A Birding safari (with some extras) in the Western Ghats of Southern India

[Atdahl]

Wow, stunning shots Janet.  Love the pitta pics especially.  Pittas are just awesome in general.

 

Alan

[janzin]

5 hours ago, Atdahl said:

Wow, stunning shots Janet.  Love the pitta pics especially.  Pittas are just awesome in general.

 

Alan

 Yes Pittas are awesome! This is only the 3rd Pitta species I've seen, only have seen the Noisy and the Rainbow Pittas in Australia. I need to find more There are 44 species according to Wikipedia!

 

[Soukous]

15 hours ago, janzin said:

We had a blast shooting for several hours, with a good variety of birds coming to a water bath and feeding station.

 

A beautiful collection / selection Janet, wonderful bokeh. I'm still waiting for my first Pitta.

What kit were you using? Z9 +500pf?

Edited June 19, 2023 by Soukous

[janzin]

1 hour ago, Soukous said:

 

A beautiful collection / selection Janet, wonderful bokeh. I'm still waiting for my first Pitta.

What kit were you using? Z9 +500pf?

Thanks @Soukous, yes it was all with the Z9 + 500PF.

[janzin]

Back at the hide, the afternoon wasn't yet over. Again, there might be some repeats of species we've seen before, as I'm just posting in the order they were photographed.

 

Racket-tailed Drongo

 

 

A less-bedraggled Malabar Starling.

 

 

Posing...

 

 

My favorite bulbul again, the Flame-throated.

 

 

 

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

 

 

This Lesser Yellownape woodpecker looked pretty ratty, I guess it was molting. It only came briefly to the water and didn't want to give a full-on portrait.

 

 

The Southern Hill Myna came a bit closer than the one we'd seen at Munnar!

 

 

 

Bronzed Drongo is common over southeast Asia. When the light is right, he is a glossy blue and black.

 

 

 

The Asian Fairy-bluebird is another striking blue and black bird, with the male more colorful than the female, but the female isn't so bad either. Found across southern Asia but in India, found only in the Western Ghats.

 

Male...

 

 

 

Female...

 

 

This Crimson-backed Sunbird finally showing his namesake feature.

 

 

 

A couple more of the Orange-headed Thrush...front...

 

 

and back...

 

 

And I can't resist one last look at the fabulous Indian Pitta.

 

 

As you can see, we had a fabulous afternoon at the hide.  But we weren't done yet for the day! After dinner, Anoop and Shafi picked us up to take us on a bit of a night walk nearby. We didn't go far, in fact we were walking right in the local village, in some woods/field behind some shops. Our targets of course were owls and nightjars.  We heard the Jungle and Jerdon's nightjars but we could not find one (this night) that was perched. There's always tomorrow night...

 

We did find another Indian Giant Flying Squirrel. Unfortunately he seemed to be blind in one eye.

 

 

And to top off a great day, Anoop found us a life owl! The Brown Boobook--gotta love that name.

 

 

We had one more full day to bird around Thattekad--our last day of the trip. Might we still find some new birds to add to our trip list?

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by janzin

[TonyQ]

Beautiful additions @janzin

I really like the composition of the first Crimson-backed Sunbird

[janzin]

54 minutes ago, TonyQ said:

Beautiful additions @janzin

I really like the composition of the first Crimson-backed Sunbird

Thanks so much @TonyQ

[Galana]

Just spent a pleasant hour catching up all you have posted whilst I was away. Too many to remember specifically so just congratulations on a splendid all round effort. Loved the challenge of finding that tiger!

You are more or less following my trip through the Ghats a few years back even staying at Hornbill Camp which we loved. No bad food then that I recall.

Loved your Lion tails. I am not a fan of lesser primates but they convert me too.

Can't get over those Camera Fees. Why else are we entering the Parks but to take photos? I hope Ryanair never learn of this. It was tried and failed in Uganda a few years back. Everyone, guides included, just boycotted the parks until it was withdrawn ' for administrative reasons'. Birds have wings and don't stay in parks.

Looking forward to the rest.

[Atdahl]

Lovely shots Janet.  Sitting in that hide really paid off.  Not only are your shots really sharp but the backgrounds are perfect.  It seems like they did a good job clearing debris around the main perching areas.  Put a lazy boy recliner in there and photographers would never leave...

[janzin]

Thanks @Galanaand @Atdahl!  Maybe Hornbill Camp had a different chef when you were there @Galana  Actually I'm not sure its the same management. Apparently it's now being run by Amritara Hotels hence the renovations of all the rooms. The room was quite comfortable. Hopefully they will work on the food next!

 

 

[Soukous]

5 hours ago, janzin said:

The room was quite comfortable. Hopefully they will work on the food next!

 

despite the poor food, I'm assuming the bird hide more than compensated

[janzin]

4 hours ago, Soukous said:

 

despite the poor food, I'm assuming the bird hide more than compensated

just to be clear, the bird hide wasn't on the property of Hornbill Camp, but close by at a house/property of a friend of Anoop's.

 

[janzin]

Our very last full day of the trip.

 

Thattekad is well known for the Thattekad Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, and I thought that was where we were going. But, apparently not! We headed to another forest reserve with an unpronounceable name.

 

 

This seemed to be where all the birders and birding groups go. In fact this was one of the only places on our trip where we saw other birders with bird guides (other than one Dutch group at Munnar.) In fact, we ran into the photographers we'd shared the blind with the day before.

 

We drove to a point in the road where there was a very very steep granite hill, and Shafi left us off. Are we climbing that? Yes we are.

 

 

You really can't see how steep it was here, but we managed. From the top of the hill one was more or less at eye level with some of the trees.

 

This dog seemed to be enjoying the view.

 

 

Unfortunately, there really wasn't much going on in the trees at the moment. There were several other birders up there but I don't think anyone was seeing much, and what we did see, was quite distant.  So I don't have any photos of note. However, there were these cute puppies sleeping in indentations in the rock. I suppose the watchful dog was their mom. 

 

Don't step on the puppies!

 

 

 

Eventually we headed down into the forest (the trail down was not steep at all so I'm not sure why we climbed UP the steep way.)  We saw some assorted birds but not much new. The best was another Sri Lanka Frogmouth, a little more in the clear.

 

 

This Malabar Trogon was interesting because he was displaying, fanning his tail, which I'd never seen before in a Trogon. We watched him for quite awhile.

 

 

 

Malabar Gray Hornbill

 

A Yellow-browed Bulbul in the nest.

 

 

There were many woodpeckers here, Black-rumped, White-bellied, and Common Flameback too, but I had better photos elsewhere so won't include them again.

 

I'm including a rather poor photo of this Heart-spotted Woodpecker, as it was the only chance I had to photograph this species (EBC!) Although we'd seen them earlier in the trip as well. They are quite the unusual looking woodpecker as they seem to have no tail to speak of and are very chunky looking. They frequent the high tree tops and very hard to photograph, we didn't see any down low.

 

 

And for good measure, one last Malabar Giant Squirrel. Funny before the trip I was "Oh I really hope to see one of these." Little did I realize how common they are, we saw them everywhere.

 

 

We did get one additional trip (and life) bird here, a Loten's Sunbird, but it was too distant for a photo.

 

But one more exciting mammal for the trip! On our way back to the lodge, Anoop took us down a road where he said you can often find Dhole. Well, no Dhole today but instead, we spotted this Golden Jackal, the only one of the trip!

 

 

Anoop asked if we wanted to go out that night for some more night birding, so of course we said "of course!" Again, we went somewhere close to town--this time there were a few other birders with a giant spotlight wandering around as well, so we had lots of eyes.  It wasn't long before we (actually they) found this juvenile Spot-bellied Eagle Owl. The juvenile is much paler, almost white, compared to the adult.

 

 

And last but not least, Anoop found us a very close and low perched Jerdon's Nightjar! So close we practically could pet him. This is full-frame. (We heard Jungle Nightjar as well, but couldn't find a perched one.)

 

 

A great bird to end the trip!

 

The next morning we pretty much headed straight to the Kochi airport to catch our flight back to Delhi, where we had a dayroom near the airport before catching our late night flight back home.

 

All in all a very successful trip! Except for the lack of tigers, but we are rectifying that with a return to India next year on a more tiger-centric trip

 

I'll post the bird list as a final post in a bit.

 

 

Edited June 29, 2023 by janzin

[janzin]

Thanks to everyone who has followed along! For those of you interested in the bird list--we saw 193 species, 73 of which were life birds.

Total Records: 193

NAME                           

PHEASANTS, GROUSE, AND ALLIES
Indian Peafowl                 
Gray Junglefowl                
Gray Francolin                 

PIGEONS AND DOVES
Rock Pigeon                    
Nilgiri Wood-Pigeon            
Oriental Turtle-Dove           
Eurasian Collared-Dove         
Spotted Dove                   
Laughing Dove                  
Gray-fronted Green-Pigeon      
Yellow-footed Green-Pigeon     
Green Imperial-Pigeon          
Malabar Imperial-Pigeon        

CUCKOOS
Blue-faced Malkoha             
Common Hawk-Cuckoo             

FROGMOUTHS
Sri Lanka Frogmouth            

NIGHTJARS AND ALLIES
Jungle Nightjar                
Jerdon's Nightjar              

SWIFTS
White-rumped Needletail        
Indian Swiftlet                
Little Swift                   

TREESWIFTS
Crested Treeswift              

RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS
Gray-headed Swamphen           

PLOVERS AND LAPWINGS
Yellow-wattled Lapwing         
Red-wattled Lapwing            
Common Ringed Plover           

JACANAS
Pheasant-tailed Jacana         
Bronze-winged Jacana           

SANDPIPERS AND ALLIES
Common Sandpiper               

PRATINCOLES AND COURSERS
Small Pratincole               

GULLS, TERNS, AND SKIMMERS
Whiskered Tern                 
River Tern                     

STORKS
Asian Openbill                 
Asian Woolly-necked Stork      

ANHINGAS
Oriental Darter                

CORMORANTS AND SHAGS
Little Cormorant               
Great Cormorant                
Indian Cormorant               

HERONS, EGRETS, AND BITTERNS
Gray Heron                     
Purple Heron                   
Great Egret                    
Intermediate Egret             
Little Egret                   
Cattle Egret                   
Indian Pond-Heron              
Striated Heron                 

IBISES AND SPOONBILLS
Glossy Ibis                    
Black-headed Ibis              
Red-naped Ibis                 

HAWKS, EAGLES, AND KITES
Black-winged Kite              
White-rumped Vulture           
Changeable Hawk-Eagle          
Black Eagle                    
Indian Spotted Eagle           
Greater Spotted Eagle          
Booted Eagle                   
Shikra                         
Black Kite                     
Brahminy Kite                  
Himalayan Buzzard              

OWLS
Oriental Scops-Owl             
Brown Fish-Owl                 
Spot-bellied Eagle-Owl         
Jungle Owlet                   
Spotted Owlet                  
Brown Boobook                  

TROGONS
Malabar Trogon                 

HOOPOES
Eurasian Hoopoe                

HORNBILLS
Malabar Gray Hornbill          

KINGFISHERS
Common Kingfisher              
White-throated Kingfisher      

BEE-EATERS
Asian Green Bee-eater          
Blue-tailed Bee-eater          
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater      

ROLLERS
Indian Roller                  
Dollarbird                     

ASIAN BARBETS
Malabar Barbet                 
Coppersmith Barbet             
White-cheeked Barbet           

WOODPECKERS
Heart-spotted Woodpecker       
Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker  
Yellow-crowned Woodpecker      
Greater Flameback              
Common Flameback               
Black-rumped Flameback         
Lesser Yellownape              
Streak-throated Woodpecker     
White-bellied Woodpecker       

OLD WORLD PARROTS
Plum-headed Parakeet           
Malabar Parakeet               
Vernal Hanging-Parrot          

PITTAS
Indian Pitta                   

CUCKOOSHRIKES
White-bellied Minivet          
Small Minivet                  
Orange Minivet                 
Large Cuckooshrike             

OLD WORLD ORIOLES
Indian Golden Oriole           
Black-hooded Oriole            

VANGAS, HELMETSHRIKES, AND ALLIES
Common Woodshrike              
Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrike   

IORAS
Common Iora                    

FANTAILS
Spot-breasted Fantail          
White-browed Fantail           

DRONGOS
Black Drongo                   
Ashy Drongo                    
Bronzed Drongo                 
Greater Racket-tailed Drongo   

MONARCH FLYCATCHERS
Black-naped Monarch            
Indian Paradise-Flycatcher     

SHRIKES
Brown Shrike                   
Bay-backed Shrike              
Long-tailed Shrike             

CROWS, JAYS, AND MAGPIES
Rufous Treepie                 
White-bellied Treepie          
House Crow                     
Large-billed Crow              

FAIRY FLYCATCHERS
Gray-headed Canary-Flycatcher  

TITS, CHICKADEES, AND TITMICE
Great Tit                      
Cinereous Tit                  
Indian Yellow Tit              

LARKS
Jerdon's Bushlark              
Malabar Lark                   

CISTICOLAS AND ALLIES
Common Tailorbird              
Ashy Prinia                    

REED WARBLERS AND ALLIES
Booted Warbler                 
Sykes's Warbler                
Blyth's Reed Warbler           

SWALLOWS
Eurasian Crag-Martin           
Barn Swallow                   
Wire-tailed Swallow            
Hill Swallow                   

BULBULS
Gray-headed Bulbul             
Flame-throated Bulbul          
Red-vented Bulbul              
Red-whiskered Bulbul           
Yellow-throated Bulbul         
White-browed Bulbul            
Yellow-browed Bulbul           
Square-tailed Bulbul           

LEAF WARBLERS
Tytler's Leaf Warbler          
Green Warbler                  
Greenish Warbler               
Large-billed Leaf Warbler      

SYLVIID WARBLERS, PARROTBILLS, AND ALLIES
Lesser Whitethroat             

WHITE-EYES, YUHINAS, AND ALLIES
Indian White-eye               

TREE-BABBLERS, SCIMITAR-BABBLERS, AND ALLIES
Dark-fronted Babbler           
Indian Scimitar-Babbler        

LAUGHINGTHRUSHES AND ALLIES
Brown-cheeked Fulvetta         
Nilgiri Laughingthrush         
Palani Laughingthrush          
Jungle Babbler                 
Yellow-billed Babbler          
Wayanad Laughingthrush         

NUTHATCHES
Indian Nuthatch                
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch        

STARLINGS
Southern Hill Myna             
Brahminy Starling              
Malabar Starling               
Common Myna                    
Jungle Myna                    

THRUSHES AND ALLIES
Orange-headed Thrush           
Indian Blackbird               

OLD WORLD FLYCATCHERS
Asian Brown Flycatcher         
Indian Robin                   
Oriental Magpie-Robin          
White-rumped Shama             
Nilgiri Sholakili              
White-bellied Sholakili        
White-bellied Blue Flycatcher  
Tickell's Blue Flycatcher      
Nilgiri Flycatcher             
Indian Blue Robin              
Malabar Whistling-Thrush       
Black-and-orange Flycatcher    
Rusty-tailed Flycatcher        
Pied Bushchat                  

FLOWERPECKERS
Nilgiri Flowerpecker           

SUNBIRDS AND SPIDERHUNTERS
Purple-rumped Sunbird          
Crimson-backed Sunbird         
Purple Sunbird                 
Loten's Sunbird                

FAIRY-BLUEBIRDS
Asian Fairy-Bluebird           

LEAFBIRDS
Golden-fronted Leafbird        

WAXBILLS AND ALLIES
Indian Silverbill              
Black-throated Munia           

OLD WORLD SPARROWS
House Sparrow                  
Yellow-throated Sparrow        

WAGTAILS AND PIPITS
Forest Wagtail                 
Gray Wagtail                   
Western Yellow Wagtail         
White-browed Wagtail           
Paddyfield Pipit               

FINCHES, EUPHONIAS, AND ALLIES
Common Rosefinch      

         

Birder's Diary - www.BirdersDiary.com - 6/29/2023

[Galana]

Caught up and finished in so brief a time.

Thanks for taking us along with you (and re igniting some personal memories too).

Great reporting and great photos.

[Soukous]

An impressive list Janet. Thanks for sharing your trip.

[Zim Girl]

Great trip report, beautiful photos and lots of interesting birds seen!

[TonyQ]

Thank you for a great report with stunning photos.

A beautiful bird to finish with!

[michael-ibk]

Really enjoyed this report and your (always) beautiful photos Janet - thanks so much for sharing! Thar last hide was awesome. Oh, that Pitta - I really need to see one. 

[Soukous]

On 7/1/2023 at 9:51 AM, michael-ibk said:

Oh, that Pitta - I really need to see one.

 

me too!

[wilddog]

Just GLOROIUS photographs and the full TR. Great job @janzin

[Kitsafari]

Finally finished the TR in 2 readings and what an array of briliant images. I did love the lion tailed macaques a lot, but you certainly outdid even yourself with the bird, esp the endemic ones, photos. 

I was just telling H that we should follow your footsteps one day, because Indian pitta is also high on my list.  

[janzin]

14 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

Finally finished the TR in 2 readings and what an array of briliant images. I did love the lion tailed macaques a lot, but you certainly outdid even yourself with the bird, esp the endemic ones, photos. 

I was just telling H that we should follow your footsteps one day, because Indian pitta is also high on my list.  

Thanks Kit! And another nice thing about India, relatively inexpensive compared to Africa. Can't wait to go back next spring

 

[WildSpotter]

On 6/19/2023 at 6:35 AM, janzin said:

Thanks @Soukous, yes it was all with the Z9 + 500PF.

Another epic set of images, what an incredible trip!

 

I am curious if you did much cropping, or if you felt like 500mm was enough to fill the frame? I'm debating bringing the 800mm PF for birds on a trip to India next year, and would love to hear your opinion. Did the local airlines give you much hassle?

[janzin]

2 minutes ago, WildSpotter said:

Another epic set of images, what an incredible trip!

 

I am curious if you did much cropping, or if you felt like 500mm was enough to fill the frame? I'm debating bringing the 800mm PF for birds on a trip to India next year, and would love to hear your opinion. Did the local airlines give you much hassle?

 

I likely did crop most images, as you know for small birds 500 is barely enough. I did have the 1.4 TC with me and probably could have used it at times but since we were walking most places it would have been problematic to put on and take off, so generally it stayed in the bag. The 800Pf would be great if you can carry it! Too heavy for me   We just got the 180-600Z lens which would be a perfect choice I think, especially if you are going for tigers as well. Where in India are you going?

 

As for the airlines, we had no issues with overweight (our camera backpacks were never weighed, although I did book Premium Economy on our Vistera flights which gave us a bit more allowance. It was only a few dollars more than economy. ) Be aware though that in India you will be required to take EVERYTHING out of your camera bag for airport security. And I mean everything--every lens, body etc. So pack with that in mind, make sure to keep your eyes on everything as Indian airports are quite chaotic!