Mission Monal -- A massive success

The Himalayan Monal is probably the most sought-out of the pheasants that make birding in the lower and middle Himalayas, the pure unadulterated joy that it is.

Peculiarly enough, for a bird that is considered holy across most of its range, for one that has been accorded "State Bird" status across Himachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand -- and, national bird status in Nepal -- the Monal (immaterial of the protection one assumes it enjoys) isn't that easily seen.

For one, this has to probably got to do with the fact that like most pheasants, the Monal also is active out in the open only early in the morning and late in the evening, when light in the hilly regions can be at its most trickiest.

For another, it has got to do with the fact that the habitat of this magnificent bird, like most other wild and open spaces across the length and breadth of India is fast dwindling.

Then again, a swallow doesn't make a summer, and one sighting of a Monal doesn't make for a "Monal Point". And yet, considering how optimistic most birders are; how willing they are to give currency to rumors, there are quite a few Monal points all across the hill states.

J and I should know. We have driven and then footed it up to a fair number of these, with our last such trip being up the sheer vastness of the heights that tower over Pangot, a little less than a year ago. While we saw no Monals on that trip, we did see a lot of mountain mist and banks and banks of what could be fog or cloud, cloud or fog.

So, this time around when we were in the hills in Uttarkhand in May, our preparations and groundwork was a few notches higher than the usual, and our intensity as coruscating as it could get. And yes, oh yes -- one does need to have intensity of the coruscating type to successfully bird in the hills because its bloody cold and "early mornings" can mean rolling out of bed at hours as early as 3.30 am.

It was yet another morning typical of the hills, as we drove for an hour or so out of our village home-stay, going up and up on the curves of the road, through the gloomy murk of pre-dawn, encountering the usual, barely seen silhouettes of probably the most easy to see (and also photograph, thanks to "baiting", eh?) of the pheasants -- the Khalij, to finally reach Chopta, even as the skies started lightening.

Chopta is where one takes the path up, to ascend, while walking with the clouds, to Tungnath -- incidentally, the highest of Shiva temples in India. But on this morning our quest was for a holy bird, and hence, after carefully glassing the meadows all around for any signs of the Monal, we went on ahead, making a beeline for the Kedarnath Musk-deer Sanctuary.

Here, as planned earlier on our recce the preceding day, we had to exit our car and foot it over a long stretch, before we finally came across a solitary Monal feeding out in the open. 

           
I probably make it sound as if it was as easy as a proverbial duck-shoot. But it certainly wasn't so. Because, the bird was above us and moving through tussocks of grass in what was still tricky light. Either way, immaterial of how tough or easy it was, this was it -- there was a Monal in our sights!