Another day at Munnar with three lifers

Yet another day at Munnar. Most of the day was raining.  The light was very bad. Still I managed to bag five lifers. They are:-

1. Black Bulbul
2. Yellow-browed Bulbul
3. Crimson-backed Sunbird
4. Greater Flameback
5. Pale-billed Flowerpecker

Other species include:-

1. Common Moorhen (Tick for India)
2. White-breasted Waterhen
3. Grey Junglefowl
4. Long-tailed Shrike

The day mostly rainy.  Thanks to Salamikka for letting me stay at his house.  It is a beautiful place to stay and is in the middle of a JUNGLE.  All you have to do is sit on the living room with the windows open.  The birds comes to you!  It is one of the easiest birding trip I have done. I have seen all my lifers just sitting in this room.

All photos in this blog is copyrighted to Shah Jahan. Please do not use it without written permission. For more information please contact sjahanmi@gmail.com.

A patch of 100 meters

Kallamassey is located within the city limits of Kochi. I was told by a number of people about a particular place in Kallamessery where they have seen a lot of birds. So decided to give a visit to this called Birds Patch. I was accompanied by Anilkumar a colleague at my work.

I was surprised to see what I saw at this 100m or so Bird Patch.  And to my great pleasure, I had a couple of lifers too. The Indian Robin and Oriental Skylark.

All photos in this blog is copyrighted to Shah Jahan. Please do not use it without written permission. For more information please contact sjahanmi@gmail.com.

Black Kites at Mysore - Kozhikode Road

On my way back to Kozhikode from Mysore, I saw a large number of raptors flying above.  I stopped the car and found that the birds are circling one of the waste dump area.  Managed to photograph a few shots of Black Kite.

Ooty

Today at Ooty on the way to Mysore, took sometime for birding.  Nothing really great when compared to what Ooty can produce.  Again it was really raining and the whole are were wet.  Anyway here is what I got.

Truly tired Shah Jahan

Amazingly tired at work, I decided to take a break.  A break from everything that can help me boost my energy levels back.  But the million dollar question remains. Where do you wanna go today? (Hope Microsoft does not file a case for using that tag line!) 

The destination has become a problem.  Is it East Africa or South East Asia that I am going to hit?  Both has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, Tanzania looked like a big bonus when it comes to getting a visa.  I don't need a visa before in hand. I can avail the visa on arrival. But I have been to Kenya and recorded around 300 species of birds.  So Tanzania can produce another 50 if everything goes right.  Where as South East Asia requires visa, especially Malaysia.  But the good thing about Malaysia is that I have never visited Malaysia before!  So almost everything I see is going to be a tick for me.  Can I do 100 in 10 days?  That's just 10 species per day! It looks very much possible since almost all birds I see in Malaysia is a tick for me!

That's not impossible when I looked into some of the trip reports from the Web. Its going to be tough but I don't care. I am always tough when it comes to my holidays. The last visit to Kenya has produced around 200 species in just 10 days. I was like running. I traveled in the night and did birding during the day. And on someday I even birded on the night.  So I am a hard birder. I don't believe in luxury.  All I need at the end of the day is to see and photograph maximum species of birds. 

The target for the last year was to hit 1000. Due to my illness I have to push it to this year. It looks really far even for this year. It already mid of July.  I got around 6 months to hit another 400 species. I am not going to make it if I dont travel a lot.  Due to my hectic work, I think I can not achive this goal this year.  But I need to try. Try my level best to hit the 1000 mark. It is a dream.  1000 species of birds photographed!!! wow!!! 

Now coming back to the subject.  Is it East Africa or South East Asia?  That was the biggest question that I need to ask. Well, I finaly decided.  Its going to be Malaysia. I wish I could go to Thailand for a three days. So it is going to be 12 days trip. Can I afford to do that? Well,  I am not sure.  The good thing here is that Thailand unlike Malaysia does not require a visa before I travel. I can avail the Visa on Arrival facility at the airport. That makes my trip more flexible.

Now since I decided on the destination as Malaysia, I need to arrange the Visa.  Well, that is something that I need to do tomorrow.  I need to visit the travel agent and provide him with all the required documents so that he can arrange my visa in 5 working days time.  That means I can leave by next Thursday or Friday to Malaysia. 

I also need to book the ticket.  Air Asia is cheap.  Return flight from Kochi is around 15K Indian Rupees. But I need to finalize one thing before I do that. Can I afford to go to Thailand for three days? If I decided to do so, I need to book the ticket accordingly.  The plan as of now is as follows:-

26th July     COK - KUL

5th Aug    KUL-COK

Now comes the question about my itinerary once I am in Malaysia.  One place I don't want to miss is the Fraser Hills. I have heard enough about it.  It looks like its worth spending two or three days at Frazer Hills. Kuala Selangor is another place that I may include in my itinerary Well said that I am trying to contact some of the local birders for advice.  One other thing I need to consider is the commutation.  I was told by different people that Malaysia is one of the best places in the world for public transport. I hope it is true.  If that is the case I can travel during nights to different parts. It has its own advantages. It saves a quite a good amount of money.

Now one more thing I need to do is to make sure that I have my Bird Call Player ready before I start my trip to Malaysia. That requires a couple of days work. Hope I can finish it before I leave.

Well, thats all for now. I need to prepare a lot of things before I leave. I need to make sure that all my records are in place.  I need to create a checklist for Malaysia and mark the species I have seen.  Once it is done, I can finalize on my itinerary.

One more thought is going through my mind. Why cant I go to Indonesia? It is the second largest in terms of Bio-diversity with the most number of endemic species.

You never know. Man proposes and God disposes.

Testing The Bird Call Player - Part 2

Part 2 of the Testing The Bird Call Player.

Testing the Bird Call Player - Part 1

Decided to see how the Bird Call Player works on the field. Reached Munnar around 6:00AM and Saju was waiting for me.  Spoke to an Auto Driver and we started birding. Eleven lifers in one day. Do I need to say more? I guess not! We started looking for Indian Scimitar-babbler and got it within 15 minutes.  The hero here is the Bird Call Player.  It WORKS for REAL!!!

The day's lifers are:-

1. Black-and-orange Flycatcher
2. Blue-capped Rock Thrush
3. Common Rosefinch
4. Grey-breasted Laughingthrush
5. Grey-headed Canary-flycatcher
6. Indian Scimitar-babbler
7. Malabar Whistling-thrush
8. Nilgiri Flycatcher
9. Nilgiri Wood Pigeon
10. Tickell's Leaf-warbler
11. White-bellied Shortwing