Hello friends, hope you and your family are doing good. Amur gave hope and the same is proving to be the best because we now landed in Dandeli to many more migratory and local birds of the land.
Dandeli as a place was pending for a long and finally, we managed to visit thanks to the long weekend, the place is different in
terms of the pattern of birding, it has a variety of forest birding as well as hide
birding and both are unique and provide lovely amazing opportunities. With two different experience, I have
split the trip report into two-part, part 1 is for forest birding, and part 2 will
cover hide (Studio) birding.
Today we will take a tour of the forest
birding along with a unique stay and food experience, the place is such that one can visit every year either for birding or just for taking a
break from stressful routine life. Let us move to the next section to know more
about it.
The story begins
To start with let me give you the
context of how it started and then we will get into the specialty of part 1. The planning
started when we were in Tadoba, we all wanted to have at least one birding trip
for this season and Dandeli was pending for a long. Deepa/Suma and I finalized
the date but we were skeptical about how to travel whether to take a flight or
through Goa or drive. Certainly driving down was the least we wanted to do but
it was one of the options. After a lot of discussions we approached our expert
Saurabh if he can help us to finalize the plan, coincidentally he too had planed
his batch for Dandeli so we joined his batch so the final count came out to be 10 for the trip.
This is how we started the journey to Dandeli,
now let me explain to you what we covered and how we enjoyed each moment.
Part 1 is a combination of two things, first definitely birding, and another part is an experience of stay which includes unmatched food at Kadumane Homestay. So first
meet lovely birds and then we will visit the food trail.
Hornbill courtship display
As per the plan, our 2 nights were booked
at Kadumane homestay at Dandeli, which is rich with the attraction of different
types of Hornbills, it is as if Dandeli is home to Hornbills and hence you get an opportunity
to capture them with their unique habits.
One of the best moments is to see the Hornbill courtship display in the air, they are monogamous and known for the display of courtship behavior.
During courtship, a male is usually seen chasing a female and gifting her bark
of a tree, petals of flowers, or fruits of banyan, peepal, or mulberry to please
her. We never had a clue that such a lovely surprise will come our way so
beautifully, we were waiting in the open ground for a mud bath activity but we
noticed them flying like a fighter plane and we started focusing to capture a
flight shot but suddenly the drama started between the pair. It was one of the
best parts of our trip, you can have a look at it in the DSLR section to understand
it better.
After the display in the air, they started coming
down on the ground for dust play, here as the game of passing berries or petals
continued, this is the first time we saw so many at one place with their behavioral display. This became one of the best moments for us. Morning and evening were hijacked by hornbills and now it is time to see what night walk has to offer, so let us visit the next section to enter into yet another mind-wobbling experience. (To know Hornbill in details refer to blog on hornbill - https://btwildart.blogspot.com/2018/12/big-bill-hornbill.html?m=1
The Night trail
It was not only day time but the night
time is equally fruitful because you get a chance to see some nocturnal species during
their active time. Some time night walk looks difficult because of a lot of effort requires in forest birding, walks on uneven ground, running behind birds
etc requires a lot of energy and hence at sometimes you avoid night walk assuming
there will be no activity and waste of effort.
Let me tell you that as good as day
time night walk is equally rewarding, many species like Owl, flying squirrel,
Frogmouth etc gives good opportunity in the night instead of day time. During our
night walk, we got flying squirrel and frogmouth along with tunnel spider, frog.
Giant squirrel added with idea of ghost shoot by Esmile Sir. (see my pic in DSLR section)
I am sure most of you are unaware of a flying
squirrel or a giant squirrel, you must be thinking squirrel what you have seen
is small in size why it is giant and is it true that it can fly. The answer is
yes squirrels are of different types; giant squirrel is giant in size and
prefers to stay on the tree. Similarly, a flying squirrel is grayish in color and is similar in size to a giant squirrel.
To add more about flying behavior, they are not
capable of flight in the same way as birds or bats but are able to glide from
one tree to another with the aid of a patagium, a furry, parachute-like membrane that stretches from wrist to ankle.
The name flying squirrel comes from the habit of gliding from one place to another.
It is difficult to sight because they are active only during the night, Prathamesh
tried hard for us to find this lucky species and got success as well. We were following the move of it
and finally, it took glide from a tree to ground to run away from us, trust me
it was a mesmerizing event to see squirrel gliding like this. The two back-to-back
events hornbill and flying squirrel were truly amazing and will be remembered for
life long.
Its century
The total count of the trip is around 127 out
of which around 50 would be part of phase 1, some of them are - Blue-eared Kingfisher, tunnel spider, frog, frogmouth, woodpecker,
Green bee-eater, jungle owlet, velvet-fronted nuthatch, Malabar Pied Hornbill, giant
squirrel, flying squirrel, Sunbird, Minivet, and many more. You know what for
doing so much of walk you need really good food and comfortable stay both
this wish was fulfilled by Kadumane homestay so it is important to know about the specialty of Kadumane (offered by Mr. Narimha) so let us move to the next section to eat yummy food.
Kadumane
Homestay
Kadu means Forest Mane means Home (Forest Home)
Our couple of days stay was planned at Kadumane, we reached around 3 pm we were very hungry and
were expecting good food. The moment we reached we were welcome with organic kokum
drink and then they served proper lunch. It was simple lunch but the taste was
yummy and out of the world.
The next day in breakfast we banana bun with missal
was amazing I would say “1 Number” this cannot be described in words, please
check the DSLR section for pics. This was not the only dish, each and every item served
during the stay was just out of the world, be it Organic herbal tea, kokum
drink, buttermilk, herbal water (with sabza), Idly with vitamin leaf, Medu
Wada sambar, 5 types of pickles, different vegetables, dal, rice, etc. Over and above
service and hospitality of Rohan and Narsimhaji were too good, they treated us
as we are family that made our stay memorable and comfortable. Cottages were neat
and clean added with all required facilities. After two days of lovely days, we
moved to Old Magazine House (Ganeshgudi) for studio birding, will share details
in part 2. Till the time you enjoy part 1 with amazing photos.
I hope you liked this blog, keep
blessing and keep motivating me to deliver unique stuff, do let me know your
feedback on btwildart@gmail.om
Vote of Thanks
Mumbai
Travelers and Team –
Many thanks, Saurabh, Jogi, and Pathamesh for managing the tour so smoothly, you
guys are rocking, keep it up.
Co-Travelers
- Many thanks to all of you, it wonderful to have all as part
of my memory book.
Hotel
stay – Part 1 of the journey was placed at Kadumane Homestay
- 5 out of 5, Many thanks to Rohan and Narshimha sir.
Naturalist
– Rajni Rao, your
knowledge of birds and their habits is outstanding, many thanks for your
knowledge sharing and arranging for Hornbill display sightings.
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