India February 2024: Uttarakhand, Corbett, Birds and Mammals

[TonyQ]

Quick, JayP thought it might cross a track further ahead.

And he positioned us perfectly!

(at 176mm)

 

So a very exciting sighting of this stunning cat. It also showed us that JayP really knew his business and really knew the park well.

 

[TonyQ]

A gentle wind-down before a return to the hotel

Some distant elephants crossing the river

A very cute Spotted Deer baby

And a Male Kalij Pheasant crossed the road

 

Kalij Pheasants were very common in Corbett. We thought they were really beautiful birds.

 

A thoroughly enjoyable day!

 

 

 

[Galana]

An epic first day indeed. Always good to see and a chance encounter adds a certain spice to the event.

 

How were the ellies? Quite different in temperament than their African cousins I find..

Edited April 20 by Galana

[michael-ibk]

Just fabulous, you really cannot ask more of a safari day in India. Great stuff!

[TonyQ]

@Galana- it was a great first day in Corbett. The Elephants were fairly distant, not near the road. They went about their business and ignored us. I think drivers are very respectful of them!

 

@michael-ibkthank you- it was a really enjoyable day!

[Atravelynn]

Great Day 1 sightings, including the orange and black!  Especially liked the air taster.

Edited April 20 by Atravelynn

[xelas]

19 hours ago, TonyQ said:

We told Rural Traveller and JayP that we didn’t want to spend all our time hunting for Tigers and that we were quite relaxed about seeing them.

 That should be the motto of any wildlife safari! That gives you all the excellent sightings of other animals ... plus the tiger!!

[KaliCA]

What a wonderful day in this zone. I actually recognized the river as we were there in March. Saw our first Indian elephants as well as vultures in this zone. Our tiger sighting was very different…

I think all your birds will help me find names for the ones we photographed. Never did get a chicken in the light like you did. 
thanks for sharing,

Katrin

[offshorebirder]

I am catching up on this great trip report @TonyQ - fantastic stuff.   

 

Far too many top-notch photos to comment upon individually, but the shorebird shots from your boat trip in what was obviously very bright + harsh light were expertly exposed.  You made some good lemonade out of those lemons!

 

I imagine from your safari travels this year that you and @Thursday's Child will be formidable competition in the Big Year thread.

 

Edited April 22 by offshorebirder

[John M.]

@TonyQI rarely have a chance for an in-depth look at trip reports. 

   I'm glad I spotted this one. A remarkable collection of bird sightings, the kingfisher-snake series is awesome.

   The tigers are wonderful too.

 

 

[madaboutcheetah]

@TonyQ- Excellent report !! I'm just catching up with all the amazing birding , Tigers and more ...... Corbett is very high on my list - but, I'm told Dhikala is hard to get into and they take only a 3 night booking because of the very high demand ...... 

[TonyQ]

@Galana@michael-ibk@Atravelynn@xelas@KaliCA@John M. thank you

@offshorebirderthank you for your kind comments. I suspect some other Big Year entrants will get much higher scores, but we enjoy the game!

@madaboutcheetahthank you. We really enjoyed Corbett. I don't really know how difficult it is to get into Dhikala. We booked our trip early, so I presume our company booked it as soon as possible. We only wanted 2  nights and that is what we got. We met a group that had booked a trip with our company who had booked fairly late and they couldn't get in.

 

Onwards to Dhikala

As I mentioned, we were very pleased with the Golden Tusk Hotel. A really good location for Jhirna Zone, excellent food, lovely grounds and really helpful staff.

 

On the day we were due to travel to Dhikala we were to picked up at 9.30, so we had time for some birding in the grounds and for a very good breakfast.

A few of the many birds seen in the grounds:

Greater Coucal

Black Kite

Verditer Flycatcher

White-throated Fantail

and an Oriental White-eye

feeding on a spectacular flower

[TonyQ]

So JayP and our new driver, Irfan, picked us up and headed towards Dhikala. The drive to the gate was about 1 1/2 hours through small towns and villages.

We checked in at the gate

Map of Dhikala Zone - we would drive from Dhangari Gate to Dhikala FRH (Forest Rest House)

Someone else waiting in a jeep

19

Statue of Jim Corbett

I was surprised how highly regarded Jim Corbett is in this area, despite being a colonial figure. He was valued for killing man-eating Tigers, but also for setting up the large protected area and then donating it. The park was named after him in 1955/56.

 

With formalities completed, it was a fairly log drive (about two hours) to reach the Forest Rest House. Parts of this were through dense forest. We were delighted to see a Tawny Fish Owl

Some parts were more open with views over a river

 

 

As we got closer to the Forest Rest House, we passed through a beautiful bit of forest with trees forming arches over us

before finally reaching the Rest House

This is the section we stayed in

 

[TonyQ]

The Forest Rest House is quite a large collection of buildings with a variety of types of accomodation for tourist, staff and guides. Our room was simple but comfortable enough. There was a shower with hot water, but probably too hot. We used the bucket shower system (there is a large plastic bucket to put the water in and a jug to pour water over oneself) as the temperature was more reliable.

 

The Rest House overlooks a river, and from this viewpoint was a good view of Elephants below

 

 

 

After a brief look around the grounds we met JayP for lunch. We enjoyed the food here. Simple vegetarian food.

 

After lunch we set out for the afternoon safari at 14.00

[TonyQ]

We started with some birding

Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo

 

 

 

And a stunning Black Stork - the colours in the sunlight were amazing!

So we moved steadily on

 

Well  we knew what they had stopped for! The first part of the road from the Rest House has no side branches, so everyone leaving had stopped here. We laughed, but also thought we would be waiting a long time to get through (just the situation we hoped to avoid)

 

However we learned something new about JayP. All of the other guides and drivers knew him well. He seemed to be very well respected. He asked (or told) the other vehicles to move out of the way to let us through, and they did!. We were amazed.

 

We stopped briefly at the main cause of this

Tiger hiding in long grass

 

 

 

 

 

[TonyQ]

JayP said the Tiger had 3 youngsters, and he thought we might see them a bit further on.

 

Yet again, he knew what he was talking about!

Young Tiger relaxing (5 to 6 month old)

and washing

 

As used in the intro

 

It gets up and wanders off - looking very fluffy as youngsters do

 

 

A really beautiful young cat.

So the start of the sightings was a worry, but it actually turned out really well. I must say that the other jeeps and drivers were very well behaved.

 

 

Edited April 25 by TonyQ

[TonyQ]

After this we crossed a small bridge over the river into a very quiet part of the park where we concentrated on birds

the bridge

White-capped Redstart

Red headed Vulture

Siberian Stonechat

Stork-billed Kingfisher

View of the river

Crested Kingfisher

Grey Bushchat

Rufous-bellied Eagle overhead

Another point on the river

And for us a really exciting sighting

a male Black Francolin - tricky in the grass, but really beautiful

 

We then returned to the Forest Resthouse after a very enjoyable and varied first drive in Dhikala.

 

 

[madaboutcheetah]

One more question @TonyQdid you think the Dhikala zone was superior in anyway ? In terms of terrain , landscape and sightings ? 

[xelas]

2 hours ago, TonyQ said:

 

However we learned something new about JayP.

That is the guide I like!

[TonyQ]

@xelaswe thought he was a really good guide and were pleased to have him for this and the remainder of the trip

 

@madaboutcheetaha good question and difficult to answer

 

We only did two drives in Jhirna so didn't see as much of it.

In Dhikala we did four drives.

 

I think Dhikala has more variety in the environments you can visit, including grassland, riverside cliffs as well as woodland. This gave it more variety for birding. I think there were more open areas which made Tiger viewing a bit easier (but that might also be luck!). We enjoyed the visits to both areas, both were beautiful.

 

Dhikala was busier when we were there, but when we went over the river there were few other vehicles (as not a strong Tiger area)

 

We are glad we went to both areas (and of course there are other areas as well)

 

Dhikala is thought to be better for Tiger sightings, but it is hard for us to know how accurate that is (though we did see Tigers each day here)

[Kitsafari]

When you started this TR, I was just starting on my trip. Just as well, as I now can read three pages of it in one go. I'm going to steal your itinerary and recommendations if and when we decide to return to India. It was with horror I saw that photo lined up with dozens of cars, but with relief that JayP was steeled to drive through it. well done on his part and yes a guide we want too! absolutely no waiting or rushing around for the orange striped cat anymore.  

[Treepol]

Thanks for sharing your Corbett photos, what great memories these have brought back to me.

 

I'd forgotten about the low wooden bridge, and like you I enjoyed Dhikala. Really enjoying your TR.

[Galana]

20 minutes ago, Treepol said:

what great memories these have brought back to me.

To me too. I mean to return to Corbett next trip.

 

Fantastic tigers. Awful crowds,

From the splendid to the mundan.

Have you considered Black-eared Kite for your 'Black'?

[Treepol]

@Galanawhen do you plan to get back to India?

 

[Galana]

17 minutes ago, Treepol said:

@Galanawhen do you plan to get back to India?

Working on next year. Ladakh and N India. Ladakh for me and North India for a friend who has yet to meet Shere Khan.