If the Eagles nest in Arunachal Pradesh is The place to visit in the Eastern Himalayas The Greater Himalayan National park is a must do for every Nature lover in the Western Himalayas. With star attractions which include the Musk deer The Himalayan Brown Bear,The Himalayan Black Bear,Ghural,Thar, Red Fox, Pine Martins _ _ _ and If you go Deeper you can see the Ibex , Blue sheep and the elusive Snow leopard. Bird species like Pheasants, Gross beaks, Cross bills, Bullfinches, Flower peckers , Accentors , Rose finches , Pine Buntings, Warblers, Flycatchers , Old world Thrushes, Laughing thrushes are all present. Endemics like the White throated tits, and the Western Tragopan make the trip to the GHNP every birders dream and so Gunjan ,Sriniwas and Self (Narbir) planned a trip to the Great Himalayan national park in May 2010. With a late winter it promised to be an interesting. Only this time round Nature seemed to conspire against us , First Srinivas got the runs and dropped of even before we left for the trip, and then Gunjan tragically lost his brother-in-law and instead of going through with the trip we had to abort after only a day at Changa. I Hope to go through with it again some time soon, but even this short trip gave us a few lifers each.The Outing was planned through Ankit sood (Tele no 09857300800), the Birding guide deputed to go along was Sheshram who is a good spotter and knows the local birds
The walk to Changa is along the Sainj River (which is actually a Fast flowing Stream) trees like the Oak Rhododendron and evergreen conifers form a evergreen forest where one can see most of the common species of birds. There are a number of villages along the way the hedges bushes and fields are also rich in avian fauna. Wheat, Lasun, Dhania, and a few vegetables grow in these fields the bushes were flowering all adding up to the beautiful environs. Part of the track is cut into the Rocky mountainside with a sheer fall into the river (devoid of all vegetation ) while it is wide enough in most parts I suggest you do not look down especially if you have vertigo.
The village folk are simple, courteous and friendly. Some of them are likely to be displaced as their houses fall within the national park I only hope they find greener pastures outside They do lead a very hard life without basic amenities in these villages but being cut off from the outside world they may not have the skill quotient to survive.
Goats and sheep are herded by the local villagers and a few cattle and pony's can be seen along the way,i suppose this is why there is a conflict of interest, the locals also go into the Park to collect morels called gucchi which grow wild and which sells at exorbitant prices in the open market. The problem here is that gucchi grows during the breeding season of the Western Tragopan , in its ecosystem and human movement for collecting the mushrooms affects the breeding cycle of this endangered bird.
The Track had quite a few boulders and Rock faces on which lizards could be seen soaking up the heat from the sun. There were a few Drongo's around at this altitude all of them appeared to be Ashy Drongo's slimmer in profile with the characteristic red eyes. Other birds seen included The Grey-hooded Warblers the Black and Himalayan Bulbuls, Rufus Sebia, Whiskered Yuhinia, Large-billed Crows Streaked Laughing Thrush, Blue Whistling Thrush, Ultramarine Flycatcher a few Great Barbets Russet Sparrows, House sparrows,The Slaty-headed Parakeets were there in large
numbers so were the Plumbeous water redstarts, Brown Dippers, Yellow-billed Blue Magpies and Grey bush chats. (The Key words here are' in large numbers')
We saw a Speckelled Wood Pigeons (a lifer), The image taken by Gunjan of the bird was not too good on account of poor light and I could not get an image, there was some doubt created by the lines on the side of it's neck which are not shown in the plate of 'A field guide to the birds of India' by Krys Kazmierczak the images in the
Inskip and Grimmet shows these lines and we were able to identify the species using both the field guides.
After Reaching the wildlife camp at Changa and enjoying a welcome hot cup of tea organized by Sheshram and group. (We had the luxury of having our own cook as part of the crew.) we decided to explore the area around camp.
There were a few Ashy Drongos hawking insects the Brown Dipper was patrolling his stretch of the water and the Plumbeous Water Redstarts were looking very busy with two males chasing each other. Slaty Headed Parakeets maintaining formation were flying past like squadrons of figher jets. A few large billed crows were flying about lazily and the tranquity of it all was being punctuated with a long drawn out whistle increasing in pitch with a quick double note at the end. The closest call in the Krys Field guide was : Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee'll…..beat-you of the Brownish flanked bush warbler the first part rather stretched out the second part i.e 'beat you' uttered fast much as we tried to locate the bird it was not in a mood to oblige us with a sighting.
With light fading,we decided to try our luck next morning
On reaching camp we found the tent was pitched up (luxury) . We were tired considering the Eight hour drive followed by a 2 hour trek and decided to have early dinner. We were served Piping hot fresh tomato soup with papads in soup bowls with soup spoons followed by freshly cooked piping hot Aloo Matar and Dal with rice and chapattis with proper crockery and cuttlery. I mention this for two reasons one for those who are gastronomically inclined and worry about meals while out in the wilderness, and the second because there were No disposable plates or glasses a fact that reduces the enviornmental impact reducing pollution. The only problem I find on such trips is the Igloo tents. In a four man tent you can barely fit in two people.(Individual tents I feel would be a better.) Considering the cramped quarters I decided to park my considerable bulk in the Gazebo for the Night. I was quite comfortable in a down filled sleeping bag which I had carried, untill About 3 am when a thunder storm came along. I was lucky that there was only a light shower, but it made me realize the importance of sleeping in a tent in the hills considering the weather can be highly unpredictable. In these hills wild animals are also around and for that reason too one must sleep in a tent. Gunjan had got the bad news through an SMS by then and after a brief discussion in the wee hours of the morning we decided to go back home. Birders will be birders and so we decided to bird early in the morning while the camp was being wound up and paid Changa Village a visit. I am glad we did because at Changa we saw a few interesting species, These included the owner of the voice which indeed was a warbler and seemed to be an imm Brown-flanked Bush Warbler, (whom we finaly saw rendering his distinctive call, ) We also saw The Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, Mrs Goulds Sunbird, Fire-breasted Flower pecker, Pink-browed Rosefinch, Chestnut-headed Laughing thrush, Varigated Laughing Thrush, Long-tailed Minivet, Yellow-billed Blue Magpie, Black-throated Tit, Green-backed Tit, Grey-headed canary flycatcher, Himalayan Griffons, Slaty-headed Parakeets Grey Bushchats . We also saw eight Speckeled Wood Pigeons which seem quite common in these parts.
Back in camp we were served Porridge and Omletes for breakfast, and after washing these down with a hot cup of tea we set off back home, there was a promising spot we had discovered on the way in and we decided to move on ahead of the porters in a last bid to see a few more species in which we were not disappointed, as we came across Rufous-bellied Niltavas chasing each other near a small water fall.
we reached the road head and loaded up into a jeep for the ardous journey back to Larji . As we neared Neuli a Paradise Flycatcher Flew by with its beautifull white streamers, a sentinel guarding this untouched bit of heaven on earth. We finaly left Larji for Chandigarh by 12.30 am with a heavy heart and a firm resolve to be back in the near future.
(The Fire breasted Flowerpecker Was captured by Mr. Gunjan Arora)
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