Goa 2022 - Zuari River - Kingfishers and Crocodiles

Wednesday 9 November 2022

Mugger Crocodile - Zuari River

Day 4. Dawn on the Zuari River!  The alarm sounded at 5.20am; another early start.  I was feeling much refreshed after a decent night’s sleep, and ready to go again.  

Prakash picked us up at 6am; our destination was the slipway at Cortalim on the south side of the Zuari River, just upstream from the railway bridge and the two road bridges, the newer of which was yet to be opened for use.  Reaching the slipway required a perilous U-turn off the main road, followed by a short descent to the waterfront.  This is the starting point for a car ferry, travelling upstream, as well as the home of a tangle of blue-tarpaulined fishing boats moored on a jetty.

Dawn bird boat on the Zuari River

Zuari River - fishing boats

Boat trips have provided some of the highlights of my tropical birding trips and this was to be no exception.  Cruising slowly past the mangroves waiting for the next bird to appear is a sublime and relaxing way to go birding.  Also ideal if, like me, you are still feeling a bit odd after having eaten nothing for the previous 36 hours.  Anyway, off we went, heading firstly downstream to search for the resident Peregrine that is often seen perched on the new road bridge.  No sign (for the time-being) so we crossed over and started to trundle up past the forested north bank of the river.  Our route was to follow this bank around and up the main northern arm of the Zuari, finally turning left (north) into a side creek near the village of Mandur. But we saw very little settlement on this side of the river from the boat.  

At first, the most obvious birds were the Great and Little Egrets standing on the muddy shore and perched at the base of the railway bridge.  Seven Black-headed Ibises flew over, along with a Gull-billed Tern.  A Striated Heron (below) lurked at the base of a rocky embankment – the black cap distinguishing it from the more common Indian Pond Herons. 

Striated Heron - Zuari River

A fllock of Chestnut-tailed Starlings passed over, while a lone Brahminy Starling sat in a distant tree.  The former species has a wide range across India, China and south east Asia, while the latter is restricted to the subcontinent (but has been introduced to Oman). 

Perched in clear view (almost!) in a nearby riverside tree was a species that we’d mainly seen as a dark shape lurking in the leaves – a Western Koel (below), known locally as Asian Koel.  These cuckoos also have a wide range across Asia and Indonesia.  This is a male; the females are brown above and spotted below.  Although they like too stay hidden in dense foliage, the species has a tendency to sunbathe on treetops in early mornings, as was the case here. Asian Koels are brood parasites on three main species: Long-tailed Shrike, House Crow and Common Myna.  None of the populations of these three species appear to be suffering in Goa, so it doesn’t seem as if the koels are a major threat.  Western Koels are unusual among cuckoos in that they are largely fruit eaters (rather than carnivores) and that their young do not evict the other young birds from the nest, and are therefore raised with them. I wonder whether this is linked to size: Asian Koels are a broadly similar size to their hosts, in contrast to Common Cuckoos and (say) Reed Warblers, so their young won’t appear unusually big.  A good bird to see.  Note the red eye, by the way.

Western (Asian) Koel - Zuari River

Rather nearer to the water was the first Stork-billed Kingfisher of the day (below).  This is the best of a bad bunch of images; it does at least show the massive bill, but fails to do justice to the striking colours of this bird.  It is a species of south east Asia and Indonesia; within India it’s only found in the north east, centre and down the west coast.  Its range extends to Sri Lanka.

   

Stork-billed Kingfisher - Zuari River

Kingfishers were a real theme of the morning: we saw an impressive five species today out of the seven from the trip as a whole.  One of the real prizes from the Zuari River was this smart Black-capped Kingfisher (below).  These are found right around the Indian coast, from Mumbai eastwards, as well as on some larger rivers.   They are also widely distributed within China, south east Asia and Indonesia. 

Black-capped Kingfisher - Zuari River

We were seeing plenty of waders in singles or small groups on the exposed mud below the mangroves.  Several species were well-known: Redshank, Spotted Redshank, Grey Plover (aka Black-bellied Plover), Common, Green and Wood Sandpipers.  But one wasn’t – this Pacific Golden Plover (below), one of three.  Golden Plovers have been split into three species – all of which look pretty similar to me, I’m afraid.  Pacific Golden Plovers breed in Siberia (and a bit of Alaska) and winter on coasts from Kenya to New Zealand.  The only Asian Palm Swifts of the trip (or the only ones that I recorded) swept overhead – looking very like their African cousins.  

Pacific Golden Plover - Zuari River

Ahead of us, a line of fishing poles stretched out from the mangroves towards the centre of the wide river.  Even from a distance, I could tell that the large perched raptor on one of them was an Osprey (below).  I fired off a lot of pictures, expecting it to fly at any moment.  But the bird stayed calm, and allowed us to get very close.  Fantastic!  For the record, I’ve now seen Ospreys in Australia, Ecuador, France, the Gambia, India, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago – as well as the UK, of course.  They are a truly global species.  And the excitement of seeing one never seems to diminish.

Osprey - Zuari River

Once past the fishing poles we pulled in close to the mangroves again, and were rewarded by the last new kingfisher species of the day – a Collared Kingfisher (below), lurking deep in the leafy gloom.  The Collared Kingfisher is an amazingly diverse species, with a massive 50 subspecies listed in the HBW/Birdlife Checklist (this is ssp. vidali). It is the kingfisher that all birders want to find on the Zuari River because its distribution in India is particularly localised.  The distribution map in my field guide shows a dot in Goa and a few more in north eastern India, Bangladesh and the Andaman Islands.  Globally, its range extends from the Red Sea (including Sudan) to Tonga, including tropical Australia. As may be expected, there is taxonomic uncertainty with this species: the HBW/Birdlife Checklist comments that further detailed research, re-evaluation and revision may be desirable.  

Collared Kingfisher - Zuari River

A burst of sightings followed our encounter with the Collared Kingfisher. I got good views of a flying Asian Plain (or Grey-throated) Martin.  This is very like the Sand Martin, which appears to be rarer in India, but which may well get confused with Asian Plain Martin sightings.  Asian Plain Martins have darker underwings and no white throat.  This was followed by my first White-spotted Fantail; we were to get better views (and photos) of this species on Baga Hill later in the afternoon (see later blog post).  There were a lot more wetland birds: a Black-headed Ibis (below) perched on the top of a mangrove tree; our first Green Sandpiper of the trip; a Marsh Harrier; a flying Glossy Ibis; and an Oriental Magpie-Robin. 

Black-headed Ibis - Zuari River

It was at this point that the boat turned into a side creek and slowed down.  

Sprawled on the muddy shore below the mangrove branches was a marvellous Mugger (below and also at the start of this blog post), the first of four that were lying out on the creek's muddy shoreline.  Seeing a crocodile is always exciting, and a new species makes it even better.  The Mugger is very much India’s crocodile; it’s not the only species found in India (which also has Saltwater Crocodiles and the Gharial) but it’s the only one that is both unique to the subcontinent (despite straying into southern Iran) and widely distributed within it.  Gharials are much, much rarer.

Mugger crocodile - Zuari River

Mugger habitat!

As its scientific name Crocodylus palustris suggests, the Mugger is also known as the Marsh Crocodile.  A mainly freshwater species, they are usually found away from tidal waters.  That’s not the case on the Zuari River, which (as the mangroves indicate) is tidal at this point and pretty saline.  But the range of the Mugger extends far inland; for example, they occur in Pench National Park (Madhya Pradesh) which is about as far from the coast as you can get in peninsular India. 

Muggers are hole-nesting crocodiles – which I guess could be tricky in a tidal area; they use their holes to escape extremes of temperature as well as nest sites.  The species is classed as ‘vulnerable’ by IUCN, with a global population estimate of 5,700-8,700 mature individuals.  The threats are the usual ones – habitat loss and poaching – along with entanglement in fishing nets and deliberate killing as a pest to inland fisheries. But these ones seem safe enough for now: their presence on the Zuari River is well known, and they act as something of a tourist attraction.  More development in lowland Goa could well threaten their habitat though; their future is linked to that of the river itself.  By the way, the name apparently comes from the Hindi word for ‘crocodile’ which is ‘magar’ मगर while the Sanskrit word मकर 'makara' means both ‘crocodile’ and a mythical crocodile-like animal.

We came across a second Mugger, resting in the shade on the opposite bank of the creek.  It was rather less accommodating about our presence; after pondering a while it reached a rapid decision and jack-knifed into the water with considerable speed.  Which is really what crocodiles are all about; they can sit motionless for hours, but that explosive power is always there, just waiting …

Mugger crocodile no. 2 - Zuari River

The crocodiles marked the turning point for the boat trip.  The boatman cut the engines and breakfast was served.  This was my first experience of what is very much the favoured local sandwich filling – a paste made from fresh coriander and coconut – served on white sliced bread. I eyed it with some suspicion, as it would be my first food for one and a half days, but took the plunge and discovered that it was excellent and, even better, that I was starting to feel hungry – a good sign.  I was able to finish them with no problems and, as it turned out, no nasty after-effects.  Even better, the sandwiches were accompanied by some bottled water and a pack of bourbon-like chocolate biscuits, which also got eaten.  A local boatman paddled past us down the creek, creating a timeless image.

Zuari River - passing boatman

Breakfast finished, we motored back down the creek and joined the main river.  A Grey Heron flew over, followed by five Spoonbills (my first for the trip).  A Glossy Ibis flapped hurriedly away from the top of a nearby mangrove tree, startled by the noise of the boat.  We crossed over to the opposite bank and cruised slowly down past the trees.  Birdwise, things were quieter, but Richard managed to spot our second Collared Kingfisher of the day – sitting quietly, deep in the mangroves.  He did really well to see it.  Unfortunately, all of my photos were of the back of its head.  Typical.  I had more luck with this lovely Wire-tailed Swallow, one of two perched on a rope stretched between two fishing poles.  The sun caught its glossy plumage beautifully.  

Wire-tailed Swallow - Zuari River

With that, the boatman motored slowly back down the river to our starting point.  Birding was quieter than on the outward journey.  But as a final flourish, we travelled a short distance further downstream, under the bridges.  And, perched on a bolt protruding from the opposite (seaward) side of the new road bridge, was the object of our detour – the local Peregrine Falcon (below).

Peregrine Falcon - Zuari River (new road bridge)

Although the head of this bird is just as black as that of the one that we had seen on the Socorro Plateau (see earlier blog), there is not even a hint of a rufous underside.  I’m not sure whether this is natural variation or an indication that this bird represents a different subspecies.  Subspecies calidus, which has a similar underside to this bird, is also found in India, but that is a winter visitor and (I think) Omkar said that this bird is here all year round.  It certainly didn’t seem unduly bothered by all of the construction work going on above it.  And with that, the boatman motored us back to the slipway, we disembarked, said our farewells and disbursed the usual tips.  We located Prakash’s taxi, and started the short drive to our next location ….

To be continued ...