Saturday 12 November 2022
 |
| Common Indian Tree Frog Polypedates maculatus - Tanshikar Spice Farm |
Our final night was at Tanshikar Spice Farm (
website), which had decent food (as might be expected!) and an interesting range of guest accommodation. Our room was in a building designed to replicate a traditional local dwelling. Even better, there were
Common Indian Tree Frogs in the shower room (above). This one was sitting on the shower feed. It wasn't just us: not long after we checked in, the occupant of the room next door stuck his head out of the door and asked me “Have you got a frog in your bedroom? We’ve got five!”
 |
| Tanshikar Farm Shop |
 |
| Approach to Tanshikar |
 |
| Tanshikar lunch |
After the obligatory small cup of extremely hot tea we were out again at 3.45pm. First stop was just around the corner, the Budbud Tali temple and bubbling pond. A few people were gazing at the pond (the idea is that you clap to produce the bubbles; they are fact natural) but we were there because Omkar was looking for White-bellied Blue Flycatcher on the adjoining stream. None were there, but we did see a Malabar Pied Hornbill and five
Nilgiri Imperial Pigeons (two pictured below) in a Fishtail Palm.
 |
| Nilgiri Imperial Pigeons (one hiding at the back) - Netravali |
The road from Budbud Tali temple entered Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary at the Mangal Gate. We passed through the forest quickly, noting two Malabar Grey Hornbills on the way, before leaving the protected area again at the Ambe Ghat checkpoint, which was perched on a forested pass through the hills. The road dropped down to the valley floor, where we were back in the land of paddyfields and scattered settlements. This was Gaondongrim, our final daylight birding location of the trip ... and that daylight was starting to fade away.
As expected, Gaondongrim gave a good boost to the day's bird list (adding about 25 further species), which isn't surprising as it was a very different habitat to the forests of the morning. And there was one species in particular that we were keen to add to the trip list - Black-throated Munia (below).
 |
| Black-throated Munia - Gaondongrim |
Black-throated Munia has a restricted distribution, being limited to three populations – Western Ghats, east India and Sri Lanka. Several were perched on a wire, with others eating seeds in a nearby rice paddy. Paddyfields attract munias: there were also plenty of White-rumped Munias around. And some larger birds, too: a Crested Serpent Eagle (below) caused a stir when it flew in and vanished into the foliage of a tree.
 |
Crested Serpent Eagle (record photo) - Gaondongrim
|
An
Ashy Woodswallow (below) sat obligingly on one of the electricity wires; you can just about see the contrast between its pinkish-grey underparts and darker grey head. Other birds here were: Long-tailed Shrike; Pied Bushchat; Brahminy Starling; Wire-tailed, Red-rumped and Barn Swallows; Oriental Turtle-dove; Indian Cormorant; Malabar Lark; Little Swift; Common and Jungle Mynas; Yellow Wagtail; Little Egret; Tree Pipit; Indian Pond Heron; Black-headed Bunting (another first for the trip); Indian Roller; Coppersmith Barbet; and a Shikra.
 |
Ashy Woodswallow (record photo) - Gaondongrim
|
It was now getting dark; Omkar drove us back up to the sanctuary checkpoint for a wander up and down the road in the gloom. We could just make out a Blue-capped Rock Thrush, while a langur monkey jumped from tree to tree above us. Omkar had stopped here for a reason. He managed to lure in an Indian Scops Owl, giving us close views of this lovely bird, which flew in to a nearby branch looking a bit irritated. No photo unfortunately. We walked back up to the checkpoint; Omkar swept his flashlight along the muddy bank above the road and found this sensational
White-banded Ground Gecko (below), another Western Ghats endemic (and indeed local only to Goa and nearby parts of Karnataka and Maharashtra).
 |
| White-banded Ground Gecko Cyrtodactylus albofasciatus - Netravali |
Back at Tanshikar Spice Farm it was time for our last evening meal of the trip, but not my last Goan curry, as I was able to take a range of spices from the Tanshikar shop back home to the UK. My last wildlife sighting was of a magnificent moth that had arrived in the bedroom - Eudocima aurantia (below), a fruit-sucking moth in the Erebidae family (which includes familiar UK species such as the tiger and footman moths). This species ranges from India east to Australia. (Thanks to Phil Sterling for nudging me in the direction of this identification.)
 |
| Fruit-sucking moth Eudocima aurantia - Netravali |
An early start on the Sunday morning (it was still dark when we left the spice farm), was followed by a drive to the airport at Dabolim, where we had to talk our way into the terminal past an armed guard who had no knowledge of our flight back to London. (“No international flights today!”) This was not a good moment, and was indicative of the chaos that Covid-19 pandemic had caused to the Goan tourist industry. But the flight was indeed scheduled, and some scouting around the terminal eventually yielded the location of a check-in desk. As soon as we were queueing up to check in there was a technology failure which caused a long delay – solved by the airline staff issuing handwritten boarding cards and baggage labels.
 |
| Empty (almost) flight back to London |
It was a 9½ hour flight back to Gatwick, picking up a tail wind over Europe. I have never been on such an empty plane (above); it was perhaps an eighth full, as it only contained the people on our outbound flight who had stayed for just a week. That meant that there was plenty of room to stretch out, get some sleep and think about what had been an excellent trip.
