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

31 Dec 13 - Nilgiri Bonanza

It took us a while to get out of the Highland Hotel car park, as Vinod had found one of the key Nilgiri endemics, Nilgiri Pipit, by the car as he was waiting for us to finish breakfast.

Nilgiri Pipit: This endemic Pipit is the size of a Blyth's Pipit. While superficially looking like a streaky Tree Pipit, the streakier appearance, buffy eyebrow, dark lores & lack of a malar stripe confirm it is a Nilgiri Pipit

Plain Prinia: A couple of birds were also feeding in the gardens

The early morning plan to try & beat the hordes to the top of Doddabetta Peak, almost failed at the first point as the entrance road was closed. So we walked the road before the traffic appeared, but only saw a few species in the conifers & bushes alongside the road. By the time we had arrived at the car park, the first of the local grockles were also appearing. While there were less Indian tourists than the previous afternoon initially, the place quickly got noisy as it warmed up. The highlights of the walk to the car park included more views of Grey Junglefowl & Gaur, as well as the Malabar race of Greater Flameback Woodpecker & several Tickell's Warblers (in addition to the species seen on the walk up on the previous afternoon).

At the top, I tried a small trail I found, but that proved to be very quiet & disappointing. Got back to the top to find Brian & Vinod had seen a Black & Orange Flycatcher (until it disappeared after being shouted at by 2 Indians) & another Nilgiri Pipit. Fortunately, the Nilgiri Pipit was still around & while I was photographing it, Vinod spotted a Nilgiri Woodpigeon nearby. To add to our growing Nilgiri day list we had several Nilgiri Laughingthrushes, as well as the first Nilgiri Shortwing.

Early morning views from Doddabetta Peak

Grey Junglefowl

Nilgiri Woodpigeon

Greater Flameback Woodpecker: This is a male of the Malabar race (which Clements doesn't split, but Rasmussen does as the endemic Malabar Flameback)

Nilgiri Pipit: This bird was at Doddabetta Peak

Indian Blackbird: Male

Nilgiri Shortwing: This endemic is also known as Nilgiri Blue Robin

Nilgiri Laughingthrush: Several individuals of this cracking endemic were seen

Tickell's Warbler: This locally common Phyllos is easily distinguished by the strong yellow wash to the supercilium & underparts and lack of any wingbars

Gaur

Rather than try Doddabetta Peak again, we decided to try the botanical gardens in the centre of Ooty. Ordinarily, this would probably have been a reasonable idea, but on New Years Eve it was heaving with people, making birding more difficult. However, we did see a couple of new Raptors for the trip & we probably wouldn't have seen much that was new at Doddabetta Peak.

Indian Pond Heron: Looks like this bird had a leg injury, which probably explained its approachability 

Bonelli's Eagle: Adult (See comments)

Bonelli's Eagle

Buzzard: A Raptor shape that will be more familiar to Dorset Birders. This is a Steppe Buzzard race which is a winter visitor to the Western Ghats

White-breasted Waterhen

Large Pied Wagtail

Outside the botanical gardens were some well stocked fruit & veg stalls

Unfortunately, there were no signs to indicate the history or significance of these cannons in the botanical gardens

A second cannon

A set of funky bins helped to keep the place cleaner than normal in India

After a while you stop being surprised by the sights you see in India