Naina PEAK
The other spectacular hike was to the Cheena peak also called Naina peak at
2,615 metres. Heading gradually upwards through a bespoke forest of very old rhododendrons and oaks it reaches the lovely hill top over a gradual two hour ascent and offers the best view of the mango-shaped Naina Lake and the hill town of Nainital that has developed around it. The return path to the Kilbury Forest Rest House is the quieter, more off beat path down to the Pangot road.
If you don’t mind less comforts and simple food made by the chowkidar, this rest house is really the best place to stay in the reserve. Built by the British in 1890 the forest rest houses of the Naina Devi Reserve enjoy great locations and offer good birding opportunities. The Kilbury Rest House, the first in line, 12 kilometres before Pangot is the ideal retreat. Surrounded by tall deodars, Himalayan cypress and oaks it offers a grand view of the higher snowies. The non stop chirrup of birds and surrounding forest paths makes it an exceptional gem!
I had only two days at Pangot. With birding topping my agenda we spent the following day doing just that. The road to Kunjakharak revealed a prized gem—the Koklass pheasant, also the name of my cabin at Jungle Lore and the most reclusive of the three resident pheasants here alongside the Cheer and Khaleej. Pit stops on the road led to many sightings—the peregrine falcon perched on a cliff ledge with the common kestrels gliding languidly in the skies above. The woodpecker point near the Vinayak Forest Rest House did not disappoint. We spotted our fair share with the rufous-bellied woodpecker, Himalayan
Walking up to the Brahmasthali Temple
woodpecker and the greater yellow nape all frolicking about their business relentlessly boring into tree trunks. Ahead of Pangot, Mahesh was dextrous in finding the resident brown wood owl as it sat firmly on a tree branch napping. The claws clasp the branch so steadfast that even a storm will not make them fall off when asleep, a feature common to most birds.
I spent the afternoon at the lodge chatting with the very knowledgeable manager Bhuvan Bisht and peering into the artefacts that adorned the walls and spaces of the tiny and very charming dining hut. A log book of birds spotted in the area doubled up as a feedback journal on sightings and reviews by ecstatic birders who had visited from all over the world.
The cottage rooms were tasteful and simple with beautiful sketches adorning the walls and a sit out balcony to each cottage. But I was restless for the outdoors to cap off my last evening at another birding hot spot of the area.
Foraging amid the upper branches of high trees it was not always easy to spot the birds, which is what we had spent the better part of the day doing. For the evening Mahesh decided on the Churani village point. We headed a kilometre and a half below Pangot where a vast bowl immersed in dense forest and sporadic villages perched in their midst opened out. Mahesh who had a keen ear for bird calls stopped us just short of the Hanuman temple. We had chanced upon a hunting pack—an assembly of birds foraging in a pocket. To know that birds of different feathers do flock together was a revelation and a visual treat. All kinds of colourful plumes flitted from tree to tree—finches, flycatchers, fantails, forktails, wagtails and thrushes. The striking great barbet looked pristine in its perch on a high branch. Satiated with the sightings in two days, 56 different birds in all, I strolled leisurely on the forested path ahead of the temple. Mahesh’s nudge broke my reverie. The grey–crowned prinia was scuttling about in the bushes. It is a globally threatened rare species of which Mahesh had so far spotted only two. This time there were three. He was pleased with the statistic. “It means they are breeding”, he exalted with a smile. On that infectious good note I bid Pangot goodbye. There would definitely be a fourth visit and more as I was by now completely hooked to the deeply immersive and meditative experience of birding. To witness the very hand of creation at its vibrant best, was a privilege. For when the birds reveal themselves to us we are lucky to have spotted them.