Well, back to the cold in England after a fantastic return trip to Goa. As we were on a family holiday with two teenagers we didnt have many chances to go out birding but as the birds seem to be everwhere we managed over 70 species, some of which we are still trying to ID. We took over 1000 photos and are slowly working through them so pics should be on the blog in the next couple of weeks. Photography was quite a challenge at times as very very bright sunlight!
Here is a condensed report and species list.
One hour after arrival I was lucky to have an]Indian Grey Hornbill perched outside my balcony which was a stroke of luck as I didnt see one again!
We had two Brahminy Kite in the grounds at all times and a daily visitor was a Shikra which caught lizards for breakfast. Also in the grounds were twoTailor Birds which came to roost a few inches of the ground in a sapling right next to our dining table every night
We spent two days in the jungle of the Western Ghatts, in the company of elephants which we rode and bathed with, even getting on their backs in the river and being treated to a very welcome power shower! We stayed in mud huts and shared ours with a foot long grey/black gecko which I hope kept the spiders away! We also saw a number of snakes, both on land and in water, having not got positive ID for these yet.
On one morning Mick and I left the kids to it and took a ferry across to the Salim Ali Bird Reserve, and one of the local fisherman took us out round the mangroves in a dug out canoe, very exciting but nerve racking as crocs around! (we saw a total of 9 Mugga (marsh crocs) on our visit to Goa)
Then later in the day we went to Carambolim Lake which was more of a marsh as not quite a lake at the moment. We saw lots of birds here, thanks to a local forestry worker who showed us Jungle Owlet, Spotted Owlet and Brown Wood Owl also present were the following - Long Tailed Shrike, Coppersmith Barbet, Paradise Flycatcher, Red Wattled Lapwing, Paddyfield Pipit, etc.
Other species seen in Goa were:
Black Drongo
White-Throated Fantail
Indian Roller
Blue Eared Kingfisher
White Throated Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher
Flameback Woodpecker
House Crow
Black Capped Golden Oriole
Black Naped Golden Oriole
Eurasian Golden Oriole
Great White Egret
Intermediate Egret
Little Egret
Cattle Egret
Little Heron
Grey Heron
Purple Heron
Goliath Heron
Marsh Harrier
Buzzard
Lesser Adjutant Stork
Munia
Ashy Prinia
Osprey
White Bellied Sea Eagle
Black Shouldered Kite
Red Whiskered Bulbul
Jungle Minah
Coucal
White Breasted Water Hen
White Browed Wagtail
Magpie Robin
Koel
Orange Headed Thrush
Black Headed Ibis
Purple Swamphen
As I mentioned earlier more will be added to the list as we get more positive ID on some other birds we observed and photographed.
Black Kite are prolific in Goa, on one beach where we had fished and bbq our catch ( I caught more than Mick, including a Red Snapper!) there were in excess of 200 Kite, fantastic to watch, as some were pairing up and displaying, others were food passing etc.
All in all an awesome holiday and we are returning there for 3 weeks at Xmas/New Year, minus the kids, so lots of serious birding and wildlife watching to look forward to!!
M&M