Jewels of North Bengal: A birding trip to Lava, Neora, Latpanchar and Sukna

The forests of North Bengal are said to harbor an amazing variety of bird life and, alluring names like Lava, Neora and Latpanchar only add to their attractiveness. Why they don’t figure in the primary itinerary of an average birder like myself, is because of the reputation of this area of being constantly covered in cloud/mist. It was therefore fortuitous that NatureIndia finally announced their first ever trip to this hidden jewel in the Bengal Himalayas.

Upon landing at the Bagdogra airport, it was a relief to see a prepaid taxi counter near the exit since I had planned to to spend a night at Siliguri before joining the group. 

 

Siliguri is a typical crowded mofussil town in Bengal with nothing much to offer. Even a visit to the local “Hongkong market” was not a mitigating factor.  The Santra shondesh contained in the actual rind served at a local restaurant was however quite interesting.

 

Orange clad shondesh

Two highways emerge from Siliguri going northwards. One to the east going via Sevok towards Kalimpong / Gangtok and the other slightly to the west going via the Sukna forest towards Kurseong /Darjeeling. Our plan was to take the Sevok route, and covering Lava, Neora and Latpanchar in the first leg. Then we were to come down and take the Sukna axis going upto Rongtong. The entire low level forest is part of the Mahananda WLS. 

 

Asian pied starling at Teesta river bridge

After a quick lunch stop at the Teesta river bridge, we headed to the Sevoke railway station described as the the best birding railway station in India!  

 

 

Just as we stepped onto the platform a collared falconet put up a spectacular show. Several larger birds could be seen running helter skelter as this rather tiny raptor approached its high perch. If only they knew that it’s primarily a butterfly eater! 

Collared falconet

There was a relatively unexpected sighting of the oriental pied hornbill apart from some other good sightings in the area behind the railway track. We were told to be careful of wild elephants and hurried back as we could hear them in the distance. Incidentally this part of the railway track is also notorious for elephant kills.

We headed towards Lava, not through the conventional Algarh road but from the southern side. The road was in a reasonably good condition and we reached the town after dark. The night was cold as is to be expected at 6600 feet. The morning was overcast but the intermittent sunshine revealed a beautiful small hill village nestled within a thick pine/ evergreen forest.

 

Lava village and monastery

En route Chaudapheri

The route to Chaudapheri forest camp emerges as a steep upward incline just outside Lava, but we were able to negotiate the same in our Boleros without the need for changing into 4X4 vehicles as earlier feared. Probably one of the reasons why there was a preponderance of Mahindra SUV’s in this part of the country.

Chaudapheri forest camp

The forest camp is nestled beautifully on a hill side and boasts of a tiger photo on its board. Before anyone could verbalize their doubts, one of the forest guards proudly held out the picture of a tiger clicked by the camera traps nearby.  While we decided to have breakfast, the laughingthrushes were already having a feast nearby while providing mouthwatering photo ops to all of us in bright sunshine that occured briefly.

Chestnut crowned laughingthrush

Black faced laughingthrush

Dark breasted finch female

 

The famous Lava weather took over soon and it became cloudy and cold. Fortunately it did not rain and we could easily negotiate the slightly slushy tracks. There were no leeches though. 

Dark breasted finch male

Orchid

 

 

Camera trap for tiger census

Himalayan bluetail female

Bar throated siva foraging on road

The Himalayan bluetails were seen foraging on the roads in large numbers which is their usual habit. The foraging by bar throated sivas however is considered unusual. There were good sightings of white and rufous gorgeted flycatchers. 

 

Bull finch

The bull finches made an appearance and represented a species wherein the name just doesn’t do any justice to the appearance of this strikingly colourful bird. On the other hand the golden throated barbet seems to be aptly named and gave good views to everyones satisfaction.

 

Golden throated barbet

We camped at a place called Kholakham for two nights which seemed uncecessary,  since the birding trails were all accessed through Lava village. Nevertheless the Pinewood resort was picturesque and rather comfortable, though the power supply seemed to be playing truant. We even managed to have a hot water bath, which many would consider a luxury on birding expeditions. The real boon (bane for some of us who want to completely disconnect from the www) was that there was 4G all along!!

Fire tailed sunbird male moulting

Next day the dazzling early morning show by the firetailed sunbird near the resort brought cheer even as we were left wondering whether the white spots on its face were as a result of moulting or the pollen which got stuck. Also sporting the firey tail was the female, notable as the only female sunbird to adorn any colour other than green!!  

We were now on the well known, but rather elusive pipeline trail. The entire northeast birding experience in full glory was on show as we came across healthy flocks and large numbers of yuhins, rufous sibias, nuthatches, laughingthrushes and barbets.

 

Stripe throated yuhina

White tailed nuthatch

Rufous sibia

As we proceeded up along the Rishyap trail, the clouds moved in but did not prevent us from getting very good sightings of the large niltava and female rufous breasted thrush. The highlight was the  sudden and dramatic appearance of the cutia, a lifer for many. 

Cutia

There were sightings of the rufous breasted wren babbler, the golden babbler, minivets, black faced warbler and a large flock of black throated parrotbill which darted around aptly earning the epithet of bullet birds.

Rishyap village is another tiny hamlet, notable as a sunrise/Kanchenjunga view point, where we decided to have a much needed tea break.

 

Physics class in progress

Tea house at Rishyap

Rainwater harvesting

Russet sparrow

It was incredulous to see the tea house which was actually a duplex, with its own ingenuous rain water harvesting mechanism fashioned from a cut open oil can. The lady of the house who was making tea for us was also actually doubling up as a physics tutor for 9^th standard kids of the village!!

Scarlet finch

Striated bulbul

Scarlet finch male

Scarlet finch female

Grey cheeked warbler

Red tailed minla

The next morning we found ourselves walking on the Russet trail which had been fenced off for motorized vehicles. It was a bright and sunny day , made infinitely more glorious by the sighting of scarlet finches perched on the open forest canopy. The sudden loud calls and subsequent sighting of the bay woodpecker brought much excitement. Another example of a rather lame nomenclature for this rather large and colourful woodpecker with a long yellow bill. Some more prized sightings followed which included a slender billed scimitar babbler and a flock of coral billed scimitar babblers.

Before soon we hit the jackpot in the form a large mixed hunting party of bigger sized birds. Something different from the usual MHPs of the north east consisting of the smaller birds. This congregation was along a dried waterfall which drew attention by the presence of the scarlet finches but resulted in the spectacular sighting of the red faced liocichla and the blue winged laughingthrush. 

 

Red faced liocichla

The uncannily large appearing black eagle with upturned wingtips was seen intermittently hovering just above the forest conopy. The crested goshawk identifiable by its white side markings also made its appearance. Just as we were proceeding through the Lava village near the construction site of the water tank, the thrilling sight of a Himalayan buzzard trying to take off with a chicken played out. The prey however turned out to be too heavy for the raptors talons and he had to let it go!! The pale morph of the bird was also seen later.

Himalayan buzzard

GNLF office at Kalimpong

Gorkhaland!?

Kalimpong main street

The plan was to now leave the Neora valley and travel past Kalimpong which  is a bustling , touristy hill town with few reminders of its not so remote violent past.

Latpanchar is a nondescript hilly hamlet approached by a steep road rising from Kalijhora on the Siliguri Gangtok road.  As early as 1943, the Britishers found the terrain to be suitable for cultivation of Cinchona from which the drug quinine is extracted.  Also grown as a cash crop is the broom-grass, Thysanolaena maximum, which grows most abundantly in the North-east. What was not considered of commercial value, however, was the wild figs which grew abundantly on the trees in the village the surrounding valley.

Broom grass

These happen to be the favourite food for the rufous necked hornbills, several pairs of which therefore existed here since antiquity.  In fact the birds would nest on the trees in some of the village houses. In 2011 a birder happened to take and post some excellent pictures of this spectacular and otherwise elusive bird in all its glory since they were spottable from the road itself and not shy of the people down below.  The destiny of the village transformed overnight. Now the place is synonymous with hornbill tourism and several homestays have mushroomed to accommodate the hordes of birders and photographers for whom a visit here is nothing short of a pilgrimage.

Rufous necked hornbill male

Rufous necked hornbill female

The life cycle of rofous necked hornbill is quite interesting in itself notwithstanding its gobsmaking appearance. Once the pair decides to mate and lay eggs, the female enters into a tree hole (made by other birds, since its extraordinary and strange beak is incapable of doing so). Once inside she sheds her feathers to line the nest for the eggs and the hole is sealed by the male leaving only a narrow slit. Through this slit he provides food for the female as well as the hatchlings. It’s only after three months that the female emerges. By this time the hatchlings are airworthy and she has also regenerated her wings. Any premature exit by her would be impossible since she is flightless during that time!!

 

Hornbill nest

We were duly obliged with good sightings of the famed hornbills leaving us in a state little short of apoplexy!!

Also spectacular were the brief sightings of the common green magpie, the sapphire flycatcher and the long tailed broadbill.  A resident Asian barred owlet seemed to take no notice of a large number of chirping schoolkids. The quest for formal education in Latpanchar and the surrounding hamlets stands out,  as children, especially girls, were  found happily trekking several kilometers to attend school. More heartening was to see their parents letting and helping them do so!

 

School children

Latpanchar primary school Estd 1946

Great barbet

Asian barred owlet

Blue throated barbet

Cinchona plantation : The british legacy

Free spirited youth

Paris peacock butterfly

Orange planations

We descended towards Siliguri and spent the night at a hotel in Silbari, which is located on the old Darjeeling road. This has been made famous in the movie Aradhana for its railtrack- adjoining- road sequence, featuring the heritage narrow gauge Darjeeling express. Luckily there is a new road for Darjeeling now and so the road traffic is rather sparse.

 

Hill cart road in Sukhna forest

Rongtong station 

The next mornings birding was along this very road/rail track and was nothing short of fabulous. The forest was alive with bird activity under a glorious sunshine as crimson sunbirds, ioras, bulbuls and orioles and minivets were flitting about in huge numbers. The white bellied yuhina (Erpornis) and white tailed shama also made an appearance.  

We were rewarded with good sightings of a pair of crested tree swifts, which is one of the few types of swift which actually sit on tree tops and allow themselves to be easily photographed.

We went upto the Rongtong station and helped ourselves to a hearty breakfast  with a lot of birding happening around this pitstop.

Crimson sunbird

Erpornis

Red whiskered bulbul

Common Iora

Crested tree swift male

Spotted dove

Black hooded oriole

 

The final show of the trip was put up by a young Shikra which had hunted a calotis and made short work of it ,completely unfazed by the machine gun like sounds of  furiously clicking camera shutters. (Alas there is no silent mode on these large cameras as we were told!!)

 

Shikra eating calotis

The plan was to continue birding along this very productive road till evening, but we had to return for lunch to our hotel due to some change of plans by our local guide. 

 

After some rest we headed back to the New Jalpaiguri railway station. A shoe emergency of one of the participants left us wondering how we were going to find a cobbler. But the coolies at the station assured us that the men sitting with boot polish stands are also equipped to handle repairs. We believed this amazing resourcefulness only when the shoe polish man was summoned on site and he whipped out his suturing equipment with a flourish from the little drawer in the polish stand. He not only stitched the affected shoe and provided a new insole but also did some prophylactic work on the other shoe! Someone also noticed that he worked on the unaffected shoe first!!

Indeed some of the most valuable business, and indeed life’s, lessons are unexpectedly learnt when one travels..

 

Service and the smile

Clean station

The NJP station also brought about further amazement when we walked into a squeaky clean station. Not only were there escalators for going up to the over bridge and elevators for coming down with the luggage, all of them were in top working condition.  I’m sure many of us thought of a certain bearded chaiwala whose efforts were finally showing results. Swach Bharat is of course a mindset, which will probably need a few generations to take root, but the nuts and bolts of it seem to be in place...

Trip details:

Travel dates – 02 to 07 March 2019

Tour operators – NatureIndia

Group size – 10

Camera – Nikon P900

Transportation – Mahindra Bolero

Stay:

Yankee resort, Lava

Pinewood resort, Kholakham

Kharkha homestay, Latpanchar

Oyo, Greenwood, Silbari on Hill Cart road (Beware of the wrong google map location apparently created by a competitor!)

 

Tips:

If one wants normal tea, it has to be specified as milk tea.

Premix tea and coffee are a good idea to carry since hot water is made available early in the morning.

Only BSNL signal is available at Latpanchar.

 

Pinewood , Kholakham

Kharkha homestay , Latpanchar

Yankee resort , Lava