Monsoon India Day 7

We spent the day amidst the conifer forests of the hills around Gulmarg. At the base of the hills we encountered a huge party of Coal (Spot-winged) Tits and a few of the extremely localised Rufous-naped Tits, with Brown-fronted and Himalayan Woodpeckers, Rock Bunting, Western Crowned Warblers, Yellow-billed Blue Magpie, and a Dark-sided Flycatcher.

Driving up we began birding several kilometres higher where we hit a purple patch with a Chestnut Thrush, followed by a pair of Variegated Laughingthrushes that spent over an hour around us, followed by a cracking pair of Black-and-yellow Grosbeaks. 

Black-and-yellow Grosbeak

Variegated Laughingthrush

We ate our picnic breakfast here and scanned the clearing below us and were rewarded with Slaty-headed Parakeets, Scaly-bellied Woodpecker, Ultramarine Flycatcher, numerous Streaked Laughingthrushes, a Tytler’s Leaf Warbler skulking in the undergrowth, a Buff-barred Warbler, and several Lemon-rumped Warblers. Walking on we saw Bar-tailed Treecreeper, a very brief Indian Blue Robin and a Blue-capped Rock Thrush.

We continued our walk into the afternoon but were beset with low cloud and rain that came in waves so we headed to a chai stall and took shelter, seeing Russet Sparrow along the way. Another attempt at birding the same productive area proved to be futile, apart from our first Kashmir Nutcracker perched in the mist and gloom and where we heard its harsh rasping/grating call, so we headed to a great restaurant for lunch and whiled away a couple of hours as the rain continued unabated seeing a few Citrine Wagtails as we drove along. Eventually we had to leave the restaurant after a great lunch and headed again to the same area as this morning where this time we nailed much better views of several Kashmir Nutcrackers in the scope. A few Black-and-yellow Grosbeaks were also seen, along with some commoner birds and by now we had pretty much cleaned up all the targets for Kashmir. The drive back to the hotel was enlivened with views of a few Jackdaws – an Indian tick for yours truly! Also seen on the drive into the city were Spotted Forktail, Himalayan Bulbul and Common Starling. What a day!