The Mumbai birding group had a few pics of this wonderful bird and I asked if someone knew where to go and see this bird. The Great Hornbill has been on my list for a while. The Valparia pics which I have seen is the one that keeps coming to mind. But I have seen these at Manas, Kaziranga and Corbett. But All quick shots. Here was a chance to see them more clearly and hopefully they would hang around for a while since it was nesting time.
I got the contact of Shantanu Kuveskar at Mangao and he would guide is to the spot. As usual reached out to Sundar & Doc Bedekar but Doc had to bail out due to some emergency.
We did a early morn 3.30am start to Mangon and we were able to reach by 0630 after a brief chai stop. A chai shop in the middle of nowhere too has a UPI QR code !
A nice chai and I kept jabbering so that Sunder who was driving wouldnt dose off. Mangon we parked and grabbed a quick 30min snooze when Shantanu joined us.
He was waiting for a few more cars to fetchup and take us to the hornbill point. The hornbill point was a further some 25 kms away from Mangaon. We reached by 8AM and the wait began. There was a honey buzzard on that tree which gave me my first shots of the day.
Sometimes the hornbills showed up only at noon, so s long wait was possible. I had packed some breakfast of parantha & sandwiches and also a flask of good filter coffee to help with the wait. I had been told there wouldnt be anything close available for food. However, shantanu had managed to position a local villager with some poha and fresh coconut on a food cart. But then we had out “chow” with us and we dug into that with gusto.
After a long time M did some super packed food. Fileter coffeee, water, Sandwiches, Parantha, Pickle, cups, sugar,stir spoon, napkins, a book to pass time, bino and a cap !
Chow time laid out at the back of the car.
The hornbill turned up around nine AM. and soon the female joined. They were scouting a tree hole for the nest. The female would get in and stay there till the eggs hatch and would be dependent on the male to feed her. Shantanu said that due to the sharp variation in temperatures the bird was not settling into the nest. Also this nesting was happening two years after that huge storm that hit the region and upset the breeding system. The male had a snake in its beak and waited for the female to get into the nest before feeding it.
Honey Buzzard overhead someone shouted, and I did a quick grab while shooting the hornbills.
The female
Oops, the berries fell out
If ya wanna slow things down, cant beat a hornbill !
By 9.40 the birds flew off and we were taken by Shantanu to another area where there were vultures. It was quite hot and bright by now and not much to seee but some soaring vultures. Here is a Black Kite mobbing a vulture.
We were done by 12 noon and decided to drive straight back to Mumbai. Not many htels enroute so best is to grab some lunch at Mangaon itself. We had a quick dal rice at this Sugras hotel. Nothing great but “doable”.
The flight shot
So another super trip with Sundar !
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