In life one tends to take a great many things for granted.
I’m referring to the things we don’t give a conscious thought to. Like the simple task of being able to carrying a cup of coffee from the kitchen to the dining table.
In November 2023 I fractured my ankle in Dosdewa, Assam. With my foot in a boot and with both my arms locked onto my crutches, the level of difficulty of all those ‘simple’ tasks were instantly cut-and-pasted into a category that included figure skating on thin ice and scaling a sheer rockface!
Six weeks later on a short trip to Goa I was determined to do some bird photography. Needless to say carrying my humongous 500mm lens with gimbal and tripod was out of the question and the much lighter 70-200 f2.8L IS lens got the nod instead. Coupled with a 2x teleconverter it effectively gave me a 400mm f5.6 option that I could sling over my shoulder and shoot handheld.
On most previous occasions my binoculars were brought out for Vanessa to use. On this trip that needed to change and so, slung across my chest over each shoulder, much like the cartridge belts on the Mexican Bandoleros of the Wild West, went both camera and binocs.
It did not take very long to figure out that the ability to carry the equipment around was one thing. Using them while balancing on crutches was a different prospect altogether. The next obvious and very necessary step was to park myself in a strategic location where I could maximise my vision of the birds.
The side patio that overlooked the backyard was the obvious choice. Below is an old image (with the 500mm lens on a gimbal) taken from the patio. The bird baths are partially cropped at the extreme right of the image.
There have been times in the past when the birds were scarce and almost a ‘no show’. (Having said that, I must say Tickell’s flycatchers never fail to put in an appearance.)
Tickell’s flycatcher
This trip was most definitely not one of those occasions. The birds were out in numbers! I’m sure there is a Murphy’s law for bird photographers which states something to the effect that one can expect maximum action when one is minimally geared.
Most of the activity took place at the bird baths.
From l to r: grey-headed starling, three red-whiskered bulbuls, Oriental magpie robin (male)
Apart from the usual red-whiskered bulbuls, white-browed bulbuls and red-vented bulbuls there were a number of other species that dropped in for a drink and bath. A few were irregularly regular like the white cheeked barbet below.
White-cheeked barbet
I hadn’t seen the Indian blackbirds in a while but they almost outnumbered the bulbuls.
Indian Blackbird (male)
Indian blackbird (female)
Ashy drongo
The ashy drongo above with its red eyes, and slender greyish body was one of several species of drongos I spotted on this trip.
Bronzed drongo
Apart from the bird baths there was a lot of activity in the gunpowder tree above them. A couple of bronzed drongos had parked themselves on some of its branches and swooped down at regular intervals on passing insects. Other drongo species that I sighted on this trip were the white-bellied drongo, racket-tailed drongo and black drongo.
Black-headed cuckooshrike (male)
Another seasonal visitor that now seemed to be everywhere were the black-headed cuckooshrikes.
Black-headed cuckooshrike (female)
Small murmurations of rosy starlings constantly circled the air occasionally alighting on the upper branches of the silk cotton trees that by now were bereft of leaves.
Rosy starling
Less frequent appearances were made by grey-headed starlings and jungle mynas with their distinctive blue eyes and crests.
Grey-headed starling
Jungle myna
The above birds as well as two species of orioles seemed to be using the cotton trees as a temporary perch before making a beeline for a couple of fruiting trees in the distance.
Black-hooded oriole (juvenile)
Indian golden oriole
Skulking in the hibiscus bushes was a Blyth’s reed warbler…
Blyth’s reed warbler
…and purple-rumped sunbirds and purple sunbirds that also enjoyed the purple stachytarpheta and yellow flowers of the Tecoma stans.
Purple-rumped sunbird (female) on Tacoma stans flowers
Flocks of small minivets and white-rumped munias were constantly on the move between the trees and bushes in search of food…
Small minivet (female)
White-rumped munia
… while up in the skies black kites and bhramini kites rode the air currents occasionally making low flybys over me curious to see what I was up to.
Bhramini kite
A palm tree in the distance was a favourite perch for many a raptor. In the past I have super shots of bhramini kites, crested serpent eagles, crested hawk eagles and black kites on its fronds. On this trip I got a great sighting and images of a Oriental honey buzzard.
Oriental honey buzzard
Honey buzzards are one of the easier raptors to identify. They have a very distinctive pigeon-shaped head. The shot below was taken of one in flight. The head was typical but the pale colouration was what got me confused and I had to resort to help from an Indian bird ID page on FB to confirm the diagnosis!
Oriental honey buzzard (pale morph)
Like I said there was plenty of bird action everywhere and I often had difficulty in knowing where to look! I was busy concentrating on the bird baths and almost missed the beautiful Asian paradise flycatcher (white morph) that was feeding in the trees to my left. Sadly I only managed to get the record shot below before it disappeared.
Body and tail of an Asian paradise flycatcher (male, white morph)
Asian paradise flycatcher
Early in the morning of Day 2 Vanessa and I were greeted by a beautiful Indian roller on the silk cotton tree. Initially it was on one of the rear branches. I can almost swear that it moved to a branch in front simply to pose for the shot below. This was my first sighting of this species at the farmhouse and I was thrilled!
Indian roller
Another great sighting was the citrina subspecies of the orange-headed thrush.
The resident population of the bird is the cynotus subspecies (Geokichla cynota). It has black and white markings on the face and neck is very commonly seen in my backyard.
Orange-headed thrush (Geokichla cynota) (Dark and light markings on face & neck)
In January 2020 I got an image of an orange headed thrush that looked different. The markings on the face and neck were missing.
A quick search revealed that this was the citrina subspecies (Geokichla citrina). It breeds in North India and the Himalayas and only travels further south for the winter.
At that time I remember reviewing all my previous images of the subspecies in Goa over the past decade. I could not find a single other sighting of the citrina subspecies in my database. Every winter I did keep a lookout for the citrina bird but never saw it again…
…till 4 years later on this trip (image below)!
Orange-headed thrush (Geokichla citrina) (No markings on face and neck)
We were at lunch on the afternoon of the third day when I happened to glance at the waterbath and was rewarded by my very first backyard sighting of the beautiful Malabar whistling thrush.
List of birds sighted at the backyard
Asian Paradise Flycatcher
Red-whiskered bulbul
Red-vented bulbul
White-browed bulbul
Grey-headed bulbul
Orange-headed thrush (cynotus)
Orange-headed thrush (citrina)
Indian blackbird
Indian robin
Oriental magpie robin
Spotted dove
Greater racket-tailed drongo
Bronzed drongo
Black drongo
White bellied drongo
Purple-rumped sunbird
Purple sunbird
White-rumped munia
Blue-faced Malkoha
White-cheeked barbet
Indian golden oriole
Black-hooded oriole
Bhramini kite
Black kite
Oriental honey buzzard
Oriental honey buzzard (pale morph)
Jungle babbler
Puff-throated babbler
Indian scimitar babbler
Small minivet
Rosy starling
Grey-headed starling
Black-headed cuckooshrike
Tickell’s flycatcher
Lesser flameback woodpecker
Gold-fronted Leafbird
Jerdon’s leafbird
Red-rumped swallow
Spotted dove
Blue-faced malkoha
Common crow
Jungle crow
Nilgiri flowerpecker
Common tailorbird
Blyth’s reed warbler
Indian roller
Southern coucal
Jungle myna
Lesser egret
Greater egret
Malabar whistling thrush
Blue rock pigeon
Indian cormorant
Spotted dove
This 4 day trip to Goa in January 2024 was made for the specific purpose of attending a family wedding. This meant that I had very limited birding time at my disposal. The fact that I managed to sight 50+ bird species from a single vantage point in my backyard has me pleased as punch!
Weather conditions were smoggy and overcast and using a 2x teleconverter did not do much for the image quality. Also, due to lack of mobility most of the images were shot handheld at a distance and needed to be heavily cropped. Bottom line: Most of the images will not make it to my favourites folder.
That being said, the above average number of birds coupled with the unique personal circumstances will certainly go a long way in making this one of my most memorable backyard birding experiences.
I can’t wait to lose the boot and crutches and get on with my quest to photograph the remaining 200+ bird species for part II of my ‘Chronicles of a Goan Birder’ book.
Here’s wishing all of you a very happy 2024!!