Bird's - Eye View

Veteran birdwatchers Tim and Carol Inskip take Vandana Mohindra through an incredible journey of avian discovery.

- Vandana Mohindra

The birds are still asleep,” said Tim as we walked into the dining room at 6.30am. Lightning cracked and dark clouds threatened rain. Although it was unusually late for birds, it was very early in the morning for me. I was at Vanghat Eco Lodge, situated right at the edge of Corbett National Park. I’d been invited by the owner, Sumantha Ghosh, to spend five days with Carol and Tim Inskipp, two of the world’s foremost experts on South Asian birds. They co-authored the path breaking field guide Birds of the Indian Subcontinent with Richard Grimmett in 1998, and today, their bird books on Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are considered essentials for birdwatchers and field biologists throughout the subcontinent.

It was clear from the very start that our trip had but one focus: watching birds. While I wasted potential birding hours by snoozing on the train, Tim and Carol spotted a pair of sarus cranes, a painted stork, a woolly-necked stork, an openbill stork and a pond heron through their window. At Kathgodam station, I hurriedly opened my suitcase. “Ah! You’re getting your bins out,” said Carol spotting my binoculars. Tim’s long-distance vision was astounding—in the tiny sliver of sky visible from the platform, he spotted two black kites, a peregrine falcon and a steppe eagle circling the distant hills. “See how the eagle’s wings are rounded and its tail is a flat stump?” asked Carol, “so different from the kite’s sharper wings.” Watching birds through Carol’s eyes was a treat.

I lost count of the birds we saw en route to our first halt—Hridayesh Spa Wilderness Resort along the Kosi River in Dhikuli. Its proprietors, Sanjeev Kumar Sharma and Dheeraj Singh, were quintessential wildlife veterans with their Stetson hats, camouflage pants, strong moustaches, rugged jeeps and wonderful congeniality.