A FIELD REPORT
Date of Trip: 02nd September 2010. (Thursday).
Duration of Trip: 8:30 am to 6:30 pm.
Location: Chintamani Kar Bird Sanctuary (CKBS) better known
as Kayaler Bagan, a birding hotspot located at 24 Parganas (South)
near Narendrapur, West Bengal.
Temperature: (As in Alipur) Max 34.1°C and Min 27.2°C.
Weather: Cloudy morning then clear sunny sky for whole day
interrupted very few time by light rain. Slight wind; Not much sultry.
Humidity: (As in Alipur) Max 95% and Min 64%.
Rainfall: (As in Alipur) 0.4mm
Habitat: Dense foresty area, Tall Grasses, Sideby
waterbodies almost filled up with hyacinths, Herbs and Shrubs and
deciduous and evergreen trees.
BRIEF REPORT:
It was a late Janmastami holiday for me from daily office job. I did
not notice it earlier else I would have utilized same for a long
weekend trip. Thinking of what to do and where to go, yesterday I
suddenly found out that I have not visited CKBS for about a month or
more now. Quickly I asked Mr Saroj Tula to join me and he accepted and
he was there before my house with his car at around 7:45am. We went
out and got inside CKBS to see a South African bird watcher Robin
trying to figure out birds of Kolkata. He does bird watching in SA but
it's tough for him to figure out birds here. He wanted to get around
with us and we enjoyed his company. We started going inside, seeing
flowerpeckers, orioles, tits, barbets, flamebacks and just then we saw
a group of 25-30 girls coming in (A big disturbance). After enquiry we
came to know that were from Loretto and on an excursion here. Their
teacher wanted us to show them some birds. Seeing the number of ppl,
most reluctantly we agreed but not of much help as mosquitoes were a
big problem for them J. Mosquitoes, yeah, they were in plenty and
really creating a huge problem even for that SA birdwatcher. Bit
irritated and also in a hurry to catch flight the SA birdwatcher left
and girls left due to mosquitoes. Now it was 10:30am and we have
almost lost the morning shift. Me and Saroj started real birding from
then, spotted a few birds, butterflies. Saroj and I also spotted a
Little Spiderhunter, first time for me at least. White-eyes, great
tits were also roaming here and there. After having a long chat with
Haran da, Saroj left at around 11:00am as he had some duty in office.
Now I was all alone in CKBS. Seeing a hell lot of common red-eyes,
swifts, chestnut bobs and grass deamons, my hesperidae collection was
getting bigger for the day. It seemed Common Bushbrown, Dark-brand
Bushbrown, Common Four-ring, Common five-ring as if had taken a lease
of that place. There were plenty of them. I then went outside towards
the waterbody to find out a few dragon or damselflies. Seeing mostly
Coromandel Marsh Dart, I just saw the recently David-identified Copera
Cilliata, we can call it Black-kneed Bush Dart or Black-kneed
Feather-legs as they call it in East-Asia. There were around 25 of
them both the juvenile and the female one, I really wonder why I have
not seen it before there. The weather was somewhat favorable
throughout the day, although sunny but not much humid and sultry. It
was a good experience for me as I watched what dragonflies and
damselflies do, their behavior, prey-catching, habitats and also some
special territory concerned dragonflies like Coral-tailed cloud wing,
how they just fight with and get other dragon or damselflies out of
his territory. With two times very close encounter with the large
water monitor (Varanus Salvator) it was anyways a very good day. At
the end of the day it gave me some new surprises as I found out the
smallest damselfly (may be of India) Agriocnemis dabreui both Male,
Female discovered in CKBS on 8th August and identified by David Raju.
Also I got lucky to get few shot of this 14-15mm damsel. Then while
coming out I saw another small damsel of 14-15mm size but the
structure was almost same like Blue Grass Dartlet but size 14-15mm. A
very new find but it needs to be identified. Unfortunately cannot
photograph same as it was almost dark and hardly my camera was
focusing. It was really dark now and I came out with memories and
photos of this very beautiful and fruitful day. Just to mention bird
movement was moderately less throughout the day and overall butterfly
movement was also less.
TEAM MEMBERS:
Avisek Chatterjee
Saroj Kumar Tula (who left around 11am -11:30am for official work)
Birds observed during the trip:
1. Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker.
2. Black-rumped Flameback.
3. Blue-throated Barbet.
4. Coppersmith Barbet.
5. Lineated Barbet
6. White-throated Kingfisher.
7. Stork-billed Kingfisher.
8. Green Bee-eater.
9. Common-Hawk Cuckoo.
10. Asian Koel.
11. Greater Coucal.
12. Rose-ringed Parakeet.
13. House Swift.
14. Asian Palm Swift.
15. Rock Pigeon.
16. Spotted Dove.
17. White-breasted Waterhen.
18. Black Kite.
19. Shikra.
20. Little Cormorant.
21. Intermediate Egret.
22. Indian Pond Heron.
23. Rufous Treepie.
24. House Crow.
25. Large-billed Crow.
26. Black-hooded Oriole.
27. White-throated Fantail.
28. Black Drongo.
29. Bronzed Drongo.
30. Common Iora.
31. Orange-headed Thrush.
32. Oriental Magpie Robin.
33. Asian Pied Starling.
34. Jungle Myna.
35. Common Myna.
36. Great Tit.
37. Red-whiskered Bulbul
38. Red-vented Bulbul.
39. Oriental White-eye.
40. Common Tailorbird.
41. Jungle Babbler.
42. Pale-billed Flowerpecker.
43. Purple Sunbird.
44. Purple-rumped Sunbird.
45. Little Spiderhunter.
46. House Sparrow.
Butterflies observed in the field trip:
1. Tailed Jay.
2. Common Mormon
3. Common Wanderer.
4. Common Jezebel.
5. Psyche.
6. Stripped Albatross
7. Common Gull
8. Common Emigrant
9. Mottled Emigrant
10. Common Grass Yellow
11. Three-spot Grass Yellow.
12. Common Castor.
13. Great Eggfly.
14. Danaid Eggfly.
15. Common Baron.
16. Common Bushbrown.
17. Darkband Bushbrown.
18. Common Four-ring.
19. Common Five-ring
20. Common Palmfly.
21. Blue Tiger.
22. Common Crow.
23. Common Pierrot.
24. Rounded Pierrot.
25. Quaker.
26. Ciliate Blue.
27. Common Cerulean.
28. Yamfly.
29. Monkey Puzzle.
30. Chestnut Bob.
31. Indian Skippper.
32. Grass Deamon.
33. Common Redeye.
34. Dark Palm Dart.
35. Moore's Ace.(?)
36. Small-branded Swift.(?)
Dragonflies observed during the trip:
1. Scarlet Marsh Hawk
2. Rufous-backed Marsh Hawk.
3. Little Blue Marsh Hawk.
4. Ditch Jewel.
5. Ruddy Marsh Skimmer.
6. Ground Skimmer.
7. Pied Paddy Skimmer.
8. Green Marsh Hawk.
9. Blue-tailed Forest Hawk (?)
10. Wandering Glider.
11. Rufous Marsh Glider.
12. Coral-tailed Cloud Wing
13. Crimson Marsh Glider.
Damselflies observed during the trip:
1. Coromandel Marsh Dart.
2. Rusty Marsh Dart.
3. Orange-tailed Marsh Dart.
4. Pigmy Dartlet.
5. Black Marsh Dart.
6. Black-kneed Bush Dart or Featherlegs (Copera cilliata).
7. Agriocnemis Dabreui – Yellow Pigmy Dartlet (Subhankar da given name).
8. Lesser Blue Grass Dartlet [size: 14-15mm]. - Yet to be
identified. Name suggested by me for relating the species.
Other than these we observed the following:
1. Garden Lizard.
2. Five-stripped Palm Squirrel.
3. Bronze Grass Skink.
4. Small Mongoose.
5. Water Monitor (Varanus salvator).
6. Skipper Frog.
7. Indian Bull Frog.
8. Common Toad.
9. Many types of Spider.
10. Many types of Grasshopper.
11. Many types of Ants.
12. Many types of Beetle.
13. Many types of Bug.
Thanks to Subhankar da (Subhankar Patra) for helping me and guiding me
in writing this report. His encouragement is helping us to produce
this weekly report on our field trips. Also thanks to Mr. Saroj Tula
for accompanying me and for his valuable contribution in bringing out
this report. Thanks to the South African birder Robin for accompanying
us for an hour.
Cheers,
Avisek Chatterjee on behalf of the team members.
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