Mount Harriet

A great days birding began at the base of Mount Harriet with an Andaman Serpent-eagle perched in a dead tree, and with Forest Wagtail and a few other species also present. 

Andaman Serpent-eagle

We began walking from here and soon notched up plenty of other endemics with imaginative names such as Andaman Coucal, Andaman Cuckooshrike, Andaman Shama, Andaman Drongo, Andaman Treepie, Andaman White-headed Starling, Andaman Flowerpecker, Andaman Woodpecker, Andaman Bulbul etc. Well you get the picture. It was a very ‘birdy’ walk this morning and the forest was being kind to us, and we even picked up a wintering Two-barred Warbler high up in the canopy giving its distinctive call and a perched Besra. 

Mount Harriet NP Entrance (and Jeff)

However, the undoubted highlight happened just before 10.30am when we finally caught up with our last endemic, Andaman Cuckoo-dove, a bird we’d more or less given up on. Vikram, our excellent guide picked this little beauty up perched up in a big tree and as soon as everyone got onto it - it flew off. Success! We’d cleaned up on all of the endemics! 

Also got this record shot of Andaman Crake crossing the road - twice!

Andaman Crake

So we continued walking up until we reached the restaurant area at the top of the hill and celebrated with some moderately cold soft drinks and waited in the shade of a large tree for lunch to be served. Afterwards we drove back down to the marshes and had an enjoyable afternoon notching up some padders for the list, beginning with Slaty-breasted Rail. At our next spot we spent a while trying to tease out a Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler (Rusty-rumped Warbler) and also Black-browed Reed-warbler and Oriental Reed Warbler – species you just don’t see on the mainland. A Chestnut Bittern flew up out of the marsh and our only Edible-nest Swiftlets of the trip flew over. Leaving here we then checked out some wet paddyfields and had more luck with two Long-toed Stints spotted amongst a flock of Lesser and a single Greater Sandplover, Little Ringed Plovers, Pacific Golden Plovers, Spotted and Common Redshank, Common Greenshank and some Wood Sandpipers. 

Andaman Barn Owl

So a really good day and we finished off with Andaman Barn-owl perched in a Palm tree to end the day’s proceedings.