Kerala (Thattekkad- Munnar- Chinnar)-14th sep -21st sep.

Me and my Naturalist friends from different lodges went to visit Western Ghats for the first time. We started our journey from Fort Cochin. Seeing sea for the 1st time was very interesting for me.
There some of us saw Dolphins; we saw a few gulls and terns of which we could only identify Gull-Billed Tern.

Thattekkad

In Thattekkad we had great 4 days with Eldhose. We tried to cover many

habitats. We went to some special places like the one where we could see a lesser fish eagle.

Endemics like W.B.Treepie, Malabar Parakeet, Rufous babbler, M.Grey hornbill, Small sunbird and others like little spider hunter, Dark fronted babbler, Jerdons nightjar, Black wood pecker and Broad-billed roller were seen.

We freaked out seeing Giant-squirrels, Huge trees, and of course *Frogmouth*.

We saw 15 out of the 16 W.ghats endemics (except Nilgiri laughing thrush) in

the entire Thattekkad –Munnar-Chinnar trip.

We also saw a Malabar pit viper.

*In munnar*

We managed to see all Bird specialties like Grey-Breasted Laughing Thrush, Nilgiri Flycatcher     

Black & Orange Flycatcher               

Nilgiri Wood Pigeon, Broad Tailed Grass Bird,

White Bellied Short Wing

and Nilgiri Pipit.

Few other birds like Pacific Swallow, Pallid Harrier, Black Bulbul,

 

Brown Fish Owl, etc. were also seen.

 

 

In Munnar, Senthil and my old friend Sarvana took us to a place far from usual birding areas, where we could see few B.tail.grass birds, even on the way we saw few Nilgiri flycatcher, W.B.shortwing, Nilgiri wood pigeon & B & Orange flycatcher in a single visit.

 

We were lucky to get great sightings of the Nilgiri langurs, Dusky palm squirrel and Nilgiri Thars in Rajamala.

 

*Chinnar*

Grizzled giant squirrel 

was the definite highlight in Chinnar. We could also
see few rare birds like Yellow Throated Bulbul, Fairy Blue Bird and

Blue faced malkoha