Southern Indian Endemics (1 Viewer)

[ionemosia]

Early in March I joined four other birders on an organised trip to Kerala. I’ve been birding in Sri Lanka and done a couple of trips to Northern India but never been to the South. So this was a chance for me to catch up with some southern endemics. It was a very enjoyable trip with good company, sharp eyes and excellent birding. We were pretty successful with the endemics too.

Photos taken using Swaro ATS65HD/Coolpix995 combo.

Here's how it went.

Sunday 11 March

Arrival in Cochin and met by our guide, Sudeesh. We were all keen to get started so after a somewhat unnecessary breakfast stop we set off for our first destination at Kottayam where we’d be staying at the Coconut Lagoon hotel.

http://www.heritagehotelsofindia.com/india/coconut-lagoon-resort.html

Birding as we drove we soon picked up the likes of indian roller and green bee-eater while at a roadside stop we found what turned out to be the only yellow-wattled lapwing of the trip. Of course you can’t stop for everything so we pushed on to our destination.

At Kottayam a short boat trip took us to the hotel. After checking in it was time to explore. In the hotel grounds we found species which were to become familiar throughout the trip like long-billed and purple-rumped sunbirds, black-hooded oriole and oriental magpie robin.

An extensive marsh to the rear of the hotel was absolutely teeming with birds. A mix of great, little and intermediate egrets, purple herons and indian pond-herons. There were hundreds of whiskered tern, purple swamphen and lesser whistling-duck with smaller numbers of cotton pygmy-goose, garganey, pheasant-tailed and bronze-winged jacanas. I found the only spot-billed duck of the trip.

Late afternoon we got back on the boat to visit the nearby Kumarakom Bird Reserve. It proved to be rather disappointing and virtually birdless with the highlight being indian flying fox.

Sadly this session demonstrated that our guide was out of his depth. Not his fault though as he was a last minute replacement when our intended guide was taken ill with jaundice. We were his first ever group, he was just starting out and didn’t own a pair of binoculars. For five birders hoping to mop up southern indian endemics this was a bit worrying though he was to prove sharper on his home territory.

Frustratingly another Naturetrek group, who by their own admission weren’t too bothered about what birds they saw, were assigned a well motivated, experienced and professional guide in Lester Perera.

 

[ionemosia]

Monday 12 March

After a leisurely breakfast and what proved to be the only decent cuppa of the trip we set off for Periyar. Roadside birding provided us with excellent views of pintail snipe and black eagle. As we drove to higher elevation we found my first lifer with brown-backed needletail. At the next stop we got into some endemics with malabar parakeet and white-bellied treepie.

Arriving at Periyar we drove into the tiger reserve to reach our hotel, the Aranya Nivas Lake Palace.

http://www.ktdc.com/AranyaNivas.htm

During lunch I found heart-spotted woodpecker and crimson-fronted barbet from the dining table. Then we birded an adjacent road, a section accessible without an official park guide. We got good looks at rufous woodpecker, greater flameback, asian fairy bluebird and malabar whistling-thrush. The scheduled birding that afternoon was a boat trip on the man-made lake and was rather better for the mammal viewing than birding. We saw gaur, indian elephant, wild boar and sambar. Bird highlights were distant views of black baza, rufous-bellied eagle and mountain imperial-pigeon.

Finally Lester joined us with his recordings and was able to call-in brown hawk-owl. An excellent finish to a good day's birding.

 

[ionemosia]

Tuesday 13 March

The first of two full days in Periyar. We would be accompanied by park guide Raj Kumar for morning and afternoon bird walks. Raj knows the territory well and it wasn’t long before we’d added three woodpeckers to the list with brown-capped woodpecker, black-rumped flameback and common flameback. Good birds kept turning up like orange-headed thrush and velvet-fronted nuthatch but the best bird of the morning was a stunning male the white-bellied blue-flycatcher.

Back at the hotel I decided to forego lunch and spend the time along the adjacent road in the hope of getting some decent photos. Even in the heat of mid-day this was a productive area and I was lucky enough to get excellent views of emerald dove, eurasian golden-oriole and tickell’s blue-flycatcher.

After lunch we returned to the park and took a trail in a section dominated by larger trees. We were looking for white-bellied woodpecker but instead got excellent views of perched black baza before finding a great hornbill. This huge bird looks somewhat awkward in the treetops and it made for an awesome sight as it took off above our heads. Moving to the forest edge we found one of my personal target species with a pair of rufous babblers.

Wednesday 14 March

We were scheduled to follow a similar programme to the previous day with forest treks near the hotel but instead we arranged with Raj to spend the morning at Anchurley as this area was known to be good for babblers and our main target for the day wynaad laughingthrush. Anchurley is accessed from a trail near the main entrance gates to the park. There is more secondary habitat in this area but still some good stands of trees.

Within minutes we found tawny-bellied babblers and rufous babblers soon after that. Within the hour we’d added dark-fronted babbler and indian scimitar-babbler as well. This route was also good for thrushes as we found the distinctive race of eurasian blackbird, plus orange-headed thrush and scaly thrush.

After a couple of hours we heard the laughingthrush and the pace quickened until we reached a small marsh. Apparently this spot was our last chance but at least one bird was calling from a nearby reed bed. Mimicking the call we were soon rewarded with prolonged views of six wynaad laughingthrushes. A bonus bird here was blue-throated flycatcher.

Back to the hotel for lunch I returned to the side-road for a spell. This time joined by the rest of the group. Again out with the camera I managed to get shots of rusty-tailed, asian brown and brown-breasted flycatchers.

We returned to the park for our afternoon trek. It took some time but we eventually tracked down a couple of white-bellied woodpeckers with the best views obtained from outside the forest.

 

[ionemosia]

Thursday 15 March

We left Pariyar heading towards Munnar but took a diversion which took us just over the Bodimett pass and into Tamil Nadu. A few km over the pass we stopped to look for yellow-throated bulbul. We heard our target bird straight away but it didn’t show so we walked up the road but still no sign. It wasn’t until returning to the start point an hour later that Sudeesh and I found our first yellow-throated bulbul. The rest of the group missed it though and we had a long wait before another was located on the slope above us. Didn’t manage a photo though. At least we picked up a party of black-throated munia while we waited.

Drove on up to Munnar and checked into the Cloud 9 resort. After a late lunch we walked down a track behind the hotel. The birding was excellent and we soon found grey-breasted laughingthrush, oriental white-eye, nilgiri flycatcher and couple of white-browed bulbuls. I finally managed to get a photo of one of the endemics, the nilgiri flycatcher.

http://www.cloud9resorts.com/

Continuing down the track we picked up more trip birds with large-billed leaf warbler, western crowned warbler and common rosefinch. Back up again and we followed the road overlooking some decent habitat. Keith found a stunning male black-and-rufous flycatcher.

Friday 16 March

We were scheduled to visit Erivakulum NP but the day before departure had received a letter saying the park was closed woing to fire risk. This was a blow as that was our only chance for nilgiri pipit. In fact we discovered that the park is closed every year as soon as the first nilgiri tahr kid is born. The same thing had happened to last year’s trip.

Instead we went first to the entrance road to Kanimally primary school, a site well known for white-bellied shortwing though only Duncan got a decent look at one.

A nilgiri wood-pigeon exploded out of the trees ahead of us but was away before anyone got more than a glimpse. After several hours the shortwing hadn’t reappeared but soft calls from a hedgerow put me onto a group of six painted bush-quail.

Next we birded a road that heads uphill from Munnar dam, a climb of some 600m through secondary habitat to a small area of grassland that might give us a chance of the pipit. It was hot work but we were rewarded with a look at a couple of nilgiri wood-pigeons and added grey-headed canary-flycatcher to the trip list.

We returned to the Kanimally school entrance to find the white-bellied shortwing singing away in full view, not the skulker we had come to expect. I managed to get a recording but no decent photos.

Our final birding of the day was alongside a man made lake at Madupatty where there were a couple of brown fish-owls.

 

[edenwatcher]

Nice stuff Iain. Got a new scope?

Rob

 

[ionemosia]

Nice stuff Iain. Got a new scope?

Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks and yeah, got myself a swaro ATS65HD. Smaller and lighter than the leica apo-televid so it's ideal for taking on foreign trips. I reckon it's also optically superior and I'm getting better digiscope results. The birds still have to be fairly static and I fire off as many shots as possible in the hope of getting at least one decent one. So not as handy as your dslr but now I feel it's worth the effort.

Cheers,
Iain

 

[ionemosia]

Saturday 17 March

After a brief photo stop overlooking the Lockhart tea estate we set off for Thattekad. Roadside stops provided distant views of black eagle then at mid-day we stopped at Nadukanny and climbed a small hill looking for larks and pipits. At lower evaluation the heat and humidity made it extremely hard work and we were out of luck.

Arriving at Thattekad in time for late lunch we checked in to the homestay before an afternoon session at the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary. Sudeesh was now on home ground and took us to the first of his stake-outs just outside the park, here we had good views of a couple of mottled wood-owls. Into the sanctuary we found forest wagtail and large woodshrike before the next stake-out, ceylon frogmouth. In fact, three pairs of frogmouths. Apparently there are more than 100 pairs in the park.

http://www.mundackalhomestay.com/

We continued to find new trip birds and added the distinctive ruby-throated (gularis) form of black-crested bulbul to the list. We got reasonable views of spangled drongo whilst blue-bearded bee-eater was heard but couldn’t be located. Near the park entrance was a roost site for a couple of brown wood-owls. Leaving the sanctuary we went to a teak plantation where we quickly located a group of yellow-billed babblers before exploring an open area we found some distant green imperial-pigeon and a yellow-throated petronia.

Back near the sanctuary entrance we waited for dusk and were rewarded with a brief fly-over from great eared-nightjar.

Sunday 18 March

Today we tackled different sections of the park, in the morning an area called Uroolanthani and in the afternoon, Thundathil. The early session was very productive with malabar grey hornbill, six species of woodpecker and five species of bulbul. Highlight being the grey-headed bulbuls. We had our best views of brown-backed and white-rumped needletails with indian swiftlet, little swift, asian palm-swift and crested treeswift overhead as well.

Sudeesh spent his lunch break visiting the parents of his fiance. If the meeting went well they were to be married the following week. Apparently it went well.

In the afternoon session we followed a trial alongside the river on the opposite bank from the main park entrance. Here we found black-headed cuckoo-shrike, common hawk-cuckoo and called in an indian pitta. Tried for jerdon’s nightjar without success.

 

[ionemosia]

Monday 19 March

Spent the morning birding an area of the sanctuary known as Kallibara. Not many new trip birds but a crested goshawk performed its fluttering display flight. Next we went looking for white-rumped munia in a nearby marsh. No luck with the munia but we did find the second watercock (f.) of the trip. After lunch we returned to the main park entrance and intended to head to the core area of the park. Just after spotting a couple of changeable hawk-eagles our plans were interrupted by elephants on the trail. Apparently in this area they are quite aggressive and we had a lengthy diversion but did get good looks at a crested serpent-eagle.

Back near the park entrance just before dusk an indian (collared) scops-owl came in after brief playback. As it was still reasonably light we got excellent views of what was a life bird for me. A liitle further into the park we stopped at the first bund and tried the nightjar tapes again. This time we got two great eared-nightjars flying in circles above us for fully five minutes. Much better than the single fly-by we had before and a brilliant finish to the day.

Tuesday 20 March

This morning we returned Cochin where we checked in at the Casino Hotel. First order of the day was to have a look for some gulls. We drove past a large military area to a beach and headland. Here we soon found brown-headed gulls, white-winged terns and great crested terns. We also saw three dark morph western reef-egrets. No sign though of great black-headed gulls.

After that the rest of the group decided they wanted to do some shopping while I elected to return to the hotel and watch some world cup cricket. They were gone some time and I discovered they had checked out some saltmarsh we’d seen on the drive into the city. I didn’t miss anything important but did dip a couple of year ticks.

Wednesday 21 March

An early start took us through deserted city streets to the airport. Roger and Duncan had a stopover in Dubai to look for grey hypocolius. Andy, Keith and I were heading straight home. It had been an enjoyable trip and my thanks to the guys. My tally of 211 species included 24 Indian endemics and a better than expected 24 lifers.

Cheers,
Iain

 

[wengchun]

good listing of bird species. and nice pix with the lightweight scope. hope to see more pix soon.