Marinha Dourada/Arpora Wood 

The Marinha Dourada proved to be an excellent base from which to bird the main areas in north and central Goa. Two small man-made lakes can be seen from the hotel balconies. Although not very productive in themselves, hirundines, swifts and various raptors frequently fly over. The nearby saltpans are good for waders and pipits, but the locals were rebuilding the banks of the individual pans during most of our stay, reducing bird numbers accordingly. Baga River is nearby and the whole area produced 51 species with numerous short visits when time permitted.

Arpora Wood has much better potential than Baga Hill in my view. Even though we only paid two brief visits we saw 35 species, but missed out on the local Indian Pitta. With hindsight we should probably have spent more time here as friends Pat & Judy, who were with us for 9 days, visited the site twice after we left, spending more time and seeing more species. Arpora Wood can be found by turning right out of the Marinha Dourada gate and walking along the road to the T-junction. Turning left, the road reaches a sharp left-hand bend after about ¾ mile with a surfaced track leading to the Cabana Nightclub on the right. Walking down the track past the club there is an opening on the right leading to more open ground and with tracks skirting the base of the wooded hillside. Our friends had good results here. The Indian Pitta had been seen around the shaded area just past the nightclub in the scrub to the right of the path, up to the opening on the right. We followed the main track taking the left hand fork past a small quarry and continuing up the left hand side of the valley in fairly thick scrub and woodland. A taxi provides a speedier & cooler trip to Arpora Wood at 50Rs each way, leaving more time for birding.

 

Bird List - Arpora/Marinha Dourada

 

Bird List - Arpora Wood




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