Kuflon, Uttarkashi: My first Himalayan birding trip in December-2022
During Christmas holidays, I traveled with my family to a remote village in Uttarakhand. Our group started from Delhi in two cars. We traveled through Uttar Pradesh, where a small collision happened between our car and truck. What a way to start a journey!! However, we were all safe and continued to our first stop in Rishikesh. Our resort was located on the banks of holy Ganges and we were able to see evening Aarti on the river bank from the room window. Rishikesh is located in foothills and we started our journey to Kuflon the next day morning.
Kuflon is
small village in Uttarkashi region of Uttarakhand. It is at an altitude of
1,300 meters above sea level. It is located on the road to Gangotri which is at
an even higher altitude of 3,500 meters. I had done my research on what birds
to find near Kuflon, however we were not able to find a naturalist in the
remote area till last minute. It was going to be difficult to identify
hotspots and birds in a new area. Luckily, we found a good naturalist at the
last minute which helped me do two full days of birding near our guest house.
From the
village parking, there was a long trek up to our guest house. On the way up, I
saw Yellow Bellied Fairy Fantail. Himalayas are very rich in biodiversity and I
knew that I will be seeing a lot of new birds during the trip. Birders call new
bird viewings as lifers and I got a total of 27 lifers during the trip.
Our
naturalist Vijay came to meet us at Kuflon the next day morning. He took us to
a nearby birding hotspot which was located on the banks of river Assi Ganga. It
was a trek uphill. While it was sunny, it still felt very cold. On the trek
uphill, I saw a lot of interesting birds. I saw Red Billed Blue Magpie,
Chestnut Headed Laughingthrush and Treecreeper. The Treecreeper hangs on to
branches from below and climbs up the tree looking for insects and spiders. Another
interesting bird we saw was Russet Sparrow, which looks very similar to house
sparrow and difficult to differentiate.
On the
second day of birding, we went to the other bank of river Assi Ganga. I saw several Gray Treepies. Their close relatives
Rufous Treepies are found in plains. Its easy to differentiate between the two
by looking at the color difference in bird’s crown and body. Finally, a Red
Headed Bullfinch sighting made my day as it is a very shy bird. I wasn’t able
to spot it until it moved. Vijay sir helped my in identifying its location. Back
at our guest house, I saw a Blue Whistling Thrush. It’s a common bird in
Himalayas but not found anywhere else in India. I saw it for a good 35 minutes
and very happy to identify it myself.
While
coming back to Delhi, our plan was to stop in Dehradun for the night. We were
staying close to Forest Research Institute (FRI) and we had planned to do
birding over there. Sadly, FRI was shut for visitors because of presence of a
leopard and two cubs. We plan to go there very soon again.
Ebird list here
https://ebird.org/checklist/S124749273
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