Andamans: 20th Dec 2007 to 6th Jan 2008
A camp to Andamans was conducted by SPROUTS from 20th Dec 2007 to 6th Jan 2008.
We were 11 of us, right from a 10 year old to 60 year olds, people from diverse backgrounds & varied interests, but all sharing one common love - NATURE. We flew from Mumbai to Chennai, spent a day there & then flew out to Port Blair. The tour lasted 18 days in all. In the 18 days' tour, we covered as much as we could- North Andamans, Middle Andamans & Little Andaman.
The Andaman & Nicobar are an archipelago of 572 islands of which 36 are inhabited. They are known for thei tropical rainforests. Forest types include tropical evergreen, moist deciduous, littoral & mangrove forests. Geographic isolation has resulted in a high degree of endemism i.e. speices of biodiversity which can only be found here. The beaches are pristine, the colors of Andamans as I like to call them visible everywhere, in the sky as well as in water. Snorkelling was an unforgettbale experience for all of us, especially since most of us didn't know how to swim. But we snorkelled not once but 4-5 times & every time each one had his/ her own underwater sightings to share. Believe me, its an amazzzzzzing world out there. Alas none of us had an underwater camera.
There were a lot of other first time & new experiences too.....travelling by road through a tribal area, a journey of more than 15 hours on a ship,including spending the night together on the deck under the open sky & trying to beat the cold breeze & many more.
With help from all members we tried to capture & document as much of the biodiversity as we could, which is borne out by the fact that we saw more than 90 bird species of which 40 were lifers for me, many of them being endemic species !! (Andamans & Nicobar put together have about 246 bird species). Also photographed a number of butterfly species, lots of lizards, loads of species of crabs & shells, 2-3 snake species, many spiders,corals, fish, &many more.
We also have some crazy wildlifing moments to remember - trying to photograph crabs at 11 pm in the night at Cuthbert bay, getting off in the middle of the road during one of our drives back from NorthAndamans to see a Serpent eagle & ending up birding for an hour on the road to come across some of the most memorable sightings, collecting shells for identification purposes, photographing them well upto 11 in the night & then stepping out at 11.30 in the night when the whole city was as silent as death, to release them back to where they belong- the sea, at times sitting up late after dinner after a tiring day to make the list of sightings or to confirm some IDs (sometimes one of us dozing off in between at times & the other 2 trying to wake up) & many more moments.
Here in brief are the places we visited:
Day 1: at Chennai we visited the Crocodile Park which hosts numerous species of crocodiles & a good amount of info on each species too.
Day 2 saw us flying out to Port Blair early in the morning. The view of the Islands from the flight as we appproached Port Blair was breathtaking as you can see in these pictures below.
We reached the hotel & right in the backyard was a lake & our birding had a flying start with the blue tailed bee-eaters, the white bellied sea eagles & shrikes
In the evening we visited the cellular jail (infamuosly known as Kala Pani) for the light & sound show, which was a spine chilling story of the torture the inamtes went rhough for India's freedom struggle. The story was rendered by the wandering spirit of the jail (metaphorically)
Day 3: We went birding in our backyard at 5.30 am & it was awesome to say the least. The wagtails, pacific golden plovers, swallows....but what stole the scene was a whie bellied sea eagle pouncing on a snake in the water & flying off with it, only to be chased by a crow right upto the distance. We also had bitterns right in our backyard.
We then proceeded to Ross Islands by a ferry. The islands were the erstwhile capital of Port Blair during the British & Japanese regime. THey are the smallest isalnds of Andaman & house the ruins of old buildings.The sights of the beautiful underwater creatures-Clown fish, Angel fish, Emperor fish, Parrot fish & others clearly visible through the clear waters left us gasping. The moment we threw bits of food in water, the entire swarm would congregate at one point. The Island is now with the Indian Navy due to its strategic location. Here again we saw some interesting birds including the red breasted parakeet
In the evening was a visit to the Viper Islands, where the devastation of Tsunami was still visible, but the sunset we saw during our return journey was one of the most beautiful one could see in life
Day 4: This was the day we were most waiting for. First we did our morning birding behind our hotel from 5.30 am onwards & were richly rewarded with the stork billed kingfisher & others
We then proceeded to the Red Skin Islands, for our first experience of glass bottom boats & snorkelling. As we landed, a fairy blue bird kept us busy for quite some time.
The first snorkelling experience which gave us a breathtaking view of the corals & the undersea world, left us wanting for mre & soon enough each one of us went for our second round which lasted longer & took us deeper away from the coast
Day5: We got up early to proceed to Mount Harriet NAtional PArk & had some of the most magnificient bird sightings including many endemics & lifers. This is at a height of 1200 feet above sea level. The total trail is 16 km but we barely managed 2-3 as there was so much wildlife to see which kept us busy. We saw the Andaman woopecker, the fulvous breasted woodpecker, the Andaman treepie, shama (Andaman subspecies), Andaman Green imperial pigeon, drongos & more
We then proceeded by Road to Baratang, heading towards the northern part of Andamans. The drive was through the Andaman trunk Road which runs from Port Blair to Diglipur, a length of 333 kms. We passed through the area of the Jarawa tribes, who are aborigines & saw some of them along the road too. Only 200 of them now survive. Here the convoy of vehicles is guarded by armed personnel & there are fixed timings when the convoy is allowed to pass through. The lorikeets gave us company during our lunch break.
The evening was spent at the Parrot island in Baratang, here thousands of parakeets come in to roost at night. It was quite a suspense filled evening in itself. No parakeet till 5.30 pm....disappointed faces amongst us.......the ferryman asking us to be patient & then......2 parakeets appearing for an aerial survey, followed by 2-3 more, another flock of 5 from another direction & so it went on till there were hundreds of them from everywhere & all of them settling on the trees. Thrilled to the core, we then celebrated Christmas eve at our hotel
Day 6: started early with a visit to the mud volcano at Baratang. Here a changeable hawk eagle welcomed us
We then proceeded to Diglipur passing through Mayabunder on the way. We had some fabulous early morning birding on the road, seeing many new species- the crested serpent eagle (Andaman subspecies), the white collared kingfisher, snipe, white headed myna to name a few. Reaching Diglipur we proceeded to the Ross & Smith islands, the best preserved islands of Andamans. They are twin isalnds joined by a sand bar. Here we again had a go at snorkelling, though I stayed away this time as the water was deep
Day 7: was a birding feast from the hotel balcony in the morning
We then proceeded for the Saddlepeak trail & it was yet another feast in terms of the birds & butterflies we saw. the clipper butterfly, lots of pierrots & sunbeams, the olive backed sunbird, white rumped munias, red cheeked parakeets, Andaman coucals & others. We also came across a lot of washed ashore dead corals & loaddds of shells which were beauties too
Day 8: began with birding around our hotel. It was a lovely morning filled with black headed bulbuls, scarlett minivets, fairy blue birds, white headed mynas among others, after which we left for Rangat, the northern most part. On the way we found the Dark serpent eagle & the pacific swallows. We also visited the forest dept of Mayabunder who were kind enough to give me a compliemtary copy each, of the books on birds & butterflies of Andamans (which are now out of publication) & also some charts on marine life.
On reaching Rangat, we proceeded to the Cuthbert beach at night where we saw a lot of marine life. This is also known for turtle nesting, though it is not known if they still nest here after the tsunami
Day 10: On this day our destination was Havelock isalnds, the most popular tourist place in Andamans. We started at 5.30 am & reached by noon. Our resort was a beach resort & we couldn't have asked for more. We spent our sunset at Radhanagar beach
DAy 11: We began with birding around the hotel, where we had the hill mynas, the Indian dollar bird, the chestnut headed bee-eater, pied triller, glossy stare & the Burmese Turtle dove to name a few.
During the day we visited the Elephant Beach & Kalapathar
Day 12: We returned to Port Blair & it being New year's eve & also the last day of the trip for the Peel family, we celebrated it in style
Day 13:The new year 2008 began with a vist to the Aquarium, Anthropological Museum & Cellular Jail. The jail was constructed as a 3 storeyed structure with 7 wings like the rays of a star fish. It had 698 cells, one for each convict. It was shuddering to see the inhuman conditions of the cells & made one wonder what stuff the freedom fighters were made of to have borne the cruel ordeal. Only 3 of the 7 wings now exist after the tsunami. The museum gave an insight into the history of the islands as well as the lifestyle of the aborigines. The Aquarium is a treasure trove of the most beautiful marine creatures & luckily only video shooting is allowed inside so I managed to capture all on my handycam.
Day 14: The Peel family had left for Mumbai while we proceeded for Little Andamans, the southern most Islands. The sea was rough & the journey lasted more than 12 hours. Here the tsunai has wreacked maximum devastation & the effects were still there to see. They are the residential isalnds of the Onge tribes of whom only 99 now survive, due to contact with civilisation. Being Negritos, they are people of small stature. Feeling sea sick after the travel, we fell asleep after dinner
Day 15: We were told that we would have to cut short our journey due to the weather & return to Port Blair by the evening ferry. So we decided to make the most of the available time & visited the White Surf falls & Harminder Bay. The harminder bay was a mine full of shells of all types & the place to be to study them. We couldn't have enough of them. Here we also saw how the Onges & other tribes of Nicobarese have been dislodged due to the tsunami & while their rehabilitation was to be complete by 2007, sadly, we saw very little progress on that front. We headed back for Port Blair at 4pm & reached at 10 am next day
Day 16: Tired after the overnight journey we simply lazed around
DAy 17: The last day of our stay at Andaman, we visited the North Bay Isalnds in the morning where we also had our final round of snorkelling which incidentally was also the best byfar. The evening was at the Chiriya Tapu sanctuary, which is at the Southernmost tip of Andamans wth lush mangroves surrounding it & gave us some of the best parting gifts, including a flock of 100s of purple backed starlings & a mangrove whistler followed by a most picturesque sunset
Here is the bird checklist in total. I have put in '?' where we are not 100% sure of the IDs.
Andaman & Nicobar together have 270 bird species of which 106 are endemic to these islands. Andamans itself has about 225, going through the checklist in the bird book that we got. We sighted a total of about 91 species of which 35 were endemics!!!! Of the 91, 40 were lifers for me.
1. Blue tailed Bee-eater
2. Andaman Red Whiskered Bulbul
3. Red vented Bulbul
4. White bellied Sea Eagle
5. Brown Shrike
6. Golden Plover
7. Common Sandpiper
8. Redshank
9. Grey Wagtail
10. ? White throated Bulbul
11. Andaman Coucal
12. Andaman White breasted Kingfisher
13. Indian Robin
14. Andaman Magpie Robin
15. Barn Swallow
16. Glossy Swiftlet
17. Andaman Koel
18. Whimbrel
19. Andaman Red breasted Parakeet
20. Curlew
21. Indian Myna
22. Indian Lorikeet
23. Blue Rock Pigeon
24. House Crow
25. Large billed Crow
26. Indian Peafowl
27. Andaman Olive backed Sunbird
28. Fairy Bluebird
29. Nepal Martin
30. Andaman Chestnut headed Bee-eater
31. Cinnamon Bittern
32. Andaman Black headed Bulbul
33. Andaman Large Cuckoo Shrike
34. Burmese Turtle Dove
35. Andaman Drongo (?large/small)
36. Andaman Racket tailed Drongo
37. Andaman Pale Drongo
38. Andaman Dark Serpent Eagle
39. Black Bittern
40. Fantail Flycatcher
41. Cattle Egret
42. Median Egret
43. Great Egret
44. Andaman Flowerpecker
45. Andaman Monrach Flycather
46. Small Blue Kingfisher
47. Andaman Storkbilled Kingfisher
48. Andaman White collared Kingfisher
49. Andaman Scarlet Minivet
50. Eastern Small Minivet
51. Andaman White headed Myna
52. Andaman White backed Munia
53. ? White rumped Needtletail
54. Andaman Black naped Oriole
55. Large Andaman Parakeet
56. Andaman Long tailed( red cheeked) Parakeet
57. Andaman Green Imperial Pigeon
58. Andaman Shama
59. Little Ringed Plover
60. House Sparrow
61. Pacific Swallow
62. ?Black naped Tern
63. Andaman Treepie
64. Andaman Black Woodpecker
65. Andaman Spotted breasted Pied Woodpecker
66. Black headed Munia
67. Black capped Kingfisher
68. Pintail Snipe
69. Little Stint
70. Eastern Reef Heron
71. Little Egret
72. Pied Triller
73. Andaman Emerald Dove
74. Andaman Blue eared Kingfisher
75. Andaman Common Hill myna
76. Andaman White breasted Waterhen
77. Lesser Whistling Teal
78. Andaman Glossy Stare
79. Indian Dollarbird
80. Yellow Bittern
81. ? Brown backed Needletail
82. Purple backed Starling .............. huggggge flock on a tree
83. Mangrove Whistler
84. ? Common/Swinhoe's snipe
85. ?Grey headed Fish Eagle
86. Common Stonechat
87. Purple Moorhen
88. ?Rose ringed Parakeet [
89. Little Green Heron
90. Brown Hawk Owl -Andaman subspecies
91. Crested Hawk Eagle
The team:
We were 11 of us, right from a 10 year old to 60 year olds, people from diverse backgrounds & varied interests, but all sharing one common love - NATURE. We flew from Mumbai to Chennai, spent a day there & then flew out to Port Blair. The tour lasted 18 days in all. In the 18 days' tour, we covered as much as we could- North Andamans, Middle Andamans & Little Andaman.
The Andaman & Nicobar are an archipelago of 572 islands of which 36 are inhabited. They are known for thei tropical rainforests. Forest types include tropical evergreen, moist deciduous, littoral & mangrove forests. Geographic isolation has resulted in a high degree of endemism i.e. speices of biodiversity which can only be found here. The beaches are pristine, the colors of Andamans as I like to call them visible everywhere, in the sky as well as in water. Snorkelling was an unforgettbale experience for all of us, especially since most of us didn't know how to swim. But we snorkelled not once but 4-5 times & every time each one had his/ her own underwater sightings to share. Believe me, its an amazzzzzzing world out there. Alas none of us had an underwater camera.
There were a lot of other first time & new experiences too.....travelling by road through a tribal area, a journey of more than 15 hours on a ship,including spending the night together on the deck under the open sky & trying to beat the cold breeze & many more.
With help from all members we tried to capture & document as much of the biodiversity as we could, which is borne out by the fact that we saw more than 90 bird species of which 40 were lifers for me, many of them being endemic species !! (Andamans & Nicobar put together have about 246 bird species). Also photographed a number of butterfly species, lots of lizards, loads of species of crabs & shells, 2-3 snake species, many spiders,corals, fish, &many more.
We also have some crazy wildlifing moments to remember - trying to photograph crabs at 11 pm in the night at Cuthbert bay, getting off in the middle of the road during one of our drives back from NorthAndamans to see a Serpent eagle & ending up birding for an hour on the road to come across some of the most memorable sightings, collecting shells for identification purposes, photographing them well upto 11 in the night & then stepping out at 11.30 in the night when the whole city was as silent as death, to release them back to where they belong- the sea, at times sitting up late after dinner after a tiring day to make the list of sightings or to confirm some IDs (sometimes one of us dozing off in between at times & the other 2 trying to wake up) & many more moments.
Here in brief are the places we visited:
Day 1: at Chennai we visited the Crocodile Park which hosts numerous species of crocodiles & a good amount of info on each species too.
 |
Day 2 saw us flying out to Port Blair early in the morning. The view of the Islands from the flight as we appproached Port Blair was breathtaking as you can see in these pictures below.
 |
 |
We reached the hotel & right in the backyard was a lake & our birding had a flying start with the blue tailed bee-eaters, the white bellied sea eagles & shrikes
 |
 |
In the evening we visited the cellular jail (infamuosly known as Kala Pani) for the light & sound show, which was a spine chilling story of the torture the inamtes went rhough for India's freedom struggle. The story was rendered by the wandering spirit of the jail (metaphorically)
Day 3: We went birding in our backyard at 5.30 am & it was awesome to say the least. The wagtails, pacific golden plovers, swallows....but what stole the scene was a whie bellied sea eagle pouncing on a snake in the water & flying off with it, only to be chased by a crow right upto the distance. We also had bitterns right in our backyard.
 |
| Add caption |
 |
We then proceeded to Ross Islands by a ferry. The islands were the erstwhile capital of Port Blair during the British & Japanese regime. THey are the smallest isalnds of Andaman & house the ruins of old buildings.The sights of the beautiful underwater creatures-Clown fish, Angel fish, Emperor fish, Parrot fish & others clearly visible through the clear waters left us gasping. The moment we threw bits of food in water, the entire swarm would congregate at one point. The Island is now with the Indian Navy due to its strategic location. Here again we saw some interesting birds including the red breasted parakeet
 |
In the evening was a visit to the Viper Islands, where the devastation of Tsunami was still visible, but the sunset we saw during our return journey was one of the most beautiful one could see in life
 |
| Add caption |
 |
Day 4: This was the day we were most waiting for. First we did our morning birding behind our hotel from 5.30 am onwards & were richly rewarded with the stork billed kingfisher & others
 |
 |
We then proceeded to the Red Skin Islands, for our first experience of glass bottom boats & snorkelling. As we landed, a fairy blue bird kept us busy for quite some time.
The first snorkelling experience which gave us a breathtaking view of the corals & the undersea world, left us wanting for mre & soon enough each one of us went for our second round which lasted longer & took us deeper away from the coast
Day5: We got up early to proceed to Mount Harriet NAtional PArk & had some of the most magnificient bird sightings including many endemics & lifers. This is at a height of 1200 feet above sea level. The total trail is 16 km but we barely managed 2-3 as there was so much wildlife to see which kept us busy. We saw the Andaman woopecker, the fulvous breasted woodpecker, the Andaman treepie, shama (Andaman subspecies), Andaman Green imperial pigeon, drongos & more
 |
We then proceeded by Road to Baratang, heading towards the northern part of Andamans. The drive was through the Andaman trunk Road which runs from Port Blair to Diglipur, a length of 333 kms. We passed through the area of the Jarawa tribes, who are aborigines & saw some of them along the road too. Only 200 of them now survive. Here the convoy of vehicles is guarded by armed personnel & there are fixed timings when the convoy is allowed to pass through. The lorikeets gave us company during our lunch break.
The evening was spent at the Parrot island in Baratang, here thousands of parakeets come in to roost at night. It was quite a suspense filled evening in itself. No parakeet till 5.30 pm....disappointed faces amongst us.......the ferryman asking us to be patient & then......2 parakeets appearing for an aerial survey, followed by 2-3 more, another flock of 5 from another direction & so it went on till there were hundreds of them from everywhere & all of them settling on the trees. Thrilled to the core, we then celebrated Christmas eve at our hotel
 |
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Day 7: was a birding feast from the hotel balcony in the morning
 |
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We then proceeded for the Saddlepeak trail & it was yet another feast in terms of the birds & butterflies we saw. the clipper butterfly, lots of pierrots & sunbeams, the olive backed sunbird, white rumped munias, red cheeked parakeets, Andaman coucals & others. We also came across a lot of washed ashore dead corals & loaddds of shells which were beauties too
 |
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Day 9: began with a visit to the limestone caves, before we headed back for Port Blair |
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Day 14: The Peel family had left for Mumbai while we proceeded for Little Andamans, the southern most Islands. The sea was rough & the journey lasted more than 12 hours. Here the tsunai has wreacked maximum devastation & the effects were still there to see. They are the residential isalnds of the Onge tribes of whom only 99 now survive, due to contact with civilisation. Being Negritos, they are people of small stature. Feeling sea sick after the travel, we fell asleep after dinner
Day 15: We were told that we would have to cut short our journey due to the weather & return to Port Blair by the evening ferry. So we decided to make the most of the available time & visited the White Surf falls & Harminder Bay. The harminder bay was a mine full of shells of all types & the place to be to study them. We couldn't have enough of them. Here we also saw how the Onges & other tribes of Nicobarese have been dislodged due to the tsunami & while their rehabilitation was to be complete by 2007, sadly, we saw very little progress on that front. We headed back for Port Blair at 4pm & reached at 10 am next day
 |
DAy 17: The last day of our stay at Andaman, we visited the North Bay Isalnds in the morning where we also had our final round of snorkelling which incidentally was also the best byfar. The evening was at the Chiriya Tapu sanctuary, which is at the Southernmost tip of Andamans wth lush mangroves surrounding it & gave us some of the best parting gifts, including a flock of 100s of purple backed starlings & a mangrove whistler followed by a most picturesque sunset
 |
 |
| Add caption |
 |
Here is the bird checklist in total. I have put in '?' where we are not 100% sure of the IDs.
Andaman & Nicobar together have 270 bird species of which 106 are endemic to these islands. Andamans itself has about 225, going through the checklist in the bird book that we got. We sighted a total of about 91 species of which 35 were endemics!!!! Of the 91, 40 were lifers for me.
1. Blue tailed Bee-eater
2. Andaman Red Whiskered Bulbul
3. Red vented Bulbul
4. White bellied Sea Eagle
5. Brown Shrike
6. Golden Plover
7. Common Sandpiper
8. Redshank
9. Grey Wagtail
10. ? White throated Bulbul
11. Andaman Coucal
12. Andaman White breasted Kingfisher
13. Indian Robin
14. Andaman Magpie Robin
15. Barn Swallow
16. Glossy Swiftlet
17. Andaman Koel
18. Whimbrel
19. Andaman Red breasted Parakeet
20. Curlew
21. Indian Myna
22. Indian Lorikeet
23. Blue Rock Pigeon
24. House Crow
25. Large billed Crow
26. Indian Peafowl
27. Andaman Olive backed Sunbird
28. Fairy Bluebird
29. Nepal Martin
30. Andaman Chestnut headed Bee-eater
31. Cinnamon Bittern
32. Andaman Black headed Bulbul
33. Andaman Large Cuckoo Shrike
34. Burmese Turtle Dove
35. Andaman Drongo (?large/small)
36. Andaman Racket tailed Drongo
37. Andaman Pale Drongo
38. Andaman Dark Serpent Eagle
39. Black Bittern
40. Fantail Flycatcher
41. Cattle Egret
42. Median Egret
43. Great Egret
44. Andaman Flowerpecker
45. Andaman Monrach Flycather
46. Small Blue Kingfisher
47. Andaman Storkbilled Kingfisher
48. Andaman White collared Kingfisher
49. Andaman Scarlet Minivet
50. Eastern Small Minivet
51. Andaman White headed Myna
52. Andaman White backed Munia
53. ? White rumped Needtletail
54. Andaman Black naped Oriole
55. Large Andaman Parakeet
56. Andaman Long tailed( red cheeked) Parakeet
57. Andaman Green Imperial Pigeon
58. Andaman Shama
59. Little Ringed Plover
60. House Sparrow
61. Pacific Swallow
62. ?Black naped Tern
63. Andaman Treepie
64. Andaman Black Woodpecker
65. Andaman Spotted breasted Pied Woodpecker
66. Black headed Munia
67. Black capped Kingfisher
68. Pintail Snipe
69. Little Stint
70. Eastern Reef Heron
71. Little Egret
72. Pied Triller
73. Andaman Emerald Dove
74. Andaman Blue eared Kingfisher
75. Andaman Common Hill myna
76. Andaman White breasted Waterhen
77. Lesser Whistling Teal
78. Andaman Glossy Stare
79. Indian Dollarbird
80. Yellow Bittern
81. ? Brown backed Needletail
82. Purple backed Starling .............. huggggge flock on a tree
83. Mangrove Whistler
84. ? Common/Swinhoe's snipe
85. ?Grey headed Fish Eagle
86. Common Stonechat
87. Purple Moorhen
88. ?Rose ringed Parakeet [
89. Little Green Heron
90. Brown Hawk Owl -Andaman subspecies
91. Crested Hawk Eagle
The team:
- Anand Pendharkar
- Sandeep Talpade
- Ram Mankame
- Anil Pendharkar
- Anita Pendharkar
- Pranad Patil
- Martin Peel
- Helen Peel
- Luke Peel
- Eleanor Peel (Eli)
- Sangeeta Dhanuka
Marty would be proud :D ...
ReplyDeleteReally awesome post... I got to visit Andaman asap :D
Amiable dispatch and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you seeking your information.
ReplyDelete