A family trip to Mukteshwar to see the snow and a little birding. A demand from the children and the grand children that they have not seen snow fall nor snow bound area. Veena and I realised that both had really not been to a place with heavy snow fall. The hunt started for the place to visit-Manli, Chakrayta, ranikhet, etc were looked at and we finalised with Manali-idea being to drive north from Manali to see the snow. The Late Dec snow in the hills changed the plans. Manali had no power and water after the snow storm-alternately we decided to go to Mukteshwar. Help from the members of Delhi Bird a number of suggestion for staying. Ewe picked “Mystic Mukteshwar’ as the place to stay. The place is managed by mrs Manju Sharma 7500093397.
Started on the 23 Dec 14, 0600 am Delhi-Moradabad-Rampur-Haldwani-Bimtal and to Mukteshwar.The journey surprisingly was very good with very little traffic on the way. It was a week day. In future better to travel on week days than on week ends.
As we crossed Bimtal we got the first look of the majestic Himalayas and to our surprise snow all around. The joy of the faces of the grand children was a pleasure to watch. They were both picking up hand full of soft snow and throwing snow balls. Our first taste of real snow. The rest of the journey was marked with fresh snow on the side of the road
When we reached Mystic Mukteshwar our firs=t impression was a bit disappointing. Quick consultations and change of rooms to ones with joining doors seemed good. The lunch was ready and we were hungry. The food was very good. The stay was very comfortable and the food and service was very good
The next morning we drove to Kaprat to see the snow. Kaprat 10 km from the resort was a pleasure to see the mountain side covered with snow. We found a clear patch of clean snow. The kids were out playing in the snow. Soon we had a snow man with eyes, mouth, and a carrot for a nose
Spoke to Rajat and Neelam regarding the birding in Mukteswar area. IVRI forest area which is just short of the PWD guest house. You can go into the forest and depending on the area of sunlight you come across a number of birds.
Besides this going by Mrs Sharma’s word the birds in this area only eat rice and no other grain. She has a number of bird houses on the property with a playform for the rice which she claims during the winter amounts to 100kg per month. It attracts a number of birds mainly the Grey Treepie with as many and 15 to 20, then we the house sparrow, Great Barbet, Yellow crowned woodpecker, grey headed woodpecker, Red billed Blue Magpie, Himalaya Bulbul, LaughingThrush Streaked, Brown Fronted woodpecker, Russets Sparrow and many more warblers and small birds that I could not ID
In the IVRI forest area some the birds seen Mistle Thrush, Black Throated Tit, Rufous Sibia, Laughingthush white Throated, Treecreeper Bar Tailed, Redstart Blue Capped, Thrush Blue Whistling, Kestrel Common etc etc
Vijay
wingco@icon.co.in
veena@icon.co.in
Wg Cdr Vijay K Sethi (Retd)
Res 29536061
Mob 9810134504
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