India (24 April to 2 May 2009)

We were barely back from Wales & England than I received an e-mail from Gord Saunders asking whether I might be interested in a birding trip to India. Gord is from Newfoundland & is teaching English at the Memorial University "College of the North Atlantic" here in Qatar. We have birded regularly together here & the opportunity was too good to pass up. So it was that we flew to Delhi just a week later & spent the next nine days birding south of Delhi (Bharatpur) & then in the north-east (Corbett National Park). There was a one day side trip to visit the Taj Mahal & even there we found a new bird (Lesser Coucal) for our India list.

There were just the two of us & we had excellent guides, starting with Ratan Singh at the Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. Ratan was a friend of Salim Ali, known as "the birdman of India" & author of the first serious books on Indian birds. He was only with us for our first day but what a pleasure it was to bird with him, even though we had had no sleep on the overnight flight from Doha & had then driven directly to Bharatpur from the airport. A quick "breakfast" & then we were off to the park in rickshaws & then on foot. We saw 116 species that first day, almost half of our total of 276 for the whole trip. Many were new birds ("lifers") but there were old friends (especially shorebirds, herons, & egrets). We were totally exhausted by fatigue & high temperatures (mid-30s) but happy with the day & delighted to have a couple of Kingfisher beers to celebrate.

Next day was spent mostly on the road with a major stop in Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. The mausoleum itself is smaller than I expected & there is not a lot of room inside to accommodate the many visitors. Over 400 years old & constructed entirely of white marble with precious & semi-precious stones (jade, jasper, onyx, sapphire, turquoise, carnelian & many more) inlaid, it is simply stunning. We spent almost two hours looking at the buildings & the beautiful gardens. After a bit of "tourist" shopping we headed into Delhi to spend one night before going north. Parts of central Delhi reminded me of Washington with its wide-open green spaces, monuments (for example, India Gate, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1921), & boulevards. What a contrast with the busy, crowded areas with the crazy traffic & wretchedly poor people eking out their existence on the sidewalks & in the gutters.

The journey north to the Corbett National Park took several hours & gave us a panorama or India with all its physical beauty & contrasts. The brilliant colours of the saris, the peasants harvesting wheat by hand, the water buffalo, the piles of dung-cake fuel drying or ready to use, the roadside barbers & every other local trade necessary in a world that depends on humble day-to-day activity for survival, the crowded village markets, & the people hurrying about their immediate tasks or simply sitting or sleeping in the shade. We crossed the Ganges & finally reached Tiger Camp (hotel) for lunch. We transferred to a 4WD (called a "gypsy" in this part of the world) & drove (bumped) our way to Riverine Woods for the night. This is primarily a fishing camp & a very challenging place to reach, crossing (in the water) the River Ramganga several times. Now we were in tiger territory &, although we kept looking, we never did see more than very recent paw marks & fresh claw marks on some trees, & only heard the alarm cries of the spotted deer when a tiger was close by. The birding at Riverine Woods was excellent, but I have to mention the beautiful Asian Paradise-flycatcher, the male with crested black head & all white body with long tail-streamers, & the female in striking black & chestnut, as they flew in pairs through the trees. The valley itself & the lodge are idyllic & very secluded. It is definitely a place to return to.

After lunch next day we met Ganesh, who was to be our bird guide for the remainder of the trip. He is from a remote part of Nepal & spends several months guiding birding tours in India to support his wife & two children back home. He is self-taught & is now a very professional & thoroughly likeable individual. We travelled by gypsy from the main gate of Corbett Park to Dhikala Forest Lodge where we spent the next night. The three-hour trip was itself a birding safari, although we could not get out of the vehicle because of park rules (& theoretical tigers). There were many new birds as well as views over the valley, where we could see Asian Elephants & various kinds of deer. One highlight for me was hearing the call of the Eurasian Cuckoo, seeming strangely out-of-place here in the Indian jungle (rather than the English countryside). The Lodge was comfortable & protected by an electrified fence ... just in case!

From there it was back to Tiger Camp for the next two nights. Even the resort grounds were good for birding & turned up a roosting Collared Scops Owl & a few other "new" species. During the following days we looked again for a tiger but without success. A group last December even found a leopard resting in one of the trees over the road. By now we were really looking forward to travelling to higher elevations & escaping the heat. Our driver, CB, received news that his father had died suddenly & he had to return overnight to Delhi. We were sorry to see him go as we had driven with him from the time we first arrived & he had become a good friend. Asian Adventures arranged for another driver & so we set out for our last stop in Pangot (Jungle Lore Resort) in the Himalayan foothills about 100 km from the Nepal border. Although we were now at 7,000 ft. it was not in fact significantly cooler. This was largely because of the many forest fires buring throughout the region, at times very close to the road.

A last full day of birding & it was at this point that I went down with a major case of "Delhi belly". This meant that I missed the last two hours next morning, which would have brought my "lifer" list to 200. As it was, I ended up with 196 which is still a fine total. It was a seven-hour trip back to Delhi with many hair-raising moments in the madness of the traffic. We managed a couple of hours sleep at the hotel before leaving for the airport at 1 a.m. Our adventures were not quite over. Our car had a flat tire about 6 km. from the airport & the spare was almost flat. We contemplated taking one of the passing motor rickshaws (3-wheelers) but our driver was horrified & insisted on driving the rest of the way on the spare tire. We wre tired & happy to be on the Qatar Airways flight back to Doha.