Slice of Sunderbans : A day trip to Piyali

     Paradise !!! I'd better  get one. Hell, I need one. Ohh, just dreaming..or am I?

   It was the summer of 2015. Some of my friends gathered around to have a weekend dinner at a restaurant,have a chat,and spend some time together after a long gap. It was Sunday the day after. The ghost of birding was on my mind full fledged, so I made a proposal to them, to go to Piyali island the next day, and they gladly accepted. So, the bookings were made for a day at the resthouse. We were to start the journey very early next day.

   We were supposed to reach there by train. The fabled Namkhana local is like a myth with the locals, and for those people who are not daily passengers, there are horror stories, like it is so crowded inside the compartment, people get lost....of course those are rumours, duh..how hard can it get! Besides, it was a Sunday. 

   

   Believe me, not all rumours are urban legends. Some are true, scarily true indeed. Hell with Sunday, the train was packed like a travel suitcase, like when pack stuff for a holiday travel, as if we are never coming back, try to cram every corner of the suitcase with things we carry just for mental peace. We boarded the train, selected a place  for ourselves, and magically, our feet were nailed to those places for almost two hours, we never moved any of our body parts except blinking. Our destination came at last. And we were shoved out of the compartment, and by God's grace all our limbs were with us. After a little refreshment we went to look for further transport.

   From there, we had to board another vehicle to Kella, local name for Piyali; it was a sunny day, with the temperature on the fiery side of the scale,which make your skin crispy,without burning it. Inside the vehicle, it was somewhat on the cooler side, where you felt soggy, just short of crisp, like underdone french fries. And we were to make another two hour journey in that, I knew, we'll look like slow roasted chickens at the end of that. On a sweaty note,it started.

the happy campers, inside the oven

  The journey ended, as it began. We passed through unknown roads, crossed many villages and markets..and finally reached here.

the main sluice gate, our destiny awaits on the other side

the view of the right side of the river from over the gate

the view of the left side of the river

   And we proceeded forward over the bridge to our much awaited destiny, after everyone one got at least on pic of themselves for the social media, well you cannot blame them, being in an exotic place and looking like tandoori chicken is not going to work on Facebook, unless you really are a tandoori chicken and being served on a designer plate in some island in Thailand. We, proceeded, towards the main gate, and..it was locked,  from the inside. Perhaps, the caretaker had forgotten all about us. We started shouting, then clanging and banging on the gate, like all the civilized people do when trying to get someone's attention, but, all in vain. The caretaker didn't notice at all. Then someone thought about making a call to the booking office, and let them call the caretaker, and it worked. See, I have intelligent friends. 

    We got into our room, all of us together, in a single room. It had everything, beds, windows, functioning toilet (it was clean too), a balcony facing the island, a fan and a light...well, almost everything, except electricity. And getting fed up with our luck, we pretended that we knew nothing about fans, as if, it never existed. Then after a short break, we got out to explore the island. The island is not much big, with areas cordoned off for wanderers. It has several large water bodies surrounded by trees, on the inner side. The outer side is like mini mangroves, surrounded by plants one usually finds in the Sunderbans.

the mangroves

another view of the mangroves

    The path among the trees stretches far enough to stimulate your imagination to the point of almost reality, and then, you reach the boundary. We were all disappointed when our stroll finished, it yielded almost nothing from a birder's point of view,  so, I started clicking random pics of the wooded area.

path towards the left side of the island, more like a garden

a mangrove flower

 

pond heron

   It was burning hot outside, and we decided to be inside the room for some time and then go for a walk again.

   After half an hour or so, I decided to go out, but my friends were too tired to get grilled again and stayed inside. As I was walking along the forested pathway, I felt like being watched. I was alone, and my eyes were scanning the canopies for movement, and nothing moved for a few moments. Then , this guy came out in the open.

spotted owlet

talk about being watched, it is watching

   This was my first experience with owls of any kind. I thought they were nocturnal, I read in books.Guess they didn't read those same books. I thought about finding a shade and watching this guy for a little time, so I did. Guess what, the owl had the same idea of following me. It came out on an open perch to see me clearly. It was not at all intimidated by my presence.

no fear in those eyes

    I decided to give it a break and move on further, to search for other birds. I found a green bee eater basking in the sunshine. It's green feathers gleaming in the golden rays. It seemed beautiful, it was beautiful. It is very common, but I never got a better shot of it, so....here it is.

green bee eater on open branch

and another, on a neem tree, green on green

   After a little more searching, I came upon another jewel of the mangrove, a collared kingfisher. I have seen the pics that were posted on Facebook, but never expected to find it that quick, and as luck would have it, this guy never came out of the shadows, hence resulting in a pic not as good as I expected.

collared kingfisher

  It had brilliantly contrasting colors of turquoise blue and pure white, but being in the shadow just didn't do justice to it. Anyways, it was almost time for lunch. I was coming back to the room, when suddenly some movement caught my eye, and I froze instantly. And there they were.

chestnut tailed sterling

  Another lifer, wow!!!!!!! But they never bothered to pose for me. Silly birds, all they want is to eat, and sleep and make babies and struggle for existence, that's it. How can they understand the hardship of a photographer who braved the Namkhana local in the morning just to get good photos for Facebook. They are silly. So, they flew away leaving me alone. But, as I was about to enter the building, I spotted them again, on a tamarind tree, just beside the gate. And this time they obliged with a few better shots..

behind the clutter

finally one in better position

   Some day, right.. And, with all that excitement I was totally dehydrated, and needed to refuel. We had lunch, which was delicious and feeling. That called for a little nap, for the others. I had to oblige to the nature's call and find my paradise, so, out of the gate, once again. After wandering for a while I came across the owl again, or maybe someone of the same family.

they all look alike

    It gave me a disgusted look and flew away to mind it's own business, maybe it had luncheon appointment to keep.

    I kept my eyes peeled and looked for movements on the high branches. Paradise is towards the sky, right!!! That's why I almost missed it. Something was moving inside the low bushes beside the pathways. i never expected to find it there, but, there it was...right in front of my eyes, all the time. I simply overlooked it, because of knowing nothing about it. Then I thought, I can always regret later, it's time for action. And I clicked, and clicked, and clicked..the paradise fly catcher. I found my own paradise.

paradise fly catcher, rufous morph

with food

after lunch

flaunting that long tail

    Getting too excited and clicking more than a hundred photos or so, I finally realised that I had to go through all those pics and sort them. That is one of the most boring job after a day of outing, but, I thought, it can be managed. The day was coming to an end, and it was time to head home. I thought of getting some rest before the journey.

    But, someone decided to make an appearance. And, being all excited, I almost forgot about it. And almost forgot to press the shutter. This is the only shot I got of this beauty. It was driven away by the other brown one, guess it was jealous.

paradise fly catcher(white morph)

    The return journey was not much different, and being too tired, I almost didn't notice anything on the way, except that we parked ourselves on the roof of the car. We got seats on the train. It not as bad as the morning had begun. The day was well spent with friends in the lap of nature. We all hoped to get back there during the winter again. It's been almost two years, but I never quite gathered my courage to board that fabled local train again. But, very soon, I may gather some of it and get on my way; you never know when nature calls you, when it comes, you just oblige. Until then, Happy reading.