After lunch in the Highland hotel, near Ooty, we headed off for our first visit to the nearby Doddabetta Peak. This is the highest peak in Southern India & is a popular tourist destination. Unfortunately, that lead to a lot of loud, noisy Indian tourists & made it more difficult to see the local birds.
We walked park of the entrance road & saw a few Nilgiri Laughingthrushes & Greenish Warblers. There is a narrow path from the car park, with some bushes & small trees, which leads to the main tourist viewpoint. There were a few more Nilgiri Laughingthrushes & Indian Blackbirds visible from this path. A few more species were seen from the viewpoint.
Doddabetta Peak: It says it's the highest peak, so it must be true
Views from Doddabetta Peak: The views are pretty spectacular
Food sellers: There were a number of food vendors at the entrance track to the peak
Nilgiri Tea shop: Guess the Tea Dust doesn't translate as literally as it doesn't sound very appealing
Nilgiri Laughingthrush: Good views could be obtained despite this endemic Laughingthrush being fairly skulky
Indian White-eye
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Indian Blackbird: Another recent Subcontinent split from Blackbird
Greenish Warbler: This worn individual didn't have any obvious wingbar
Pied Bushchat: Female
Grey-headed Flycatcher
Cinereous Tit: Another recent Subcontinent split from Great Tit
As we drove back to the hotel at dusk, we ran into the first Grey Junglefowls & a party of Gaur feeding in a field next to the road.
Grey Junglefowl
Gaur: Also called Indian Bison by the local population