8 Jan 14 - Double Dipping

After a couple of days of planning the rest of the trip, I was itching to get out of Munnar & back into the field. I was down to a handful of tricky ticks left in the Western Ghats & the best plan to try & see some ticks, was another dawn attempt for Broad-tailed Grassbird on the mountain ridges around Munnar. This would be followed by an attempt to see Yellow-throated Bulbul, which is restricted to a couple of sites to the South of Munnar. Needing transport & local knowledge, Vinod had suggested I tried a local Munnar bird guide. Unfortunately, he was away guiding & I got his less experienced, & less interested in birds, side kick. Still he sorted out a jeep to get me to a different Grassbird site & which would take us onto the Bulbul site. Frustratingly, it turned out he only knew the road for the Bulbul, rather than the actual site. Consequentially, I wasted a lot of time trying to locate the area where Brian Gee saw them back in 1994 (which was about the most recent site information I could find). At the end of a long day of looking, it had been a good day's birding, but no success with either tick. But sometimes the result of doing well in an area, is the last handful of birds aren't easy to see & neither seem to be species that most trips even attempt to look for.

Early morning views from the Broad-tailed Grassbirds ridge

It was an early pickup to drive on rough tracks through the tea plantations to be on the top of the ridge for the Broad-tailed Grassbirds at dawn. Ironically, the first bird seen on the track in the half light and which seemed to be reluctant to leave it, was a White-bellied Shortwing. This was the last endemic we had spent a lot of time looking for around Munnar, before finally seeing it at Eravikulam National Park (see Nilgiri Tahr). Finally, we arrived at a posh looking eco camp & then walked up on the nearby ridge. Just like on the first attempt for the Broad-tailed Grassbird, there was plenty of droppings from Asian Elephants seen. I guess the extensive tea plantations on the hillsides, mean they have been forced into living on the woodland & grass covered ridges as this is the only remaining habitat for them.

The eco camp looked a good place to stay

Yellow-browed Bulbul

Ashy Prinia

Grasshopper Warbler: This was a bonus species when this individual popped up from the long grass into this small bush

Nilgiri Flycatcher

Tea pickers in the tea plantations as we were leaving: Interestingly, the tea pickers were always women

It was then time to head off to the Yellow-throated Bulbul site. The road winds for the first hour through a lot of tea plantations, before entering a lot more wooded areas. There were only a handful of birds seen en route.

It's amazing how this guy safely controls his bike

Cattle Egret: For once an uncropped photo of this roadside bird

Shaheen Peregrine: This is a distinctive rufous bellied subspecies of Peregrine. Sadly, the only photo I managed to get before it flew

Pied Bushchat: Male

Finally, I arrived in the early afternoon at the Yellow-throated Bulbul site. A long winding, steep sided road, at least 10 kilometres long, which drops down along the escarpment to an arid looking plain. The steep hill side is covered with areas of scattered bushes & rocky slopes. Without adequate directions, I got to the approximate part of the road & started walking down it for about 3 miles. I think I eventually found the area where Brian Gee had seen them in 1994, but despite a couple of hours of looking in late afternoon had no success. To make life more difficult they are only found in one attitudinal stretch of the road & the altitude Brian quoted was mistyped in his report as it is completely wrong for the corresponding kilometre posts. As the light started to fade, I gave up & headed back along the 2 hour drive to Munnar.

Purple-rumped Sunbird: This Male Sunbird lacks the maroon breast band of Small Sunbird

Loten's Sunbird: This Sunbird has a very distinctive long, curved bill

Striated Munia

Butterfly: Saw a few of this cracking Butterfly

Shieldbug

19 Dec 13 - Winter Sun?

Decided to escape the Christmas thing this year & have headed off to the Indian Andman Islands & the Western Ghats (SW India) with Brian Field. I've been on a few foreign trips with Brian in the old days, but this is the first time we've teamed up in recent years. As I had more free time on my hands that Brian, I headed out a few days early to acclimatise to the chaos of India & to allow me to get over the jet lag before Brian arrived. Flew into Calcutta with Qatar Airlines, via a short change of planes in Doha, Qatar. A remarkably straight-forward flight, with a mere 30 minutes from arriving at Heathrow T4 to being at the boarding gate. With some Asian airlines in the past, it's taken that long to just check the main bag in.

After all I've heard of India having changed massively in the last decade, it doesn't appear to have changed that much on the ground. Still the noisy, poor, chaotic country that I remember. Standards of driving remain unchanged, but more modern cars on the road now.

The Ambassador taxi: They seem to have been on the road since the days of the British Morris Minor (except the latter disappeared off the UK roads decades ago)

The Ambassador taxi: The inside decor isn't plush

There are some basic rules of the road when driving in Indian cities. To prove your car is roadworthy, you only need to beep your horn at least once a minute. Leaving any gap no matter how small is a sign of personal weakness. Taxi drivers are expected to disprove the laws of nature & try to fit their cars into any gap that's about half a car wide: again beeping the horn helps to bend the space-time continuum to allow this to happen. Stephen Hawking has yet to adjust the latest theories to explain this rule.

It's important not to leave a gap: to avoid another taxi squeezing in

There was little chance of seeing any ticks around Calcutta, given I've already spent 6 weeks birding in Northern India in 91 as well as a couple of Nepalese trips. Therefore, birding was planned to be a couple of laid back trips to local sites with the camera. First site was to Joka Marshes. This is a set of marshes, flooded fish ponds & scattered trees on the edge of the city in a semi rural area where there were plenty of small basic homes. Didn't manage to find the better area of marshes as the directions to the best patch of marsh are patchy on the internet. I explored the fish ponds until the track I was on just gave up as I reached the last of the houses. The people were friendly & surprisingly unfazed by seeing a tourist wandering around taking photos of the birds.

Indian Pond Heron: A common resident species in the local wetlands

Yellow Bittern: This species replaces Little Bittern in most of the Indian Subcontinent

Yellow Bittern: Males are separated from Little Bittern by the pale brownish not black, mantle

Little Green Bee-eater: A species many British birders will be familiar with from Israel trips

Ashy Minivet: Surprisingly this isn't on the Calcutta checklist. I'm sure it's just an oversight on their part as I can't believe my party of 3 birds are a city first

Ashy Minivet: They spent a lot of time just inside the canopy

Jungle Babbler: They often seem to have a hunchbacked appearance

Jungle Babbler: I do like Turdoides Babblers: they are generally obvious, noisy & full of character

Asian Pied Myna: Starling species are well represented in India

Purple-rumped Sunbird: I had forgotten how bright the females can get

As for the Winter sun, that was missing. Throughout my visit, there was a hazy smog over the city
which I'm assuming was a pollution problem, but the BBC news had mentioned it was foggy over large parts of the Subcontinent, so may be a mixture of reasons. Still it kept the temperatures down to a more pleasant t-shirt & shirt weather.