Nature walk @ Pride Vatika

My friend Geetanjali who runs IT nature trust invited me for a nature walk at their layout. I did one walk in October with an enthusiastic crowd. So I was looking forward to this second round of walk with the children. Turns out, the same day the layout has some sports activity, so Geetanjali and I were skeptical on how many will turn up. Besides, this was the first time we are experimenting an afternoon/evening walk.

The delay in getting cab made me reach the place late and by that time, I was relieved to see a decent turnout of kids and adults. With no delay and after a brief introduction from Geetanjali we started the walk with a bird fun/fiction game that early bird designed. The adults seems to be enjoying it while the younger kids seems to be slightly bored. It's fun way to introduce them to the birds world.


All photos from Geetanjali Dhar

More people joined by the time we finished the game and started the nature walk. We started off watching two Red-vented bulbuls, followed later by a group of Scaly-breasted munias on the wire. Apparently they are nest on one of the exotic non-native palms planted in the layout.



We waked past them to the pond in the layout that had abundant water. Like last time, the Common Blue Kingfisher turned up and put a good show. All the adults and kids could watch the kingfisher and it's bright blue back and orange front. We joked about the two colored shirt it's wearing.



Meanwhile, Geetanjali spotted a butterfly mud puddling and the kids curiously gathered around it trying to spot it.



Walking further up we saw the other bulbul, the Red-whiskered bulbul and we discussed about the hair-do and the jocus scientific name of this guy. Right before we moved, an Ashy prinia promptly landed with a caterpillar. Though the kids could not get more details, the adults and kids could connect what we discussed earlier that if the bird is carrying food, it's likely that it has a nest with fledglings.



Post this, the path ahead has a nice Teak plantation patch but with no bird activity, however the smaller shrubs hosted some interesting insect life. We spotted lace wing eggs and a spider hiding nicely inside the leaves of a bush.



One kids got too close to it and spooked the spider out. I used it as an opportunity to explain them the importance of keeping the insect comfortable when watching it. I hope they understood it. Since bird activity was less around the place, we went around watching insects on barks, on road and the walk added another dimension. We saw a spider-lilly plant and came up with creative names for it that include jelly-lilly, octopus-lilly etc.



We spotted a dead dragonfly in a spider web, close to ground, we the nature detectives could actually trace it all the way to spot the owner or the murderer as we joked of it sitting 7-8 feet above it. We also spotted the camouflaged Two-tailed spider on the tree bark and we discussed how it's colors are matching the bark and we speculated on why it does that. We spotted some caterpillars on the wall besides some evening brown butterflies. A bark mantis too was spotted but evaded the kids as it moved away. The bark hunting for spiders was fun (atleast to me). I hope the kids too enjoyed it.


By then it's 5:00 PM and we headed back. On the way back, we saw a dung beetle and discussed about it. I asked kids to find out what the dung beetle does with the dung without eating it (their guess).


We also spotted a white-browed wagtail and once we discussed its colors and features, we all guessed it's name as different names popped up - tail-wagger, wag-tailer etc and finally we all understood why its called White-browed wagtail.



A baronet butterfly and a katydid wrapped up the walk. The kids have been very patient and some of them carried the energy through out the walk while other had to head out little early. Thanks to Geetanjali for the opportunity, we had a productive spotting time and I look forward to the next walk

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

Monsoon arrives

Last week went in a jiff. I am trying to recollect what happened in a week. The sunday started off with taking the kids of Nishtha for bird watching. The kids, I hope had a good time. I showed them the swallow nest and I had a lifer- Speckled Piculet. Noticeable change is the weather from past one week . Monsoon arrived and the weather is very humid. So we are getting used to a routine of bright mornings, overcast and rainy afternoon and clear evenings. I have been told that come July, it rains almost all throughout the day. But the sights of the hills and mountains are different now, with clouds playing hide and seek with the mountains and prediction of rain gets tard easy - Snow-caps not visible- Rain is arriving, Clear- Snow caps- No chance of rain for next 1-2 hours

Since the rains started, the water supplied through pipes gets murky and we started bringing water from a source from where many people in our neighborhood bring. Here is the picture of the cleaner and portable water source

Apparently the source of this water is from under the ground not a lake up in the hills as told earlier to me,  hence the water won't be murky despite of heavy rain.We boil this water and have it for drinking to be on safer side as the rains arrived. We regularly watch people go here to bring drinking water in the morning and the evenings. Kids join adults in bringing water home and they do help them in the farm too.

On Wednesday, our aunty finally announced that they are sowing seeds in their farm and I was more than happy to join them. I had my breakfast while they had their heavy breakfast and around 10 we reached the farm. By then uncle had started getting the field ready with bulls hauling the plough on the soil that was soaked with water. Here we go out to sowing

 I was expecting to sow some paddy but then they explained that they follow a different process where soaked paddy with sprouts are sprayed around. So step 1 was to clean the water filled portions of the field with a plough that has a flat and wide end. The fields were already plough-ed with the regular one, one week ahead.

As the flat-ploughing completed, we started step-2 where we jumped in and cleaned up the previous crops leftovers pulled out by the plough and we bury some of the leftovers under the mud and some we dump on the bunds that separates the portions of farm. We worked for an hour bending our backs and I got a hang of how they collect them by wading ones hands through the mud water. (reminded me of a "Pied avocet" feeding- google for it). By then dark clouds gathered and I had to take break for lunch just when it started raining.

Later in the evening, I joined them for step-3 is where we sprayed the seeds all over the place with hands. I was told that after 20-25 days, they plough the land and then align the sprouts in a linear fashion and add dung and goat, sheep droppings as natural fertilizer. The yield will be ready by December and they need to monitor the fields regularly but the major task is done.

Mid-week, we decided to cook some chicken. Since we live at one end of the village high up, so walking down and hiking up is tiring, so we decided to go to the next village further up to pick up chicken. So I ended up hiking 4 kms to get half kg of chicken. Phew never did I worked so hard to get some chicken.

Meanwhile I started taking english  classes for few students at Nishtha and it's a good experience.
Working with Nishtha also helped us understand the problems of the community. Domestic violence and alcoholism are a major problem which often resulted in single women striving to survive. Nishtha and jagori,  the two ngo's in the village work towards women empowerment, especially those of single women who were either deserted by men or those who chose to live a better life being single, away from the abuse. I have heard multiple instances of single women who deserted their husbands after surviving the violence for years and now living in dignity earning a decent livelihood in the village. They are sure an inspiration to many more. But the violence does have an impact on the young minds, especially the teenage girls who do not have a great opinion about marriage.

This week we are planning to go to Dharamkot a village further up from Mcleod ganj and stay there for couple of days. More birding and some regular tourist like sight-seeing on the cards. I am looking forward to the experiences :)