Kaiga Bird Marathon 2016

Image of the White-bellied Sea-Eagle which was spotted by almost every team. 

This image was photographed by Prashant Bhandare near the Kadra Dam. 

P.S: Image is copyright protected to Prashant Bhandare. Anyone who wants to publish or use these images for any purpose, please contact the concerned for permission.

Early in the morning, before the sunrise, while I entered the lawns near the Nisarga Guest House at Kaiga, there were hundreds of birders assembled at their respective transects with their group members. All were wide awake, exited for the Kaiga Bird Marathon. I joined my group, Group A - the transect which was within the Kaiga forest. And yes, I’m one of the privileged birder who was lucky to be in this transect for no one is allowed inside this forest otherwise including the site co-coordinators who were visiting this forest for the first time.

At 5:30, they had a flag off session and few words of encouragement and each group left the lawn area to board the bus. There were four teams in my bus, where everyone were dropped in their respective transect areas and we were headed towards the Kaiga site area. It was a beautiful route, peaceful and serene. I so envy the people having the chance to live in such a beautiful place.

My team:

I was in the 1^st transect which is Group A who were all lucky visitors to Kaiga region. Other teams have visited the nearby villages like Hattuga, Virje, Halga-Ulga, and so on. Our team was also lucky because we had Dr. Raju Kasambe from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) who heads the Important Bird Areas (IBA) Programme and Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBCN) along with the coordinators who worked at NPCIL. We were 12 in our team, of which only 4 were visitors and others were working in NPCIL. Dr. Raju Kasambe has every minute detail about the birds and we had Harish Kulur a birder who works at NPCIL who could identify each and every bird. We had a great team and with our team effort we could identify 76 species with the Kaiga forest area.

We were allowed inside the Kaiga area after verifying our identify details. Yes, we had given prior permission to enter the Kaiga forest, our Photo ID and electronic equipment details were provided earlier to the management. An escort from the NPCIL team who knew the forest area was with us. Only our team coordinator and the escort had the phones with them, we were enjoying our time without mobile phones. We were dropped at the NPCIL site gate and we were not allowed to use our cameras until we entered the forest area.

As we entered, we could hear a danger call from the Monkey. Our guide alerted us there should be a leopard and that’s the reason the Monkey is afraid. We were all looking the other side of the fence while my team members witnessed leopard running in front of us. I missed that sight. As we moved around, we had birders who were able to identify the bird species with their calls and some birds we could spot. The sun was out by then and birds had started their daily routes.

The birds which we spotted initially were among Barbets, Bulbul, Swifts and Swallow species. To make our day even brighter, the Great Hornbill flew over our head. All were so excited to see this bird and I was very much excited as I was seeing this great bird for the first time. Later as we moved further, we spotted couple of Great Hornbill sitting on a tree and few Malabar Pied Hornbills flying at the height. I was also blessed to find the Stork-billed Kingfisher, such a beauty. God has created variety with the colors, marvelous creations.

Bonus to the trek was the pug marks which we found on our trek route. The pug marks indicated that must have walked against our direction after the night patrolling.

All in all it was a great day with well organized birding event. The organizers at NPCIL have taken care of each and every minute requirement and we did not find any difficulty or issues in this event. We were very glad to be part of the annual Kaiga Bird Marathon and hoping to be there for the next bird marathon. Special mention to the NPCIL team who were with us during these two days, they were all down to earth, loving people. We must appreciate them for the knowledge they have in birds, everyone has utilized the opportunity of being within the nature. I was really surprised for everyone had great knowledge of birds and that’s the reason bird marathon gets great response with every passing year.

List of birds from our transect – Transect A – Kaiga (List taken from eBird posted by Dr. Raju Kasambe)

6	Indian Peafowl
2	Grey Junglefowl
3	Woolly-necked Stork
1	Indian Cormorant
1	Gray Heron
19	Cattle Egret
1	Indian Pond-Heron
1	Black-shouldered Kite
2	Oriental Honey-buzzard
2	Crested Serpent-Eagle
1	Legge's Hawk-Eagle
1	Rufous-bellied Eagle
1	Black Eagle
1	Shikra
1	Black Kite
1	Brahminy Kite
1	White-bellied Sea-Eagle
3	Spotted Dove
2	Emerald Dove
2	Gray-fronted Green-Pigeon
2	Asian Koel
1	Brown-backed Needletail
8	Crested Treeswift
1	Eurasian Hoopoe
3	Great Hornbill
4	Malabar Pied-Hornbill
1	Stork-billed Kingfisher
2	White-throated Kingfisher
4	Green Bee-eater
1	Malabar Barbet
2	Coppersmith Barbet
1	Brown-headed Barbet
1	White-cheeked Barbet
1	Brown-capped Woodpecker
1	Black-rumped Flameback
5	Plum-headed Parakeet
2	Malabar Parakeet
4	Vernal Hanging-Parrot
1	Common Iora
3	Orange Minivet
1	Brown Shrike
6	Indian Golden Oriole
2	Black-hooded Oriole
3	Ashy Drongo
1	Bronzed Drongo
2	Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
2	Black-naped Monarch
1	Rufous Treepie
5	House Crow
7	Large-billed Crow
60	Red-rumped Swallow
4	Gray-headed Bulbul
2	Flame-throated Bulbul
2	Red-vented Bulbul
4	Red-whiskered Bulbul
7	Yellow-browed Bulbul
20	Square-tailed Bulbul
1	Greenish Warbler
1	Blyth's Reed-Warbler
1	Zitting Cisticola (Zitting)
1	Common Tailorbird
3	Plain Prinia
10	Jungle Babbler
50	Asian Fairy-bluebird
1	Asian Brown Flycatcher
1	Oriental Magpie-Robin
2	Verditer Flycatcher
40	Southern Hill Myna
16	Malabar Starling
3	Jungle Myna
3	Golden-fronted Leafbird
4	Thick-billed Flowerpecker
5	Nilgiri Flowerpecker
1	Purple-rumped Sunbird
2	Crimson-backed Sunbird
12	Purple Sunbird
20	White-rumped Munia

About Kaiga Bird Marathon:

Every year the Kaiga Bird Marathon is organized and enthusiastic bird watchers come in huge numbers and participate in counting the bird species of the surrounding areas. There are 8 transects and each transect is allocated to a nearby village around Kaiga Generating Station.

Towards the end of November, I found an Invite regarding the Kaiga Bird Marathon in the Yahoo Bangalore Birders group. Without any second thoughts I had registered for the event for me and Prashant. Later on due to wedding preparations I had totally forgotten to check about my registration status. End of December I received a message from ESP team at Kaiga regarding my confirmation as they were having many participants on waitlist. Me and Prashant confirmed our participation on 10^th Jan and were excited that we were selected for the Bird Marathon.

The organizing team had made all the necessary arrangements for all the birders including accommodation, food, and transportation for the marathon. This event was very well organized and I was amazed with the coordination among the organizing team. We were also given the participation certificate and memento. I am eagerly awaiting my next participation at the Kaiga Bird Marathon.

The most discussed bird at the Kaiga Bird Marathon Himalayan Griffon - Juvenile which was earlier confused as Indian Vulture. Thanks to Ramit Singhal for the right identification.

P.S: Image is copyright protected to Prashant Bhandare. Anyone who wants to publish or use these images for any purpose, please contact the concerned for permission.