rayanon

It was a comedy of unfortunate events and bad luck. It was 2pm when we reached Munnar, which, we were supposed to reach in the morning. It had already been a long day, and we still had to travel around 90 kilometers more to reach Thattekad. We got down at Munnar, from there we had to catch another local bus to reach Kothamangalam, and from there another to auto to reach Thattekad.

Thattekad is a famous bird sanctuary in Kerala - home to the great Dr. Salim Ali and home to many endemic species of the Western Ghats including Sri Lanka frogmouth, Malabar Trogon, Malabar grey hornbill and many others. But an early morning fiasco and then a series of unfortunate events had set us back.

Amidst all of this, I could not help notice how beautiful Munnar was. It is a tiny tea-estate town and hill-station situated in the Western Ghats at an altitude of 1600m in Kerala. It is home to a number of endemic species of Western Ghats including the Nilgiri Thar, Nilgiri langur, Nilgiri wood-pigeon, Indian gaur, the grizzled giant squirrel and many other endemic birds. Munnar’s landscape seemed like a dreamy haze of some tropical utopian vision. Vast stretches of undulating sheds of green in any direction you look. And a not-so bright light illuminating all of the green from among the clouds. The vast hills of complete green, are actually tea plantations. All of them neatly trimmed and shaped to be aesthetically pleasing. Alteast that’s what it seemed like. I was appreciating Munnar while we were sipping on tea in the bus stand waiting for the onward bus to Kothamangalam and enjoying this beauty. I made a mental note to myself to come back to Munnar, even if just for the endemic species. Before we finished our tea, the bus started to leave. Hurriedly we payed the tea-shop and got on the bus.

It took another 2.5 hours for us to reach Kothamangalam. The bus from Munnar doesn’t go to Thattekad directly. You have to get down at a small town called Kothamangalam, and take an auto or another local bus from there. It was 4.30 pm when we reached Kothamangalam. We did not waste any time and took an auto from there. Thattekad is 12 km from Kothamangalam, which takes around 30 minutes to reach by an auto.

Finally, we reached Thattekad, the entrance of the bird sanctuary, at around 5pm. By now, we had already lost the whole day. According to our plans, we were supposed to reach Thattekad by late morning. We were upset and admittedly not in a good mood. First, we were very late and had lost the day. Second, the memories of the unfortunate events were still haunting us.

Our accomodation was in a homestay near Thattekad bird sanctuary. Atleast that’s what we knew. When we reached Thattekad, we discovered that it is not only close to the bird sanctuary, it is inside the sanctuary! Well, almost. It is just beside the boundary of the sanctuary. Meaning, there is a primitive barb-wire boundary between the sanctuary and the area of the homestay. So practically, it’s the same patch of forest! The bird sanctuary (and the homestay) is right amongst the deep broad-leaved evergreen tropical rain forest. Just beside the sanctuary, Periyar - the longest river in Kerala, flows by. Periyar is one of the widest rivers I have seen. There trees are tall and old. I’m very poor with identifying trees, and any name of the flora would have escaped me. But looking at the trees of the forest, it was very apparent that they were an old bunch of folks. The homestay is also the home for the family who run the homestay. We later found out that the homestay owner, Mr. Vinod, is also a naturalist, and has been birding since he was 7 years old.

When we were reaching the homestay we saw Mr. Vinod eagerly waiting at the gate for us to arrive. As soon as we arrived, we have not yet kept our bags, he announced that there are some Grey-fronted green pigeons and a Malabar grey hornbill in the fig tree right next to the house. I clumsily dropped my bag, grabbed my camera and ran outside to get a glimpse of the pigeons and the hornbill. Within seconds, I had forgotten all the woes I had from the early morning fiasco.

It was getting dark, but we still strolled around the homestay area and not surprisingly we found Malabar Grey hornbill, Grey-fronted green pigeons, Lesser hill mynas, White-bellied treepies, Grey junglefowls, Greater racket-tailed drongos and could hear lots of barbets calling. We also found egrets, a single grey-heron and a flock of lesser whistling ducks at a nearby pond.

From that point on we embarked on intense birding sessions from morning to evening, until the sunlight permitted, for the next two days.

Here is a video compilation of the birds we saw.