A nap after a heavy lunch is not always good :) I had a short trip to the eastern Himalayas last week. On the second day of my stay at Kalimpong, I visited Dello- the highest point in the Kalimpong hills, but didnt get many birds and cud only take a few shots. The place was beautifully decorated with flower gardens and parks. I entered the nearby montane forests in search of birds, but returned disappointed. I had only two hours in hand as the car driver was waiting outside the park. On my way back to the hotel, I did some birding but it was really disheartening that bird activity was so low. After having my lunch, I was feeling very sleepy, as i had to get up at 5am in the morning. But i changed my mind and decided to do some birding in the adjoining areas. There entire area was full of residential houses and hotels, and there was just a small patch of greenery along the hill slope, where some himalayan bulbuls and red-vented bulbuls were feeding on berries. I walked along a narrow trail running through the village houses and orchards on the hill-slope, and then I climbed down the stairs to reach a stream locally called jhora. A lone Grey-backed Shrike perched on a guava tree gave me some close shots.( which i will share later). But no other birds could be seen anywhere. I sat in the balcony of a village house taking the permission of the owner and started to take pics of the hills. Suddenly some tiny birds came flying to a nearby tree and flitted here and there, sometimes chasing each other. At first I thought that the birds were fire-breasted flowerpeckers and didnt show much interest as I have got its close shots in Arunachal last year. Still I tried to view the birds through my tele-lens just to confirm, and was surprised to see that they were actually Velvet-fronted nuthatches- a bird that i was dying to photograph for a long time. I had never thought that these forest-dwellers would come and perch on a garden tree. Almost 5 years back, i had some poor views of this bird near the Murti river of Gorumara National Park of Duars and i missed their shts in Kuldiha forests of Odisha . So I got very excited and climbed down the stairs to reach closer to the birds. They were busy foraging and emitted squeaky calls. Finally i reached that low tree and took some close shots of this beautiful bird. They allowed me to take many shots and then flew away to the downhill forests of the slopes. I sat down on a rock and admired the beauty of bird- while checking the shots on my camera screen, and thus my day ended well. I would have missed the opportunity to get this bird, if I had taken rest that afternoon. Species: Velvet-fronted Nuthatch (Sitta frontalis) a photo Lifer. Location: Kalimpong. Darjeeling district. West Bengal. October-2014 Canon 60D Sigma 150-500mm.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 07:26:43 +0000
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