Goa & Karnataka, India 2014

Goa & Karnataka, India
18 Jan – 1 Feb 2014-02-15
Blue-tailed bee-eater

This is a brief summary of my birding exploits while visiting Goa and a bit of Karnataka on holiday with my wife Jenny. I didn’t use guides, other than at Backwoods Camp where they come as part of the package! 

Many other birders I met there, or have spoken to either side of my visit, used guides with great success. While I may have missed several species as a result of going solo, I really enjoyed birding alone and generally doing my own thing. 
This of course was only really possible thanks to hints and tips given by people I know who have been plus the Gosney guide and various online trip reports.

Arrived at 4.45am (en route saw flying fox & house crow) before taking a transfer to our chosen hotel.
Stayed at Marinha Dourada, near Baga.


Indian pond heron
I had emailed ahead to request a room with lake views and upon arrival I asked again and got one better – a corner room with views also of the tidal lagoons over the road.
Consequently, within a few minutes of arrival I had views of stork-billed and white-throated kingfishers, blue-tailed bee-eaters, Brahminy and black kites, little and Indian cormorants, Indian pond heron and a host of other common birds of the region.


Spent the day lazily exploring the local area and familiarising ourselves with the hotel and the local village.

Purple heron
 Day 2: Had a pre-breakfast wander around the lagoons and the nearby river and mangroves. Added more common birds, including Oriental honey buzzard, common and jungle mynahs, white-breasted waterhen, purple heron, green bee-eater and a white-bellied sea-eagle.

After breakfast Jenny and I had a walk up Baga Hill – admittedly late in the day for much but I wanted to familiarise myself with the access and habitat.


Plum-headed parakeet
In the afternoon we walked a circular route following the Baga River, up to the Anjuna Mapusa Road and back via Arpora. Bird seen en route included Asian koel, Blyth’s starlings and Indian golden oriole.
Later, back at the hotel I saw Indian darter on the lagoons plus pied chat, plum- headed parakeet and rufous treepie from our balcony!

Black drongo
Day 3: Got up bright and early and headed up Baga Hill for a spot of pre-brekkie birding. Heading up the eastern access path, I came across a party of jungle babblers.
It was quite challenging and exciting birding, given my lack of familiarity with the calls and the skulking nature of many of the birds. 

Highlights from the morning included Asian palm swift, long-tailed shrike, black drongo, Indian blackbird, black-lored tit, tawny-bellied babbler, paddyfield pipit, Loten’s sunbird and Vigors’s sunbird and the rather odd sight of 3 Indian peafowl – somehow looking out of place without a Tudor house and a rose garden in the background...

Pacific golden plover
Later in the day I had a bumble around the ‘salt pans’ (they don’t appear to be salt pans at all, despite being referred to as such in countless reports) beyond the lagoons. Common waders were reasonably plentiful here including marsh sandpiper, greenshank, Temminck’s stint, wood sandpiper, red-wattled lapwing, Pacific golden plover and both lesser and greater sandplover. Plain and ashy-headed prinias, zitting cisticola and striated heron were also seen here.

Marsh sandpiper
Wood sandpiper
At dusk the balcony birding session notched up black-headed ibis, Asian openbill, little swifts, night herons and flying foxes.

Day 4: Thought I’d have my first crack at the famous Arpora Woods. It only took 15 minutes to walk there from the hotel and I arrived at first light. I checked out the dry streambed first and was almost immediately greeted by the sight of a stunning orange-headed thrush. As I watched this cracking bird a movement caught the corner of my eye and in hops a dazzling Indian pitta! I believe the kids say OMG in these moments. My utterance was considerably more profane…


Orange-headed thrush
At one point I had these two iconic species in my bins at the same time. Heaven. From here on in the birding was simply brilliant. In just over 2 hours I picked up scores of great aves including Tickell’s blue flycatcher, white-throated fantail, Asian paradise flycatcher, black-headed cuckoo-shrike, pied flycatcher-shrike, black-hooded oriole, golden-fronted leafbird and changeable hawk-eagle.

Day 5: Picked up at 5am and taken to Backwoods Camp via a stop on the way for some early morning birding. Thanks to the expertise of Leio, from the camp, we were soon adding species to the trip list as he identified birds by ear before they appeared for us. Crested tree swift, heart-spotted woodpecker, vernal hanging parrot, black-rumped flameback and Oriental turtle dove were among species seen before breakfast!

Ashy drongo
A session in the forest at the camp and another around the Tambdi Surla Temple soon had us adding yet more birds the growing list. 
These included grey junglefowl, crested serpent eagle, mountain imperial pigeon, Malabar parakeet, Indian white-rumped spinetail, Malabar trogon, white-bellied woodpecker, velvet-fronted nuthatch, flame-throated bulbul and white-rumped sharma among cracking birds. 

Jungle owlet
Day 6: Yet more Backwoods shenanigans with tons more fabulous species and repeat looks at some of the previous days’ stunners. Highlights today included: rufous-bellied eagle, Indian black eagle, vernal hanging parrot, black-capped kingfisher, blue-eared kingfisher, Malabar barbet, Asian fairy bluebird, blue-capped rock thrush, Malabar whistling thrush, little spiderhunter and Oriental scops owl.
Sri Lanka frogmouth

 
Day 7: The final morning. We enjoyed our last pre- and post-breakfast birding sessions in the company of the affable Leio. We had yet more sightings of some of the amazing birds of this terrific region and even added a few last new birds to the trip list including brown-headed barbet, jungle owlet, ashy woodswallow, spangle drongo and black bulbul.

Grey junglefowl
The Backwoods experience is an absolute must for any birder visiting Goa. Its rustic accommodation is simply fabulous as is the food and the birding in and around the camp. We also had tree frogs in our room, plus we saw a few other non-avian species such as bonnet macaque, Hanuman’s langur, black-naped hair, fulvous fruit-bat and Malabar giant squirrel.

Day 8: Back at the Marinha Dourada, we had quite a lazy day. We went to see the Alexandrine parakeet pair using a hole in a nearby palm tree and went over to the Beira Mar hotel in Baga in the late afternoon. This hotel is renowned for its veranda overlooking a marshy area. 
Non-residents are welcome, as long as they buy a drink! 

Red-wattled lapwing
Before long I located a yellow bittern lurking deep within the vegetation and after getting a few other birders on to it, it eventually emerged giving great views. Soon after I found an adult cinnamon bittern and again pointed it out, but this bird stayed well hidden for the duration of my stay. We also got top views of clamorous reed warbler, paddyfield pipit, marsh harriers and a fly-by peregrine.

Clamorous reed warbler
Yellow bittern
Day 9: This morning we hired a taxi to take us up to Morjim Beach – well known to birders as a reliable site for gulls and terns. 
When we arrived we could see masses of birds roosting out on a distant sandbar. 
Streams of birds were coming in from offshore to join the roost and before long I had clocked Heuglin’s gull, Caspian gull, black-headed gull, brown-headed gull and Pallas’s gull. 
A couple of the latter species were well into summer moult and sported quite advanced black heads. Both great crested and lesser-crested terns were visible along with large numbers of gull-billed terns. 
Striated heron

The waders were a little too distant to scrutinise unfortunately; both great knot and a vagrant Caspian plover had both been present in the area in recent days. Similarly, small pratincole are reputed to be common at times at Morjim but we couldn’t find a single bird. 
Lesser and greater sandplovers plus Kentish plovers obliged by showing well on the beach itself. Another speciality of this site is bay-backed shrike and I soon found this stunner in the very area it is known to favour.
Brahminy kite
Keen to find some pratincoles, I later checked the so-called saltpans near the hotel but other than a couple of little ringed plovers I couldn’t add anything to the species seen here previously.

A real bonus came around 9pm as we headed back through our hotel grounds after dinner. A brown hawk owl was sat on a lamp between the 2 lagoons – I ran off to my room, grabbed my torch and bins and we got ace views of it as it hunted from its perch.

Alexandrine parakeet
Day 10: Today we went off to the Zuari River. Leio had helped organise this for us and we met with the other birders who had been at Backwoods. Birds seen on the lengthy boat trip included western reef heron, black-headed kingfisher, collared kingfisher (pair), painted stork, barn owl, slaty-breasted rail, terek sandpiper, Baya weaver and white-bellied sea-eagle. We also got great views of mugger crocodile and a flying fox roost!
 
House crow

Bonnet macaque
Black-headed ibis
Afterwards we made a detour to Carambolin Lake for a brief stop. This amazing wetland was teeming with birds including hundreds of lesser whistling duck. In among them we also picked out a lone comb duck and a few cotton pigmy-goose. The place was simply alive with purple swamphens and both pheasant-tailed and bronze-winged jacanas showed well. Later that afternoon, we had a stroll up Baga Hill where the surprise highlight was a cracking grey-headed canary flycatcher which gave superb views for several minutes at close range near the remains of the bamboo hut on the western access path.
Green bee-eater

Day 11: Headed through and over the Western Ghats into Karnataka and to Hospet. This was done by train and took approximately 7.5 hours. Quite an experience. The scenery was astounding but the from-train-birding was simply frustrating! Among the many ‘lost’ larks and distant harriers and such I did see good numbers of Indian rollers, black-winged stilts, collared doves and a couple of black-shouldered kites.
Jungle crow

After checking into our hotel in the late afternoon we grabbed a tuk tuk and headed for the Tungabhadra Dam, which crosses the Tungabhadra River, a tributary of the Krishna River. As we walked around the park adjacent to the dam I noticed a few bits and pieces such as laughing dove, Indian blackbird, large grey babbler and 3 river terns passing low overhead. As dusk approached 100s of cormorants headed to roost – quite a sight. Rather frustratingly, an unidentified falcon came through, red-necked was the most likely given shape, size and flight but I wasn’t able to clinch it.
Stork-billed kingfisher

Day 12: An early start today, with us heading to the UNESCO World heritage Site of Hampi, located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire.
An astonishing place that also had some ornithological interest! I expect some more time here would yield some great birding opportunities, but we were with a group and I had to make do with the stuff that I picked up as we went around the huge site. Notably, there were large numbers of Alpine swift moving over early in the morning and alongside other now familiar Indian birds I also added ashy-crowned sparrow-lark, Brahminy starling, dusky crag martin, Indian silverbill and yellow-throated bulbul, plus hoopoe, Bonnelli’s eagle, more river terns and white wagtail.
Ashy-crowned sparrow-lark

Day 13: Another (very, very) early start and another long train journey of approximately 9 hours. Other than common species, and more unidentified harriers and larks, the birding was pretty much non-existent today.
 One clear highlight was locating the brown hawk owl once again in the same area at the Marinha Dourada in the evening.

Day 14: Our last day. Forsook the much-needed lie-in and got up for one last first light exploration into Arpora Woods. Once again, a smart orange-headed thrush was the first bird to greet me, soon followed by a repeat showing of the dazzling Indian pitta. 

Mugger crocodile
The following 2 hours once more proved very birdy with great views of rufous woodpecker, greater flameback, small minivet, black-headed cuckoo-shrike, Malabar woodshrike, puff-throated babbler, brown-cheeked fulvetta, purple-rumped sunbird and Nilgiri flowerpecker amongst other things.

Black kite


A full list of species seen will be added here soon.

Flying fox


























Flying lizard











Indian palm squirrel


Shikra
Barn owl
White-browed wagtail

Hoopoe

Hanuman langur
Pied chat

























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