Jungle Resort, Havelock Island
This has been a good, but exhausting day! The day started off very well on my morning walk. At first I did not find any other birds than the usual, but when I started to look up through the tall canopy to look for swifts and swiftlets a big predator came into view. I immediately thought of the Changeable Hawk Eagle (Vekselskogørn) from yesterday, but the pictures that I got of it showed a much “cleaner” bird of prey, with a very distinct trailing edge to the wings. It was the endemic Andaman subspecies of the Crested Serpent Eagle (Orientsnokørn). While I was looking for it to come out again, the unmistakable “Café au lait”-brown color of a Brown/Andaman Coucal (Andamansporegjøk) got me to just see it as it ran across the forest floor and into the next thicket. Even though I waited for a while hoping to get to photograph it, it did not show again. Now it was time to wake up my girlfriend and to get some breakfast, so I figured that I would have to try again later.
After breakfast I decided to take a jungle-trek on one of the paths that they bring tourists. Being me, stubborn as any, I went off alone in the jungle. The start of the trip went up a well-made path which led me to the Yoga-building. Close to that one I got my three next new species of the day. A Green Imperial Pigeon (Bronsekeiserdue) flew out of one tree and sat down twenty meters away, allowing me to photograph it before it took off again. Then a Olive-backed Sunbird (Olivenryggsolfugl) male showed and started feeding in one of the trees, before a mixed flock of small passerines showed up. In amongst the Scarlet Minivets (Skarlagenmønjefugl) were at least two Oriental White-eyes (Lundbrillefugl). I thought of this as a good sign, and after having spoken to the man who usually guides treks over Japanese Hill, as it is called, I started my trek. I was already warm when I started, and became even warmer inside “the green hell”. After having to back-track 7-8 times due to having lost the path, an unknown number of ant-bites and encounters with skinks and lizards every thirty-or-so meters I came out into the open forest along the seafront again. It took me two hours to get done with the trek, and when I was done I was tired, covered in cob-web and soaked in my own sweat. But it was a very nice trip. But for everybody who is thinking of trekking in the jungle, one liter of water is not enough!
At lunch I sat down with my girlfriend, and when we had just finished I became aware of that same light-brown color again. So I left her with a Sprite in the bar, and went off to finally get some half-decent pictures of the Andaman Coucal (Andamansporegjøk).
Species list of the day
· Crested Serpent Eagle (Orientsnokørn)
· Emerald Pigeon (Smaragddue)
· Pompadour Green Pigeon (Gulstrupegrønndue)
· Green Imperial Pigeon (Bronsekeiserdue)
· Andaman Coucal (Andamansporegjøk)
· Collared Kingfisher (Jadeisfugl)
· Andaman Woodpecker (Andamansvartspett)
· Asian Fairy Bluebird (Blåalvefugl)
· Black-naped Oriole (Svartnakkepirol)
· Brown Shrike (Brunvarsler)
· Scarlet Minivet (Skarlagenmønjefugl)
· Red-whiskered Bulbul (Rødørebylbyl)
· Asian Brown Flycatcher (Brunfluesnapper)
· Oriental Magpie Robin (Orientskjæreskvett)
· Forest Wagtail (Skogerle)
· Grey Wagtail (Vintererle)
· Oriental White-eye (Lundbrillefugl)
· Olive-backed Sunbird (Olivenryggsolfugl)
New species today: 5
Total number of species until now: 50
 |
| Brown/Andaman Coucal |
 |
| Brown/Andaman Coucal |
 |
| Green Imperial Pigeon |
 |
| Brown Shrike |
 |
| Oriental White-eye |
 |
| Olive-backed Sunbird, male |
 |
| Olive-backed Sunbird, male |
 |
| Crested Srpent Eagle, ssp. davisoni endemic to the Andaman Island |
 |
| Scarlet Minivet, male |
 |
| Lizzard/skink |
 |
| Neils Cove |
 |
| Beach number 7, also known as Radhanagar Beach |
 |
| Our home for twelve days |
 |
| The road to the resort |
 |
| The reception/bar |
