Avian ARCADIA!

Birding in the Blue Mountains of Mizoram. In search of the rare species of birds that Mizoram offers, the author explores the stunning environs of the Blue Mountain National Park.

-  PIA SETHI

Shivering, we peer over the crest and into the beckoning void. The loud howls of the wind banish all birdsong, and I despair of seeing the mythical Mount Victoria babax (Pterorhinus woodi). We have spent fruitless days pacing the ridgeline of the Phawngpui National Park in Mizoram in search of this glassy-eyed, fiercely streaked babbler, whose laughing calls are at odds with its piercing gaze. Ceaseless staring into the abyss is taking its toll, and my fevered imagination transmutes one of the babax’s melodious calls into the ominous portent: “blew it, blew it.” Its other bubbly “burberry, burberry” whistle now flatlines as a repetitive, “By the ridge, by the ridge!”

Three days ago, we rounded a forested curve into a vast meadow (a “phawng” is a meadow, and “pui” is great in Lai), smoldering golden in the afternoon light. The rustling yellow grasses contrast with shiny black rock, forming a perfect counterpoint to the semicircle of green, tree-embossed hills that fade over the horizon to smoky, blue-grey rings of flat-topped mountains. It is February, much before the rains that will refresh the dry meadow with shades of green and unfurl the papery grey fern fronds. Early scarlet whorls cover a few Rhododendron arboretum trees. But there is little time to take in my surroundings before my fellow travellers’ excited cries break my reverie. A Hume’s treecreeper (Certhia manipurensis) has been sighted, belying its name by rocketing up the pink-brown, fractured bark of candletipped Khasi pines (