[SPARKled]

My wife and I are avid birdwatchers and I try to take pictures of these birds whenever possible wherever I go with my very old antiquated Nikon D50 and a non stabalized Nikon F4 AFS with a TC.

We decided to do a birding trip up north to see all those birds that are not frequently seen by us in our regular trips to nature parks in central India that we often visit.

Th plan was to do Sattal, Pangoot, Vinayak and then finally spend 2 days at Dhikala in Corbett.

So on 17th March, we took the 12951 Rajdhani to Delhi. The train arrived right on time at NDLS and we checked into my wife's company rest house near GPO, old Delhi station. The plan was to take the Corbett link express from old Delhi at night.

Did the usual touristy things like visit Moti Mahal restaurant at DaryaGanj and CP in the day time.

The Corbett link express actually bifurcates to Kathgodam and Ramnagar from Moradabad and we reached Ramnagar at 5 in the morning.

Here we had an Innova to take us to Sattal and then Pangoot.
We had breakfast near a small resort at Kaladhungi and saw some birds like the Chloropsis, Spangled drongo, Oriental Pied Hornbill, barwinged flycatcher shrike, White rumped Shyama during breakfast. This was a good start and gave us a taste of things to expect in the next 5 days.

As I said this was mostly a birding trip and more time was spent in birding and less in photography but I have taken a photo whenever the bird was obliging.

After breakfast on the ghat to Sattal, we reached a place where there were Steppe eagles and Himalayan Griffons at pretty close distances. These gave ample opportunities to photograph and admire these powerful huge birds at close distances.

We reached Sattal and checked into a rest house right under a thick forest of pine trees and next to the lake with excellent birding around.

This area is very rich in woodpeckers and the sheer number and variety of woodpeckers seen here was just astounding.

Flamebacks, Rufus bellied, Yellow naped, Grey headed, Pygmy, Fulvous breasted, Himalyan etc etc....

Anyone looking for woodpeckers please visit these areas.

This area is also brilliant for flycathers, Niltavas, Sibias, Minlas, Cutias, Vultures, Tits, Parakeets, Pheasants, Thrushes, Warblers, Owls all of which are numerous in numbers.

However the birds are pretty skittish and absolute skulkers and its extremely difficult to photograph them.

OK I guess enough of bird gyan and let me get to some pictures around Sattal and Pangoot.

The thing to notice in these areas is that, one finds different species of birds at different altitudes. We also found extremely rare birds like the Mistle thrush, Altai Accentor and Common wood pigeons.

[Surprise]

Beautiful photographs. I like that 6th photograph a lot. Keep adding more..

[SPARKled]

Pangoot is at a higher altitude than Sattal. We had to cross Nainital to reach there. Here we saw numerous woodpeckers and some of the rare birds like the Mistle Thrush and the Altai Accentor.

[sach.sri]

Mayur - awesome pics!
It is hard to believe that you took all these with a non-stablised lens. Too good.

It would be nice to know the names of the birds also together with the pics. Can you pls help out?

[gd1418]

Great pictures Mayur & +1 to Sachin about captioning each picture. While you listed the hardware as an antiquated D50 and a F4 AFS with TC, you didn't list the lens. What lens? And the antiquity is all in the mind. It is our lust to get a new hardware makes an equally capable older one antique. Bresson, all through his life never upgraded his Leica M. And still we are not even at the tip of his legendary pictures.

Now coming to point, which "bird" is this in the pic #: 4 from bottom?..

Originally Posted by SPARKled

Pangoot is at a higher altitude than Sattal. We had to cross Nainital to reach there. Here we saw numerous woodpeckers and some of the rare birds like the Mistle Thrush and the Altai Accentor.

[SPARKled]

Originally Posted by sach.sri

Mayur - awesome pics!
It is hard to believe that you took all these with a non-stablised lens. Too good.

It would be nice to know the names of the birds also together with the pics. Can you pls help out?

Originally Posted by gd1418

Great pictures Mayur & +1 to Sachin about captioning each picture. While you listed the hardware as an antiquated D50 and a F4 AFS with TC, you didn't list the lens. What lens? And the antiquity is all in the mind. It is our lust to get a new hardware makes an equally capable older one antique. Bresson, all through his life never upgraded his Leica M. And still we are not even at the tip of his legendary pictures.

Now coming to point, which "bird" is this in the pic #: 4 from bottom?..

The birds are as follows:
Set 1:
Himalyan griffon - Record shot
Steppe eagle
Steppe eagle
Oriental turtle dove
Steppe eagle
Slaty headed parakeet - Record shot
Slaty headed parakeet
Green backed tit - Record shot
Black throated tit - Record shot

Set 2:
Altai Accentor - This is just a record shot and wanted to put this up as its extremely rare
Black Bulbul - Record shot
Black lored tit
Blue winged Minla - Record shot
Bushchat Female
Black headed jay - Record shot
Langur
landscape
Ultra marine flycatcher - Record shot
Rufous bellied woodpecker - Record shot

As seen above most of these were record shots of not such great quality, of birds never seen before by me as they are not seen anywhere near where I stay or at places I have visited before.

I have non stabalized Nikon 300 F4 AFS with a 1.4 TC with a Nikon D50 (that actually still works ).
I will be posting some more shots of Pangot and Sattal soon. After that it will be Corbett all the way.

[SPARKled]

Continuing with some more pictures from Pangoot and then Corbett.

After 2 days of superb birding around Sattal and Pangoot, we started on an early morning to Corbett. We had booking for Dhikala and we entered the Corbett park from Dhangarhi gate. After about 30 kms of dense woods meandering through hills and river beds we reached the beautiful Dhikala forest rest house.

The location of the rest house is pure magic. There is a creaky wooden platform overlooking the vast expanse of the Ramganga river. We did a lot long distance birding from here and had a blast watching Ospreys fish in the river and the resident black storks. There was also a pack of jackals preying on a slow moving Terapin.

The birds in the set are as follows:
(Note: most of these are lifers)

Streaked laughing Thrush
Red collared dove female
Russet sparrow
Mistle Thrush
White throated laughing Thrush
Chestnut bellied Thrush (female)

[C300]

Excellent bird pics Mayur and thanks for posting the names of the birds.
Chestnut bellied Thrush pic is real treat to the eyes.

[SPARKled]

Adding some more pictures from my Corbett safaris. We took 4 safaris and saw the tiger but did not take any pictures of it. Saw lots of wild elephants, spotted deer, hog deer and Crested Serpent eagles.

Corbett gave us brilliant animal,bird and reptile sightings and I just cant wait to come here again. Such is the magic of this place.

[nvldvr]

Lovely pictures. Keep them coming.

[R2D2]

Beautiful pictures Mayur. Very enjoyable thread. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

[SPARKled]

Finally the last few shots that I would like to share are all from Corbett.
The birds in the photos not necessarily in order are as follows:

Black shouldered kite juvenile
Crested Serpent eagle
Chestnut headed bee eater
Changeable Hawk eagle
Brown fish owl
Tawnyfish owl
River lapwing
Maroon oriole
White capped water Redstart
Wooly necked stork
Indian Roller
Black headed Bulbul