Goa, India

5th-18th December 2004

Introduction

Goa, a former Portugese colony, is situated on the west coast of India. Like The Gambia it is a popular package holiday destination for those seeking the winter sun, and as such offers a good opportunity to view some of the ample Indian wildlife for very little cost. The entire cost of this trip came to less than a return flight to Dehli! The following report gives a list of all the sites we visited during our stay. If you wish to jump to a particular site, click on the links below:

Baga Fields

Baga Hill

Beira Mar Hotel

Arpora Woods

Morjim Beach

Zuari River Boat Trip

Carambolim Lake

Velim Lake

Backwoods Camp

Baga Fields

We spent the first few days exploring the dry paddyfields at the back of our hotel, the Beira Mar, which allowed us to become familiar with many of the common species before venturing further afield. One of the most conspicuous birds were the Green Bee-eaters, and since they are so incredibly beautiful I just couldn't resist photographing them at every opportunity...

Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis)

Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis)

Black Kites and Brahminy Kites were everywhere, and the Black Kites in particular were generally easy to get close to...

Black Kite (Milvus migrans)

Black Kite (Milvus migrans)

Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus)

There are three species of large pipits reported to occur in the fields: Paddyfield, Richard's and Blyth's, which together represent the biggest identification headache we encountered. I'm told the best way to identify them is by call, but since I am totally dyslexic when it comes to bird calls, my policy was to photograph every pipit that came close enough and worry about their ID when I got home. Unsuprisingly, all the photos I took turned out to be of the most common of the three: Paddyfield Pipit.

Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus)

Paddyfield Pipit (Anthus rufulus)

Other common birds of the more open areas were...

Malabar Lark (Galerida malabarica)

Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus)

male

female

Pied Bushchat (Saxicola caprata)

Baga Fields (part 2)