Birding
in Himalayas was always a dream ,this dream came true when I was invited by my fellow bird watcher friend from Bareilly ,Mr Kaajal Dasgupta sir to join him on his
Himalayan birding venture .Kiran Kadam my birding buddy decided to take leave
from his work and join me on this dream trip to mini Switzerland .We were very
much excited and thrilled to see the Himalayan exotic species as in past we
have always seen them in photographs or field guides ,this was the opportunity
to see them in real. Apart from birding ,we were also excited to meet Mr
Yashpal Singh Negi , a man who sacrificed his life for bird watching .Negi ji
is also the one among the flood victims who lost his famous birding resort
on bank of river Mandakini in 2013 Uttarakand Tragedy. Our visit was a new
chapter in his life ,after the flood disaster ,as we were the first guest who
he welcomed at his brand new resort called Sparrow Nest .We reached Mr Negi Ji place on 24th
evening ,after a tired some journey of 18 hours from Agra we were exhausted ,we
were warmly welcomed by his family with traditional “Arti-Tikka Ceremony ”
,dinner and had a nice sleep.
We
got up the next day morning at 5 am by natures very own personal alarm ,the
bird calls cuckoo,parakeets,whistling thrush and laughing thrush and much more
,we got up and got fresh up and it was our first ever Himalayan birding trip
,so we were all excited .Our plan for day after breakfast was local birding ,we
covered few miles close by Negi ji place and sighted 50+ species .The weather
was cloudy and it drizzled few a times.Two birding trails in a day and we were
excited for more ,birds and birds were everywhere ,simply the best time we ever had
. Some of the exciting sightings were nesting of Pied Thrush ,Grey Winged Black
Bird ,Ashy Drongo ,Wedge Tailed Green Pigeon
and Tickell’s thrush nestings and call of cuckoos’ through out the trip
with a Mountain Scoops Owl call by late evening.
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| Good Morning |
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| Spotted Forktail |
View Of Himalayas
Black Bulbul
Black Headed Jay
Rufous Bellied Woodpecker
Common Stonechat
The
next day was the trip to exotic location ,Chopta-Tungnath also know by “Mini
Switzerland” ,a trek of 3km from chopta to Tungnath reaching the height of
12,073 ft to observe some of best yet exotic bird species of Indian
Subcontinent .We started the steep climb around morning 7.30 am and reached the
Tungnath temple at 1300hrs ,good number of birds were sighted during the entire
trek ,warblers,tits,monal,flycatchers many more were sighted during this climb.
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| Himalayan Vulture |
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| Mini Switzerland |
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| Trek View |
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| Weather Conditions |
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| Tungnath Temple |
Tungnath is one among the Panch Kedar and the highest among the five. Not only that, it is the highest Hindu pilgrimage place in world. The history says that the arm of Lord Shiva was found and worshiped by Arjuna here at Tungnath. Actually this is a story of all the 5 temples of Panch Kedar. After the Mahabharat war, to seek pardon from Lord Shiva for killing their own relatives the Pandavas went to Shiva. Lord Shiva, incensed by their deeds, hid himself by taking the form of a bull and hiding in Guptkashi. He later reappeared at five different places as five different parts of the bull’s body. The Pandavas built temples at those places. These five spots are today’s Panch Kedar.
Birding
at such height is completely a different experience ,we trekked 360 degree of
temple to sight as many altitudinal species as possible ,we came across Bearded
Vulture’s immature and nesting ,Himalayan Monal ,bush robin ,finches and more
.The weather conditions were not that good ,as we experience low light
,drizzling ,and hail storm. The entire day of birding was really exciting ,we
got to see around 8 Monal males and around 4 bearded vultures .
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| Hail Storm |
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| Himalayan Monal -Male We stayed that night at Tungnath enjoyed some local delicious meals.The next day morning our plan was to trek down to chopta and try to get a snap of Monal in sunlight as this was the only time we came across some good light ,as the entire trip was experimenting “Low Light Photography”. 
We
managed to sight Monal in bright sunlight and also few other birds like little
forktail, redstart and golden bush robin and much more .This was the last day
of our trip ,we managed to do some birding on the way to Mukku from chopta and
a evening birding trail in dark cloudy weather to sight local birds again .
Highlights
of the Trip
Apart from Birds we also managed to sight following mammals
· Yellow throated Marten
· Himalayan Tahr
· Pika ….
To
summarize ,the entire trip was fantabulous and we had best time ever .I would
like to thank Kaajal Dasgupta Sir for allowing us to be a part ,Yashpal Singh
Negi ji & fly for their wonderful hospitality and finally Kiran Kadam who
came all the way from Mumbai to accompany us .And last but not the least thanks
to my Nokia Lumia 720 who allowed me to capture some of best memories of the
trip.
Thank You !
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