Sattal, as any birder/bird photographer knows, is the first step in West Himalayan birding! This place is around 4000ft above sea level and just an hour away from the famous hill station Nainital. Tal means lake. So, Sattal means essentially means seven lakes. Birding in these parts is centred around these lakes. They are Nal Damayanthi tal, Ram tal , Lakshman tal, Sita tal, Garuda tal, Purna tal and Sukha tal. The famous or infamous Sattal Natural studio hide is in this Sukha tal where there is a small perennial stream in which, birds regularly come to drink and bathe. They are so used to humans, and camera shutter sounds that they are oblivious to us as long as u keep a decent distance.
Though hides are the easiest and sure shot way of getting a good bird photograph, its neither thrilling nor challenging as trail/forest birding! The joy of walking along a trail and listening to a bird call and then tracking the bird has its own thrill. This is where a good bird guide who knows the bird calls of the local birds and their possible location helps! We were very lucky in having Ankit Das as our guide. A very knowledgable chap who relentlessly tracked bird calls to help us see our wish list birds. Though we did use playback on few instances most of our birding was done organically by tracking the bird calls with binocs and camera.
We did 4N 3days birding in Sattal. Ankit planned it such a way that we did not even waste one session and was on the go all the time.
Day 1
We landed at New Delhi airport Sunday morning and immediately got into the cab we had arranged as a package deal. The car was a dedicated one, and it was with us till it dropped us back to the airport on Thursday afternoon. Once again we struck gold as we had a very young driver who drove superbly on the mountain roads. We, with our enthusiasm for birds, got him interested in birds as well! From the second day on, whenever we were doing trail birding, he came along with us, started watching birds, and even carried my friend Kannikas’s camera in one arduous trek for the Tawny fish owl.
We reached Bhimtal by 4.30 pm after a 6 hour drive, refreshed a bit and left for Chanfi, which was nearby. This kickstarted our birding sojourn in Sattal. We started off with the Asian barred owlet, which was a cutie and super duper camouflaged, then moved on to the Kalsa river trail where we got the Brown dipper, redstarts, forktail and surprisingly a dark-sided thrush pair. The only downside was that all these birds were dark and small. By the time we got to them, light was very low, and the birds were down in the lakebed while we were higher up on the road. Camera ISO was as high as our excitement, yet it didn’t faze us! This birding trip yielded us 11 lifers. In the night, though we heard the Mountain scops owl and Grey nightjar. we couldn’t spot them as the call was from afar.
Day 2
Hide birding
Day 2, or first day of full-fledged birding, started at dawn chorus! Residing at sea level in the heart of a city, our dawn chorus is usually a raucous call of female koel, male koel and mynas. But when I heard the dawn chorus of birds at around 4.30 am, even before the first sun ray lit the sky up, it was exhilarating! I turned on the Merlin sound app just to check how many species calls it can record. It said about 10 even though I could hear few more. Saw a Kalij pheasant pair roosting on a tree opposite me, all the laughing thrushes, barbets and tits getting ready to start a hard day’s work ahead. This day was earmarked for hides so that most species can be seen without difficulty, and photo opportunities are good! Thus, we started from the homestay at 5.45 am to be in our chairs at 6 am to welcome the birds.
We visited the Christian Ashram bird hide as the rufous fronted partridge was a regular sighting in that hide. I have been to bird hides in Bangalore, Thattekad and Pune before, but this hide was easily the best in terms of the number of species and individuals that visited it! We were so confused as to what to take and where to look! It was sheer hard work, trying to take photographs of a species when it posed nicely, as well as trying to keep an eye on any new species that might make a fleeting cameo to the hide. We ended up seeing around 40 species in the 3 hours we were there. Few species such as mountain bulbul, small niltava we missed as they dint make an appearance that day! Being breeding season, many species were seen either nest building, wooing the females or brooding.
From the hide, we then went back to homestay for breakfast after which we went the other way towards Chanfi in search of the crested kingfisher. I was hoping I might get a better shot of the dipper and forktail but alas, we couldn’t sight them. We treaded along the beautiful stones nicely polished by the river in search of the KF which we finally spotted sitting on a tree.
In the afternoon we quickly made our way to Sattal estate where the Sattal natural studio is present. As mentioned earlier, it is just a small running stream to which birds come. Though we dint see as many birds as we saw in the hide we did get few new birds such as Ashy bulbul, striated laughing thrush, mountain hawk eagle.
After this session, we came back to the homestay and took a breather only to go in search of Mountain scops owl. We went to a road near the homestay where it was sighted the previous day. We stood in the middle of the road, straining our ears for the call with lorry and truck traffic zipping past us. Eventually, we saw the bird, took pictures and went back to the homestay only to see the resident MSO making an appearance. It gave us such good views that it was out of the world!
Day 3
Pangot
On day 3 we embarked on a journey to Pangot (6500ft above sea level) which is at a higher elevation and above Nainital. We started around 5 am and reached by 7 am as traffic was less. Such a serene and scenic place. Being at a higher elevation, the set of birds seen here differs from what we see at Sattal (4500 ft). Our first target was the Koklass pheasant, which was making loud calls from high up in the mountain perched on a tree! We took few record shots and waited for it to come down to the valley. However, it did not oblige, but we did see a female foraging in the valley. After waiting for some time, we made a move, looking for birds along the cliffs, valleys, and trees! Hearing all 3 Cuckoo (Himalayan, large hawk and Indian) calls everywhere was so soothing to our ears!
We drove along that trail for about 30 Km at least, looking for birds, at every probable habitat spot! The road was so empty and we saw only about 2-3 vehicles along the entire stretch as that road only leads to a small village high up. This trip gave us 20 lifers but an infinite experience visually, auditorially in the form of majestic rhododendrons, oak and deodar forests set in the scenic Himalayan scapes and variety of bird calls!
Day 4
Day of the Owls!
The last day of our trip was dedicated to catching up with the species we missed out on the previous days. The prime target was the long-tailed broadbill. A pair here in Sattal builds nests in the valley every year. We waited at a spot on the road straight opposite the work-in-progress nest the pair was constructing. A speckled piculet kept us entertained until the broadbill pair made an appearance. The pair was so adorable and was magnificent. After this, we moved to Sattal trail in search of maroon orioles, nightjar, and grey crowned prinia. Unfortunatley, we did not see any nightjars or the prinia as forest fire had destroyed their habitat. We, however, did see the Oriole, but it was far away and flew off before we could see it up close.
Late morning, we went in search of the Tawny Fish Owl in Chanfi, which was in the top 3 of my wish list. This owl was not seen in its usual perches in Chanfi for quite some time as it was nesting deep in the valley higher up in the mountain away from the prying eyes. Ankit had warned us that this trek would be arduous and long. We mentally prepared ourselves for the uphill climb over rocks and crossing streams now and then. It was a tough and gruelling one as we were not used to climbing and walking on steep mountain trails. But seeing the entire owl family at the end of the trek made it all worthwhile. The baby owl had fledged and was sitting a bit away under the watchful eye of its parents. After spending time with it at a safe distance, we returned to the homestay.
In the early afternoon, we once again went to Chanfi to see the Brown fish owl. This grouchy-looking owl was not very happy to see us, though it did oblige and posed. We left Mr grouchy to search for Collared owlet. We tried in few known locations in Sattal but as we did not hear any call we had to abandon the idea. Ankit then used his contacts to find where it was seen last.
What we did not anticipate was the sudden chill in the weather. Since we had started while it was nice and sunny and hot we did not take any jacket. The location Ankit’s friend gave was higher up in altitude, around an hour’s drive from Sattal, which was even cooler. After many twists and turns, we reached a hairpin bend when we finally heard the owlet call! We waited there in the cold for it to come nearby.
We knew the bird had come near from the way all the small birds like flycatchers, yuhina and warblers started getting agitated. Once we spotted the owlet, we could see all the small birds attacking it. The owlet equally screeched and scared away the itsybitsies until they summoned the cavalry in the form of black headed jay which finally shooed the owlet away! All this drama helped us get quite a beautiful sighting of this majestic but pint-sized owlet.
By the time we returned to homestay, it was so cold that all insects, such as cicadas, which buzz loudly in the night, were absolutely silent! It was seriously eerie that you could amost hear the sound of silence, as they call it. The nightjars and Mountain scops owl, too, were dead silent throughout the night! Thus, our last night in this Sattal trip was concluded in silence.
Early next day morning we left for Delhi to catch the evening flight back home armed with 80 lifers and zillion memories!
The trip report can be seen here https://ebird.org/tripreport/230347
The bird photos can be seen in https://www.facebook.com/rama.neelamegam and
https://www.instagram.com/ramaneelamegam/