Goa 2022 - Nature's Nest and Tambdi Surla

Friday 11 November 2022

Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters in the morning sun - Talde

Day 6 

Morning at Nature’s Nest. After a good night’s sleep, it was a lovely cool start to the day with a restful breeze. Omkar arrived around 0645, tea was served very hot from a flask with a sweet biscuit.  Omkar announced that "the aim today is to target certain species, not to go for numbers.”  And that was broadly how it turned out, although a quick birdwatch from the resort's car park produced Oriental Magpie-Robin, Common Iora, Vernal Hanging Parrot, Brahminy Kite, Purple Sunbird, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, White-breasted Kingfisher and Large-billed (Jungle) Crow, which wasn’t a bad start.

First main stop of the morning was a return to the hamlet of Talde, where we'd finished the previous night. Getting there required us to gently dislodge a couple of dogs that were asleep on the tarmac and negotiate a cattle jam blocking the lane. We left the car and walked up a path past a few smallholdings - the village sits in a small cleared area completely surrounded by forest.  We stopped to look at some Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters (see photo at the top of the blog) that were highlighted in the morning sunshine. One had already sorted out its breakfast. It was at this point that we got our only sighting of the much sought-after Blue-headed Bee-eater. Annoyingly, it was flying rather than perched, but it was still very distinctive: large, with a long, flat and extended profile. Its flight was direct and purposeful, unlike the hawking movements of most other bee-eaters. 

Also nearby were Black-rumped Flameback, White-cheeked Barbet, my first Chestnut-shouldered Bush Sparrow and a couple of flying Crested Treeswifts. The treeswifts were a new family for me, the Hemiprocnidae, which contains just four species all in the same genus.  Crested Treeswift is the most widely distributed of these, found across much of India and south east Asia. The key identification features were easily seen – a deeply forked tail and white vent area.  Unlike ‘true’ swifts (Apodidae), treeswifts do perch in the trees, although we only saw them in flight.

After a quick stop in a lay-by for breakfast 'on the go', we returned to the forests along the road to the Tambdi Surla temple. The main avian excitement here was the arrival of a White-bellied Woodpecker (below).  As ever, I was slow to get onto it – what is it with me and woodpeckers? But it was still lovely to see.  This is a Dryocopus woodpecker, the same genus as the enigmatic Black Woodpecker, which I have only encountered in the Netherlands.  White-bellied Woodpecker is widely distributed across Indonesia and south east Asia (as its scientific name of D. javensis might suggest), but within India it is restricted to the Western and Eastern Ghats.  The white underside is visible in the photo.  We also managed a fleeting glimpse of a Heart-spotted Woodpecker, as well as White-rumped Sharma, Greater Racquet-tailed Drongo and a fly-over from a Mountain Imperial Pigeon.

White-bellied Woodpecker - near Tambdi Surla

We returned to the car and drove on, stopping in a scatter of settlement that didn’t look too promising for birdwatching.  But there were birds around, including a Brahminy Starling (below), which a subcontinent endemic, and a juvenile Rosy Starling (bottom) - also known as Rose-coloured Starling, a species that occasionally strays as far west as the UK. One spent some time on Portland in Dorset in 2020, for example. Also here was a Red-breasted Flycatcher - also, like Rosy Starling, a winter visitor to Goa.

Brahminy Starling - near Tambdi Surla

Rosy Starling (juv) - near Tambdi Surla

We hopped back into the car (it was turning into that sort of day) and continued along the road towards the Tamdi Surla temple, stopping for a further short walk into the forest which produced good views of a Flame-throated Bulbul (below). We had already seen this species at Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary, which is endemic to the forests of the Western Ghats, but it was good to get a better image.

Flame-throated Bulbul - near Tamdi Surla

A Roux’s Forest Lizard (below) Monilesaurus rouxii - also known as Sahyadri Forest Lizard - was lurking on a tree trunk nearby. The distribution of this species follows the Western Ghats range right down the western side of India, so it may well be another endemic to this biodiversity 'hot spot'. In researching the reptiles that we saw on the trip I have made extensive use of The Reptiles of India website - an excellent resource, including distribution maps and a good range of photos.

 

From the temple car park we followed the river upstream, in what turned out to be (for the moment) an unsuccessful search for a Blue-eared Kingfisher. (Actually we did get an extremely fleeting view of one zooming away up river, but it was too quick to really count.) We resolved to return later that day, and were making our way back by the river when Omkar suddenly called out “snake!”.  Ahead of us, the head of a large snake was sticking up from between the boulders - an Indian Rat Snake Ptyas mucosa. On spotting us it dipped back down and made a speedy escape across the water.  I was only able to get a photo as it vanished into the tree roots on the opposite bank .  Not ideal, as a snake picture without the head is pretty underwhelming.  The species is widely distributed from Iran to southern China and is also known as the Oriental Rat Snake or Dhaman.  It is common, non-venomous and large; this one was easily 2 metres long (the record is apparently 3.7 metres).  Its diet includes frogs, rodents and birds.

Indian Rat Snake (part!) - Tamdi Surla

And with that, our morning excitements were over. We returned to Nature's Nest for a simply huge lunch, and an afternoon siesta.

To be continued ...