25 Dec 13 - Happy Christmas

I've never been a great fan of Christmas given its over commercialism & with birding being my only religion, then it's great to be birding again abroad on Christmas Day. Having seen nearly all the Andaman endemics in the last few days, the only target species left to see were Andaman Crake & the very tricky Andaman Barn Owl (which few people see or hear). Hoping for a quiet start we headed off on another early boat to Mount Harriet National Park on the far side of the bay from Port Blair. We managed about 4 or 5 hours, before the hordes descended, but by that time we were close to packing up.

Brian & Vikram: Also enjoying Christmas Day birding

Me: With the Mount Harriet forest behind

View from the top of Mount Harriet

We spent some time birding along the road leading to the park. Whilst the forest didn't look as good as we had seen on previous days, it was still good birding.

Brahminy Kite: These gorgeous raptors have a wide range from the Indian Subcontinent to Australia. Surprisingly, I didn't see that many on this Indian trip

Andaman Green Pigeon: This party of 3 birds gave nice, but still high, views

Andaman Coucal: A typical skulking bird

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater: Another great Bee-eater

Smyrna Kingfisher: A stunning bill

Andaman Bulbul

Red-whiskered Bulbul: Disliked by many birders as they live in secondary habitat, but I have a soft spot for Bulbuls (although I draw the line at African Greenbuls)

Asian Fairy-bluebird: Male

Olive-backed Sunbird

Andaman Butterfly: Identifying tropical butterflies is beyond my interest, so it has no name

Andaman Beetle: A cracking beetle, that had lost an antenna

We headed back to Port Blair for lunch. En route, a stop along the harbour's edge in Port Blair  produced a good selection of Waders roosting on boats during the high tide.

Eastern Reef Heron

Lesser Sandplover

Whimbrel & Pacific Golden Plover

Terek Sandpiper & Pacific Golden Plover: The first Terek Sandpiper I've seen for at least 20 years

Common Sandpiper

Gandhi Statue: Clearly a popular man in Port Blair. I only saw one more Gandhi statue on the rest of the trip

Late afternoon saw us returning to Chiriya Tapu on another search for Andaman Crake. One responded briefly to the tape, but from deep in the forest, before shutting up.

The highlight of the afternoon was rescuing this Yellow Bittern from the hands of a couple of small boys. It sounded like they had picked it up near the road and were taking it home to show the parents. After asking to have a look at it, we could see it looked unhurt and asked if we could keep it. They said they were planning on letting it go and while I think they might have, I wasn't so sure if their parents were vegetarians. After giving them a 20 rupee note, we were able to get some photos & release it. It looked a bit dazed and didn't seem to want to fly, but happily dived off into the long vegetation, when given that as an option.

Yellow Bittern: Well worth the 20 rupee note (20p) we paid the kids for him

Yellow Bittern: Good deed done for the day

Yellow Bittern: He didn't want to fly from here, perhaps still a bit shocked, but happily walked off into long grass when re-released further along the road

22 Dec 13 - Andaman Forest Birding At Last

Brian arrived on time from his flight from the UK & there was time for some lunch before heading out birding. The first site was some native forest at Chiriya Tapu, about an hours drive from Port Blair. First stop was a roadside beach to catch up on a few of the local waders.

Eastern Reef Heron: This dark morph Egret is on the Western most end of its range which gets as far as Australia & the Pacific

Pacific Golden Plover

Lesser Sandplover: With another Pacific Golden Plover for size comparison

Common Sandpiper: A more familiar species to UK birders

 

Collared Kingfisher: This Kingfisher is as happy with beaches & mangroves as the freshwater in Gandhi Park

Carrying along the road we entered several miles of good forest. Here we quickly found a mixed flock of Alexandrine & Long-tailed Parakeets, Green Imperial and Andaman Green Pigeons, Asian Fairy-bluebirds & White-headed Starlings. Clearly, there were some good fruiting trees in the vicinity.

Andaman Green Pigeon: This has been recently split from the Pompadour Green Pigeon & is endemic to the Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Green Imperial Pigeon: This is a widespread Asian Pigeon

Alexandrine Parakeet: The endemic Andaman subspecies magnirostris

Long-tailed Parakeet: The endemic Andaman subspecies tytleri

Asian Fairy-bluebird: This is a male, the female is a dull steely-blue

White-headed Starling: This is an endemic forest Starling with a lot of character

The Andamans are on the same time zone as the rest of India, but being so far east it's starting to get dark around 17:00. Therefore, it was onto the coast part of Chiriya Tapu, where there are some open fields around the forest edge, to look for some of the local Owls. As we reached the forest edge we saw our only Andaman Serpent Eagle. There are 2 Serpent Eagles on the Andamans: the dark Andaman Serpent Eagle and an endemic race of Crested Serpent Eagle. In the failing light, I only had time for this record shot of the Andaman Serpent Eagle, after better & identifiable scope views.

Andaman Serpent Eagle: Totally overexposed or arty - I will leave you to decide

There are 5 species of Owl on the Andaman Islands: Andaman Barn Owl, Andaman Boobook, Hume's Boobook, Andaman Scops Owl & the Walden's Scops Owl (a distinctive subspecies of Oriental Scops Owl which some authorities split off). Of these the latter 4 are fairly easily found in the forest areas, but the Barn Owl is tricky and it was the only species we failed to see as it has moved into more urban areas around Port Blair. First stop was to look for Andamans Nightjar which we saw on the forest edge, but I failed to get any photos of it. The Boobook Owls were more cooperative & we had good views of both species. At 9 inches long they are intermediate in size between a Scops Owl and Tawny Owl.

Andaman Boobook

Hume's Boobook: Although appearing similar to the Andaman Boobook in this poor photo, the calls the 2 Owls were giving as they were being photographed were very different

Even with the hour drive back to Port Blair we were back at the hotel by 20:00, having seen 2 new Owls and a Nightjar. If only night birding was that easy elsewhere in the world.