Birding at Kasauli

It was the first week of March 2019, I made an unexpected short trip to Kasauli. Dad had some work to do there, so I decided to go along.

We began at 6.30 am from Phillaur and it took us roughly 3 hours to reach there. The weather was cloudy and the light was not very favorable at that time.

While dad was busy doing some official work, I decided to roam around and see if I could get some good shots of the local birds. The trip was not meant to be a Birding Trip but it somehow turned out to be one.

I didn’t had much luck initially, except for some Himalayan Bulbuls, Great Tits, Grey-Hooded Warblers and Jungle Crows.

The area was dead silent. Soon I heard the twittering of Plain Mountain Finches and I turned around to see a flock of them siting on a bare tree, waiting to get their photos clicked. But, they were too far away for my 100-400 mm lens. So, I took just a few rounds of shots and gave up.

But this marked the beginning of my short and quick Birding Trip. After about half an hour, I saw a Grey-Hooded Warbler in a bush which I thought was a Whiskered Yuhina. I got excited and went down the slope after it.

After a lot of wasted efforts to photograph it, I was turning around to go back up when I saw a pair of Red-Fronted Serins feeding silently within the reach of about a couple of yards.

They were not all disturbed by me being so close to them. I took hundreds of shots experimenting until I got bored up. They were not at all in the mood of leaving the place.

Next up was a group of 5-10 Russet Sparrows which also gave me hundreds of shots before flying off to disappear into the thick forests down below.

After 10 minutes I heard a Grey-Hooded Warbler in a bush right next to me. It was then that I finally succeeded in getting some shots of the Grey-Hooded Warbler.

I also spotted a Grey Bushchat on the way.

The last one for the trip was a Rufous Sibia. Like the Serin, it was also not at all bothered by me being so close. It was so close that if I would have extended my hand then I surely would have caught the bird by hand.

And with this my short Birding Trip ended with a happy note.

Thank you for reading through my experience. Hope you Enjoyed it.

~Arjun Basandrai