( White-breasted Woodswallow at Havlock Island, Picture by Aparna)
Andamans conjure a mystic image of a forgotten land with turbulent history and exotic flora & fauna. It lived up to its reputation and rewarded us with some excellent bird sightings. It took 6 months of planning to organize a trip down to Narcondam Island and Andamans. Five intrepid birders cum photographers consisting of Harkirat Sangha, Manoj Sharma, Vinay Das, Aparna Jain and I joined hands to visit this endemics hot spot. Each of the fellow traveler had a different skill set to put on the table. Harkirat's incisive knowledge about birds (and bees!) was helpful in cracking some of the most difficult identification issues and his word was taken as the final answer on any ornithological query. Manoj entertained us with his excellent sense of humor and was the de-facto group leader. He pushed us hard to go for more birds. Our lifer list would have been 50% less had he not shown the rigor and doggedness. Vinay came prepared with the background material on Andaman birds and it came handy very often. Aparna was the official "non-bird" photographer and provided the feminine stability to the group. We had our ups and down while organizing this trip. A few birders came on board and then dropped out due to various personal reasons. We took all this in stride and did not let out trip go hay wire. We must admit that Ramki's support was unstinted and he ensured that the trip remain viable. The inspiration to explore Narcondam Island & Barren Island came from a similar trip organized by Janaki et al last year. We tread the same path and got in touch with Nick Band. Nick is a proud owner of the Sailing Boat; Emerald Blue. He is of British Origin and is based out of Phuket. He has an enviable sailing experience of more than 39 years, has lived a bohemian lifestyle and loves sailing to far flung Islands on his boat. We arrived in Port Blair 2 days before the actual sailing date with the objective of ticking as many lifers as we can. We even budgeted 2 more days after we finish our Narcondam trip. We had the services of the only local birding guide in Port Blair, Vikram Shil. Vikram has a good knowledge on the birding hotspots and can claim to be an Owl expert. We covered most of the birding areas under his tutelage covering Chidiya Tapu, Mt. Harriet, Sippi Ghat, Burma Bridge, Obara Barrage, Veterinary College and Wondoor. A few of these sites were visited many times to ensure that we do not miss any specialties. We were able to get most of the endemics and a few more interesting birds. We set sail on 27th February early in the morning. Our boat was moored at a slight distance from the Jetty and we were quickly ferried by Nick in his inflatable dingy. We were greeted by Al, our Thai cook and only crew member besides Nick. The boat was neat and tidy and gave an appearance of prudence with space. Every nook and corner was used to store something or other. The living space was a little bit cramped and left us wondering what would have happened with 3 more people on board. Not to get bogged down with trivial issues, we all quickly settled down to the ways of a sailing boat including a hand operated toilet flush. The food was Thai and was peppered with the catch of the day. We had endless supply of drinks and snacks and never felt short of good food. Harkirat showed inclination and was picked up by Nick as his second-in-command. He kept vigil on the boat when Nick had to catch up with his sleep quota. The journey to Narcondam took approx. 36 hours and it was almost dark when we arrived. The island gives an impression of an extinct volcano. The island was biggish with lush green forest cover. Nick quickly found a suitable place to lay an anchor and we settled for the evening. All of us were very happy and agreed that it will be difficult to sleep. We woke up to the sound of Pied Imperial-pigeons which were abundant on the Island. The excitement was palpable and with each flight of the Pigeon, minute physiological details were discussed and lots of hi 5s were exchanged. And then a sudden war cry went up in the air! Somebody had pointed out a Narcondam Hornbill. And Yes! Indeed it was! It was majestically flying from one tree to another. It is a small Hornbill and reminded us of a smaller version of Rufus necked Hornbill. The tail is striking white and Rufus on the neck is resplendent. We decided to circle the island on our boat and were able to see a few more hornbills. Besides Hornbill and Pigeons, we could identify Alexandrian Parakeet, Hill Myna and Asian Koel. Satiated we decided to head back in the evening. Our next port of call was Barren Island. It has the distinction of being the only active Volcano of India. True to its image, it was spewing ash and gases when we arrived next day in the afternoon. Barren Island is not fully barren and does support sparse vegetation on its side. Pied Imperial Pigeons were seen hopping from one tree to another and a White-bellied Sea Eagle was sitting guard on a rock face. We again decided to circle the island on the boat and we observed that the volcano gets active every 15-20 minutes. The whole experience of watching a live volcano was magical though surreal. We made further stopovers at Neil and Havelock Island to do a recee and were amply rewarded with good sightings of White-breasted Woodswallow and Andaman Serpent Eagle. We finally reached Port Blair on 4th March with a good 6 days on high seas. Most of us were philosophical and were raving about the exhilarating experience of visiting remote islands in our country. Good Byes were said and a promise to return some day was made. Next 2 days were hectic as it can be. Manoj was a man possessed and he mercilessly pushed us from 5 a.m.- 9 p.m. And it helped! We stumbled on a flock of > 100 Daurian/Purple Backed Starlings. The starlings are vagrant and very few sightings have been reported from the sub continent. Harkirat was of the view that A.O Hume collected a single sample from this Island. Another significant sighting was of Mangrove Whistler at Sippi Ghat. Manoj and Harkirat have clicked loads of pictures of these birds and will be shared on this forum in due course. White-bellied/Glossy Swiftlet, Asian Glossy Starling, Edible-nest Swiftlet, Olive-backed Sunbird, Pacific Reef-heron, Andaman Green-pigeon, Pied Imperial-pigeon (Narcondam Island), Narcondam Hornbill (Narcondam Island) and Andaman White-headed Starling are in good numbers and can easily be seen. Brown Coucal, Andaman Flowerpecker, Andaman Hawk-owl, Hume's Hawk-owl, Oriental Scops-owl, Andaman Teal, Slaty-breasted Rail, Andaman Wood Pecker, White-breasted Woodswallow, Andaman Serpent Eagle, Andaman Bulbul, Andaman Shama and Andaman Cuckooshrike, Pacific Swallow are scarce but gettable with a few efforts. Oriental Reed-warbler, Mangrove Whistler, Andaman Cuckoo-dove, Andaman Woodpigeon, Andaman Treepie and Long-toed stints are rare and may pose a good challenge. A flock ofDurian/ Purple-backed Starlings! Well! You need to be destiny's child! |
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