Karnala Bird Sanctuary with friends – A date with Mr and Mrs Heart Spotted Woodpecker

Every winter I plan a birding trip to coincide with the migratory season for European and Himalayan birds. Sadly due to various personal & professional reasons I have been unable to go anywhere for birding this winter. I had also purchased a new teleconverter to make my favourite 300mm F4 lens a 420 mm F5.6 lens but hadn’t had the opportunity to use it other than taking photos of my neighbourhood birds. So I was itching to go somewhere close for birding before the winter ended whenever the opportunity came.

The opportunity came when my birder friend informed me that a guide in Karnala bird sanctuary had located a nesting site of a pair of heart spotted woodpeckers that was amenable to photography. He asked me to accompany him at short notice which wasn’t possible and so I asked him to let me know if he thought it was worth the effort. When he reverted in the affirmative I asked my other friends interested in such activities and luckily for me one of them agreed readily. He went ahead and arranged the whole thing with the guide and on a relatively cool Mumbai winter morning we were off before dawn for Karnala.

In the early hours the lack of traffic meant that we had a smooth and quick ride and reached Karnala in under 1.5 hours. We reached the gate at 6.45 am before the guide or any of the other people who might have booked the activity with him for the day. Slowly the other photographers/birders who had booked the activity arrived but there was no sign of the forest official who issues the tickets to go inside the sanctuary. The gates to the sanctuary opened at 7 am officially but in typical fashion no one came to issue tickets till 7.15am. Finally the official arrived and we started our walk with the guide in the lead to the spot of the nest.

Taking a selfie as we wait for the ticketing officials to arrive outside the Karnala Bird Sanctuary

The heart spotted woodpecker for the uninitiated is a small but striking woodpecker endemic to both the western ghats, where we were and the Himalayan foothills.It gets its name from the heart shaped spots on it’s back feathers which makes for very pretty photos. I have seen it before high up in the canopy but it had avoided being captured by my camera during my time at the Old magazine house in Ganeshgudi (The Old Magazine House, Part 1 – Initiation into the birders paradise ). So I was hoping this nest was not very high up in the trees. We walked around 500-700 metres inside the park along the trails till we reached the nesting site.

The nest of a woodpecker is usually in a hole excavated in the trunk of a tree. This one was right on the side of the path and around 15-20 feet above ground level. There was a small clearing in the bushes opposite the tree and we took our place on the extreme left of the clearing as per the advice of my friend who had been there a couple of days ago. At first there were 4 of us there and we all set up our tripods and set up our cameras with our lenses trained on the tree top and the nest.

After waiting for sometime and chatting with the other photographers there in hushed tones we saw the woodpecker flying among the branches above. Immediately everyone was silent and with their eyes trained on the top of the tree. Within a few seconds the Male landed on the top of the tree and the cameras went off faster than Gatling guns. The woodpecker looked directly at the pointed cameras at first then decided that we weren’t a threat and slowly descended down the tree with a juicy treat in it’s beak for the hungry young ones inside the nest.

The male heart spotted woodpecker with breakfast for the kids

Once it went inside we tried to catch it’s flight on it’s way out but it was far too fast for any of the photographers waiting. Next it was the turn of the Mrs as the female came with a much smaller worm in it’s beak and repeated the same routine. I was told by my friend that the female was very skittish and rarely poses still enough to get good photos. Luckily that day she seemed in the mood and we got decent enough photos of this pretty little bird as it traipsed down the trunk with brunch for her kids. She made a visit to the nest just twice that morning but we got good enough photos to satisfy my meagre expectations.

The Female Heart Spotted Woodpecker – Cuteness Personified

The crowd of photographers had increased to double digits by 10 am and I was happy that we had reached early and gotten our share of good photos as the female wasn’t seen after that till we left the spot around 12.30 pm.

The assembled crowd of photographers waiting for the next round of feeding

The male appeared twice more after that and displayed its catch with much aplomb before disappearing into the nest. After that there was a lull for nearly an hour where none of the pair appeared and some of the assembled people were taken by the guide for a chance to see the Vigor’s Sunbird in the nursery of the Sanctuary.

The Male makes 2 further visits to the nest

We chose to stay back and wait to see if the woodpeckers would return once more before we called it a day. As we were waiting we heard some bird activity behind us and for half an hour the absence of the woodpecker was forgotten as we were entertained by some of the other endemic birds of the region. First was a crimson backed sunbird which gave me some very close but high contrast photos.

The crimson backed sunbird makes an appearance

Next to make it’s presence felt was a common woodshrike and I got some great photos of this pretty bird as it went about trying to catch it’s lunch and eventually succeeding.

A common wood shrike gives some great poses as it catches a nice juicy bug

There were the ever heard but almost never seen warblers flitting amongst the bushes. I caught one greenish warbler (mostly -I am never sure of these warbler IDs) flying away and that was as good as it gets with these birds.

A greenish warbler flies amongst the bushes

Then there was my other bogey bird – birds I never seem to get good photos of , the hooded oriole. These striking birds seem to have some aversion for my camera and I have never managed to take a single photo of these birds that has satisfied me. I got some more in Karnala but still waiting for the satisfying photo.

The hooded oriole gives a brief appearance

There was even a grasshopper which settled on my lens hood and I took a mobile photo just to show the dense forest we were in.

A grasshopper rests on my lens hood at Karnala Bird Sanctuary

Luckily our patience was rewarded as the male woodpecker made a late dramatic entry and gave us all possible poses and giving us some great photos. Once it went into the tree we decided that it was time to head back since it was already past noon and the activity would only reduce from now on.

The male heart spotted woodpecker rewards our patience

The woodpecker shows the worm one last time before disappearing into the tree

We then walked back the same way we had come and this time I remembered to take a few photos of the forest itself and the odd rhesus macaque (monkey) that rules these forests. It had been a very satisfying birding session and we walked back with satisfied smiles on our faces.

The dense forest and small streams inside the Karnala Bird Sanctuary

The kings of Karnala – The Rhesus Macaque

Karnala is a beautiful dense forest and I hope to return to it more frequently especially since it’s so close to home. We then had a smooth drive back home , I had satisfied my itch of birding this winter some and also gotten to try out the new gear (1.4x teleconverter) in the dense forest where it had performed beyond my expectations. It is ready for some longer trips now – hopefully sooner rather than later.

I should start a new series about my time in the Dolomites in the summer of 2023 soon.

Till then.

Bye.

With my friend and partner in such minor crimes – Dr Ankit Desai