Monday, March 8, 2021

Bird Watching in Kanha and Pench

Bird Sighting Video (Both Kanha and Pench combined): 


Day 1: 

Drive from (Home) Hyderabad to Pench 
Distance: 620 km 
Time Taken: 04-18 AM to 12-51 PM (8 Hours 33 minutes Including breaks) 
Place of Stay: Taj Baghvan Pench 

Refueling Stats: 

Day 2: 

Morning Nature Trek with Naturalist Nikita 
Drive from Pench to Kanha (via Seoni, Nainpur, Baihar) 
Distance: 215 km
Time Taken: 10-40 AM to 3 PM (4 Hours 20 minutes Including breaks) 
Place of Stay: Taj Banjar Tola Kanha 

Day 3: 

Morning Nature Trek with Naturalist Gurunath 
Evening Safari to Khisli Zone 

Day 4: 

Morning Safari to Khisli Zone 
Evening Nature Trek in Taj Banjar Tola property with Naturalist Jaya Rakesh 

Day 5: 

After Breakfast Drive from Kanha to Pench (via Balaghat, Rampayli, Sitalgarh) 
Distance: 205 km 
Time Taken: 08-38 AM to 12-38 PM (4 Hours exact including breaks) 
Place of Stay: Taj Baghvan Pench 
Evening Safari to Route 2 

Refueling Stats: 

Day 6: 

After Breakfast Drive from Pench to Hyderabad (HOME) 
Distance: 628 km 
Time Taken: 08-00 AM to 3-37 PM (7 Hours 37 minutes Including breaks) 

Refueling Stats: 


Some reviews and feedback about our Place of Stay: 

Taj Baghvan Pench: Overall the experience here was on the better side, when I compare it with Banjaar Tola Kanha. Some good aspects about Pench which we liked a lot are as below, 
  • The food was very good (rather very good) 
  • The rooms were comfortable, relaxing and felt luxurious, a very good feeling indeed 
  • The property itself was indeed very good to do some casual birding at any time of the day 
  • The staff were courteous enough, it would not be fair if I don't mention Shyam who was waiting on us at the restaurant. A great guy indeed and we loved interacting with him. 
  • We loved to spend time with Nikita on the safari as well as on the morning trail. She is passionate about her job and that's the best quality one can ever have, everything else will fall in line with age. 
Taj Banjaar Tola Kanha: I will be very honest here, the reputation of Banjaar Tola is now only a myth. It might have bene good at some point in the past but now most things about the place has gone from bad to worse. I will first list down the good things that we liked about Banjaar Tola followed by the not-so-pleasant experiences. And I would like to mention that we are not beginners here, we have stayed in multiple 5-star properties and we have seen enough 5-star jungle resorts to know what is good and what is bad. 
So here are some good points about Banjaar Tola: 
  •  Naturalists at Banjaar Tola are just exceptional. We spent our time with Gurunath and one small session with Jaya Rakesh. Both were awesome. Even though they spend 95% of their time for  the tigers, yet Guru was really thorough with the birds. For us that came as a pleasant surprise and we enjoyed every moment we spent with him. 
  • They were good enough to arrange exclusive jeep for us even though we didn't specifically ask for it. When they realized we were bird watchers, they took that that decision themselves and it was a wonderful gesture. 
  • The property is huge and one can do some amazing birding within the property itself. 
Now, I will mention those points that literally killed my experience in Kanha and left a very bad taste at the end. 
  • THE FOOD. I feel sorry to see the state of affairs here. The head chef was absolutely pathetic, I will avoid naming him here but we stayed at the west-end and I understand the chef is different for both the locations. Maybe the east-end has a better chef. But this one at west, was one of the worst that I have seen in my entire life. His dishes were completely crap and we detested everything that we ordered. After talking to him we realized he was a native of Nepal and has spent numerous years in Taj working at different locations. I'm surprised that he still is associated with Taj after all these years without even performing well. I don't know what does Taj management like about him, his food tastes completely out of place. C'mon Taj, you can't just keep underperforming people in your team just like that. 
  • The security guy at the west end parking was trying to terrify us when we were going birding on foot inside the property. He was talking all stuff like don't go very far as tigers roam inside the property too. When we checked with Guru, he clearly told us it is totally safe before dark. I don't understand why somebody would discourage the guests to walk on foot and enjoy the property. 
  • It is not luxurious any more. The tents that they have set-up are now old, worn out and even having molds in some places. Yes, the antiques kept inside the tent is good, but overall the stay is nowhere luxurious. I have seen better jungle luxury before. 
  • Those days have gone, when Banjaar Tola was considered something unique. Now it is only a cash cow which is running on its old reputation. I would say, find another place of stay if you want to visit Kanha. 
After all these good and bad experiences, it is the birds which always take precedence. And we are lucky that we talk about them more than anything else. 

Enjoy the Pics below: Starting with the Bird Sightings, then followed by pics of Mammal Sightings and later some forest Landscapes 

Bird Sightings: (Kanha and Pench Combined) 

Orange-headed Thrush male

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
White-rumped Shama male

Rufous Treepie
Indian Roller

Jungle Owlet

Southern Coucal

Little Cormorant
Indian Grey Hornbill

Plum-headed Parakeet male

Plum-headed Parakeet female
Rose-ringed Parakeet female

Lesser Goldenback

White-naped Woodpecker female

Brown-caped Pygmy Woodpecker female

Jungle Babbler

Red-naped Ibis

Black-headed Ibis

Long-tailed Shrike

Brown-headed Barbet
Coppersmith Barbet

Jerdon's Leafbird female

Golden-fronted Leafbird

Indian Peafowl male

Red Junglefowl male

Red Junglefowl female

Black Stork

Lesser Adjutant

Grey-headed Fish Eagle

Oriental Honey-buzzard female

Oriental Honey-buzzard male

Crested Serpent Eagle

Crested Hawk Eagle juv

Osprey

White-rumped Vulture

Greater Painted-snipe male

Common Snipe

Zitting Cisticola

Red-wattled Lapwing

Common Hawk Cuckoo

Common Stonechat male

Common Stonechat female

Common Sandpiper

Common Greenshank

Little Egret
Intermediate Egret

Little-ringed Plover
Grey Wagtail

White-browed Wagtail

White Wagtail
Ruddy Shelduck

Gadwall male

Gadwall female

Feruginous Duck

Eurasian Wigeon

Lesser Whistling Duck

Northern Shoveler female
Cotton Pygmy-goose

White-throated Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher

Indian Pond Heron

Oriental Magpie Robin
Oriental Turtle Dove

Spotted Dove

Brahminy Starling
Chestnut-tailed Starling

Purple Sunbird female

Common Myna

Common Tailorbird

Oriental White-eye

White-rumped Munia

Greenish Warbler

Sulphur-bellied Warbler
Booted Warbler

Paddyfield Warbler

Paddyfield Pipit

Indian Golden Oriole juv

Black-hooded Oriole

Indian Golden Oriole

Black Drongo and Golden-fronted Barbet

Taiga Flycatcher female
Red-breasted Flycatcher male
Red-breasted Flycatcher female
Tickell's Blue Flycatcher male
Black-naped Monarch

Chestnut-shouldered Petronia female

Chestnut-shouldered Petronia male

Large Cuckooshrike male

Large Cuckooshrike female

Great Tit

Red-rumped Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow


Indian Nuthatch

Scarlet Minivet

Jungle Babbler
Plain Prinia

Pics of Mammal Sightings: 
Barasingha - Swamp Deer
Barasingha - Swamp Deer
Barasingha - Swamp Deer
Barasingha - Swamp Deer
Barasingha - Swamp Deer female
Barasingha - Swamp Deer

Barking Deer - Indian Muntjac male

Barking Deer - Indian Muntjac male

Spotted Deer
Spotted Deer (fawn)
Sambar Deer

Sambar Deer
Sambar Deer

Nilgai female

Indian Roundleaf Bat – Leaf Nosed Bat

Pteropus - Flying Fox - Fruit Bat

Pteropus - Flying Fox - Fruit Bat

Wild Boar

FOREST LANDSCAPE: 

Pench Sunset

Kanha

Kanha Morning

Pench Skyline

Kanha Morning

@Kanha Banjar Tola

Kanha Trail

Turtle

Dragonfly

Common Sailor


No comments:

Post a Comment