6 April: Snake talk, followed by two snake calls. No sooner we finish the snake programme at the Don Bosco summer camp, than we get two snake calls, both around Panjim.
The first proves to be a frisky Rat snake. The second, a Sand boa which has fallen into a huge aquarium squirming with sharks! The sharks ignore the Sand boa, which scrambles into a pipe outlet. Neil manages to pry it out with great difficulty.

 7 April: Scottish friends Steve and Joyce Moyes are more than just keen birdwatchers. Members of both 'The British Trust for Ornithology Trainers Panel' and the 'Tay Ringing Group', Steve and Joyce hope to initiate a bird ringing training programme in Goa. After some initial running around, Southern Birdwing manages to get written permission from the Forest Department allowing the Scottish couple to conduct a basic training programme in bird ringing.

It is a worthy experience. We start at six in the morning atop Nerul hill, where Steve and Joyce efficiently rig up four mist nets. These are checked at regular intervals, and our efforts seldom go unrewarded. We do this on two mornings for three hours each and net 35 birds.

Superficially one might exclaim that the "eyebrows " of a Whitebrowed Bulbul are simply fresh paint slapped on by a clever artist, or that the Redwhiskered Bulbul's red whiskers are not red but breathtaking red.....but there is more to the bird in the hand. The significance of a brood patch, bright or dull eyes, frazzled tail feathers, first year moults -- are all delightful discoveries. However, there are other skills to be learnt - how and (also important) where to set up mist nets, how to extract birds from the nets (this is an art, demonstrates Joyce), how to hold the bird ... Two mornings are not enough, even though we are not doing any actual ringing.
Read Steve's article…

 8 April: Cobra caught in a pile of stones at a neighbour's house. The same evening Neil and I head for Bondla to assist 'Centre For Environment Education' in a nature camp for students of St Mary's school, Ponda. It is a nightmare.

During the camp, the snake handler of the mini-zoo gets bitten, right in front of us, by a cobra, on both hands, as he was putting it into a box and is rushed to hospital.

Neil and I go to visit him at the hospital later that night and are horrified to learn that he has succumbed to the snake bites. The post mortem report is even more shocking. It states that there is no trace of venom in the brain, and that both cobra bites were dry bites. The victim died of shock !

The wildlife camp goes on.

 9 April: Back from the camp at Bondla at nightfall, when I get a snake call from the building opposite my house. The snake lies half hidden behind some vases in the garden. I cannot see its head -- but there is no need to. How can one fail to recognise Najanaja? The garden is locked as the owner is out. I jump over the fence with a torch, grab the Cobra just as it starts to slither away into the dark, pin it and carefully climb back out over the fence. The Cobra's eyes are misty blue, a telltale sign that it is on the verge of moulting its skin. I release it later.

 10 April: The second training session in bird ringing, this time we are accompanied by Assistant Conservator of Forests Mr. Francis Coelho. Amongst the other passerines we net Tailor bird, Jungle babbler and a ferocious Tree pie.

 14 April: Wild Goa boat trip to Cumbarjua. Huge turnout, some have to be turned back. Carl D'silva, the Goan artist who has done the colour plates for Salim Ali's "Book of Indian Birds", generously offers to come on another trip.

White Ibis sit on a tree, woolly headed Stork dip in front of our boat, Osprey, Peregrine and whitebellied Sea-eagle watch us suspiciously as we cast admiring glances. We also spot the colourful Kingfishers--collared, blackcapped, and storkbilled --as well as three tiny Muggers and a Jackal. Not bad for a morning which seemed doomed to chaos.

Later that evening we catch another Cobra at Nagali Hills, Dona Paula. This one we do not pin, but bag.

 15 April: A visit to the Saligao spring with Anand Abariya, a Goan currently working in the U.S. The Brown wood owl is as impressive as ever.

Someone has an injured barn owl in Margao. I ask Clinton, one of our enthusiastic Wild Goans, to collect it. He does, but the bird dies.


 23 April: Young uns from Bombay gang up at my house. They are my cousins' kids and they are crazy about snakes. Jason, 12, is the aspiring snake catcher, undeterred by a bite from a checkered keelback. Tracy, 12, plans to be a vet and is happy enough to be treating an injured python. Gavin, 13, can tell the difference between the call of a yellow-wattled lapwing and a red-wattled lapwing -- which gives him the right to argue about every other bird call with me. Rohan, the oldest, knows a lot about snakes and wants to be a herpetologist, but has yet to be bitten by a checkered keelback. For two weeks we explore the hills behind my house, go a-fishing, camping, birding, and yes, catching snakes. Today they tackle a seven feet lazy python.

 25 April: Snake programme for Cristel House orphans at Benaulim. I do the talking, but let the young uns do the snake handling. There are a few foreigners present, who seem pretty impressed. Not by my talk --but by the kids' snake handling...

 28 April: Our last Wild Goa boat trip of the season. Carl D'silva draws our attention to three Darters as they fly past. The Osprey and Peregrine Falcon are still around. This time we see four Crocs and a Mongoose as well. A quiz on board, with pictures clicked by us as prizes, has us ending up with empty albums. A good finish.

Snake call at night. Jason is fast asleep, but the others are raring to come, so off we all go. It is a Black Cobra. Probably one confiscated by us from a snake charmer and later released. Have to sternly tell the kids to keep a safe distance.

 29 April: We take the Don Bosco campers birdwatching to the wetland lakes. From Carambolim we go to Pilar, and then to Mala.... spot Blackwinged Stilt, Purple Gallinule, Common Coot and lots more. The snake enthusiasts are not bored, I'm relieved to note. They leave for Bombay.

Two snake calls the same evening. At Saligao, Neil and I catch a Russel's viper inside a lady's house. Her description of this deadly visitor is interesting: " So cute...It was sleeping peacefully behind the door, cutely poking its head out."

Neil catches three bronzebacks. Apparently they had been spotted on a tree a day earlier, but had refused to leave.

 The end of May 2002: The charter tourists have left, but the snakes continue to venture out. A cobra stops traffic, some snakes beat the heat by swimming in people's wells, a Canadian lady is determined to kill a Cobra but relents, Wild Goa Birding trips go on and on, and on...

 2 June: Snake call from Betim. The caller says they have managed to trap the snake under a bucket. We lift the bucket, and find a 23 inch krait underneath. Yippee ! India's most poisonous snake found in a living room.

 8-20 June : The agricultural research centre at Old Goa say they have two crocodiles living in their fishponds on their campus and want us to trap these crocs and release them elsewhere. We do five rekkie trips at night for the next two weeks and finally give them the good news. There are six crocs living in their fishponds, not two. We try to catch them , but do not succeed as the rains set in very quickly filling up all the other fish ponds. Twice we dive to catch a crocodile, but we fumble in the dark tall grass , and the croc gets away. ( Keep reading this update, we will get Ol' Leatherhead once the rains subside..)

 23rd June: WildGoa birding trip to Tivim. Inspite of a ominous cloudy sky, and a steady drizzle which threatens to escalate, we do spot Malabar Pied Hornbill 30 feet away, Rufous woodpecker, small Minivet and Bronzed drongo.

 26 June: The forest department hands over a 87 cm crocodile to us. Neil looks after it. It will be tagged and released later, once it grows to above a metre, a safe length.

 July 6:….Goa largest recorded python found with porcupine quills in its neck-battle scars after a skirmish with a porcupine. It is treated by Dr Gustavo Pinto, and later taken to Bondla. The 4.13 metre python is sure to give porcupines a wide berth in the future ...

 July 5-26: Bike rides into Mhadei sanctuary , undeterred by the advancing monsoons. We find three species of pit vipers, a sheildtail, a mygalomorph spider's burrow,and much more… ably assisted by a local lad called Ramesh.