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Templer's Park - 11th January 2004 In
the whole of 2003, I made 3 trips
to this destination. The ambience here was superb. Birding was a very peasant walk
of 3 kilometers beside a flat bedded stream under canopied pathway. So far,
I had spotted a variety
of quality birds, that fact did not alter my rating of this
destination. I would still rate that the numbers and their frequency of
sighting birds were below expectation. when compared with
expectation the ambience would bring. I rated this destination as mediocre.
This morning, Alex a non
birder decided to tag along to see what Peter and me would be
encountering
in the forest. He expected to see some colorful birds, fuelled by a dull
trip with me for the shore birds, a few weeks ago. As starter, we were greeted by lots of singing
at the car park. Bulbuls, Flowerpeckers and Sunbirds. A single
Prinia broke the monotony. From there on, there was this half kilometer walk on
paved road to the man made swimming pool area. It was uneventful. No more traces of bird.
We past the
swimming pool, the track changed to that of dirt road went up a
short slope. Then through the Bamboo forest, crossed the stream
of the catchment area and to the 1st
rest stop. This morning, no sign of bird wave. This was also the
location of the 1st campsite. A solitary Chestnut naped Forktail was foraging along a small tributary brought some
hope for the trip. We tracked a beautiful river bank trail
and quickly were at the 2nd camp site. Here was a large open flat
ground bordered by the same stream and shaded by tall canopy. There were
some movements. Among the songs of the Rufous crowned
Babbler, was suddenly interrupted by the flights of larger birds. Crimson-Winged
Woodpeckers and White-rumped Shama. The wave stayed for about 10
minutes but
as I said earlier, not very encouraging. The happenings were some distance away up the slope on the opposite banks of the
river.
The rest of the trail [about a
kilometer and half] were
quiet to be broken occasionally by the calls of the Black-headed
Bulbul.
The last river crossing was about 500 meters from the Templer's Park waterfall. At that point a large bird wave ran right
across the
track at medium level. The larger birds were sighted immediately, Chestnut-bellied Malkohas, joined by a family of Raffles. The
Crimson-winged was again sighted and there were a pair of Buff-rumped
Woodpecker too. There was a lone Asian Paradise Flycatcher and a
group of Dark-sided. This was a good show as the wave stayed around
the vicinity for about 15 minutes.
The rest of the walk thinned
down to the calls of few Tailorbird hatchlings. With all the
sightings, I would still rate the outing as average. Perhaps, I am
biased.
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