Tale of the Panda Tracker – Sandakphu – Nov-Dec 2018 Part 3/3 Sandakphu-Kurseong

After the sunrise we did the short trail at the entry of Sandakphu again.

Saw mostly tits and the Black faced chu***ya. We ran into the same brit gang here again. The Brit said brightly that they had gotten the Satyr Tragopan and the Red panda ! Phew! I was muttering to myself may be they got the Satyr Tragopan mating with the Red panda 😉 !!! After they passed us ahead we heard rather loud and continuous collared owlet calls. We could see that the the loud call confused the heck of the birds in the vicinity. This call was most likely via a recording and a speaker by the Peter Lobo and brit gang. I don’t mind the odd calls to draw out the birds, but consistent loud recordings is a big no no. Some new ones that we saw was the Black throated tit and the Grey crested tit apart from the usual thrushes the crossbill and mountain finches.

Grey Crested Tit

Coal Tit

By now we were well tuned to Shering’s low whistled bird call which was of a collared owlet. He explained that the call draws out birds which would like to drive away the owl, since the owl preys on smaller birds. On hearing this call the smaller birds “gang up” to drive out the predator. The call sounds like “EIT” in morse “Dit di-it Da”. We got back to the lodge and had some really tasty tea. Turns out its a local CTC called “Sungatchi” .

Should grab a packed when down I made a mental note. The Sherpa lodge owner ( Pemba) graciously offered us one packet to take home but we thanked her and declined. Its hard enough getting provisions here from below !

The panda tracker and holy cow

We motored our way down and stopped at Kayakatta. There is a neat bird hide below “Habre’s nest” where we saw a bunch of Thrushes and got good clicks. Also saw the Winter Wren and a new Laughing thrush the scaly laughing thrush here. The Black faced Ch***ya posed for the pics unabashedly. We got all four types of laughing thrushes here. What fun !

Black faced Laughing Thrush

And here is a doodle of the Black faced Chu**a   Spotted Laughing thrush White browed fulvetta Eurasian Wren Scaly Laughing thrush Chestnut crowned Laughing Thrush

By the time we came down to Gairibas it was almost lunch. We stayed at “Solu’s lodge”. The lunch was fried rice with egg and chicken thupa. It was one of the yummiest meals of the entire trip.

We rested a bit and then went out on a trail on the Nepal side. There was a local leading us and he frequently peered intently into the bushes and the ground. I told the others that we had a panda tracker and everyone was pretty excited.

Panda tracker

Later I learnt that the guy was a local villager looking for his cow ! When I informed that to the others, I got a few not so kind looks and scowls ! But we did get a quick view of a very shy “White browed scimitar babbler” and a Bar throated Siva ( previously Chestnut tailed Minla).

Bar Throated Siva/ Chestnut tailed minla

Dinner was a special local vege again “spanish green” kind of a leafy spinach type vege. The weather in the evening was foggy and we hoped it would be clear in the morning, but it was doubtful.

01 Dec 2018: Morning was cloudy as predicted but we made our way over the same trail as last evening. There wasn’t much movement and the birds were probably holed up in the cold. Just at the beginning of the trail a Khaleej pheasant scooted into the undergrowth. Only frost on the trail and pretty quiet too.

White browed fulvetta

We reached the end and the sun came up for a bit. But the clouds were still hanging around intermittently clearing to let the sun peep in. Just as were turning back, Shering spotted a red blob barely moving on bamboo branch way down in the valley. Finally a red panda ! Wow the guy had really good spotting skills. We could make out the panda feeding through the binoculars. Not much in terms of a photograph being too far away down in the valley. But at last we got to see the Red Panda . So the extra day at Gairibas really did help !

Red Panda

For breakfast we finally opened up the upma we had brought along. It was spicy and made for a good change from the usual we had been having the whole week.

The kitchen

After breakfast we rode up to the Singilila park entrance at Tumling and got off the vehicle to walk the rest of the way to the Tumling lodge. As we crossed the Gairibas trekkers hut we saw that was “PP” sleeping on the porch. Lucky dogs these ! At the park entrance, it was foggy but there was some bird activity happening. We got the black throated Thrush, the white collared blackbird the usual Black faced Ch***ya , a white tailed nuthatch. The nutcracker was flying about too.

Black Throated Thrush

Hoary Breasted Barwing Spotted Nutcracker Stripe Throated Yuhina Murky weather but general happiness

I am sure March April this place would be peak activity ! We then walked into Shikhar lodge and were served a sumptuous lunch of dal, egg curry, with hash browns and some four types of chutneys ! The weather being cloudy we then retired to our rooms and finally back to electricity ! But by now all of the spare camera batts too were exhausted. A rather large group checked into the hotel and I tried asking them if any would have a camera batt charger we could use for a few hours of charging. Seems one person had but, that gent was not to be seen.

Meanwhile after tea the fireplace was lit and the weather being still cloudy and cold, we moved down to the dining hall. You couldn’t find a more diverse bunch there. A few argentenians, an aussie , two dutch ladies and us. The argentenians and the aussie were on separate long trips and the dutch had come for some hockey tournament in Orissa. I settled myself among the guides and was listening to their experiences and being shown some amazing videos of their encounters of the satyr tragopan and red pandas. I passed on a pdf of the bird guide I had to one of the guides. The standard bird guide book is a heavy one and you wont t want to lug it along on a trek where every gram matters. Shering refused to take it, he said he knew it by heart ! All of them said to come back in March April for the best sightings. A really really nice bunch. All were pretty depressed about the cement road through the park and said that the park was getting destroyed by unplanned “development” and no care for the unique flora and fauna there. During this time , I managed to get hold of the charger and hooked it up to juice up the batts. Meanwhile dinner got served and we all shared our orders amongst everyone. Some amazing salad and continental fare and some delectable desi food too. The cook out did himself and we called him to the table to thank him.

Old map

The aussie was a storyteller and the dutch ladies quietly withdrew to their own. The argentenians were some “practical philosophy” / vedanta bunch and they were mostly in listening mode. The aussie was constant loud jabber and somehow we got sucked into his discussions. Bad idea it was. The entire effect of the trip was “grounded” by the stupid aussie discussion. Stupid aussie, and stupider us to get drawn in. The most intelligent were the dutch who cleverly excused themselves early 😉

02 Dec 2018: Argentinian vedanta babas: The next morning, I was looking our early for birds while waiting for tea. Not much luck since it was cold and foggy.

Looking for birds early morn

Yellow billed Blue Magpie White Collared Blackbird Resident rufous breasted accentor

We went up to the viewpoint but there too , nada, complete washout. The big group was a photo club out of Calcutta and were quite loud, as in really loud. Whatever bird was around, decided not to show itself I am sure. Then we came down for breakfast and the morning for rescued by my favourite “rassa aloo”. Yummy!

Rassa Aloo

Then there was more good karma walking up to the breakfast table that morning. The argentenians came searching for us to ask us about some bird and some info on Darjeeling. The guy has in his hand, a beautifully leatherette bound some vedanta book.

He said they were just coming back from some vedanta institute at Lonavala by “Parthasarathy”. Id no clue on this. They said that we were lucky to live so close to the guru and that we must visit him. I aint no guru chela types I muttered to myself. Somewhere the topic turned to “Ouspensky” and that thats how these guys connected to the vedanta academy. Ouspensky seems said to connect to the source but did not say where the source was. So seems these folks felt the source was vedanta philosophy. Bala , my friend had recommended I read “In search of the Miraculous – Ouspensky”, and so did the argentinian chap. I told him Id heard of the book but no clue what it was about. Anyway that leatherette binding was seductive I must admit. “Dhikhave pe jao” n all 😉 Then they took some info from us on places to see in Darjeeling and we bid the “argentenian vedanta babas” goodbyes. Overall had a very pleasant calm and uplifting conversation with the argentenians! But I dont know how these guys pull off a full year of sabbatical and world travel !

We loaded up and left for Maneybhanjyang. A little after Tonglu , Shering realised he had left his phone at Tumling. We asked another driver doing a drop to Tumling to fetch his phone while we waited at Lamaydhura. Here we saw few older gents in a vintage landrover.

They were complaining that the landrover was open and was cold, windy and dusty on the move. Shering then smiled and told me that reason why he picked the Bolero which was a closed cosy vehicle. Good thinking ! At Mane, I returned the remaining unused water bottles. We changed vehicles, got into a scorpio and drove down to Kurseong. Tumling- Kurseong had taken just 3 hours 15 mins. We checked into Kurseong Tourist Lodge and bid goodbye to Shering. It felt really strange and lousy to bid him goodbye. He had been our friend , guide, mentor and help these last nine days. Super chap and very highly recommended. As the other guides said, he has that birding “keeda” !

The Kurseong lodge is a quaint old british style hotel. There was to be good birding from the room balcony but, since there were workers camped in the open patch below there was too much disturbance. I managed to catch a glimpse of a just a couple birds. We took a walk down Kurseong market looking for that Sandakphu tea. Seems that was local to “Mane” and not available here. Kurseong being more exotic !

Ms then searched out a place to get the hair wash done. One chore less when you get back. We got back to the room and had out first shower in nine days! The room knock by M was a super brilliant one, it went “Knock, Knock-knock, knock” !! When I heard that knock, the first thing was, wait, that sounds familiar, then the realisation that this was Shering’s bird call ! Felt so good ! While we could have caught the flight out the same day it was good we got one day at Kurseong to cleanup and generally chill.

03 Dec 2018: After a lazy breakfast, and some balcony birding which came up with a red vented bulbul, blue whistling thrush and a wagtail.

Blue whistling thrush

We got into the scorpio and made our way to Badogra to catch our flight back. There was talk with a lot of confidence that we could attempt some more such trekking in the future. Like Goechala maybe ? 😉

“Hai hai meri unglian…” was now a pleasant memory.

“Dit di-dit dah” 😉

Photography notes for Sandakphu :

1. Best season for birds March – April for birds. Tumling 2 days, Gairibas 2 days , Sandakphu 2 days is ideal. Best season for the views of the mountains November.
2. Both March-April and November would be similarly cold.
3. Birds are fast and flighty. Handheld or monopod is the way to go
4. 500mm is a minimum for birds. Recommend a 500mm f5.6 or the 200-500 zoom equivalents
5. Sandakphu scape – wide angle ideally you will want a 28-150 or a 28-70
6. Spare batteries highly recommended. No electricity after Tumling. Carry a multi socket strip.
7. Can use tripods at Garibas and Tumling since we are in limited movement range. But even here a monopod will be good. Just that I don’t have much experience with a monopod and a big lens !
8. Sandakphu you have to move and bird. Nothing is static hence mostly handheld or monopod territory again.
9. I hardly used my 600 F4 though I had carried it along. Everything was with the 200-500 pretty much.
10. I carried the camera – 200-500 combo with a black rapid strap all along. Keep checking the Black rapid lug often so that it dosent come loose ! I caught it a few times but after that the checking became second nature.
11. I used my pocket RX-100 a lot for the wide & people shots.
12. You can hire a jeep to follow you along. With camera gear this becomes a necessity.
13. If trekking, kept to the RX-100 only 😉
14. Sunrise is real early, so prepare accordingly.
15. Clothing. Need down jacket and gloves

Bird List ( Non numbered are repeats )

Chitrey-

1. Blue fronted redstart
2. Rufous Breasted Accentor
3. Chestnut headed Laughing thrush
4. Blue Whistling Thrush

Tumling

1. Rufous Vented Yuhina/ Red vented Yuhina
2. Whiskered Yuhina
3. White Browed Fulvetta
4. Green Backed Tit
5. Yellow Billed Blue Magpie
6. Speckled Wood Pigeon ?
7. Spotted Nutcracker
8. Oriental Turtle Dove
9. Yellow bellied Fantail flycatcher
   — Rufous Breasted Accentor

Tumling- Gairibas

1. Spotted Laughing Thrush
2. Mountain Hawk Eagle
3. Some other smaller raptor Northern Goshhawk ?
4. Hoary Throated barwing
5. Black faced laughing thrush
6. Stripe Throated Yuhina
7. Black throated thrush
8. White collared blackbird
9. White tailed nuthatch
   — Hoary Throated Barwing
   — Red Vented Yuhina
   — Spotted Nutcracker

Gairibas

1. Golden Fulvetta
2. Stripe throated Yuhina
3. White Browed Scimitar Babbler
4. Bar Throated Siva ( Chestnut tailed Minla)
5. Khaleej Pheasant
   — Black faced Laughing Thrush
   — Chestnut headed laughing thrush
   — Blue fronted redstart
   — Yellow billed blue magpie
   — White browed fulvetta

Kalphokri – Sandakphu

1. Green tailed Sunbird
2. Winter Wren
3. Alpine accentor
4. Red Crossbill Male & female
5. Coal tit
6. Mountain Finch
7. Beautiful Finch
8. Rose Finch
9. Himalayan Griffon
10. Chestnut Bellied Rock Thrush male
11. Grey crested tit
12. Black Throated Tit
    —Red Vented Yuhina
    —Stripe Throated Yuhina
    —Spotted Nutcracker
    —Stripe throated Yuhina
    —White browed Fulvetta
    —Blue fronted redstart

Kayakatta

1. Scaly Laughing Thrush
   — Black Faced Laughing thrush
   — Chestnut headed Laughing thrush
   — Spotted Laughing thrush
   — Winter Wren
   — White browed Fulvetta

Kurseong

1. Yellow Wagtail
2. Red Vented Bulbul
   — Blue whistling thrush
   — Green backed tit

Part 1 : Fat cats and a trail – Sandakphu – Gairibas
Part 2: Sandak-Phew! Gairibas – Sandakphu

 

2 responses to “Tale of the Panda Tracker – Sandakphu – Nov-Dec 2018 Part 3/3 Sandakphu-Kurseong”

1. Phew! Quite an adventure! Impressive bird list despite the ‘wrong season’.

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2. Excellent! Makes me want to pack up and go right now….its March! 🙂 Your sleeping Budha shots and the spotted laughing thrushes ‘blues’ calling, were excpetional man. Satyr Tragopan mating with Red Panda :). Enjoyed reading this

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