It’s always exciting to visit the naturally gifted place Konkan. And travelling there during monsoon is like cherry on top. It has been almost 6 months since I visited my in laws and relatives in Konkan post recent pandemic outbreak. With all the precautions and checking at multiple places we travelled to Kelshi. Ambet bridge was under construction and was closed for traffic; hence instead of my regular route of Tamhini ghat; I decided to take Varandha ghat route this time. It’s been almost 25 years since I had taken Varandha ghat route and hence was excited.
Road after Bhor towards Varandha was full of waterfalls, streams, bridges and greenery everywhere. And I had to stop at multiple places just to enjoy the beauty of nature. I heard, White-rumped Shama and then Malabar whistling thrush calling from the stream and taking bath in the pristine water. When I approached, Varandha ghat it was partially covered under clouds; and because of pandemic it was completely empty. We stopped at the regular bhaji point for a quick tea break and took some shots. Monkeys here are too brave; some of them were skillfully snatching the freshly made bhaji's from the shops as soon as shopkeeper turns around for something. I could see lot of waterfalls from this location - just mesmerizing. We could also see temple of Shivtharghal from the ghat. Road alongside Savitri river towards Mhapral was very scenic too. We reached Kelshi at about 12:45PM; the exact distance from my Pune home to Kelshi was - 187KM; I was surprised to know the fact that; it was only 7KM more than Tamhini ghat route.
In these 3 days visit, our plan was to only stay at home in Kelshi and do nothing. Due to surrounding wadi (farm) full of trees like mango, jackfruit, coconut, betelnut and many varieties of flowering plants; there has always been enough wildlife sightings and activities to witness seating at home. Spending time in Kelshi has never been a challenge. And hence, I decided to record as much videos as possible in this short time. To baseline and give a context; I created a checklist and started recording my birding observations.
In these 3 days, I recorded more than 45 birds. Recorded calls of White-rumped Shama and Tickell’s blue flycatcher. Observed activities of greater flame back and rufous woodpecker. Heard calls of mottled wood owl, brown fish owl and Indian Pitta. Also saw, Buffed-striped keelback snake, and while searching for owls in night; saw plenty of Asian palm civets. Recorded an interesting observation of Common Mormon Butterfly pair where one desperate male in courtship display; he was following and hovering a female all over the place; while that female was busy laying eggs on citrus plant.
All of these observations have been combined together in below given video; do watch it.
