Birding at Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary (ii) | Padamchen / Phadamchen, Zuluk / Dzuluk, Gnathang / Nathang | November 2014

This is the place bounded between Bedang Tso or Bedang lake and Nathu La complex of North-east Sikkim. The total area that falls under upper Pangolakha region can be segmented broadly into five different regions based on human habitat.

• Nimachen - Nimachen is a small hamlet after Lingtam on Old-Silk Route at an altitude of 6000 ft. The famous Keokhola falls which mixes with Rangpo river below passes through this area. This place is at a distance of 4 Km from Lingtam.

• Padamchen (or Phadamchen) - Padamchen, is a small hamlet in the old silk route, at a distance of 5.5 Km from Nimachen, which has 60 families and a small school along the northern slope of the hill. Entire population in this hamlet is as many as 300 as of 2014. Altitude of Padamchen is around 7000 ft and mostly covered by temperate broadleaf forests with thick undergrowth vegetation.

• Zuluk (or Dzuluk) - Zuluk has an army cantonment set up along side a very small human population. Stay options in Zuluk are homestays only. This place is at an altitude of 9000 ft and mostly covered by pines and steppe grassland. Few places have isolated forest patch due to ease of army surveillance. The main attraction of this area is the zigzag road. On clear days one can see the magnificence of mighty Kanchenjunga from a nearby Tambi viewpoint. This place is at a distance of 10 Km from Padamchen. Few areas in Zuluk are restricted for photographers, since those areas lie under army surveillance. From Padamchen to the highest point at Zuluk, one will cover more than 5000 ft within an hour car drive. All credits go to the magnificent zig-zag road architecture by BRO.

View of Himalayas from Thambi | Matrix panorama of 23 images | Taken during birding tour of Nov '14 | GoingWild

• Gnathang Valley - Gnathang valley, in one word, is a heaven! As soon as you cross Laxman Chowk, you will notice that vegetation in most of the places are covered by rocky outcrops, rhododendron shrubbies, steppe grassland and high-altitude marsh land. Gnathang Valley is at a distance of 22Km from Zuluk but lies above the snowline, ice shield covers this place for almost four months. When monsoon takes over lower regions, snow blisters and hail storm would take place in this area during that period. Altitude of Gnathang Valley is around 14000 ft and oxygen level is also lower by 1/3rd than that of plains. Since this place is a must visit for high altitude birders, GoingWild mentors will assist you for your successful birding trip in this cold desert climate.

Gnathang Valley | Photographed during birding tour of Nov '14 | GoingWild

• Kupup - Kupup is the last bordering village in Old-Silk Route at an altitude of 14200 ft and at a distance of 18 Km from Gnathang Valley. Jelep La pass (now in China) and Bhutan hills are within one's visible range. Though few places have restricted access for photographers, most of the places are so beautiful, that, it will be a memory to cherish all over your life. 

For birding and bird photography, this place is truly a heaven in East Sikkim.

Click here >> Bird list consisting of 63 Birds.

Below are the 6 Key species that has been photographed in this area in the month of Nov '14:-

Black-eared Shrike Babbler

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Winter Wren

Himalayan Buzzard

Rufous-breasted Accentor

White-spectacled Warbler

A special finding during the birding trip - Himalayan Brown Goral (Naemorhedus goral)

Himalayan Brown Goral (Naemorhedus goral)

Also, we saw 8 Monals in three days, here are some sample images attached together:- 

Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus)

Other Helpful Information:

1. Where to Stay: Stay options are very limited. Arrangements are made in prior notice only. On twin and triple sharing basis home stays are arranged for enthusiasts by GoingWild.
2. Best time to visit: Try to avoid this place in the months of monsoon, otherwise it is a premium location for rest eight months. Early November to late May is the best time for birding and bird photography.
3. Point of Contact: Send a mail to support@goingwild.in
   One can also reach to +91-9681417974 or +91-8017804277 or +91-9163631493 for guided birding all over the Old-Silk Route. Arrangement for clean and subtle home stays, dedicated car for entire birding trip along with a naturalist-cum-birder are done by GoingWild.

Frontiersmen of the History of Indian Ornithology

This writing would be about those who were more into ornithology than that of birding and bird watching in India. Ornithology is a subject which explains the systematic study of zoology of birds; whereas birding is a type of observation on natural history events of avian fauna. Now a days, a new niche has been generated whose point of interests are even more specific than the birders; they are the "Bird Photographers". Thus if Ornithology is considered to a super-set and then Birding, as a natural history event keeping, is just the subset of ornithology. Whereas, Bird photography as it turns out today, could be termed as a junction bridge, which is an improper subset of both Birding and Ornithology, but acts as a correlative between "Ornithology" and "Birding", if done ethically and cordially.

The evolutionary study of ornithology in India has a series of mile long past events. In ancient literature like Vedas, the brood parasitism of Cuckoo or the mating display of Indian peafowl had been noted. Most recent significant contribution towards ornithology started when European settlement or colonization had started at the 17th century. In the beginning ornithology for most of the enthusiasts were just a past time hobby of collecting bird eggs, bird nest or taxidermy of game birds. Later, this culture of collection of taxidermy specimens, curiosity and prolific interest made it a subject of study for zoology.

In the beginning of twentieth century, a new genre of enthusiasts formed as that of passionate ornithologists of previous generation, who were mostly interested into either watching the birds using field scopes or recording their voice using voice recording devices. In that aspect bird photography or video creation may be termed as a new generation hobby.

Now, "Bird Painters" should never be discredited; their contribution towards both "Ornithology" and "Bird Watching" had lead towards the genre of "Bird Photography" when camera equipment became easily available, with lesser available time to pursue passion, for the general public.
Earlier, either, bird photographers had to observe the species for a long time, or they used taxidermy stuffed bodies of birds as a subject of painting. Most of the time, due to inaccuracy of processing of stuffed body, the taxidermy corpses used to be deformed. Otherwise, since during painting, the painter had to memorize from past about the description of the bird; thus most often paintings were erroneous.

After the independence, India had some notable father figures, who contributed towards Indian ornithology. From time to time they contributed towards the systemetic survey towards conservation, classification of specie taxanomy, thereby writings in journals, regional field guides and books; which in turn enriched Indian ornithology.

• Humayun Abdulali (ornithology, natural history, wildlife conservation, taxonomy)
• Salim Ali (Father of Indian Ornithology)
• Anwaruddin Choudhury (An expert on the fauna of North-East India)
• J. C. Daniel (An acclaimed naturalist and ornithologist)
• Zafar Futehally (An Indian naturalist and ornithologist)
• Bikram Grewal (A renowned ornithologist and writer of several ornithology books)
• Dharmakumar Singhji (Bhavnagar crowned prince and an esteemed bird of his time)
• Himmat Singhji (Kutch prince, politician and a notable birder from western India)

Unless interested, one can skip from here, rather going through further on this topic. Here in this blog, we will see the name of those ornithologists, birders and bird watchers, after whose names "English Name Nomenclature" of the birds of Indian subcontinent had been done as per "Birds of the Indian Subcontinent" by Richard Grimmett • Carol Inskipp • Tim Inskipp.

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Alexander von Nordmann (Image Source: Wikipedia) Nordmann's Greenshank

Alexander Wilson (Image Source: Wikipedia) Wilson's Storm-petrel

Allan Octavian Hume (Image Source: Wikipedia) Hume's Groundpecker Hume's Short-toed Lark Hume's Owl Hume's Hawk Owl Mrs Hume's Pheasant Hume's Whitethroat Hume's Wheatear Hume's Leaf Warbler Hume's Bush Warbler Hume's Treecreeper Mrs Hume's Pheasant

Brian Houghton Hodgson (Image Source: Wikipedia) Hodgson's Bushchat Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo Hodgson's Treecreeper Hodgson's Redstart Hodgson's Frogmouth

Coenraad Jacob Temminck (Image Source: Wikipedia) Temminck's Tragopan Temminck's Stint

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Colonel William Vincent Legge  (Image Source: fingalvalleyhistory) Legge's Hawk Eagle Legge's Flowerpecker

Daniel Giraud Elliot (Image Source: Wikipedia) Elliot's Laughingthrush

Edgar Leopold Layard (Image Source: Wikipedia) Layard's Parakeet

Édouard Ménétries (Image Source: Wikipedia) Ménétries Warbler

Eduard Friedrich Von Eversmann (Image Source: Wikipedia) Eversmann's Redstart

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Henry Morris Upcher (Image Source: BBC) Upcher's Warbler

Harriet Robert Tytler (Image Source: Wikipedia) Tytler's Leaf Warbler

Gustav Radde (Image Source: Wikipedia) Radde's Accentor Radde's Warbler

George Montagu (Image Source: Wikipedia) Montagu's Harrier

Frank Kingdon Ward (Image Source: ornaverum) Ward's Trogon

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Franco Andrea Bonelli (Image Source: Wikipedia) Bonelli's Eagle

Francesco Cetti (Image Source: Wikipedia) Cetti's Warbler

Ferdinand Stolička (Image Source: Wikipedia) Stolicka's Bushchat

Edward Blyth (Image Source: Wikipedia) Blyth's Kingfisher Blyth's Reed Warbler Blyth's Leaf Warbler Blyth's Tragopan Blyth's Starling Blyth's Pipit

Howard Saunders (Image Source: Wikipedia) Saunders's Tern

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Jerome Alexander Sillem (Image Source: Wikipedia) Sillem's Mountain Finch

Johan Coenraad van Hasselt (Image Source: strangebehaviors.wordpress.com) Van Hasselt's Sunbird

Johann Friedrich von Brandt (Image Source: Wikipedia) Brandt's Mountain Finch

John Gould (Image Source: Wikipedia) Mrs Gould's Sunbird Gould's Shortwing

John James Audubon (Image Source: Wikipedia) Audubon's Shearwater

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Karl Ernst von Baer (Image Source: Wikipedia) Baer's Pochard

Karl Kessler (Image Source: Wikipedia) Kessler's Thrush

Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein  (Image Source: Wikipedia) Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse

Otto Finsch (Image Source: Wikipedia) Finsch's Wheatear

Peter Simon Pallas (Image Source: Wikipedia) Pallas's Fish Eagle Pallas's Gull Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler Pallas's Sandgrouse Pallas's Fish Eagle Pallas's Reed Bunting

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Philip Lutley Sclater (Image Source: Wikipedia) Sclater's Monal

Robert Swinhoe (Image Source: Wikipedia) Swinhoe's Minivet Swinhoe's Snipe

Samuel Tickell (Image Source: Wikipedia) Tickell's Blue Flycatcher Tickell's Leaf Warbler Tickell's Thrush

Theodor von Heuglin (Image Source: Wikipedia) Heuglin's Gull

Thomas Caverhill Jerdon (Image Source: Wikipedia) Jerdon's Babbler Jerdon's Baza Jerdon's Bushlark Jerdon's Courser Jerdon's Leafbird Jerdon's Nightjar Jerdon's Bushchat

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William Edwin Brooks (Image Source: Wikipedia) Brook's Leaf Warbler

William Henry Sykes (Image Source: Wikipedia) Sykes's Lark Sykes's Nightjar Sykes's Warbler

William Louis Abbott (Image Source: ansp) Abbott's Babbler

William Thomas Blanford (Image Source: Wikipedia) Blanford's Snowfinch

Johann Anton Güldenstädt (Image Source: www.christies.com) Güldenstädt's Redstart

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Edward George Bulwer Lytton (Image Source: Wikipedia) Bulwer Petrel

Armand Barau (Image Source: Wikipedia) Barau's Petrel

Louis Antoine François Baillon (Image Source: Wikipedia) Baillon's Crake

Joan Gideon Loten (Image Source: Wikipedia) Loten Sunbird

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Few more ornithologists and birders whose images are not found anywhere are listed below

Hugh Whistler 
Whistler's Warbler

Frank Finn
Finn's Weaver

Louis Mandelli
Mandelli's Leaf Warbler

Claudia
Claudia's Leaf Warbler

Nicholas Aylward Vigors
Vigors's Sunbird

Christian Jouanin
Jouanin's Petrel

Alex Macqueen
Macqueen's Bustard

Charles Henry Tilson Marshall
Marshall's Iora

Peter Gustaf Tengmalm
Tengmalm's Owl

Szechenyi
Szechenyi's Monal

Godlewski
Godlewski's Bunting

Richard
Richard's Pipit

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About GoingWild:
Photographing Wildlife and adrenaline pump is synonymous. This rush and the tremendous biodiversity of mother earth offers immense opportunities to quench our thirst of clicking wildlife and give us many reasons for GoingWild.

We are a team of photographers with years of experience in birding and wildlife photography under our belt and thus our tours are not mere wildlife or birding excursions but much more than that. We take religious care to afford the best available means to the participants of our tours at remote locations for their utmost satisfaction. With individual attention to each of our participants we share our expertise to bring the best out of their equipment, so that the images made in the tours are nothing less but memories to cherish.All that you need to do is travel with GoingWild and we look after everything else.

Being in wildlife photography for years we have developed an extensive understanding of all the locations and its wildlife where we plan our tours. Our long term association with the wild and the practice of framing our tours to promote responsible and sustainable wildlife tourism has also helped us in making strong bonds with guides and trackers who have profound knowledge about the wildlife in their areas. GoingWild tours are accompanied by expert wildlife photographers, who not only take you a step closer to understand the wildlife but also make the best images out of it.


Alongside of Wildlife Photography tours and Birding tours we also organize photography workshops. We customize tours for corporate bodies,educational institutes,families and individuals as well.

We promise the best on our tours to bring you the joy that only the wild can bring!
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• Point of Contact: Send a mail to dibyendu@goingwild.in or support@goingwild.in mentioning your interest for birding and wildlife photography related queries.
One can also reach to +919681417974 (Dibyendu Ash) or +918017804277 (Soumyajit Nandy) or +919163631493 (Tamanud Mitra) for guided birding cum bird photography cum wildlife photography here. Arrangement for clean and subtle mud huts / eco-camps / eco resorts, dedicated boat for entire birding trip along with a naturalist-cum-birder are done by GoingWild.