Tungareshwar Sanctuary

I remember going to Tungareshwar about three or four years ago with BNHS. It was mostly a tree identification trip and there wasn't much opportunity for birding, thanks to the noisy groups headed for the temple at the summit and playing loud music on the way. A few years ago, Tungareshwar was in the news again because of a tiger sighting, which made BNHS and other conservationists press for its current status as a Sanctuary.









This Sunday, Mandar, Pallavi, Adesh, Abhijit, Animesh, Mr Murlidhar and moi climbed up from the northern side of the Sanctuary and saw an amazing variety of birds, the absolute highlight being the Rufous bellied Hawk Eagle. This is a rare and wonderful sighting indeed and we were all doing a mad dance after we saw it. We actually had two sightings of the bird. The first time, Mandar, Pallavi, Abhijit and myself saw the bird and the black eye marking was clearly visible, which made me think of Osprey, though it didn't feel right. Later, Addie, who we thought was seeing the same bird (but wasn't) said it was a Short-toed Eagle, so I just let it go..On the way back though we had a clear, one minute long sighting of the same bird and that time it was positively identified as a juvenile Rufus Bellied Hawk Eagle. The link to the photo shows exactly how the bird looked like. Whew! I wish we had taken a photo, in fact, the bird was so close that Mandar could have captured it on his camcorder, but we were so busy looking that we all forgot. It would have been really useful evidence though, as I think this could be the first record for the Mumbai region.







This just shows that the forest here is still very good, and the rest of the birding was extremely fruitful as well: Malabar Parakeets in good numbers probably 30-40, Loten's Sunbird, Crested Tree Swifts c 25, White -Eye (my first sighting in Mumbai), Oriental Honey Buzzard, Yellow footed Green Pigeons c7, flycatchers and warblers in good numbers-Redbreasted, Tickell's Blue and Paradise Flycatchers, Booted and Greenish Warblers, Gold fronted Chloropsis (imitating a Black Drongo to perfection) and the usual forest birds-C. Woodshrike, Yellow throated Sparrow, Barred Jungle Owlet among others. I haven't had the time to write my list, but I think it could be around 50 species. Butterflies included Common Crows, Sailor, C. Jezebel, C. Nawab, Baronet & Indian Tortoiseshell. The forest had many teak trees, Ain, and Ficus and several Ghost trees.













On the way back, Mandar's bike had a puncture, so we all had to wait at the nearest village until it was repaired. But we were so happy with the day's birding that no one really cared. We just sat around chatting and then reached home by about 4 pm. Tungareshwar is a must-visit place now, although it is quite far (approx 2 hours travelling time for me from Dadar) and not accessible unless there is a vehicle.
And it needs to be protected too. We heard and saw wood-cutting along the trail and there were some settlements inside the Sanctuary as well. A common story for most of the Sanctuaries I have visited so far...





But to end on a positive note..it was the most satisfying bit of forest birding I have done in months, with a gang of birders, who were also responsible for all the fun I had :D