Phansad Wildlife Sancutary Nature Camp

A few photos from three days of "Quality" Nature Watching with Adesh, Dr. Vaibhav and Parthiv at the Phansad Wildlife Sancutary (PWS) organized by the Navi-Mumbai chapter of BNHS.

I would firstly like to thank all the people who made this trip happen and the group leaders in particular.

Panoramas from various places during the course of the three day camp

(From top to bottom)

1. A slight devour en route Phansad took us to our First stop-Therunda village, near Revdanda fort - where an enthusiastic local nature lover's backyard places host to the skeleton of a baby blue whale (6 month old) which beached ashore. A very interesting sight indeed.
2. A small but dense forest near the village of Supegaon is protected by the villagers as the believe it to be the 'sacred forest'. (This concept of the scared forest is more or less consistently seen all over India and plays a very important role of preserving rich gene pools of Endemic flora and fauna.)This particular one called “Devrai” is a great place to spot birding activity.
3. This sort of grasslands intersperse the evergreen Anjan forest of Phansad at regular intervals. Great spots for catching up with the soaring raptors.
4. A view from a watch tower facing the west reveals a beautiful view of the scenic coastline along the Kashid beach.

The dense evergreen forest of Phansad has quiet a few species of birds that are endemic to the Western Ghats and is probably the only such forest to be very close to the coastline.

(Images below) Dr.Vaibhav and Adesh shared there extensive birding knowledge - seen here explaining the characteristics of an Green Imperial Pigeon - Ducula aenea (Found this dead specimen on one of the trails)



(Top right image) Parthiv sort of never understood why we were all straining our necks when there were soo many beautiful creatures right in front of our eyes on the ground.

"My prized catch of the trip"
This Brown Wood Owl flew in from no where to check out a potential competitor in his territory (But to his surprise the competitor was only Dr. Vaibhav mimicking an Eagle Owl) during one of our night trails near Supegaon.

Check out the beautifully camouflaged tiny nest of the crested treeswift - found her at the fringes of one of the Grasslands en route Chikhalghan


Both photos of the same individual (The photo in the square was clicked thru Adesh's Nikon scope - Digi scoping)

This snap is probably my most critically acclaimed photo (till date). I owe it all to two people - Firstly to the Centipede and Secondly to Mr. Amol Patwardhan for finding it.



However, this photo clearly indicates the existence of Parental care in these poisonous insects.

PWS has an amazing array of Insect, Reptile and Amphibian life. 

These hairy spiders spin funnel webs flaring into extensive mats and the tube extends about 10cms into the earth. They are usually found in low shrubs in scrub jungles and are found in the jungles close to the open grasslands at Phansad.

Found lots of these fellows in Phansad, especially on our night trails. These spiders do not spin webs and usually live in tree trunks.

This species prefers forests and is semi-arboreal. When on trees the red colouration of the back is said to resemble red bark fungus and hence its common name.

Parthiv quiet literally left no stone unturned in trying to find these creepy crawlies of Phansad..... Great job man.

(Top right)Check out the excellently mimicked dry leaf pattern of the Fruit piercing Moth

Green Vine Snake (Ahaetulla nasuta)- After three days we FINALLY got to see at least one of these beautiful snakes (PWS supposedly has a large no. of these fellows)

This beautifully camouflaging reptile is referred to as ‘eye-pluckers’ in many parts of its range.
(In fact, its generic name is derived from the Sinhala language of Sri lanka – Ehetulla which means ‘eye-plucker’)

PWS also plays home to the brown version of the Vine snake.

Here's everyone who stayed till the end... and a couple more added in later.. Sorry to all those I missed here (I didn't have any photos of you all to add you in)


As I scratch away to glory on the tick bites from PWS and think back all i can say is - it was a great trip and an amazing effort by all our leaders to make sure that everyone enjoyed and gained a lot of knowledge about Phansad's Flora and Fauna. (And a special mention of our reptilian lover Parthiv - your enthusiasm was great - hope your luck with snakes is better next time around)

From Tungareshwar

Saw this beautiful Sub-adult male Paradise Flycatcher @ Tungareshwar Sanctuary in North Mumbai last Sunday

Found this caterpillar on a tree truck. This was later identified by Mr. Isaac Kehimkar [isaackehimkar@yahoo.co.in] (Resident Butterfly/Moth expert at BNHS)

Satara Trip

Emu (native of Australia) at an Emu farm in Satara District of Maharashtra. I understand that Emu farms have been mushrooming all over the country with the help of local governments.

However, I wonder if any sort of encouragement for breeding such 'Imported' species is a good thing?

Digi-Binocing

All most all the photographs of birds seen in this blog have been clicked using a Nikon CoolPix 4500 and a Nikon 10X35 Binocular. This method of photography is know as "Digi-Binocing" - however, this is an offshoot of the far more popular and effective 'Digi-Scoping'.

To know more about this method click on this link - http://www.shortcourses.com/how/digiscoping/digiscoping.htm
or search for 'Digiscoping' in Google.

Bird watching camp

Location: Kanakeshwar (North of Alibaug - and close to Kihim Beach)
Date: 12th / 13th March 2005
Habitat: Dense forest (Evergreenish)
Team Leaders: Dr. Vaibhav and Mr. Pravin Kawale (Both from Alibaug)


Next time on your way to Alibaug be sure to take a slight detour (3km to be exact) from Chodi village to the holy Kanakeshwar Temple. The climb up to the temple of about 700 steps shouldn't take you more than 45 minutes - Unless offcourse you too are distract by the amazing birdlife to this mini paradise (Or "Alibaug's very own hill station" as Dr. Vaibhav puts it) - On route and dotted all over the small hills you will find many small temples and shrines. This quiet and peaceful place is an amazing weekend getaway.

Kanakeshwar is very rich in both bird and plant life. But the highlights for me were the flycatchers and raptors. Infact, I would say that this is one of the best places close to Mumbai for these categories of birds.

Scroll below to see some of the amazing sights from Kanakeshwar that I was able to record.

If you are a nature lover based any where close to Mumbai – Kanakeshwar is a MUST see.

And lastly – anyone interested in nature watching should go along with Dr. Vaibhav and Mr. Pravin Kawale as they have immense knowledge of this area and its Flora/Fauna.

This beauty from Kanakeshwar - A male Anax immaculifrons 

Thank you Dr. Vaibhav and Mr. Praveen for an amazing weekend 

Hopefully someone can help me with IDing these flowers - Kanakeshwar 

Blue Mormon - Got to see some good specimens of butterflies too at Alibaug's very own hill station. At just over a 1000 feet above sea level this dense forest is an amazing weekend getaway.  

This Kestrel was seen chasing the Sparrow larks at the foot of the hill ( Possibly the Sparrow larks had nests there ) 

Yellow-legged-Green-Pigeon - Kanakeshwar 

White-breasted-Kingfisher ( Digi-binocing ) again at Kanakeshwar 

Ashy crowned sparrow larks at the foot of Kanakeshwar 

Bird watching camp at Kanakeshwar with Dr Vaibhav and Mr. Praveen .....on 12th and 13th March 2005