After a brief gap during the summer months, I was back to Sundarban is June again. Generally the months of April and May are little unpredictable as this part of India faces some severe storms during that time.
The first tour itself was extremely successful as we could document few of the rarities of this mangrove forest which can be seen mostly during the monsoon season only. The top ones among those were the
Ruddy Kingfisher and
Buffy Fish Owl. I could not make any decent image of both of the species; but was lucky to get another elusive one, the
Mangrove Whistler. This is one species which is more heard than seen, forget about getting a good image of! We also observed and documented the
White-browed Scimitar Babbler, a bird which probably existed from long back but hardly noticed. Though quite a common occurrence in the Himalayan hills and foothills, this Scimitar Babbler is a surprising find in a mangrove forest.
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| Ruddy Kingfisher (record image) |
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| Mangrove Whistler |
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| White-browed Scimitar Babbler |
I did two tours in the month of July and both were extremely productive.
Ruddy Kingfisher,
Lesser Yellownape,
White-browed Scimitar Babbler,
Mangrove Pitta and
Striated Babbler were the highlight species.
This was my 4th sighting of
Ruddy Kingfisher and the duration of the sighting was long. The bird was there preening itself for almost 20 minutes. But it took me nearly 19 minutes to find out a suitable opening through which I can focus and make an image. Overcast conditions too was another problem.
Lesser Yellownape is a not-so-common species of woodpecker in the mangrove forests. Though the field guides say about it's isolated records from the Bangladesh sundarbans, proper data regarding it's distribution in Indian counterpart is still lacking.
On this occasion I got a much better image of the
White-browed Scimitar Babbler as it sat on the eye-level position in good evening light.
Mangrove Pitta is one another star attraction for the birdwatchers and bird photographers during the monsoon season in Sundarban. This species has been one of the extremely difficult to photograph in this mangrove forest as tourist movement is mostly restricted to the boats. Even at the camps where tourists are allowed to get down, movement is restricted within a specific fenced area. Hope to make a better image sometime in the future.
Striated Babbler is one of the common babbler species in it's range; however, not so commonly seen in these mangrove forests. During this monsoon season we were lucky to have got a glimpse on number of occasions and make a decent image during this one.
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| Purple Sunbird (eclipse male) |
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| Ruddy Kingfisher |
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| Lesser Yellownape |
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| White-browed Scimitar Babbler |
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| Shikra |
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| Red Junglefowl male and female |
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| Mangrove Pitta (record image) |
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| Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker |
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| Striated Babbler |
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| Collared Kingfisher |
The month of August saw me thrice in Sundarban. The only highlight during this month was the sighting of
Red-necked Falcon which can be presumed as a passage migrant over this mangrove forest. The other highlight was the arrival of
Brown-winged Kingfisher. Though this kingfisher is a resident breeder in this forest, the sighting generally becomes infrequent during the summers and early monsoon.
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| Eastern Jungle Crow |
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| Brown-winged Kingfisher |
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| Red-necked Falcon (record image) |
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| Lesser Whistling-duck pair with brood |
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| Lesser Whistling-duck pair with brood |
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| Indian Cuckoo |
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| Blue-tailed Bee-eater |
In the month of September, I visited the park twice and the big highlight was the
Buffy Fish Owl. This species was seen for just a few days and I was lucky enough to be present during that time span. Few good images were managed during that birding session. Apart from that, I could also manage some images of the
Brown-winged Kingfisher. We also observed and documented several winter migrant species which had arrived, towards the end of the month.
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| Buffy Fish Owl |
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| Arrival of winter migrants |
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| Brown-winged Kingfisher |
