India Part 2

Thursday 20^th

Another early start as we were being picked up at 5.30 so we took a packed breakfast with us to the airport. We had a domestic flight on IndiGo to Kochi; our original flight was at 10am but they cancelled that and put us on the earlier one at 08:10. 

Leaving Mumbai

Coming in to land at Kochi

We landed at 09:50 but took an hour a get out of the airport as someone left their walking stick on the plane. We met up with our guide/driver for the rest of the trip, loaded up the car and headed off to our accommodation, a family-run homestay. We arrived in time for lunch where we were greeted by an Indian Giant Squirrel that was feeding a metre away off our balcony.

Indian Giant Squirrel

Huntsman Spider in our bathroom

We then got ready for our first afternoon birding in the Western Ghats at Thattekad Bird Sanctuary.

Forest stream

This area has a lot of regional endemics and it didn’t take long before we starting seeing some of them with Malabar Flameback, White-bellied Woodpecker,  Malabar Woodshrike, White-bellied Blue Flycatcher and a lovely pair of roosting Sri Lankan Frogmouths amongst other more widespread birds. 

Sri Lankan Frogmouth

White-bellied Woodpecker

Blue-eared Kingfisher

Brown-cheeked Fulvetta

Common Kingfisher

Indian Blue Robin

Female Malabar Trogon

Male Malabar Trogon

Asian Vine Snake

We stopped for coffee at a roadside café late afternoon which had a lakeside view and added Blue-tailed Bee-eater and Brahminy Kite.

Back at the homestay we went up on the rooftop terrace towards dusk where a Great Eared Nightjar flew over. We then did two very successful owling sessions either side of dinner, seeing Indian Scops Owl, Mottled Wood Owl, Brown Boobook, Oriental Scops Owl and a couple of other nocturnal critters.

Brown Boobook

Indian Scops Owl

Mottled Wood Owl

Oriental Scops Owl

Anamalai Pit Viper

Indian Giant Flying Squirrel

Friday 21st

After an early breakfast we spent the morning birding the local area of Thattekad from 7am. The first bird seen was Grey-fronted Green Pigeon, quickly followed by two Malabar Grey Hornbills, both regional endemics. We walked up an old lava flow to a viewpoint and were soon joined by a couple of other birding groups as this was clearly the place to stand while our guide went in search of a roosting Bay Owl. We also met a rather miserable Irish crew who then followed us around for the rest of the trip.

There were plenty of birds to see and photograph and the guide’s young son, a budding birder, found a distant pair of Brown Fish Owls. 

Brown Fish Owl

Crimson-backed Sunbird

Golden-fronted Leafbird

Orange Minivet

Malabar Grey Hornbill

Malabar Imperial Pigeon

Rufous-bellied Eagle

Brown Shrike ssp lucionensis

butterfly sp

Common Lascar

We went back to the homestay for lunch, stopping briefly for a couple of distant Asian Elephants in a river.

Asian Elephant

 We spent the rest of the afternoon birding from the rooftop of our homestay while our guide again went in a vain search for the owl.

Bonnet Macaque

Common Myna

Lesser Whistling Duck

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Cinereous Tit

Black-rumped Flameback

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Vernal (AKA Infernal) Hanging Parrot

Saturday 22nd

We went back into the forest after breakfast for a last bit of birding in the area but it was raining so we didn’t get too much. We left mid-morning and checked out and drove to our next destination, Periyar NP. We did a little bit of birding en route before arriving at the Abad Green Forest Resort late afternoon. We had a wander around the grounds, seeing our only Clamorous Reed Warbler of the trip.

Black-rumped Flameback

Heart-spotted Woodpecker

Plum-headed Parakeet

Shikra

White-bellied Treepie

White-cheeked Barbet

Two more as yet unidentified butterflies

Oriental Garden Lizard

South Indian Flying Lizard

We couldn’t get a drink at the hotel, nor at any of the subsequent hotels in Kerala as it had been a dry state up until July when the sale of alcohol was legalised, albeit with many restrictions. Most of the hotels don’t even any bar areas so they aren’t able to offer drinks. 

India Part 1

This was a private trip to Southern India concentrating on the Western Ghats endemics organised via Bluetail Birding with a short pre-tour extension.

Monday 17^th

I met up with Lynne and Neil airside at Heathrow T3 mid-afternoon and we headed for the nearest coffee shop. It wasn’t long before we were boarding our 18:00 Virgin flight to Mumbai. I’d elected for Premium Economy for the extra legroom and the welcome drink of prosecco also went down nicely!

Tuesday 18^th

We landed at 08.20 local time in India’s second largest city, home to 23 million people. Black Kite kicked off our trip list with a few seen floating around the airport. Once through immigration we collected our bags and met up with our driver who took us a short distance through the city to our hotel. We couldn’t check in for a while and then decided to rest up for the remainder of the day as we had nothing scheduled.

Wednesday 19^th

We had a very early start as we had to drive out of the vast city and northwards to Tansa. We picked up our guide, Prathamesh Desai, at a nearby rail station and arrived at the reserve at 7am having consumed our packed breakfast. The day was all about seeing Forest Owlet but there was time for general birding as well. Green Warbler was heard as soon as we got out of the car and we heard many more during the day and did eventually see one. We taped in a Mottled Wood Owl which flew over the clearing a couple of times being pursued by mobbing Black Drongos and briefly landed where we could see it before disappearing back into the forest.

Mottled Wood Owl with mobbing Drongos

We drove a short distance to the main area for the owlet and one soon started to call. It took a while to get decent views but the pair decided to give themselves up in the end. Also seen in the area were Thick-billed Flowerpecker, Indian Grey Hornbill and Alexandrine Parakeet. We went to a nearby location and saw another Forest Owlet – there are several known territories in the area.

Forest Owlet

With the main target safely in the bag we spent the rest of the day birding the area seeing Rufous Treepie, Indian Golden and Black-hooded Orioles and Grey-breasted Prinia. We stopped at a bridge over a river where several Chiffchaffs (probably Siberian) and a Blyth’s Reed Warbler were feeding. In the sunshine, raptors began to appear and Oriental Honey-Buzzard and White-eyed Buzzard were both seen.

Asian Green Bee-eater

Black Drongo

Indian Golden Oriole

Malabar Woodshrike

White-eyed Buzzard

Yellow-throated Sparrow

We went off for lunch and a rest at the reserve where we were entertained by a family of Peafowl chicks that had been rescued and had soon adopted people as substitute parents, one even climbing up me and falling asleep on my shoulder! 

Reserve entrance - made out of plastic trees!

napping Peafowl chick

We resuming birding the area in the afternoon; it was a lot quieter but we did manage to find Red-headed Bunting, Small Minivet and Cinereous Tit before stopping at 17:30. 

Blue Tigers

Common Sailor

Common Tiger

A couple of unidentified frogs

Large Wood Spider

Slender Skimmer

We dropped our guide back at the station and started the long drive back to Mumbai where the evening rush hour had ground the traffic to a crawl and we didn’t get back to our hotel until 21:15, some three and three-quarter hours later. We had a late dinner then packed for tomorrow’s departure.