Thursday, February 7, 2013

Sholas And Shortwings; A Birding Trip Report by Krishna Girish

SHOLAS AND SHORTWINGS

 It seemed weird the day when my sister came up to my mom and started complaining that she had never seen a zebra, lion, tiger, or giraffe in her life. This was out of the blue; we had just gone to Mysore Zoo a few years ago, and I remember her enthrallment when she saw the giraffes there. Since Bannerghatta, Bangalore's local zoo, didn't have giraffes, we decided to go to Mysore Zoo. Anyway, it was the Dasara vacations, and there was a solid week left. I gave a suggestion that we go to Wayanad in Kerala from Mysore, driving all the way!

The entire family agreed, and so, the itinerary was made. We were to start driving at 9:00 AM and go to Mysore, then go through Bandipur forests into Kerala, to a town called Thalapuzha, and then to a resort called 'FringeFord'. And so, we began, taking stops to stretch at various places. Our hotel in Mysore, 'Ginger', was reached and we stayed there. A tiring day was spent at the zoo, which had various crowd-pullers like giraffes, lions, tigers, and yes, you guessed it, zebras, much to the delight of Medha. We went to sleep in 'Ginger' and then woke up the next morning. We picked up our stuff, packed them in the car, and bid adieu to our room at Ginger. My dad had maps printed, and following that, we were on our way. Bandipur was the biggest excitement at the beginning of the trip but turned out to be the biggest disappointment. We reached there at the peak of the afternoon and so, all the birds had gone into hiding. We drove through. Kerala was at its usual; tall coconut trees and houses with earthen tiles. I observed the names of each town we passed through, and I found some weird names (these are translated from Malayalam);

Kooduthummal:Too much sneezing
Pannamaram: (actually Panamaram) Bad Tree
Talapoya: If your head goes
Meenangadi: Fish Market

In addition to these, we also saw a bus called Daliya, which was a dish my mother makes!
Thalapuzha was a small town; we went to a Bharat Petroleum Bunk on its outskirts and were soon met by Shabbir, the owner of FringeFord, who led us to his house and told us that we couldn't take our car there; we had to leave our car in his house and we would go 10 more kilometres to FringeFord. We readily agreed; little did we know what was in store for us. Shabbir's car was a big one; it accommodated all our luggage and most importantly, us. The seemingly little 10 kilometre road to FringeFord was, undoubtedly, the worst I've ever had in my life. The road was INCREDIBLY BUMPY; and we were tossed about like crazy. The scenery was the only actual compensation for the 'road that never should be traveled'. We caught our first sights of FringeFord only when we had around a kilometre-and-a-half left to go; tiled roofs; and a dense cover of trees covering the mountains around it like a carpet of green, with an occasional flash of red leaves coming into view. FringeFord didn't have much; two rooms for visitors, a kitchen, an open dining hall, an office, a hammock, and a house for the guide to sleep. Even more surprisingly, only four people organized the entire place; a cook, Muthuswamy, who had worked for 45 years as one, Shabbir, the owner, Shaji, the experienced guide, and a helper who put the food on the table and called us to eat. It was relaxing for my sister, who spent most of her time there in the hammock. It was me who encountered the first danger of the few days we were spending there. I was lying barefoot in the hammock when I looked down at my shoe and saw a tiny wriggling thing. "Look!" I called, "There's a worm in my shoe!" The guide, Shaji came and told me that was no worm but a leech!!! He took a salt stick and knocked off the leech to the ground, killing it. The evening was productive and we went birding for the first time. The route we came seemed much better on foot than by car. The birding was good, and we saw species like the elusive Emerald Dove, Vernal Hanging-parrots, Malabar (blue-winged) Parakeets (endemic), Malabar Grey Hornbill, the incredibly hard-to-find Indian Pitta which appeared only for a second, and the noisy Black Bulbul, amongst others. Without going out of Fringeford, evening birding was superb, Shaji and me seeing species like the Large and Malabar (black-headed) Cuckooshrike, Greenish Warbler, Forest, Yellow, Grey and White-browed Wagtails, Yellow-throated Bulbuls, and Jerdon's and Gold-fronted Leafbirds. Brown Shrikes were fairly common. My dad birded with Shaji and me, having no work to attend to as there was no mobile coverage. We noticed a small bluish bird with a rufous belly hopping around in cardamom plants, its call nothing like Shaji had heard in a long time. When we returned to FringeFord, we consulted the all-knowing 'Book of Birds of South India', me having left my Birds of Indian Subcontinent Field Guide back at home, and as Shaji flipped through the pages, he mimicked the call he had heard, just to be sure. Then, he finally opened a page and said, "It's this one." I gasped. A Nilgiri Blue Robin!

The Nilgiri Blue Robin, Myiomela major, initially, along with the White-bellied Blue Robin, was called the White-bellied Shortwing. Both the Blue Robins are endemic to the Shola forests of the Western Ghats and are, according to the IUCN Red Lists, are classified under ENDANGERED.
Quoting Wikipedia,
The Nilgiri Blue Robin (Myiomela major) refers to a kind of bird endemic to the Shola forests of the higher hills of southern India, mainly north of the Palghat Gap. Both the White-bellied Blue Robin and this species were once treated as sub-species of a single species (Brachypteryx major) and in 2005 were elevated again to full species by Pamela C. Rasmussen, a treatment that is followed by a few lists. The genus placement remains uncertain. This small bird is found on the forest floor and undergrowth of dense forest patches sheltered in the valleys of montane grassland, a restricted and threatened habitat. It requires an altitude of above 1200m.

Dark-fronted Babblers were numerous. As I went to sleep at 8:00 PM in pitch darkness, I thought about how many birds I'd have to update to my life list. It would definitely be more than ten, enough to see 200 in India alone. My eyelids dropped, and I was awake at 6:00 AM the next morning. FringeFord had come alive with raucous calls of Black Drongo, Black Bulbuls and White-cheeked Barbets. Paddyfield Warblers chirped in the branches of the lone mango tree in Fringeford.

Shaji told us that we were to go on an 8-km jungle trek to a waterfall. Shaji had showed me the last night pictures of his previous treks to the waterfall. He had seen Blue-capped Rock-thrushes, Mountain Imperial-Pigeons, and many others. I wanted to see all those, and so, agreed to come. My sister also came with my mom and dad. Hill Mynas were seen at the beginning of the trip. As we progressed, the air became slightly thinner but the vegetation did the opposite. Brown Shrikes, Little Spiderhunters, Blyth's Reed Warbler, Asian Brown and the uncommon Rusty-tailed and Brown-breated Flycatchers were just some of the birds seen. A large wild Gaur was also seen for a brief second. Upon nearing the waterfall, a tall tree gave us a huge surprise, a Malabar Trogon sat on a branch, showing us its red stomach. Nilgiri Flycatchers were found in large numbers along with a few Verditer Flycatchers as we got near the waterfall. The waterfall was big, very big. Medha found a black and yellow frog on a rock as we neared the waterfall, and Shaji, holding it in his hand, observed it carefully and finally declared that this was a new species, not known to science. He took plenty of pictures, then let it free near the waterfall. As we proceeded on the journey back, two Black-and-Orange Flycatchers, a Black-throated Munia, and an Eurasian Golden Oriole were part of the crowd of birds seen. The Mountain Imperial-Pigeon decided to stay hidden and one of the birds I wanted to see was not seen on the waterfall trek. As we reached back, a Crested Goshawk patrolled the skies. That evening, when I was lying tired in the hammock, a Mountain Imperial-Pigeon flew across the skies far. I was thrilled, but the evening had one last surprise to come. An investigation of a chirping noise from a bush resulted in the sighting of another endemic of the region; a Broad-tailed Grassbird! Junglefowls called to send the sun down, and I thought I was done; the next morning was the morning of our departure.

A lie in the easy chair the next morning resulted in the close-up of a Malabar Parakeet and another endemic; the Malabar Barbet! A Common Flameback pair also sat on another tree.
The time to go made us all sad. For me, it meant no more endemic birds; for my father, it meant back to building a house; for my mother, it meant no more relaxing, and for my sister who had the gift of prophecy, it was another bumpy ride! Medha was right; the road was as bad as it was three days ago. We went back to Shabbir's house and went into our car. While coming back, we went through Nagarhole, the other route back to Bangalore. Nagarhole was a super place; we saw plenty of Chital deer and three elephants, all wild. There were two female elephants and one male 'tusker'. A Greater Racket-tailed Drongo and a Black-rumped Flameback were seen in unison in this forest. Large Grey Babblers and Jungle Prinias were also seen. We had a VERY late lunch; at 3:00 PM at Kamat Lokruchi in Ramnagaram. We touched down in Bangalore, tired but happy, and went back home, reminiscing about the few incredible days that had just passed.

(We went to Wayanad on 29 and 30 September 2012)










1 comment:

  1. Krishna -

    great post! Your writing has a natural flow that captivated me. I was transformed into the bounty of the hills as I saw these pictures and was rudely shaken into my work desk as my cell phone rang..too bad. Original expressions and pretty accurate reporting. Love the style. Keep it up young man - there's a mountain of potential waiting to come out of you. May you thrive in Divine grace.....best ! Sridhar - (have shared this story link on Twitter

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