Thattekad and Munnar

With college starting up, trips have reduced considerably. A vacation provided me with some time off to hit Thattekad finally. Being off season, I didn’t expect to be seeing too much activity and although top priorities on my list were the Ceylon frogmouth and Indian pitta, I wasn’t very optimistic.

On reaching Thattekad we stopped at the home stay within the sanctuary late in the morning. Our host there, Mr. Giriesh arranged for our guide, his cousin who took us on the first round of birding that morning itself. On the way were loads of grey hornbills and Malabar parakeets while once we got in further, we found a few fairy bluebirds, white bellied treepies, ruby throated and grey headed bulbuls. The highlights of course being Ceylon frogmouths and a heart spotted woodpecker. Bad light and intermittent rain however prevented any decent photography.

The afternoon and evening were spent near the home stay watching a few orioles and another heart spotted woodpecker. Waited for a nightjar late in the evening but it did not turn up. After dinner we tried spotting a few owls. Although the collared scopps owl and bay owl did respond to the calls, none of them gave us a chance to see them.

The next day was spent entirely in Munnar and around. Early morning trip to Eravikulam national park gave us glimpses of a Nilgiri pippet, shortwing and a Vereditor’s flycatcher. There was a herd of Tahr’s in the distance as well but unlike my previous trip, they did not come close. After some landscapes and waterfalls, another nearby forest provided me with a shot of the Nilgiri flycatcher.

Another morning of birding showed up a blue bearded bee-eater, few other bee-eaters and more frogmouths, after this to kill time, we watched the sunset from a hill near Thrissur and then got back to college by a train to Trichy the next day morning. Do plan to return there during the season in December with a larger list of birds to be seen, but for a short trip in the off season, this was certainly fun.

Chimmony and waterfalls around

Another weekend trip. Left by bus to Thrissur on Friday night. A car picked us up at the stand next morning. We spent the morning at a dam nearby and closer to the afternoon we left for Chimmony national park. Staying at an inspection bungalow in the forest is always going to be fun. After resting for a while and after lunch at a small canteen in the village just outside the forest, we began to explore a bit.

Bird activity was not too much. Saw a few deer, and birdwise just racket tailed drongos, orioles, parakeets and emerald doves. Was hoping to find slender loris but that was not to be. Since that night was supermoon night we stayed to shoot the moon and caught a few bugs as well. The trek next day showed us a few geckos and a monitor lizard. Was disappointed at not finding a slender loris. I was told they were common.

The evening was spent at a couple of waterfalls around, Athirapilly and Vazhachal. Athirapilly of course looks fantastic and the clouds and the sun brought out a little rainbow at the base as well. Since monsoon was still to hit, it was not really covered with water but it still is a huge.