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

Another eight to the List of Ticks

What a day?  Thank God, it was one of my best day as far as birding is considered. Eight lifers. I have been birding in UAE for the last three years or so and I can say this is the best day as far as the lifers in day is concerned. It was magical!

The ticks list now includes the following:-

1. Lesser Kestrel
2. Common Buzzard
3. Lesser Grey Shrike
4. Nightingale
5. Artic Skua
6. Flesh-footed Shearwater
7. Sooty Shearwater
8. Wedge-tailed Shearwater

It all started around 3:00AM. Directly to FNDH (Fujeirah National Dairy Farms) in Dibba. Its around 250+ km from home. Reached there around 7:00. Steve was already birding inside the fields. For some reason, I prefered to stay outside the field in the comfort of my car.  It was getting hot and I dont want to take my gear and walk. I already have problems with my hand. I was not ready to walk.  But it looks the laziness paid the bills.

The first tick for the day was a Nightingale. I have seen Nightingale before. But I never took a photo of it.  And it happened almost within five minutes of starting the birding.  That was cool. I wish everyday is like this!

There were also three Rofous Bush Robin, a spotted flycatcher and a beautiful Blue Rock Thrush in the same area along with a number of European Rollers.  All of them were very cooperative and never cared my presence near to them and allowed me to the take some shots.

Soon after 30 minutes I saw Andrew birding on the same patch. He was also in his car and told me that there are some Lesser Kestrels, one Black-headed Bunting and couple of Lesser Grey Shrikes around. I also told him about my findings and contined my way of road to find the above.  Found around 6 Lesser Kestrel (second tick for the day) and took some record shots and headed to where Andrew's Lesser Grey Shrikes were. I could not find either the Lesser Grey Shrike or the Black-headed Bunting.

From there I decided to go to the farms and join Steve. But on my way, on the fence, I found this beautiful Lesser Grey Shrike.  Mambo!!! Third lifer for the day.  He was also quite co-operative and took some shot. He moved to another branch and I followed him. He stayed there and I left him.

As I countinued, I found a Buzzard sitting on the ground. The camera was on the back seat and by the time I took my camera, the bird flew. Fortunately for me, the bird went and sat on a small tree near by.  It was a Common Buzzard, tick number four for the day.  Soon the crows started mocking him and he flew away in to  Oman!

The list of bird from Dibba (Skipping the normal ones) 

1. Lesser Kestrel
2. Common Buzzard
3. Lesser Grey Shrike
4. Nighingale
5. Willow Warbler
6. European Bee-eater
7. Red-wattled Lapwing
8. Rofous Bush Robin
9. Blue Rock Thrush

The time was around 12:00PM and it was time to go to Kalba, which is around another 100km.  The pelagic trip starts at 2:00PM.  When I reached there around 2:00PM, everyone was ready. Took my both cameras and into the Boat. Abudulla is the name of the captain who is now supposed to do the rest of the magic.

I was quite confident that I will get at least one lifer on the trip. The Artic Skua.  Soon after we started, we started seeing Persian Shearwaters in huge number. We must have seen around 1000 or more Persian Shearwater in a span of 3 hours or so. 

There were also a good number of Terns, mainly Bridled Tern and Common Tern.

We also saw a Red-necked Phalarope.

For me, the fifth tick came as a Sooty Shearwater. And we saw a total 13 of them during our trip which is one less than the UAE record of 14 by Steve (who was also in this trip). They are quite bigger than the Persian Shearwater and more dark. 

But my wanted bird still was not shown. I spoke to Ahmed about it and he said, its quite difficult to photograph them. Sometimes you see them but far and they fly very high.  But to our suprise, steve shouted that there is a Skua in front of us.  Yes, that was the bird I wanted, the Artic Skua. Lifer number 6 of the day.  The bird was resting on one of the floats and gave some time to get some average photos.

As we continued, again, there was a shout from Steve. This time it was a Pale-footed Shearwater.  The day was getting much better than I dreamed. Its the 7th tick (lifer) for the day. Got some flying shot (at least for the record).

It was end of the day. And Abdulla wants to do his part of the magic.  Steve found another rare bird. This time it was a Wedge-tailed Shearwater. Lucky me! The eight tick for the day.  The bird was flying away from us and some of us said "Oh Sh!t". Abulla started following him and allowed us to have some great time. He was directing the boat in such a way that he knows where the bird is going.  We did that for a good 10 minutes and we were able to watch him all the time.

List from Pelagic Trip

1. Persian Shearwater
2. Flesh-footed Shearwater
3. Sooty Shearwater
4. Wedge-tailed Shearwater
5. Artic Skua
6. Red-necked Phalarope
7. Briddled Tern
8. Common Tern

That was end of the day.  A great day. By the time I reached home around 10:00PM, I was so tired and didnt have any energy left.  Just hogged something and directly to bed.