Birds are a delight to watch. Busy creatures who are up and about their business without a fuss. Rain or shine, you can spot them busily doing what needs to be done.
Mussoorie has an abundance of bird life, if you know where to look. The Mall has birds of a different character! The feathered variety is found in the valleys and forests around Mussoorie. One such place to spot birds aplenty is Oakwood Forest.
When I came here last year, I noticed that the property already had these feathered inhabitants who had made their home in the surrounding forests. There were a lot of birds around the proposed hotel site. But I was distracted in getting the hotel up and running. With electric chisels, saws and hammers working all day, they kept their distance. I did not pay much attention to them. It was not until later when I had time on my hands that I began to explore and document what I saw. Over the months it became amply clear that the Pari Tibba area of Mussoorie where Oakwood Forest is located is thriving with birdlife. I spoke to the locals and they confirmed as much. ‘There are lots of birds in our village and around. They are so fearless now that they nest in our homes. One has made her home right in my kitchen!’, said my gardener, a local woman from the village. I have never been a birder before. But with so many of them around I decided that I must get to know something about my neighbours co-inhabiting the forest slopes around Oakwood Forest. They wake me up every morning and thrash and fly around in the branches with joy.
In late December, a visiting guest (Ms.Garima Tiwari) also noticed the abundance of birdlife around the hotel and introduced me to an app used by birders to identify and catalogue birds. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.labs.merlinbirdid.app) Since then I have been able to identify some of them. Though some are still shy and keep their distance, others come readily to our bird-feeders at Oakwood Forest.
This is a start. We will keep updating and cataloguing the birdlife at Oakwood Forest and delight guests with colourful, chirpy and soaring neighbours.
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