Kasauli Birding in April-23

 I had an opportunity to visit my cousins in Chandigarh during annual school vacation. Kasauli is less than 2 hours away from Chandigarh (less than Mumbai-Pune for comparison). It is a good hill station which is still small and neat. I stayed in Kasauli for 2 nights and went for a couple of local birding expeditions.

The first was around the Kasauli cantonment in which I managed to see birds like Verditer Flycatcher and Chestnut Bellied Nuthatch.

The next day I started for Chakki Morh at 7:30 AM and it took us an hour to reach. It is a forest habitat. It is not dense so it is great for spotting birds.

Our naturalist for the day, Rick Toor, was waiting for us at Ishwar Dhaba. The Dhaba offers a good breakfast and I had an Omelette. Then Rick showed us around the common species, the more common ones being Red Billed Leiothrix, Himalayan Bulbul and House Sparrow. Red Billed Leiothrix was a lifer for me and I saw it in huge numbers. The bird was on the ground while feeding on the seeds along with sparrows. 

The other birds that I saw during the trip were Asian Barred Owlet (including a roadkill), Kalij Pheasant, Oriental Turtle Dove, Yellow Footed Green Pigeon, Lesser Yellownape, Hair Crested Drongo Russet Sparrow. Overall, it was a great four and half hours exploring the place. I returned to Kasauli for lunch.

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