Matheran: Warbler watching in Dec-2022
Matheran is a hill station located in the Sahyadri mountain range. It can be reached from Mumbai by 2 and a half hours drive or similar time by train. The train drops you at Neral station and one can take a taxi from there to Matheran parking. The hill station is traffic free. It is a highly biodiverse place with birds, amphibians and reptiles in good numbers.
It was a
chilly winter morning when we took the train to go to Neral station. I was
wearing a hooded jacket, yet I felt very cold in the train. We joined our
birding group at the Neral station. Our group had breakfast and tea a
restaurant outside station. We then hired a cab to take for a 25-minute ride to
Matheran parking.
The first
bird we saw, strolling around the parking, was Asian Paradise Flycatcher. We
saw the cinnamon morph. While it is called a flycatcher, its feeding habits and
behavior are more closely related to monarch family of birds. The bird feeds on
different types of insects which it catches during flight. We then moved to
Simson tank area which is a water reservoir. There is a dam wall which separates
reservoir from clearing and there is a viewing platform on top of the dam. We
sat there for a few hours as the sunlight slowly covered the valley below. The
first bird to see on Simson tank was Crimson backed sunbird, a small bird with
a down curved beak. One can find this bird only in a few
places in Maharashtra including Matheran.
As the
sunlight increased, a Taiga flycatcher came to perch on a distant vine. The
small brown bird was flying around the vine searching for insects and flies.
The bird migrates all the way from North Taiga region in Russia and Europe. As
it gets cold in Russia and Europe during winters, several birds travel
thousands of kilometers to South and West India to beat the cold. It is remarkable how these birds follow the same flight path every
year.
Right below
our viewing platform, bird activity increased as Warblers started their feeding
activity. Leaf warblers are small restless birds which are greenish above and
pale below. Most of the warblers we saw were travelers from distant lands just
like Taiga Flycatcher. Two rare sightings of the day were Hume’s leaf warbler
and Tytler’s leaf warbler. It is very difficult to distinguish between leaf
warblers and I am still learning from the birding experts. I was very happy
when I correctly identified a Greenish Warbler with worn plumage which looked
much like a related Blyth’s Reed Warbler.
Among other
sightings of the day were Blue Capped Rock Thrush, Verditer Flycatcher, Western
Crowned Warbler, Sulphur Bellied Warbler and Shikra. Among other living things, I also identified a
scorpion and a tree frog while walking on the trails.
It turned out to be a 6 hour trail, simply because of the activity. We repeated Matheran two weeks later to get a glimpse of leaf warblers again. They surely didn’t disappoint.
eBird lists here:
Very weldone abir.God bless you.
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