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

23 Dec 13 - The Early Birder Catches The Boat

The alarm went off at 04:00 (& this is supposed to be a holiday). Just time for a strong coffee before getting to the hotel door for 04:30. The driver showed up 10 minutes late, but we still caught the 05:00 ferry in the half light of dawn. A few minutes later we were driving through lagoons & mangroves, before entering some decent forest at a site called Jirgatna, on the opposite side of the bay to Port Blair. For the rest of the morning, we were birding along a road with lots of birds & a car every 15 minutes or so. Can't think of many places where forest birding from a road has been so pleasant. By the end of the morning we had seen 2/3rds of endemic Andaman birds.

Vikram showing how high this forest is

Long-tailed Parakeet

Andaman Coucal: For once not in a dense tangle of vegetation

Spot-breasted Pied Woodpecker: As with Great Spotted Woodpeckers, this is sexed based upon the extent of red on the head. This is a male

Spot-breasted Pied Woodpecker: The female has no red on the head

Andaman Cuckoo-shrike: Surprisingly the only one we saw. Good job this bird performed well for the camera. The rusty throat indicates this is a 1st Winter bird

Andaman Cuckoo-shrike: Not a sharp picture, but shows the size of prey it eats. This lizard was dispatched pretty fast

Scarlet Minivet: Male. The females have yellow replacing the orange

Andaman Bulbul: Until fairly recently this was lumped with the widespread Black-headed Bulbul. Perhaps the lack of a black head gave them a clue about splitting it

Black-naped Oriole

Andaman Drongo: This is smaller than the superficially similar looking Black Drongo & is strictly a forest species, whereas the larger Black Drongos prefer open & degraded habitats

Andaman Treepie: They seemed to go around in parties with Andaman Drongos. Perhaps they enjoy watching the Andaman Drongos squabbling like these 2 birds

Andaman Butterfly: Saw similar looking Butterflies on other days so presume it's a fairly common species

 

The Port Blair Bay Ferry: Very like a Scottish ferry on the face of it, but when loading/unloading it's a free for all of motorbikes & people trying to get on & off, with only the cars being organised by the crew

The Port Blair Bay Ferry: The jetty was sharply angled making it more tricky to get the car on

Indian House Crow: Ready to steal away on the next boat to Ireland!!!

House Sparrow: No prizes for identifying this one. This is the indicus subspecies