Meeting a Forest Celebrity

 

This bird is much more important than I am, and it knows it, I thought. A super fortunate and marvelous sighting of a male Blyth's tragopan near Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh. Photograph by Nayantara Siruguri.

I had just finished a sketching session with a view of the mountains. Dinesh silently beckoned me towards him, pointing to the shrubs behind. Through signals and a few words he communicated to me that we were to go up the small trail to our left, because a very special bird had just called out from nearby. We crept up the trail, as quietly as possible. Crouching on all fours we scanned the vegetation just below eye level in front of us for movement. Movement is always heard before it is seen. Our eyes mapped the sounds and moving leaves when suddenly, we both caught our breath.

A flash of red -- the first of what I saw of the bird. Oh hello! With a birder's instinct that I had recently re-acquired, I lifted my binoculars to my eyes. Wow, I whispered out loud. The fiery red of its neck only complemented by the hypnotic "eye" spots on its body. This bird is a much more important person than I am, I thought with a wondrous grin, and it *knows* it.

When it disappeared again into the shrubs I sighed with a dazed smile. "It'll come closer", said Dinesh, "be ready." So I laid down on the ground, supported by my elbows with my camera in hand, and waited. My breath had slowed, my eyes were bright, my mind was beaming with activity. Somewhere at the back of my mind I was pleasantly, excitedly aware of the absolute joy I was feeling at that moment. The sound map told me that the bird was coming closer. "It can come out anywhere in this area," Dinesh pointed with his laser pointer. Yes sir, I thought. I was on a mission, it felt like the best mission to be on.

Surely enough, within seconds, the fiery red returned, this time looking much more fiery in a much brighter red. Breathtaking, absolutely unbelievable, I remember thinking, what the hell?! It almost slipped my mind that I had been ready to click a picture. But I had been primed over the last few days of birding, so click-click-click it went. I was completely blown away. This being, this magnificent evolutionary marvel, but also this delightfully curious and "important" individual had met me, and I'd met him. What a pleasure! How unforgettable!

Celebrity No. 2 we found on this Eaglenest trip was this carefree Yellow-throated marten feasting on berries before scampering across the trail and disappearing in the shrubs downhill. Photograph by Nayantara Siruguri.

Special thanks to our brilliant guide Dinesh Munda for these sightings!