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.

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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 Jumbo Conflict

On one of my yahoo "interest-groups", a member brought in an interesting topic. He found a report stating that the forest department compensated villagers whose crops are destroyed by elephants. Apparently, the department ended up paying lakhs of ruppess to those villagers who live on the edge of forest and constantly troubled by elephants who raid the crops and destroy the yield. So the question is- Instead of spending so much money on compensation, why can't forest department buy off the land from the villagers and make it part of the forest. Very interesting idea!! So I took it up and dwelled deep into it and with my little exposure and knowledge I tried to look at the BIG Picture. Here is my take....(long one.. needs 5 tons of patience, note- 1 ton=1 minute)

Say the forest department bought the land for 2 lakhs! How long do you think the farmers survive with that money. In most of the cases the not-so-educated sons of the land who do not know how smartly to use the money might end up evaporating the money in an year. To top it, if they get their children married off, it might evaporate even before...

So what do they do after they finishing off their reserve cash.??? One of these...
1. End up as a labourer at some resort or farm (visit some of the villages around Bandipur to WITNESS THIS, but there the land is bought by so called "city-people" from bangalore for their private party houses..)
2. Migrate to cities for better living.
3. Feel bad at loosing the land hence clear some other trees bordering reserve forests and start cultivation.(Farmers are very closely attached to land)
4. Frustrated at loosing the land and the income they might turn hostile towards the forest department and the wild life(read: elephants in this context). Some of them can turn into poachers which can earn them the EASY BUCKS.

So it's not just about buying the land, you need to provide them with alternate sources of income which helps them on a long run and when I say alternate sources of income that leads to another discussion.

OK, when somebody uses the buzz word "alternate source of income"- it is easier said than done!! The less-educated farmers who got no skills other than cultivating the land should be willing to learn new skills that can provide them alternate income sources. Again, this should not be causing any destruction to the forest and it's biodiversity-- say if you decide to manufacture finished goods or some material where they use the resources of forest, the typical challenges(note- not problems) can be finding out skilled people to train them, sharing of income, usage of forest resources if any and marketing the goods which ultimately earns the income.

So do you think our forest department and political lobby are ready to take up such a MAMMOTH TASK, especially with no self-gain motivation other than saving forest??(I agree there are some genuine forest department people who had the attitude and will)? I guess the answer is a big "NO" in most of the cases. This is where a GENUINE and dedicated NGO's can chip-in and be a crucial link that connects all- -The people, the forest department and the political lobby without which the whole program might not succeed to the extent we anticipate.

So, I agree it sounds more logical to buy land, I would be more than happy to hear such a news...but I would add-- Buy the land but make sure the sons of the land are taken care of. To sum it up, make sure the impact of our actions have less side-effects by taking into account the welfare of all parties involved in this.

To do so, we need :

1. Committed people who can work with the villagers by educating them on the importance of conservation and about the alternate sources of income and win their confidence.
2. Do a socioeconomic study that reveals the "per capita income" that helps in choosing the right SOURCE of alternate income generation (ex: Handicrafts, Herbal products, Honey etc). Also, we need to do a Marketing survey and find out the places where the products can be sold (basically a BUSINESS PLAN that fits in.. spare my little knowledge on marketing, could not get right word)

3. Study the forest bio-diversity to understand the Non-timber products that can fetch any income (with a controlled and limited usage of forest resources- again only in reserve forests not national parks where such an activity is prohibited.) In fact, if forest department can buy 100 acres of land, they can use part of it to "grow" plants that might not be of interest to any herbivores but can generate income.(again here I am not an elephant expert to decide that and I assume elephants do not raid crops which will not serve them as food except when they are in "musth" .. experts correct me..!!!)

4. Have a strong political will plus forest department support to undertake such projects which can be implemented across all villages where the Human-Animal conflict is on rise.

5. Last, but not the least- Plan to use the land bought by the forest department in a right manner...the reality is... you might be surprised to see a politically supported fella erecting a "RESORT" on the recovered Land....! It's INDIA- anything can happen over night. .! Besides this, acquiring land might bring in resistance from political parties lobbying against the government who gives a damn for anything except POWER!

If any of you managed to read till here, a big THANKS. These are opinions expressed from my personal experience and observations. There are lots of other issues that I might have missed. At the same time, I confess I am neither a Human-Animal conflict expert nor a animal behaviour expert. I am just a lover of mother earth who would prefer the planet to be rugged, the way it was ages ago!!

I agree that some of the things I listed above can be debated for hours. But this is just my take on the issue and I am open for any open-discussion (not debate..) and love to hear your thoughts and opinions. I can agree to dis-agree with my opinions :~)