BIRDING HOTSPOT: Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, Indiaby Ramana Athreya from BirdingASIA 4, December 2005. Some places are renowned for long bird lists, others for rare species. The eastern Himalayas of the state of Arunachal Pradesh in extreme north-east India offer both and more - they offer too the allure of untried trails in imposing forests not yet made stale by custom, and of species which exist only in TV programmes. East Himalayan birding is about magical moments - when a birder enters a universe comprising only the birds in front and the immediate forest around. Arunachal Pradesh is listed among the top biodiversity hotspots of the world. The profusion of species is due to (i) its location at the tri-junction of the Palearctic realm to the north, the Indo-Malayan realm to the south-east and the Indian subregion to the south-west, (ii) extremely high precipitation, and (iii) topology wherein the 7,000 m peaks on its northern border with Tibet look down on the Brahmaputra valley in Assam which, just 150 km away, has an elevation of only 100 m. Furthermore, this area is riven by deep gorges and steep hillsides which impede east-west movement of species, and even vehicles today. This has resulted in an extraordinary diversity of species as well as language and culture with each major gorge, less than 100 km apart, marking the boundary between tribes whose languages are incomprehensible even to their immediate neighbours.
Tucked away on the western boundary of this remarkable state, a stone's throw from Bhutan, is the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. My first visit to Arunachal in 1995 took me to Eaglenest. Birding in the cloud forest of this unknown sanctuary with an evocative name was sheer enchantment. I remember that when I encountered my first large mixed flock with some 20 species - mostly lifers of course - I felt like a raptor faced with a large flock of food! I remember too the pitter-patter on foliage of a 100+ flock of Black-throated Parrotbills Paradoxornis nipalensis and Golden-breasted Fulvettas Alcippe chrysotis, sounding like large raindrops in a furious shower as they zipped around me in frenetic pursuit of lunch, in total contrast to the elegantly languorous tendrils of mist filling the narrow space between us. That single trip to Eaglenest and the nearby Pakke Tiger Reserve produced so many of those magical moments that even the Beautiful Nuthatches Sitta formosa I watched from a roadside chai-stall did not make the cut! The nuthatches had to wait another nine years for their truly magical moment. I returned to Eaglenest in late 2003 as part of the year-long Eaglenest Biodiversity Project to inventory the bird, butterfly and reptile distribution of the area and with vague thoughts (for the distant future) of helping the local Bugun tribe extract nontimber money out of Eaglenest by setting up a community-based ecotourism venture. But the Buguns had other priorities - stomachs first, conservation later. So, just a few months later found me back in Eaglenest leading a bird tour comprising the intrepid trio of Ray Ziarno, Claudio Koller and Mike Waite - intrepid, and indeed generous, for backing my words with their money. I had never led or organised a tour before anywhere and my partners, the Buguns, hadn't even heard of bird tours. An ill-prepared tour would have hurt my long-term plans considerably, but the Buguns left me no choice. However I knew one simple truth - there is no way a bunch of birders cannot see a tonne of birds in Eaglenest over 10 days - learnt nine years previously and dusted off and reaffirmed in November 2003 as I watched the impossible sight of more than a dozen Ward's Trogons Harpactes wardi play follow-my-leader across a clearing!
Which brings me to that evening in April 2004 with Mike and the Beautiful Nuthatches: walking a little ahead I encountered a flock of the nuthatches, yelled out a whisper and instantly started a stampede. Standing a little apart and sporting a forgivably smug expression I watched Claudio scope the birds and witnessed Mike impatiently nudge him away and crouch over the scope for a full minute. Then he rocked back on his haunches, simply keeled over backwards, his head in his hands, with an absolutely awed 'Oh! ... My! ... God!' The amused smile that had replaced my smug expression lasted until I (finally) got my turn at the scope. Only the sang-froid expected of a tour-leader kept me from following Mike - the coruscations on the nape of a Beautiful Nuthatch through that classic scope was indeed in the realm of the spiritual. That bird needed neither the weight of numbers nor swirling mist and moss forest to make it special: some species by and of themselves produce magical moments! Like the male Temminck's Tragopan Tragopan temminckii that I saw in March; like the Bar-winged Wren Babbler Spelaeornis troglodytoides in December that popped out of the vegetation at hand-shaking distance to shower imprecations; like the Red Panda Ailurus fulgens I saw while following a covey of female tragopans in November; like the spectacular lizard Mictopholis austeniana we stumbled upon in May, 125 years after the first and only specimen was collected by Col. Godwin Austen of Himalayan fame; like the gorgeous Harlequin Moth my colleague photographed in October; like the many breathtakingly colourful frogs in October and May, some of which are probably undescribed taxa; like the Wedge-billed Wren Babblers Sphenocichla humei which arrived by appointment to Mike's music at the place I said they would. The Wedge-billed Wren Babbler day, Easter 2004, was spectacular, with more than 75 species and many stunning ones at that: a repeat show by Beautiful Nuthatches from less than 4 m in brilliant sunlight, White-browed Shrike Babbler Pteruthius flaviscapis, an outstanding performance by Wedgebilled Wren Babblers in the open and viewed through a scope at 5 m (!), Green Magpie Cissa chinensis, Rufous-backed Sibia Heterophasia annectans, Blue-winged Laughingthrush Garrulax squamatus, White-gorgeted Flycatcher Ficedula monileger, Red-tailed Minla Minla ignotincta, Redbilled Leiothrix Leiothrix lutea, Rufous-necked Hornbill Aceros nipalensis, Sultan Tit Melanochlora sultanea (a spectacular species of crest from which dangles a bird), Red-headed Trogon Harpactes erythrocephalus, Mountain Bulbul Hypsipetes mcclellandii, Yellow-throated Fulvetta Alcippe cinerea, Cutia Cutia nipalensis, Pale-headed Woodpecker Gecinulus grantia, Golden Babbler Stachyris chrysaea, Golden-throated Barbet Megalaima franklinii, Coral-billed Scimitar Babbler Pomatorhinus ferruginosus and White-browed Shortwing Brachypteryx montana, to name just a few. The White-browed Shortwing was surreal: each of us, by turn, crawled through a tunnel of vegetation to view a huge, white brow hopping about in fury, the rest of the bird merely a darker shade of black in the murky undergrowth. The bird tour barely managed to break even financially but was successful in many ways. The major positive was that the Buguns were convinced of the existence of people who actually pay good money to see the birds in their backyard. Second, over 17 days in Kaziranga, Pakke and Eaglenest we saw 359 species, including many special ones, even though Kaziranga had already lost many of its winter visitors and we limited ourselves to below 3,000 m altitude in Arunachal; hard numbers had confirmed my impression that that was an extraordinary place for birding. Third, we learnt many lessons in tour organisation. The big advantage that Eaglenest (and western Arunachal) has over other wilderness areas of Arunachal is its combination of altitudinal range and easy access. Access and good forests are usually antithetical and Arunachal is no exception, except for Eaglenest. Only five hours separate Eaglenest from the airport at Guwahati, the travel hub of north-east India. A jeep track cuts through Eaglenest from its base at 100 m altitude to Eaglenest Pass at 2,800 m. Only the width of a highway divides Eaglenest from the adjacent sprawling lowlands of the Pakke Tiger Reserve. A mere 125 km drive along this highway brings the visitor to alpine meadows at 4,500 m in the neighbouring Dirang and Tawang. Furthermore, the famed Kaziranga is only a three-hour drive from Eaglenest. In contrast, the better-known Namdapha has no jeep tracks in its interior and no paths at all above 1,000 m altitude. In western Arunachal one can watch Blood Pheasant Ithaginis cruentus scurrying across the scrub at 3,700 m early in the morning, or even a Satyr Tragopan Tragopan satyra in the nearby fir- rhododendron-bamboo forests, and White-throated Redstart Phoenicurus schisticeps and Fire-tailed Sunbird Aethopyga ignicauda; then drive down to Dirang for lunch and Black-necked Crane Grus nigricollis at 1,500 m; and dash off to Eaglenest for a spot of late afternoon birding involving Fire-tailed Myzornis Myzornis pyrrhoura, Black-headed Shrike Babbler Pteruthius rufiventer, Rufous-throated Wren Babbler Spelaeornis caudatus and Rufous-breasted Bush Robin Tarsiger hyperythrus. Obviously you'll need dollops of luck to get all those species in one day but one can cover those three areas, where those birds have been seen, in a single day. | Eaglenest:
2 |
|
