Friday 11 November 2022
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| Black-footed Grey Langur - near Nature's Nest |
Day 6
The usual flask of extremely hot, milky tea heralded the start of the afternoon session, and we were soon on the road heading back towards Tambdi Surla temple. Just north of Nature’s Nest, Omkar stopped so that we could look at a small group of Black-footed Grey Langurs (above and below). They were very mobile, and it was difficult to get a decent photograph. However, these turned out to be the best views that we were to get of langurs in Goa.
There are two main groupings of Old World monkeys. Langurs are members of the leaf monkey subfamily (Colobinae) while Bonnet Macaques (see below - and my previous blog post here) are in the Cercopithecinae subfamily along with baboons and vervet monkeys among others. Generally, langurs are leaf-eaters, although they will take food from humans when offered. Langur taxonomy is confusing; I have followed the IUCN Red List here. What was previously the (almost) pan-Indian Hanuman Langur Semnopithecus entellus has been split into several new species. One of these is the Black-footed Grey Langur S. hypoleucos, which is restricted to western India; essentially, it is yet another Western Ghats endemic species. It's also known as the Malabar Sacred Langur, which is a rather cooler name.
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| Being ignored by a Black-footed Grey Langur |
We left the langurs and drove once again up the road to the Tambdi Surla temple, pausing to finally get Richard a view of an Orange-headed Thrush, a species that he had missed so far. Mind you, its skulking behaviour meant that I was never able to get a photo of this attractive species. I then missed an Indian Blackbird; luckily, we were to find another one later on. Back at the temple car park, the stall holders were packing up and the place was a lot quieter. Even the Bonnet Macaques were looking tired.
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| Bonnet Macaque male - Tambdi Surla |
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| Bonnet Macaque - Tambdi Surla |
This time we didn’t get as far as the temple, walking instead along the (true) left bank of the Surla River upstream from the bridge. Our first sighting was a brief flash of a Blue-capped Rock Thrush, this time on a rock by the river before it flew. But then we spotted our main prize – this Blue-eared Kingfisher (below). We watched it for a while; it flew a couple of times, but never very far, always keeping to the river or its side streams, and we were able to relocate it. Annoyingly, it seemed to prefer sitting in the shade; this image has a high ISO so is too grainy for my liking. Blue-eared Kingfisher has a wide range in south east Asia and Indonesia, but is rare in India, being restricted to forest streams. Note that the ear coverts are blue, the main identification feature that separates it from the (very) Common Kingfisher. A little gem of a bird, and worth the effort that it took to find it.
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| Blue-eared Kingfisher |
The light was starting to go, so we returned to the car and drove back down the temple road, making a few stops to look for an Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher, which was one of the birds that we never got to see on the trip. A small sports pitch produced an Indian Peahen and Cattle Egret, with Pied Bushchat, Oriental Turtle Dove and Thick-billed Flowerpecker being added to the day list shortly afterwards. Omkar drove us back to the main road and parked up in a layby just north of Nature’s Nest. A walk into the forest, looking unsuccessfully for owls, gave us views of Malabar Whistling Thrush and my first Indian Blackbird; the record photos are too awful to include here!
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| Sunset near Nature's Nest |
From the forest we climbed up to an area of west-facing plateau to look for nightjars. We sat down to wait for nightjar o’clock (below). This was a large expanse of open and sparse grassland land with almost no soil. Bare laterite rocks dotted on the surface with a larger boulders and isolated trees. We watched the sun setting over the forested ranges to the west (above).
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| Waiting for nightjars ... |
The nightjar stakeout did not go entirely as planned. As the skies grew ever darker we heard the weird, whooping call of Jerdon’s Nightjar, and set off to try and locate it. Plot spoiler: we failed. As we crossed a small outcrop of boulders, Omkar pointed out a beautifully patterned Indian Saw-scaled Viper, burrowing into a rocky crack. This is a seriously dangerous snake, one of India's 'Big Four' (the others being Indian Cobra, Common Krait and Russell's Viper); and responsible for many deaths each year. But, as with most snakes, it just wanted to get away from us.
We carried on walking across the grassland, which wasn't easy in the dark - especially following the sprightly Omkar. We heard, but didn't see, an Indian Scops Owl (happily another one turned up the next day). But eventually the eyeshine of a nightjar flashed in the torchlight and I managed to get a record photo (below). This was actually a Jungle Nightjar, not Jerdon’s. Although a poor image, it does give an idea of the bird's main characteristics. Jungle Nightjar is generally greyer than Jerdon’s; it is pretty much endemic to India and Sri Lanka. So is Jerdon’s, but with a more restricted distribution. We walked down the hill, and then back up again in an abortive search for Jerdon’s Nightjar. Four more sets of eyeshine all turned out to be Jungle Nightjars. I returned to the car in a pool of sweat. Jerdon's Nightjar, which had been seen the previous evening by another group staying at Nature's Nest, remains a 'bogey bird' for me.
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| Jungle Nightjar (record photo) - near Nature's Nest |
I was exhausted, and pleased to get back to Nature’s Nest for a shower, a rest and then another great evening meal, washed down with a Kingfisher beer (which seemed apt for the day!). All excellent but, as with the previous day, I had eaten such a large lunch that I couldn’t do the evening meal justice. Improbably, a very recognisable moth flew in – Olive-tree Pearl Palpita vitrealis, the species for which my blog is named. It has a wide global range (see GBIF distribution map here). I didn't take a photo at the time, so here's one from my garden moth trap here the UK.
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| Olive-tree Pearl Palpita vitrealis - Dorset, UK |
This was to be our last night at Nature's Nest. Our journey was to continue in the morning to perhaps the best wildlife area that we visited on the trip - the magical Netravali.
To be continued ...
