22 Jan 14 - A Pretty Endemic

It was a cold start at first light as I headed off towards the Peace Park. Bill had abandoned the morning due to a stomach problem he was struggling with. The first stop was the scrub & forest above the lake we were birding around the previous day. I was hoping to find some bird flocks & wasn't disappointed.

Large Green Barbet: Also known as Brown-headed Barbet

Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker

Red-whiskered Bulbul: This is the abuensis subspecies which is paler & has a broken breast band compared to the Western Ghats fuscicaudatus race (see The Highest Peak In Southern India posting)

Red-whiskered Bulbul: The abuensis & fuscicaudatus races have pale tails, without black & white tail tips which are found in most other races

Grey-breasted Prinia: They loose the grey breast outside of the breeding season. Adults reminded me of a Lesser Whitethroat sp. until I see the tail length

Grey-breasted Prinia: The immature birds are more rufous coloured than the adults

Hume's Yellow-browed Warbler: This is the nominate humei subspecies

Blue-capped Rock Thrush: Male

Jungle Babbler

Indian Scimitar-babbler: I was pleased to get some longer views & photos of this species as only had short views in the Western Ghats

Indian Black-lored Tit

Moving on closer to the Peace Park, I found a more open area of grassland surrounded by scrubby bushes. Exploring this area produced my first Sulphur-bellied Warbler: feeding in low vegetation, before it moved on to feed on the open grass. Also an interesting record of a Steppe Buzzard which flew through before perching up for the camera. Steppe Buzzards (one of the Eastern races of Buzzard) are Winter visitors to the uplands of the Western Ghats, so presumably they must migrate through this region. However, the Rasmussen guide doesn't show it as a wintering species in Rajasthan.

Buzzard: This looks like a Steppe Buzzard to me. Note, the pale, but not extensive flashes to the primaries). There would be more extensive white contrasting with the rest of the upperwing on Long-legged Buzzards

Buzzard: This size & shape looked like a Buzzard & it has a dark tail (typically rufous in Long-legged Buzzard) & streaky dark belly of a Buzzard

Buzzard: It perched up for more views. Long-legged Buzzards would have a paler head

Greater Coucal

Sulphur-bellied Warbler: This species has a distinctive feeding habit low to the ground or often on the ground

Sulphur-bellied Warbler: The distinctive yellow supercilium (especially in front of the eye), pale grey brown upperparts & strong yellow wash to the underparts are all important features for this species 

Sulphur-bellied Warbler

Finally, I got to the Peace Park around mid morning. Decided to try a nearby hotel just before the entrance for some breakfast, after which I headed to the start of the small village behind the Peace Park. After finding my first two Spot-breasted Fantails in the village, I was still struggling to find any Green Avadavats (which others have seen around the village). Therefore, tried plan B, a long & extensive walk around the small fields, followed by crossing a small river beyond the fields & exploring the far bank (which included having to walk through a temple complex). As a result, I found a small lake which had a good selection of commoner Wildfowl & a Woolly-necked Stork. Finally, I reached a road which allowed me to get back to the far end of the village. A quick walk through the village & I was back at the Peace Park end again.

Another view of the village

For once a cow wandering around looked in the right place

Cow pats: Indian style green energy (or is that brown energy?)

The fields were all small with a number of large volcanic rocks in them

The fields all had crops growning in them 

Woolly-necked Stork: Unfortunately, it flushed as I walked past the lake

Wildfowl on the lake: I can see Cotton Pygmy-goose, Gadwall, Teal, Pintail, Pochard, Tufted Duck & Coot

Grey Wagtail

Indian Black Robin: Immature male

 Indian Black Robin: Female

Black Redstart

Spot-breasted Fantail: It's smaller than White-browed Fantail, has a narrower breast band with white spots & no white wingbar

Spot-breasted Fantail: A recent Subcontinent split from White-throated Fantail & also known as White-spotted Fantail

White-bellied Drongo

Yellow-throated Sparrow

Yellow-throated Sparrow: With Indian Silverbill

Long-tailed Shrike

Five-striped Palm Squirrel 

Finally, I got back to the start of the village & looked around the area again & spotted a family party of 3 Green Avadavats: mum, dad & a youngster. They are great looking birds & a good localised endemic to see.

Green Avadavat: Male

Green Avadavat: Male

Green Avadavat: Female

It was early afternoon & time to head back to the hotel to see how Bill was getting on & whether he was fit enough to head out birding. Fortunately, he was & so we were heading back to the hotel by the Peace Park for some late lunch. We managed to relocate the Green Avadavats, some Sulphur-bellied Warblers & Spot-breasted Fantails again, before exploring further up the road above the Peace Park. This looked good habitat for Red Spurfowl & soon Bill's tape gear had one calling from the far side of a small ravine. A fair bit of scanning across the ravine & I picked it up calling from a small clearing: my fourth tick for the day. We carried on further up the road, but saw little else of note.

Bill & Shiva in the last warmth of the day

Bill & myself looking slightly less cold than Shiva

4 Jan 14 - Birding With Coffee

Munnar is about 1450 metres a.s.l. & therefore it was a cool start to the day, especially as the first morning in Munnar was spent on one of the surrounding hills with a pre-dawn start as we were after the elusive Broad-tailed Grassbird. After a couple of hours of looking, we had briefly had a responding call to the tape, but then it shut up. Outside of the breeding season, they are not easy to find & it seems to be a bird more birders don't expect to get, so not unduly surprised about our lack of success.

Vinod was prepared for the cold weather: But actually, it warms up pretty quickly when the sun comes out

Even though there were no Grassbirds, the views were spectacular

The early morning sun finally creeps over the top of the hills onto the coffee plantations

Another view of the plantations

The grassy upper slopes had very few birds, so no compensate for the lack of Grassbirds. But birding picked up as we started to walk down the road, from where Georgie the driver had dropped us. The whole hillside was a series of extensive coffee & cinnamon farms. Both crops are shade loving species & need big trees above them to shelter them from the sun. In turn, this provides a lot of cover & different heights for birds to feed & we saw a good selection of species. This is a contrast to tea estates which are a fairly monoculture hillsides as they like the sun & they don't get grown with other crop species. The morale of the story is we should all drink more coffee & less tea, as it's probably a lot better for wildlife, but something I'll struggle with.

There are lots of tea estates in the hills around Munnar

Our hillside had a lot of tree cover to provide shade for the coffee & cinnamon

Coffee beans growing

In best Blue Peter fashion, here are some coffee beans already picked & drying in the sun

Nilgiri Woodpigeon

Yellow-browed Bulbul

Square-tailed Black Bulbul: Yet another split since I last visited India. This species is split from the Himalayan Black Bulbul & is restricted to the Western Ghats & Sri Lanka

Tickell's Warbler

Blue-capped Rock Thrush: Female. The lack of dark scaling on the mantle & wing coverts rules out if being the Nilgiri race of White's Thrush 

Nilgiri Flycatcher

Southern Hill Myna: This Western Ghats & Sri Lankan species is split from Hill Myna of Northern India & South East Asia