24 Dec 13 - I Thought Punk Died Out At The End Of The 70s

Another early start to get to Chiriya Tapu soon after dawn. The forest birding was as good as the previous morning, but with a handful more cars on the road. When a tuk-tuk appeared & stopped, we expected the usual Indian gorping & greeting of "What is your good name" or "From what country are you coming" etc ad nauseum, but it was Dave Willis who was on an extended trip to the Andamans, along with another Indian birder from SW India. After paying their driver off, we had another couple of pairs of eyes on the road that morning.

Andaman Woodpecker: The star of the morning's birding. I thought the Punk look had ended in the 70s!

Andaman Bulbul: Couldn't resist for photos of this great looking Bulbul

White-headed Starling: I'm sure they want to be Woodpeckers as they were frequently clambering around the trees looking for food

Monitor Lizard sp.: This was about 2 ft long

Just in case you're wondering why some of the photos are cropped: The trees round here get big

Me: With essential forest birding kit of bins, camera & coffee cup

We finally pushed onto the coastal edge, but didn't linger long before finding another woodland patch to look for Andaman Crake. The best thing about looking for Andaman Crakes is your focusing on the ground & not 30 or 40 metres up in the tree tops. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any Crakes.

Collared Kingfisher: One of the few birds on the coastal edge

Forest Wagtail: A shy skulking forest species

Andaman Shama: Always happy to see Shama's. They are very elegant & good songsters & they keep fairly low down

As we were leaving Chiriya Tapu to head back to Port Blair for some food, we bumped into a Violet Cuckoo. This is a miniature Asian Cuckoo that I've not seen for over a decade. It is a difficult bird to see in India, given its limited resident range of the Andamans & Nicobars, as well as being a scarce summer visitor to parts of NE India.

Violet Cuckoo

After a break for lunch, we were back at Chiriya Tapu for the late afternoon. The highlight was our first Andaman Cuckoo Dove.

Andaman Cuckoo Dove: I'm always surprised about how small headed Cuckoo Doves are

Obviously we looked for Owls again given it's dark soon after 17:30.

Oriental (Walden's) Scops Owl

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.