whole valley and we were virtually chased by clouds and covered by them as we hurried our way to home. Within minutes after we reached home, it poured for an hour. We experienced the down pour in a himalayan valley

The above photo was taken at 1 pm when clouds covered and went past our room. It rained heavily. Before the rains we roamed around Dharamkot, especially the upper dharamkot where a settlement of Israelis exists. This small place is a hub of visitors from across the globe. You can encounter people from various countries living out of the place. Israelis predominantly live here and many restaurants have sign boards in hebrew and israeli food available in many small eatouts and cafes.

The next day we visited the Bagsu nag temple only to realise how much we are loving the serenity and calmness of the place. The temple is crowded with noisy regular tourists littering the place and we felt like running away. We decided not to walk the 700 mts to the crowded waterfall and hired an auto to drop is at Tushita, the buddhist meditation center. What a contrast it was, absolutely calm and wonderful location amidst forest. We had one of our wonderful experiences walking down the small road to the institute. The institute offer 10 day residential introduction course to buddhism and almost everyday(except for few) at 9-30 am they are open for public for an one hour meditation practise . Visitors were requested to maintain silence and we had a quiet and memorable visit. A place worth exploring in future.

We cut short our stay as my wife hurt her knee slipping off couple of times and we went back without trying the "family pizza"shop in Dharamkot which is apparently famous for pizza baked on stove that runs on wood. I could not try some Israeli cuisine too reserving it for next visit. I would recommend staying in dharamkot than in Mcleod ganj for the charm of small and nice neighbourhood. Gagan resorts where we tried lunch served nice food, but I would recommend staying in any home stays in Dharamkot than the hotels.

Let me close this post with a view of the pine, rhodendoron, deodar (dominating) forests of Dharamkot that I tried capturing on my mobile with a vertical composition experiment

Birding - Rainbow- Farming-Doc visit

The heading pretty much sums up the last few days. I have been able to bird almost every day. Mornings starts with watering the plants at our mini farm and then off I go birding to the close-by place. I had some interesting sightings and lifers. I could not stop myself from walking higher up anticipating to see more birds.
I could see roads and I see the paths used by people and ponies ferrying goods to trek up the hills. Although little tiring the traditional routes enables you to walk further up the hills quicker. I have met herders, school going kids, workers, job goers all taking the paths and few of them inquired what I am up to. I shared my binoculars with some and explained to others about my interest in birds. Overall I never felt threatened or intimidated at any point of time. Warm people and beautiful land enabling experiences

Few days back we had a thunderstorm followed by a rainbow. At one end we could see bright sun setting and another end a storm that was about to finish it's task. The skies were beautiful with clouds and bright colors all around. I tried capturing it but felt like having a wide angle lens.

 The ladies finger seeds didn't sprout up as much as we wished to as it rained heavily the day after we planted the seeds. So this week we planted some chillies saplings. So my routine every morning and evening would be spending 30 minutes watering them gently.

Last week also made us visit the clinic run by Nishtha as our son started vomiting. He recovered in a day but still a little tender. The clinic run by Nishtha do not charge for consulting  and charges for medicines alone. It's a decent clinic in a nice building with few beds for those who needed attention.My frequency of visits to Nishtha and interaction with children increased and this weekend sangita- the nishtha volunteer and I are planning to take the children for a bird watching session.  

Environment Day-Vultures and Meadows

Here I am back with some updates. The world  environment day was a hectic day. Nishtha kids prepared a puppet show on environment theme and they planned to do that in 3 schools. I missed the first show as I went hiking up and down the road to buy some groceries.  But I managed to jon the second one in a primary school in a small village named Chakvan , some 4 kms uphill from rakkar. Two trips in the jeep on barely existing road later we started setting up the screen and props. The kids enjoyed the play and the creator of the play sangita interacted with the kids.

Past the play the kids danced danced and had their part of fun. I managed to capture little innocence here.

We trekked down with props while the jeep went to drop the kids and 3 kids joined us till their home enroute. 

Eventually we reached rakkar and the kids had fun playing with the water from the aqueduct. 

In the evening we went to the eurokids campus near norbungla tibetan institute and this time since the kids would be late to home we adults managed the show with the recorded dialogues of the kids. We wrapped up the day with some snacks and reached home at 8-30 PM. Its a satisfying day as we went around spreading the message of garbage seggregation on the world environment day.

Back to morning hikes. Two days back along with my son we took a deroute and trekked up a small road up to a meadow and the view from the meadow was a memorable one. We finally spotted the Common cuckoo whose call we kept hearing almost every morning. It goes cuckoo-cukoo. Let the picture speak more about the place.

The long trek today means our son skipped the anganwadi school that day. He liked the school and he ate the snacks and food served there. The food they offer to kids is very good and nutritional and they asked us to send him with a empty lunchbox to pack his lunch to home. Nishtha supports many anganwadis and schools in close by villages with quality food supplies and monitor them. They carry supplies every week and deliver them to the schools. Our son was the oldest of all in the school and dispelled all my worries about him managing the show despite of language barrier. I wonder how he reacts when he grows up knowing that he once went to this small school in himachal for few months. Our landlords son too goes there. its fun watching the kids promptly came out and wave to the 10 am bus driver and the driver too acknowledged them by honking and waving. 

Few days back when I went bird watching, at around 8-30am, I saw vultures swooping down the valley. I got curious and hiked further to see what interested them. The hike made my day. I walked 500 mts through pine forest to see a big group of himalayan vultures on the ground.. running.. jumping.. some of them crossing the road. Apparently a dead cow I guess had attracted them. Mighty wings, big bills, funny walk made it an  unforgettable experience. I counted at least 15 and more flying around. Here are some pictures and video for you. I could not click better as I needed to head back and I didn't want to disturb them.'

I also got to know that as monsoon starts the locals take their cattle up hill and leave them in a meadow only to return in september to search and find them and take them back. They trek for 4-5 hrs to the meadow next to a glacier with their cattle. I asked my landlord to take me along and he mentioned that every year he takes few people with him and a newbie almost everytime. I am itching to try that.

That's it for now. Keep coming back for more

Water, hikes and farming

As the overnight storm lulled down, day broke at 5 am and the himalayan bulbuls started off the calls for the morning as more and more birds joined the fun. Finally we had a first long power outage and here I woke up early and sit down to type my thoughts.

Last 3 days were interesting. Our house does not have a motor to pump rather as water is carried through a small 2 inch diameter pipe, the sheer pressure of it flowing down from uphill takes it all the way up to the storage tank. So 2 days back we ran out of water to realise that our inlet water is jammed. The owner of our house Mr.Naresh who is trained by Didiji as architect in mud housing came and started to set the supply straight. After tracking pipes it has been diagnosed to mud jam inside a pipe and it's corrected. The next day we had another jam and this time we had to cut the pipe only to find a plastic toffee wrapper jamming the narrow pipe. Talk about ill-affects of plastic and we had a demonstration!

The homestay provided to us by Ghoomakad has been a big breakthrough for us. Our hosts sulochanajis family are warm and helpful. They helped us find our house for rent . They supply us wheat and potatoes from their farm, eggs from their hens(our son loves them)and milk from their cattle. Wheat and potatoes are  locally grown with no chemicals added  we procured them locally, so effectively no carbon foot-print :). They love our gugloo (as they call our son) and supply him with a constant stock of chocolates and no wonder he loves them too.

I had to update you on water. The water in aqueducts is not safe for drinking since people wash clothes and carries the upstream mess, so people in our locality walk a little distance to another supply line where water from a natural lake up the hills is drawn for drinking purpose. They proudly claim that this water can be directly consumed and has been proved to be good after tests by "foreigners"". We consumed them and they are right! Our house though had an UV purifier so we use it, but I will try to go find the source of that natural lake uphill.

Yesterday I spoke to sulochanajis family on farming. They are cleaning their harvest now (wheat). I asked them if they would allow me to grow vegetables in their compound and they are happy to offer me their space and I am all set to grow our own veggies although it will be sometime before I could harvest them.  I learnt that they grow potatoes in November along with wheat, so I would end up planting some beans and few vegetables. By the way they principally agreed to let me work with them for an hour or two everyday when they sow paddy next fortnight as the monsoon becomes active here and how much I am looking forward to that experience.

Two days back, we were invited to Didiji's house for a small party. We visited her house and boy we are impressed is an understatement.

 Mayaji, her eldest daughter and her care taker now ensured we had a good time with pakoras, plum cake and icecream. She was happy to engage our son with her dog ginger and her cat. Our kid was happy petting them. They had a rescued broken winged parakeet at home which can speak few words and
can eat anything that Didiji offers him

We made new friends and walked further down to Sindbari to the nearest ATM. Wifey was happy to do a mini shopping and we walked all the way back 2 km uphill to our house and boy it's a test of your endurance. We managed to do it in an hour holding the kid as he was dozing off. My wife learnt what is it like doing a mountain hike :)

We decided to explore the places around together on foot everyday. So off we went yesterday for a 2 km trek uphill and we were rewarded with beautiful views.

The best part is our son stopping by whenever he sees the sheep or a goat and wishing to touch it and play. He derives pleasure out of throwing stones into the aqueducts and we let him do it, but he keeps us on toes as he walks to the edge of the road to discover the valley below... phew! Watching septuagenarian citizens walking up the hill on virtually no roads puts our fitness to shame and we resolved to work on it. So these walks/hikes are helping us spend quality time as well as improve our fitness for future treks in addition to doing my birding enroute by yours truly.

Closing this post with technological point. I played with wordpress website building the other day and i realised what a beauty they created to build a website and more importantly to manage the website with ease by anyone with a little technical help. I am looking forward to building some websites with wordpress in near future. Did I tell you how the himalayan vultures soared past our home from close quarters the other day! I cherished the experience and our excited son is ready with camera asking me to click more photos.

That's it for now and it's time for trying hands in growing veggies for self, off I go to our little farm.

Blame it on birdwatching!?

Me: What should we name our kids??
Wifey: hmm why not "pigeon", "coucal" etc etc; you might enjoy calling them by those names! ( a sarcastic smile)
Me: err....(long pause + grin)

Birding at Sakaleshpur

When do you say you had a great birding trip??
A. When you get to see some lifers
B. When the place is full of bird and resonates with their calls
C. When you had good food and had great time
D. When you meet like-minded people and make good friends

If we were asked this question about our birding trip to Sakaleshpur last week, without thinking we choose another option "ALL THE ABOVE". Last weekend, we (Soumyajit nandy and I) were planning to go for a birdwatching trip and were pondering about the place. That's when we saw the mail from Dr.Javid on bngbirds offering birders to stay at his place with no cost and do birding. We instantly decided to visit his place and now we are glad we did!.Now, if you have time, read through the detailed report, othewise you can scroll down to see the bird list.

******
If you thought "drag racing" happens in bangalore city, we dare prove you wrong. Do board one of those private buses to "Kukke Subramanya" that can drop you at Sakaleshpur and one hour past bangalore, it's game on!! I doubt how many souls had dozed off in our bus. Rash driving is too small a word to compare what we witnessed. Finally, we were dropped at 4 am in Sakaleshpur. Thanks to Dr.Javid, who arranged us a vehicle that can pick us up from the bus stand. At 4-30 we were picked up after watching the bats go after the moths and insects at the lamp post! After a 40 min drive, we reached Dr.Javids estate. We were greeted by Dr.Javid and his cute pups and we opted to take a quick nap after the horrendous ride that made evaded us the sleep.

Day one:
At 6-30 am, we woke up and came out to hear the symphony going around the estate. We can hear hornbills, jungle fowl, bulbuls, barbets and some strange calls (which we identified later) and the place is full of activity. We went out and the first sighting was "Ashy wood swallows". A pair of them are nesting in a tree in the estate compound. They came out and are drying out in the morning sun. Barely few minutes later, we saw a couple of racket-tailed drongos perching on a tree and flyng off in no time and a pair of White-browed wagtails were fooudn nesting in the top of the bungalow. The start made us exciting and we moved out after a cup of steaming coffee.

We selected the eastward route which goes through the coffee plantation and further down to a stream. Hardly 5 minutes into the walk, we realized what is it like birding in that terrain. Our necks have to bent more than the "plains" and our binocs and camera have to be pointed up at extreme angles. While we try to focus and identify a bird, either it fly off or another one comes and perches. We realized how diiferent it is to find, focus and identify birds in the canopy. I must admit, birding in plains is lot easier , compared to this terrain.But the variety and vocals will keep you mesmerizing and makes your neck bend!

We spotted the noisy Plum-headed parakeets followed by scarlet minivets and we can hear the wood peckers hiting hard against the wood. To be honest, for few minutes we were lost and little worried, because we can hear so mancy calls but they are too quick for us to spot, focus and identify. Later, we regained hope and chose a track that had a decent elevation over another track that goes down. Barely 20 meters into the route, the yellow-browed bulbul came and perched hardly 10 meters from us and we did had a great time watching it!Later, Malabar parakeets came along, in fact it's just the start, all through our stay and outings, malabar parakeets are spotted very frequently.

As we proceeded another 50 metres through the coffee plantation, we saw a fruiting creeper with activity around .We stopped and waited and spotted the Asian Fairy blue bird maleat "eye level" and barely 20 metres away. This guy is a beauty to be adorned. We stayed back for a while and soon a white-cheeked barbet joined the party and a couple of Orange-headed thrushes too. We had a satisfying look at them and went ahead to see the Malabar Grey hornbill perched up on a dead tree with a feed.

Few seconds later, it went further down and that's when we noticed that it is feeding another hornbill (not sure if it's young one or female, too far). Further down we spotted a Pompodaur Green pigeon.

We stayed back at the spot for half an hour since the view from the place shows the valley and all tree tops are at eye-level from the spot. We were not dissapointed as we saw the racket-tailed drongo swooping down chasing an insect catching it in mid-air and back on perch and finishing it off. It's an amazing experience to watch them do it with long trailing tail.Further, we spotted an Ashy drongo and a cuckoo-shrike.

We turned back from the spot and while walking back we finally spotted the woodpeckers that eluded us in the morning. The first one turned out to be Lesser Yellownape. As we turned to our left we saw this small bird on tree top almost at the edge of a branch. I was wondering what it was and a closer look revealed it to be Brown-capped Pygmy woodpecker (our first). In between we managed to spot the Red-whiskered bulbuls, Jungle Mynas and surprisingly no red-vented bulbuls and missed out id-ing a flycacher (looks similar to Asian brown). After 3 hours we returned to have an yummy breakfast accompanied by wonderful company of Javid sir.

As the sun came out harsh we just relaxed in the bungalow, played with the pups and enjoyed the smooth, slow and soothing music collection of Javid sir. We did a verandah birding and spotted the yellow-browed bulbul again, watched the activities at the Ashy wood swallows nest and listened to Booted warbler calls, watched the coffee seeds being cleaned and dried out in the sun. We then went down to the stream hoping to see fly-catchers but were dissapointed with no spottings and came back since sun was harsh.A little while later, I started to hear this call from closeby which I am not familiar. I walked down few metres and finally spotted a couple of Rufous treepie. The best part is, one of them perched nicely on tree top(female) and the other one started "hopping" next to it. It makes a call, hops and lands at the same place. Is this a mating ritual?This is the first time I observed this. This went on for some time and then both flew past to another tree. We had a good lunch, caught a little nap and off we go in the evening to the fields in the valley with packed tea and biscuits.

From morning one call kept haunting us. It sounded like coming off an electrical musical instrument and it was loud. We hoped that we would chase the mystery and the opporunity came ou way in the evening. While walking down the road through coffe plantations, we spotted chest-nut tailed starlings, blue-capped rock thrush and malabar parakeets. After 20 mins walk we reached the stream to see a fleeing cobra. We saw a big tree at this place where lots of birds were perching and one guy stood out. We initially thought it was a hornbill but the tail seems to be longer and as we approached closer, we saw it clearly and it turned out to be a white-bellied treepie. As we went closer to the tree is started making calls, the same one's that haunted from morning and our puzzle was solved. It's indeed a pleasure to watch a white-bellied treepie call. It moves it's whole body and let's out the call which is a little harsh, but we found it pleasing. From then, we heard the call on numerous ocassions all over the place, the next day as well. It in fact made our trip worth it. We turned back finished tea and sancks and headed home and called it a day after a simple but delicious dinner.
(if you managed to reach here.. thanks.. read on)

Day 2:
We started off little late since there was mist around. We both headed in different directions. While my friend spotted couple of cobras. I stay put at the gate of another coffe estate and I did had a replay of the species of the previous day. Added to the list are a pair of nuthatches. Yellow-browed bulbuls re-appeared, racket-tailed drongos chased each other. Another interested sighting is of a squirell which is rufous in color and short tailed compared to the palm squirell. I do not have a field guide to mammals. Can anyone help educate us about it? Later added to the list are Oriental-wheite eyes and black throated munia.

Post breakfast we rejoined and at around noon we headed one last time for spotting. This time we had our lessons and chosed the road that had a decent elevation and activity to save our neck from straining too much.we saw Chest-nut tailed starlings of malabaricus species along with the other species together. We could differentiate them clearly. Do they both colonise together?Further down, we spotted a Bronze drongo with the bright wings and dull tail and not-so-deep fork of the tail. Then came a Black-lored tit with nuthatches and while we are spotting them, we saw a movement on tree bark and it turned out to be DRACO! It displayed its amazing camouflage and the bright throat and flew to the next tree. We wrapped up our outing satisifed with the sighing, but the story didnt end there, we spotted a Common Flameback busy searching for some insects on a tree!

We finished our lunch and picked up a vehicle and planned to go to "Kadamane", the huge tea esate next to the forest.We reached there at 4-00 pm and were told that we have half-an-hour before they close. Although the view is exciting, but the fact that so many hills are converted to tea-estate made me feel bad. We causally walked down the road and there came another best moment of the trip. Another white-bellied treepie, came out and perched at 10 mts from us and kept on giving the closest possible views we can every ask for. We had a great time watching it from close quarters and the 45 mins we spent there was worth it!!. Our flycatchers luck was not bad as we spotted a flycatcher on the way back. We are not sure if it is Nilgiri or Verditar Flycatcher. Any help?? We could not get a good look at it, due to blocking twigs and shortage of time and we didnt want to trouble the shy bird more and left the place.

We were dropped back in Sakaleshpur at 6-00 from where we took a KSRTC "Sarige" and reached bangalore at midnight.We had wonderful trip, thanks to like-minded bird lover Dr.Javid. Sir, we owe you a big thanks for letting us stay at your place and had these lovely moments.

The day Pharaoh visited..

Yesterday I had a surprise in office! After a lazy lunch, as I went to our break out room, a colleague of mine showed a picture she clicked on her mobile of what she thought is an "eagle" perching near the window of the women's loo. Seeing at the visual I jumped... it's the Pharaoh himself!! I exclaimed, goodness it's the "Egyptian Vulture"!!!
(more info on wiki- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Vulture)

My office is very close to ITPL (precisely 1 km away from ITPL, on the main road ) and knock knock, we have an Egyptian vulture resting near the window pane today. (place similar to where blue rock pigeons nest in apartments). This is so exciting, since people travel all the way to Ramangaram off Mysore road to get a glimpe of a nesting pair there and we found one in our building.

I struggled hard to held back my temptation of breaking into a women's loo. But had to settle with a view from far when few kind women colleagues opened the door for a long glimpse. (to stop your imagination going elsewhere, the window where it perched is dead opposite to the loo's door). So near yet so far for "men".That fella must be male..grr

Upon my request the ladies brought us this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSsdOPtXCEE

Smart fella he knows that we can't touch him because of the window glass and let people come very very close !! So, my earlier suspicion of sighting one at my office is true. So you all know where I will be peeping everyday after lunch time.. just kidding!

Random Update

Nothing much, just landed in office straight from a trip to hometown and bloody APSRTC buses always runs slow and I repeatedly trust them and ends up feeling cheated. Finally after some grueling 16 hours journey I went straight to office (barring the 2 hours break to fresh up) and half asleep as i was typing this post. (continuing it on Wednesday below.. )

Trip to home town was refreshing and urban birding was exciting. I started noticing things at home town which I never did before!I tried sharing the observations with our family and thankfully they think I am not insane!!Here is the strange perch of the White throated King Fisher that is commonly found across.
Must be waiting for it's mate to play see-saw!??It is not it's usual perch, once can find it usually near water bodies, wonder what is it up to?

I always felt that my hometown do not have those special or bright or colorful birds. But I was proved wrong. Just when I moved out for a haircut, there came the highlight of my whole trip.. the Eurasian Golden Oriole. What a beauty!!!I was very happy to see this one at my hometown! Not surprisingly my uncle never noticed it.,. I told you it's just a matter of "noticing" things that makes a difference..

These bright golden yellow birds leaves you at awe and this one is no exception. It is a winter migrant to South India and not a "resident". The Drongos are chasing it away from their territory. This made me resolve that I would explore more wooded areas around my hometown pretty soon.

Now I am sure all of us had seen this guy near our homes.

This is the DRONGO and look at it's beautiful tail, the big give-away. They are found very widely across India. A couple seems to have nested close to our home and they put up a great show.

Next came the black beauty - the male ASIAN KOEL with it's stunning RED eyes!
A generic note- All beautiful and colorful birds are male!! (although we have very few exceptions). So next time you see a beautiful bird with a bright colors or plumage, the chances that it is MALE is high.God is a Fair man!:)

Besides these, I noticed the Ants and their relationship with the ticks (another post) and few other birds. Finally the urge in me to find our the birding places around my home town is increasing!! This trip had given the right inspiration!!So donno where I end up...

Now if you are tired of watching and reading about birds... (you need to bear with this trend in my new blog for a while..) here is a Homo Sapien at work..

A naturographer at work!! or PAW- Photgprapher at work .. the way my friend Deepa called it.

The most exciting thing I am looking forward is the 15 day vacation that we are going to enjoy this year end starting 19 December and ending 4th Jan.. Thank god I am with this company!!! (aah I can smell some J factor)

Bisi-Photo-Bath

Time for new snaps :)- an easy way to post something!!!
I have been to Valley school off kanakapura road with new friends and had a great time. Few pics from the trip. To start with, on the ocassion of Chandrayan's sucess, here is one pic clicked today to pay my tribute to my cutie moonie..

Touching the moon:

Place: IndiraNagar


The X Factor:

Place: Valley school


The Mini Spectrum:

Hope:

There is always HOPE!! Take care and have a great weekend!!