We’ve been in Goa for a week now, staying at the Marinha Dourada hotel near Arpora, and spent most of our time walking to and birding the local sites. We’ve also had a couple of trips out to location less than twenty miles away. Our days start at dawn, around 6.30, when we have our most productive birding seasons before a late breakfast. Then it’s ‘chill time’ over lunch with a beer, raptor watching, and then back out for our late afternoon session until dark, early supper and bed! So far we’ve seen over one hundred and seventy species, many of them ‘world ticks’, with quite a bit of overlap with Thailand, Australia and Britain – the majority being ’self-found’. Tomorrow we go up to Backwoods Camp for some intensive guided jungle birding. Here’s a small selection of the more interesting local birds.

Common Iora

Green Bee-eater

Chestnut-tailed Starling

Indian Roller

Crimson-backed Sunbird

Wire-tailed Swallow

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Brahminy Kite

Red-wattled Lapwing

Lesser Goldenback

Small Minivet

Jerdon’s Leafbird

Jungle Owlet

Oriental Honey Buzzard

Slightly further afield: Bay-backed Shrike

Brown Hawk Owl

Woolly-necked Stork

Pied Kingfisher

and finally, the hard to see Watercock

Hopefully, a further report from Goa on our return from Backwoods.