2006 Tour Narrative
Our first morning’s birding, in the shola forests around the hill station at Ooty produced memorable encounters with a host of South Indian specialities – our first party of strutting Grey Junglefowl, our first demure Nilgiri and secretive Black-and-orange Flycatchers, our first furtive Indian Blue Robin, our only Nilgiri Blue Robins and our first troops of Nilgiri Langurs. Our first Painted Bush-quail encounter was possibly our best (but was still too brief) while our first White-cheeked Barbet took us a long time to find (in a tree with not too many leaves!) but then performed admirably.
The following day we descended a steep ghat road back to the plains, stopping to admire a pair of Malabar Parakeets, then Grey-headed Bulbul, Changeable Hawk-eagle, a marauding party of Bonnet Macaques and later a glowering Brown Fish-owl before an elephant encounter forced a premature departure. On to Jungle Retreat where Indian Pittas serenaded our dawn and a lucky few were treated to excellent studies of a party of normally very elusive Red Spurfowl but sadly there was no beer available with which to celebrate adding Jerdon’s Nightjar to our growing list. Tawny Eagle, Large Grey Babbler, Blyth’s Pipit and innumerable others were added next day before we saw a change of venue and pace as the moist tropical monsoon forest at Topslip beckoned and the wildlife certainly welcomed. A cosy pair of daytime roosting Ceylon Frogmouths, majestic White-bellied Woodpeckers, several parties of elusive Rufous Babblers and Malabar Wood Shrike were some of the immediate highlights and White-bellied Treepies abounded, as did Wild Boar – at times it was as much as we could do not to fall over the latter.
We were soon on the move on again to Rajamalai on the Eravikulam plateau. Our local guide had staked out a cooperative Malabar Whistling Thrush right outside our accommodation and this was just the first of numerous exciting encounters near Munnar. We’d no sooner arrived at the sanctuary than Kerala Laughingthrushes, a fantastically obliging White-bellied Blue Robin and several Nilgiri Pipits were seen. Even the park’s Nilgiri Tahr obliged. Another guide then took us to a site for Nilgiri Woodpigeon and soon found us our quarry. A party of exceptionally inquisitive Wynaad Laughingthrushes welcomed us to Periyar where other goodies included Malabar Thrush, Western Crowned Warbler and a heard only Ceylon Bay Owl.
For those staying on for the extension it was time to fly east to Chennai and out to the tropical Andaman Islands for a marked change of pace. Dawn on the Andamans was earlier, significantly earlier, than on the mainland and we made the most of the daylight, rapidly finding on most of the available endemics. Some, such as the Andaman Bulbul and Andaman Flowerpecker were common and easily found while others like the Andaman Teal certainly weren’t, but even they eventually gave themselves up and we came away having seen no less than 56 teal! Andaman Crake, normally the most elusive of the Island’s endemics, even obliged on two consecutive days. We had equally superb views of the typically evasive Andaman Woodpigeon and even managed to reel in all of the night birds – Andaman Scops Owl first, then Andaman and Hume’s Hawk Owls, Andaman Nightjar and finally the endemic subspecies of Oriental Scops Owl. Superb stuff and what a gorgeous supporting cast of White-collared Kingfishers, Edible-nest Swiftlets at zero feet and Black-naped Orioles at almost every turn…a great way to end off a very successful and enjoyable tour.
Paul Holt