Noggan Man - This week In Birdland 23rd

This Week in Birdland

23rd - 28th Feb 2026

The week started with some rain on Monday, the first I’ve seen since arriving on Nov 12th last year. With it came one of my favourite smells, warm rain on scorched earth. It didn’t last long and by the time I’d reached Giroba Temple it had stopped but had lent a different look and feel to the area and the birds that ventured out. It didn’t deter the monkeys either who were sitting around in a tree further down the slope.

Scroll down to get to the photos & skip the babble

Tuesday brought mist and another different atmosphere to the temple grounds and the area I like to think of as the ‘bird bank’. It’s the place that I’ve consistently seen more birds daily than anywhere else here. I got a great shot of the once elusive (to me) white-cheeked barbet which just flew into the top of the bush in front of me. Wandering home through the dunes I managed to snap an ashy prinia who just dropped out of the sky in front of me. Later on, the beautiful local asian paradise flycatcher did a fly-past in front of our balcony and stopped for a very quick photo op before darting off leaving me with just the white flash of its tail trace. It’s always a treat to see one and they really live up to their name.

Wednesday we did our usual walk along the dunes and then the creek towards our favourite breakfast birding spot at Sagar Anand. I managed to get another two for the Arambol Project, an Indian cormorant and a purple heron, taking the total number of species for the Arambol Project to 77.

Thursday saw a change and the crisp-bright morning light brought the langurs back out onto the dome at the temple and I spent more time filming them than photographing birds.

Friday was a great day for barbets and like the proverbial bus, three came along at once and sat having a face-off on the power lines leading up to the temple. Sadly they were facing into the light and I couldn’t get a decent shot. I did though snap a classic later which is with the pics below. I also managed to get a much clearer shot of the red spurfowl and walking home through the dunes I couldn’t resist yet another photo of a perfectly perched white-throated kingfisher.

I thought it would be my last session here for now and had planned to sum up for the season but we are currently in limbo as all flights out of Goa to London are on hold, so maybe I’ll get the chance to take the tally higher while we wait it out.

Ali Reeves