The Deskbound Birder: India

Showing posts with label India. Show all posts

Friday, 1 December 2017

Andaman Islands and Western Ghats - 30th November and 1st December (Days 6 & 7)

30th November
Today we had a lie-in and were up at 05:45, packed our bags and headed to Port Blair Airport for our flight to Chenai landing at 10:45. We then had a 2.5 hour stop-over in Chennai before our 13:30 flight to Coimbatore. We landed in Coimbatore, tamil Nadu at 14:45 gathered our bags and boarded our bus that was to be our home for the rest of the trip. It was overcast and raining but the fall in humidity and drop in temperature after our time on the Andaman Islands was most welcome. The 96 kilometre drive north to Ooty began on the relatively flat lands around Coimbatore before climbing steeply through the hills eventually reaching 2,000m on winding roads passing through forest patches and tea and coffee plantations. The weather closed in and the dry conditions turned to fog and moderately heavy rain as we climbed. We arrived at the hotel Taj Savoy on the outskirts of Ooty, Tamil Nadu at around 19:00 checked in and then settled down to some Kingfisher beers and curry. We crashed at 23:00 having watched some fairly gloomy weather forecasts showing a large Cyclone that would pass up the west coast of India giving wet and windy conditions for the next few days at least.

Coffee stop near to the Mettupalayam viewpoint

1st December
I had a sleepless night in our hotel in Ooty due to the heavy rainfall and strong winds and the dawn had not brought a significant change in the weather conditions. We were up at 06:00 and headed out at 06:30 but didn’t get far before we came across a tree that had been brought down power lines only 100m from our hotel. Sparks were flying from the touching wires and we decided it best to head back to the hotel for breakfast to allow the tree to be cleared. Breakfast was a fantastic buffet and I enjoyed beans on toast and fruit. At around 08:00 we ventured out to the Cairn Hill Park a short distance to the south of the Taj Savoy Hotel on the southern edge of Ooty. The rain was lashing down and fog filled the air and it was a struggle to bird. After around 1.5 hours slogging around in the rain we had managed views of stunning Black-and-Orange Flycatcher, Nilgiri Blue Robin and Greater Flameback of the subspecies socialis, a possible split as Malabar Flameback but we saw little else and the views were gloomy. We then headed east of Ooty on the road to Ottabettu and stopped at a steep ravine for Nilgiri Thrush, it was steep, slippery and dark and we had no luck but did have fleeting views of Nilgiri Laughingthrush. We then headed to the carpark at Doddabetta View where, in the torrential rain, we soon had good views of Nilgiri Laughingthrush and Indian Blackbird coming to food around the various stalls. Now soaked, we headed back to the hotel to pack bags and load the bus for our journey to Mudumalai.

Taj Savoy Hotel, Ooty

Large-billed Leaf-warbler - Cairn Hill Park, Ooty

Grim birding at Cairn Hill Park

Nilgiri Laughingthrush - Doddabetta View, Ooty

Indian Blackbird (male) - Doddabetta View, Ooty

Indian Blackbird (female) - Doddabetta View, Ooty

Indian Blackbird (male) - Doddabetta View, Ooty

Market at Doddabetta View, Ooty

Lady in market at Doddabetta View, Ooty

The journey to Mudumalai took around four hours and we passed through tea and coffee plantations and colourful mountain villages. The weather began to clear and the rain eased and we were hopeful for the afternoons birding. We arrived in Mudumalai at around 15:30 just as the rain began to fall and the fog moved in. We spent the afternoon getting soaked as we wandered the grassland and scattered trees to the south of Masinagudi. It was fairly tough going but evidently a very birdy area highlights were three Malabar Lark, a Brown Fish-owl flushed from its roost and Jerdon’s Leafbird. Other species included Yellow-billed Babbler, Yellow-eyed Babbler, Paradise Flycatcher, Hoopoe, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Common Hawk-cuckoo, Alpine Swift, Indian Swiftlet, Paddyfield Pipit, Sykes’s Warbler, White-browed Fantail and Spotted Owlet. Come dusk we loitered around for the Nightjar hour and at 18:30 Jijo blasted the Jungle Nightjar recording and within a short while a bird responded from the adjacent hillside so off we went slogging up the wet and muddy hillside until the bird was calling at around 50 metres distant. Jijo soon picked the bird up calling from the track and had it in the spotlight. It was apparent that there were several birds calling in the vicinity and we eventually had good views of a couple of birds. On the descent back to the car we picked up a smaller and browner nightjar in the torches, this was an Indian Nightjar and we eventually had views down to 30cm in the torch light. We were at our lodge, Jungle Hut, by 19:30 and enjoyed a fantastic curry dinner. As we were enjoying a final beer a crash from the hotel grounds and a bull Indian Elephant had strolled in and was busy destroying one of the trees in the lodge grounds. We enjoyed fantastic views of this impressive animal at close range from the balcony of our room.

Motorbikes Gudalur Town

Vegetable stand Gudalur Town

Shoe repairs Gudalur Town

Vegetable seller Gudalur Town

Malabar Lark - Mudumalai

Sykes's Warbler - Mudumalai

Spotted Owlet - Mudumalai

Our local guide at Mudumalai

Mudumalai habitat

Jungle Nightjar - Mudumalai

Indian Nightjar - Mudumalai

Indian Nightjar twitch

Asian Elephant - Jungle Hut, Mudumalai

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)

Saturday, 25 November 2017

Andaman Islands and the Western Ghats - Background and Day 1

Background
I had never really had any major inclinations to visit the Andaman Islands or the Western Ghats but when Ian Merrill contacted me and asked if I was interested, always one for a birding trip if time and wife permit, I enthusiastically agreed. So having scanned the gen the standout birds for me were probably going to be Black-and-Orange Flycatcher and a good number of Owl and Nightjar species. There were a potential 110 or so ticks for me but I thought that if I got 90 - 100 ticks that would be good going.

The Andaman Islands are an archipelago of islands located in the Bay of Bengal belonging to India although closer to Myanmar. The Adaman Islands are the summits of a submarine mountain range which extends to the south and east to form the Nicobar Islands. The capital of the Andaman Islands is Port Blair and around 350,000 people live on the island group. The highest point is Saddle Peak at 732m. HBW Alive currently recognises 19 endemic species from the islands with a further four (Barn Owl, Oriental Scops-owl, Plain Flowerpecker and Long-tailed Parakeet) as potential future splits.

The Western Ghats are a mountain range in south-west India running parallel to the west coastline, with Anamudi the highest peak at 2,695 m. The range starts near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra in the north and runs approximately 1,600 km south through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu ending at Swamithoppe, near Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India. The mountain chain is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been identified as one of the most biodiverse regions of the World. HBW Alive currently recognise around 25 endemic species from the region. There are, in addition, at least another five well defined subspecies that may be split in the future and these were also high on our list of priorities to see.

The taxonomy that we generally adopted during the trip was that of HBW Alive. Based on current HBW Alive taxonomy we had the potential to see all of the endemic birds of the Andaman Islands and the Western Ghats with the following exceptions;

Travancore Laughingthrush – Occurring to the south of where our trip visited and so similar in appearance to Palani Laughingthrush that we excluded it from the itinerary.
Banasura Laughingthrush – Occurring to the north of our proposed route and we didn’t have time to incorporate it.
Broad-tailed Grassbird – We had just one evening session for this species and our guide Jijo, at the outset, had indicated we only had a 5% chance of seeing this species since outside of its breeding season it is exceptionally elusive.

Logistics
The entire trip was booked through Kalypso Adventures. I had little involvement in the itinerary, this was mainly done by Ian, but the brief was that we basically wanted to see as many of the endemics as possible! Kalypso were very responsive and the trip was very well planned with just the right amount of time to see all the birds at each of the sites.

At the very outset we had requested that Kalypso provided the services of Jijo Matthew as our bird guide. Jijo was recommend by Bird Tour Asia and he proved to be an exceptional guide. He has a thorough knowledge of the birds (although he freely admits waders are not his strong point and that he prefers the forest birds) and is a great character to spend the birding day with. He knows the birds and the sites well and is well connected to ‘scouts’ working separately to locate some of the trickier species, particularly some of the night birds. He is the ‘go-to’ guide for the Andaman Islands and the Western Ghats and probably a large part of southern India. If you are planning a similar trip to this then Jijo is the guide for the job, our group could not recommend him highly enough.

My travel companions for the trip were Ian Merrill, Andy Deighton, Barry Wright, Volkert van der Willigen and Clive Garland. I had travelled extensively with all but for Clive, it was great to spend time with the team and to meet Clive and we had a very amiable group.

Weather
The weather during the trip was very variable. In the Andaman Islands it was hot and humid at around 28c but on the coast there was often a more cooling breeze. Around Ooty we had an entire day of heavy rain and wind and low temperatures such that a fleece and rain jacket were just enough to keep one self warm. Our first afternoon at Mudumalai was much the same but perhaps a little warmer while on the second day it was brighter and pleasantly warm. The Munnar area was generally sunny and pleasantly warm while Perinar and, particularly, the Thattekkad area were warm to hot and humid.

Annoyances
Generally this was a very comfortable journey with no health issues encountered and hygiene standards were good. We encountered very few biting insects, a few mosquitos on the Andaman Islands but generally these were in such low numbers that they did not cause significant issues. We found leaches to be fairly uncommon with only parts of Perinyar warranting the use of leech socks, unless one is particular paranoid. We also encountered them in small numbers around Munnar but again, to me the odd leech bite is of no great concern and I was not tempted to wear my leech socks. We came across evidence of Elephant at many sites and it goes without saying that one needs to be extremely aware of the possibility of encountering them, the same should be said of Gaur.

Photography
Photographic opportunities on the trip were not fantastic as is usually the case with forest birding. Either the conditions were very dark due to overcast conditions and heavy canopy cover or birds were above us in the tree canopy. There is always an excuse for taking crap pictures, nothing to do with the skill of the photographer.

I took with me my Canon 1DX Mark II, Canon 400mm DO Mark II and a Canon 1.4 Mark III Extender. I also took my Canon Speedlite 580 EXII flash. Largely this combination was suitable for the conditions. I generally removed the extender when in the forest and when using the flash for night birds.

Summary Itinerary

25th November (Day 1) – International flight from London Heathrow.
26th November (Day 2) – Landed Chennai then flight to Port Blair on the Andaman Islands. Birding PM at Kalathang. Night Hotel Fortune, Port Blair.
27th November (Day 3) – Birding at Kalathang and Chidiatapu on the Andaman Islands. Night Hotel Fortune, Port Blair.
28th November (Day 4) – Birding at Kalathang on the Andaman Islands. Night Hotel Fortune, Port Blair.
29th November (Day 5) – Birding at Flat Bay area and Chidiatapu, Andaman Islands. Night Hotel Fortune, Port Blair.
30th November (Day 6) – Travel day from Port Blair to Ooty. Left Port Blair at 08:30 to Chennai then fly to Coimbatore landing at 14:45. Drove to Ooty a journey of 90km arriving at 19:00. Night at Taj Savoy, Ooty.
1st December (Day 7) – Birding around Ooty in the morning then drive to Mudumalai a distance of 35 km. Afternoon birding Mudumalai. Night at Jungle Hut, Mudumalai.
2nd December (Day 8) – Morning birding around Mudumalai then drive back to Ooty (35 kms) stopping at a couple of sites en-route. Night at Taj Savoy, Ooty.
3rd December (Day 9) – Early morning birding around Ooty and then drive south to Munnar a journey of 250km. Stopped at Chinnar Wildlife Park en-route. Arrived at Munnar at 20:30. Night Hotel Tea County, Munnar.
4th December (Day 10) – Birding in the high altitude grassland (sholas) above Munnar in the morning. Afternoon birding above the Deshaden Mountain Resort. Night Hotel Tea County, Munnar.
5th December (Day 11) – Drive from Munnar to Kumily and the Periyar Tiger Reserve a distance of 90km with some birding en-route. Arrived at Kumily at 13:30. Afternoon birding at Periyar tiger Reserve. Night at Abad Forest Hotel in Kumily.
6th December (Day 12) – All day birding around the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Abad Forest Hotel in Kumily.
7th December (Day 13) – Drive from Kumily to Thattekkad, a journey of 120 km. Some limited birding en-route. Arrived at Thattekkad at 14:00. Afternoon and evening birding around Thattekkad. Night Hornbill Camp, Thattekkad.
8th December (Day 14) – All day birding around Thattekkad. Night Hornbill Camp, Thattekkad.
9th December (Day 15) – Morning birding at Thattekkad then drive to Cochin Airport for 18:00 flight to Chennai. Night in Hotel Accord, Chennai.
10th December (Day 16) - International flight with British Airways departing Chennai at 07:30 and scheduled for landing at London Heathrow at 13:30.

Map showing the key sites and species within the Andaman Islands (click the map to enlarge it). Some endemics are common such as the Drongo and Bulbul and these are not shown in the text boxes as they are frequently encountered.

Map showing the key sites and species within the Western Ghats (click the map to enlarge it). Some endemics are common such as the Indian Swiftlet are not shown in the text boxes as they are frequently encountered.

25th November (Day 1) - International Flight
My British Airways flight to Chennai (formerly Madras) from Terminal 5 London Heathrow was scheduled for departure at 14:20 but on check-in I was told that it was running 10 minutes late. After buying a few bits I headed to the BA lounge where, to my dismay, the flight was now scheduled for a 15:40 departure, this would have been fine but for the fact that I had a fairly tight domestic flight from Chennai to Port Blair on the Andaman Islands. After speaking to the BA staff they suggested a 06:45 arrival with my domestic due to depart at 08:15. This left little time to clear customs, collect my bags, check into the domestic and make my way through departures – pressure now on! Anyway, there was little I could do but to make my way to the complimentary BA bar and then make sure that I did not miss my flight from Heathrow. So I found a seat, grabbed some lunch and wine and began genning. Once in the air we headed south-east over Europe, the Black Sea and over the Middle East passing over Karachi in Afghanistan and routing over Ahmadabad, then passing east of Mumbai towards Chennai.

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)

Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 8th to 15th February - Background and Day 1-2

Background
Since a very young age one of my favourite bird groups have been the Bustards. I am not quite sure why as they are basically overblown chickens but there is something about their stately manner, shy character, often amazing courtship displays and open vista landscapes in which they occur that appeals. Of the 26 species (in accordance with HBW) of Bustard the IUCN list seven as Near Threatened, four as Vulnerable, two as Endangered and two as Critically Endangered. Having seen one of these Critically Endangered species, Lesser Florican in June 2015, I had read about the terrible plight of Great Indian Bustard in Birding Asia (Collar, N.J., Patil, P.S., & Bhardwaj, G.S. What can save the Great Indian Bustard, Birding Asia Number 23, June 2015) and was very keen to see this species.

The Great Indian Bustard is very closely related to Australian Bustard but differs in its larger size and on some minor plumage characters such as reduced white spotting in the black wing panel, all black crown lacking the white eyebrow of Australian and unbarred white neck of the male. It is primarily found in Rajastan in India with smaller relict populations in South-east Pakistan and areas of west and central India being formerly more widespread. The Great Indian Bustard has suffered a catastrophic decline over the last 30 years or so. Once the species was found in a range of scattered reserves and sanctuaries but one by one these populations have dwindled and disappeared to the point that now the species can only be seen, semi-reliably, in Desert National Park (Rajastan) where park guards reported to us during the current trip that only 49 birds remain. A military area to the north of Desert National Park supports a population but I am not aware that the size of this population is known and the area is difficult to access. The reason for this decline is not fully known but is likely to be a combination of factors from habitat loss and modification, excessive disturbance, predation of eggs and chicks, hunting, collision with obstacles such as pylons and wind turbines (of which there are many in the vicinity of Desert National Park) etc. The creation of closed areas within Desert National Park may, in my opinion, be counter productive to a degree in that these areas seem to support very dense grassland where scrub encroachment may result in the habitat becoming unsuitable. The outlook for the species is indeed bleak.

In addition to Great Indian Bustard there were a number of other targets that the trip offered. I have long wanted to see all of the Crane and Wheatear species of the world, with perhaps the exception of Somali Wheatear for obvious reasons (although recently trips have been recording this species in Somaliland which is said to be relatively safe to travel in – but you wouldn’t get me there!). The trip provided me with the chance to see two new Crane species, Sarus Crane and Demoiselle Crane, and two new Wheatear species, Variable Wheatear and Red-tailed Wheatear. These four species were high on the target list.

Sarah and my time to complete the trip was limited as Tobias was being looked after by my dad and step mum and while many combine the trip with a trip to the Great Rann of Kutch for species such as Hypocolius, Marshall’s Iora and White-naped Tit we could not afford this time. My priority was Great Indian Bustard given its Critically Endangered status and so we decided to visit Desert National Park in Rajasthan and Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. These sites are located in the west of the country to the east of the Pakistan border.

The trip was organised by Asian Adventures, the same company that organised our trip to see Lesser Florican. Our guide for the duration was Ganesh Adhikari, his birding skills were fairly good and he knew where to find the key bird species I wanted to see. We also had a driver for the duration. Asian Adventures charged £750 per person for the two of us plus international flights and items of a personal nature. We stayed in the best hotels available in the two areas and it would be possible to stay in reasonable hotels and reduce this cost further. I think this was a fairly good price and if you were able to get a small group together the individual cost could be reduced further. The trip was well organised with a good car, the only problem we had was the delay of our internal flight outbound which meant we missed an afternoons birding at Khichan for Demoiselle Crane but this was not to matter in the long run.

Map of India showing location of Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch in the west of the country to the east of the Pakistan border

Itinerary

8th February (Day 1) – Fly London Heathrow to Delhi departing at 11:20 and arriving at 01:15. Night in Shanti Palace Hotel Delhi.
9th February (Day 2) – Fly Delhi to Jodhpur with Air India departing at 14:15.Drive Jodphur to Jaisalmer (4 hours). Night Fort Rajawada, Jaisalmer.
10th February – Day birding in Desert National Park. Night Fort Rajawada, Jaisalmer.
11th February – Morning birding Desert National Park. Afternoon sight seeing Jaisalmer Fort. Night Fort Rajawada.
12th February – All day drive Jaisalmer to Dasada. Night in Rann Riders Hotel. Today we passed from Rajastan to Gujarat States.
13th February (Day 6) – Birding Little Rann of Kutch AM and then Napatalav PM. Night in Rann Riders Hotel.
14th February – Birding around Vanod then 18:30 flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi. 03:40 flight from Delhi to London Heathrow landing at 07:30 on 15th February.

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 8th February (Day 1)
After a sleepless night due to the pounding of our house by Storm Imogen we were up at 04:00 and headed for London Heathrow at 05:00 arriving at around 06:30. We then relaxed in the British Airways Club Lounge waiting for our 11:20 flight to Delhi. The flight went smoothly and I managed a few hours sleep while Sarah watch films (Steve Jobs, The Crays and Straight Outta Compton).

Desert National Park and Little Rann of Kutch, India - 9th February (Day 2)
We landed at 01:15 but it took an absolute age to get through the new eVisa system in Delhi airport and by the time we collected our bags it was gone 03:00. We met with the Asian Adventures rep and after unsuccessfully trying to withdraw cash (we withdrew 20,000 Ruppee of the 79,100 we needed) we headed to the Shanti Palace Hotel where bed was very welcome. However the night was a relatively sleepless with paper-thin walls and neighbours who were up at 05:30. We stirred at 08:30, had breakfast of fruit, cornflakes and curry. We were then transferred to the airport. Delhi was thick with traffic, and the smog was thick reducing visibility to a few hundred metres. We saw our first Black Kite, Shikra and Jungle Myna. Our 12:40 Air India flight to Jodphur was unfortunately delayed until 14:15 and while we relaxed in the airport we saw Black-shouldered Kite and Pacific Swallow.

We met our Asian Adventures guide, Ganesh, and driver and headed through the colourful streets of Jodphur with fruit stands and ladies in rainbow Sari’s amid the dust, dogs and innumerable plastic bags that blight the Indian landscape. Then as we left the city the countryside became a flat mix of scattered scrub, grassland and small crop fields and from the car we saw White-cheeked Bulbul, Variable Wheatear (both new species seen as blurs from the car), Ring-necked Parakeet, hundreds of Collared Dove, Laughing Dove, Black Kite, Steppe Eagle, Griffon Vulture, Red-wattled Lapwing, Indian Roller and Common Babbler. The town of Baldasar was a notable village that we passed through with deep marble quarries and the roadside piled high with crafted slabs of marble ready for export and local trade. The town of Pokharan was a typical dusty and litter strewn village where local people sold vegetables, repaired vehicles and shaved faces while dogs, cows and pigs sifted through the roadside waste. We eventually arrived in Jaisalmer at around 21:00 and checked into our very grand hotel the Fort Rajwada, after some repacking ready for tomorrow we crashed, too tired to have dinner.