21 Jan 14 - Goodbye Gujarat, Hello Rajasthan

A dawn start as we had a 490 km drive from CEDO to Mount Abu. We would also be crossing an Indian state line. Vehicle registration is often on a state by state basis & therefore vehicles travelling into a different state need to sort out extra paperwork & of course pay some money. Armed with all the papers, it wasn't more than a few minutes for Shiva to sort this out & to get the car legal for the rest of the month in Rajasthan. This is partially a road tax payment & was a relatively modest cost, but failure to sort this out, could lead to a bigger fine if you were checked by the police. The office was just a voluntary pull in at the state boundary & it wasn't that obvious, but Shiva was well aware he needed to sort this out. Armed with the extra papers we were quickly on our way. The roads for the journey were good most of the way, with fairly empty toll dual carriageways (often costing about 1 Rupee per km). Despite looking like empty motorways, there seemed to be nothing to stop who used them, so often local farm traffic appeared on them for local journeys.

Overladen tractor

Mount Abu is an interesting place in India as it's one of the most Northerly places for birds & mammals with a predominantly South Western distribution. It is also one of the best sites for the Indian endemic Green Avadavat. This is a really good looking uncommon Estrilid, which has a wide range (on paper) in Central India, but generally in areas that are off the beaten track for birders. Mount Abu is one of the few sites that can be fitted into a Gujarat/Rajasthan trip, albeit with a lot of driving.

Mount Abu: Looks interesting forest, but was fairly quiet for birds

Finally in mid afternoon after 6 hours of dull driving, we had reached the base of Mount Abu. The road winds steadily upwards onto a hillside of dry forest, which was a nice change after the agricultural fields & arid scrub of the plains. We tried a couple of short stops, but didn't see a lot of birds.

White-eyed Buzzard: Immature

Indian White-eye 

White-bellied Drongo

Southern Plains Grey Langur: This was the commonest wildlife on the road up Mount Abu

Southern Plains Grey Langur: Whilst looking cute & innocent, like all habituated Monkeys you need to keep an eye on them to avoid them getting into the car or trying to grab something

Shiva was concerned about the extra passengers 

Map of Mount Abu: A confusing maze of roads & not to scale. We wanted the Peace Park in the top right. Turns out the distance from the Peace Park to Trevor's Tank, the next point on the map, is further than the distance to our hotel in town (at the bottom right corner)

After finding a reasonably priced, but unremarkable, hotel we headed out for the last couple of hours of light. The main birding site is next to the Peace Park. We headed off in that direction, but stopped to bird around a scrubby & wooded hill side above a lake. I wasn't surprised, when we later visited the lake to find the edge covered in broken glass bottles. Gujarat is a largely Muslim & dry state. In comparison, alcohol is commonly available in Rajasthan & it seems that it is expected to throw the empty beer & whisky bottles so it smashes.

Ashy Prinia: Well marked adult

Ashy Prinia: Immature with well marked barring on the undertail tips

Tailorbird

Taiga Flycatcher: Male. Also known as Red-throated Flycatcher. This is a colder grey bird than a Red-breasted Flycatcher. Photos of an subadult male RBF can be found in an earlier blog (A Cracking Woodpecker at Jungle Hut)

Taiga Flycatcher: Male. The extent of the red seems to vary on Taiga Flycatchers & this is about the maximum seen. The red would extend further onto the breast if it was an RBF

Taiga Flycatcher: Male. The tail & upper tail coverts are blacker than on an RBF & again the colder grey upperparts are obvious

Taiga Flycatcher: Male. The all black bill is another good feature (it would be pale based on an RBF)

Indian Black-lored Tit: Also known as Indian Yellow Tit

Indian Black-lored Tit

Rufous Treepie

Yellow-throated Sparrow

Five-striped Palm Squirrel

In the late afternoon, we carried on along the road & found the Peace Park. There was a chance for a quick exploration of the small arable village behind the Peace Park which is one of the best areas to see the Green Avadavat, but no joy with the Green Avadavat.

The small village by the Peace Park

The small village: It's very traditional

The small village overlooked a set of small fields

3 Jan 14 - On The Road Again

All too quickly our time at Parambikulam had come to an end after a day & a half of excellent birding. That's the drawback of trying to get around the Western Ghats on a tight schedule. Still we had seen a good selection of species & were steadily getting to see the Western Ghats ticks. We were up well before dawn again, ready to try & figure out the occasionally calling Owl that had been calling erratically over the previous 2 nights. Success close to dawn this time, only to realise it was a Jungle Owlet. So as well as being a diurnal hunting Owl, it is also calls erratically & moves around quite a bit at night. At least, that explained why we didn't recognise the call, as we only had copies of Owl calls that were ticks (& there is no internet access at Parambikulam to have checked the other species). I skipped the opportunity to take more Jungle Owlet photos, so I could finish packing as it was an early breakfast & departure as we had a long drive to Munnar.We were on the road soon after dawn, only to be stopped at the park entrance barrier between Parambikulam & Top Slip. Still this gave me a chance for a few bonus photos until the guy appeared to open the barrier.

Greater Coucal: Supercifically similar to the noticeably smaller Lesser Coucal. Greater Coucal is found in a wide range of habitats, whereas Lesser Coucal is an Elephant grass specialist

We were soon on our way again with the next stop being around the Top Slip exit (entrance) gate where we spent some time looking for Sirkeer Cuckoo which Vinod had seen here in the past. But no joy on this occasion. Most of the time was spent right next to the entrance gate or around a small temple just inside the Top Slip Tiger Reserve.

The Hindu temple just inside the entrance gate

The temples are usually very colourful

There are always a lots of gods involved at these temples

Another god

The nearest I got to seeing a snake on the Indian trip

Spotted Owlet: The temple guardian was keeping an eye on us

One of the things I've found since having the Canon, is I'm often quick to pick it up & blast away with the camera & occasionally, the bird then disappears & I realise I haven't looked at it properly. This occurred by the entrance gate when we saw a group of Babblers in a bare field next to the entrance gate. I got a series of photos without looking at the birds & as they moved off, I ran to catch up with Vinod & Brian. I knew the photos would confirm the identification when I looked at them & it was a pleasant surprise when I was selecting the best photos for this blog to realise they were the first Large Grey Babblers of the trip & the only ones I saw in the Western Ghats. But the positive side of having the camera, I have frequently looked at the photos & seen a lot more detail on the birds, than I would have seen in the field, especially with birds in flight, like yesterday's Indian Swiftlets.

Hoopoe: I can never get bored of photographing Hoopoes when they are as bright as the Indian birds

Black-headed Cuckoo-shrike: Male

Black-headed Cuckoo-shrike: Pair

White-browed Bulbul: They often seem to have a scruffy look around the head

Blyth's Reed Warbler: Got my eye in now for finding one in Dorset this Spring. The eyestripe which fades just after the eye, the lack of a dark eye line, the long bill & the calls all help to make this a distinctive Warbler

Blyth's Reed Warbler: This shows the short wings & the distinctive looking up posture as they are always looking around everywhere as they skulk around

Large Grey Babbler: The yellow eye, dark lores & dark bill help to identify this Babbler

Rufous Treepie

Ants Nest: This was over a foot across 

After a couple of hours of driving through uninspiring, degraded farmland, we had a short stop at a lake by the roadside. It was good to stretch the legs, but always with one eye on the ground as this was rural India & lake edges tend to be used as toilets. Unfortunately, we could only look into the light, which didn't result in great photos.

Dabchick: Unlike their British cousins, these birds were in the middle of their breeding season

Dabchick: Junior was a bit shyer

Lesser Whistling-duck: With a Coot for size comparison

Indian Spot-billed Duck

Garganey

Garganey: A different individual

Booted Eagle: Light phase

An hour later we arrived at Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. This is a dry county area, which has a good patch of riverine forest alongside a small river. We had a local guide to take us for a 90 minute walk in the hope of seeing a Forest Eagle Owl that roosts along the river, but we had no success. However, there were some good birds seen to compensate with the best being a Legge's Mountain Hawk-eagle.

Chinnar was a dry & arid reserve

But Chinnar had a great patch of riverine forest

Legge's Hawk-eagle: This is a recent split from the North East Indian & South East Asian
Mountain Hawk-eagle. Whilst clearly a Hawk-eagle, we ended up having to check it against the excellent OBC images website for confirmation it was Legge's & not Changeable Hawk-eagle. The short wing & primary projection compared to the tail, helping to confirm the identification

Grey-bellied Plaintive Cuckoo

Golden-fronted Leafbird

White-browed Fantail

Asian Paradise-flycatcher: The elongated tail feathers on this male are longer than the body & tail combined

Pale-billed Flowerpecker Nest: Brian & Vinod had seen the adult building the nest, but it had departed by the time I saw it

Indian Giant Squirrel: Taxonomy of these Squirrels is complex, but Vinod thought this was a different race to the ones we had seen before in the trip

Tufted Grey Langur: I bet this Tufted Grey Langur would rather have the Mark Knopfler look

We left Chinnar in early afternoon to continue the drive to Munnar. The next stop was a cold, windy forest pass about an hours drive before Munnar where we had a short stop.

Speckled Piculet: Piculets are the smallest sub-family of Woodpeckers & at 4 inches long are great to see, especially as most Western Ghats trips don't seem to see this species

The final stop of the day was in the Munnar area to look for some of the Munnar goodies.

Unfortunately, tree cutting is a common occurrence in India for firewood & building materials

There is more extensive bushy habitat on the hillside

Nilgiri Flycatcher: One of the common Munnar goodies

Kerala Laughingthrush: Another fairly common Munnar speciality