In October 2018 I visited the Indian National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Goa to attend a meeting of the institute’s Research Advisory Committee and to also advance ongoing collaborations with the scientists. I flew out from Heathrow on Friday 26 October with Air India and had an overnight stop in New Delhi before arriving in Goa the following day. I was met at airport by a driver from NCPOR and taken to the Bogmallo Beach Resort where I was to stay for the six nights of my visit.
The hotel was close to NCPOR making it very easy to get to the institute in the morning and also very near the excellent Claudi’s Corner restaurant where I ate on evenings I was free. The restaurant was very welcoming to a solo traveller and I particularly enjoyed their tiger prawn dishes that I had a couple of times.
Sunday 28 October was a free day for me before I started work on the Monday so I enlisted the help of local bird guide Loven Pereira to do some birding around Goa. For such a short visit I was travelling light with only hand luggage and was therefore unable to bring a long lens and resorted to doing some bird photography via digiscoping. This was no ideal but proved adequate for a casual day of birding.
We started by birding near the entrance to Bondla zoo, which is always a productive area. Highlights of the day were Changeable Hawk-Eagle and Banded Bay Cuckoo, which were both lifers.
