Mudumalai

After another leisurely breakfast we left a misty and drizzly Ooty and headed down into the foothills and our next base at the edge of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. Along the way we stopped to check out some Hill Swallows, much to Roy’s delight and then continued lower, stopping to admire a couple of endemic Nilgiri Langurs. 

Nilgiri Langur

The going was slow along the winding road but eventually we passed into the reserve and started seeing a few new birds, with a cracking Crested Hawk-eagle and our first Brahminy Starlings and Indian Black Robin. 

Crested Hawk-eagle

Having been slightly worried by the name of our next lodge, simply called Jungle Huts, my imagination had been running riot and I feared the worst – but upon arrival we were all pleasantly surprised. A couple of neat blocks of rooms in some well-wooded sprawling grounds were very clean and comfortable, and we even had hot showers! A Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher greeted us and as our host tried to show us to our rooms we became distracted by a flock of Orange Minivets and a Taiga Flycatcher. After lunch we drove a short distance and then walked along a lane and into a very open forest where we were shown a White-naped Flameback in its nest hole, and had some very good views of another one flying around and perched in a bare tree. The same spot also had Coppersmith Barbet, Bay-backed Shrike, a lovely Indian Nuthatch and a Streak-throated Woodpecker. 

Streak-throated Woodpecker

Unfortunately the low mist covering the surrounding crags materialised into rain and we had to take shelter a couple of times in people’s houses! So our attempt at Jerdon’s Bushlark didn’t end to our liking and we had to settle for a few Malabar Larks and Yellow-throated Sparrow instead. 

One of the local guides accompanying us took us to a day roosting Savannah Nightjar and we also had nice views of an adult Bonelli’s Eagle flying over and perched in a big tree, as well as Yellow-crowned Woodpecker. By 5.30pm we had had enough, drenched to the bone and thankful of Francis (our driver) suddenly appearing in his minibus. 

Oriental Scops-owl

Before dinner I spotlighted a Brown Fish-owl in the garden and eventually an Oriental Scops-owl as well – our 12^th species of owl on the tour so far.....
 

Ooty

We dropped into the Botanical Gardens after a late start and quickly picked up Velvet-fronted Nuthatch and a superb male Blue-capped Rock-thrush, but the recently reported Kashmir Flycatcher failed to appear. 

Blue-capped Rock-thrush

So we checked out a few sites for bush-quail, one of which was alongside a lake where Indian Spot-billed Duck was seen, as well as another Black-and-orange Flycatcher. Then a short drive to an open, close-cropped grassland area gave us Brahminy Kite, and more importantly at least 4 Malabar Larks. 

Malabar Lark

After a great lunch in a local restaurant we spent the remainder of the day on bush-quail duty but turned up a big, fat zero so retired early to our luxurious hotel and made the most of the facilities, as the rest of the week was going to be a full one!

Ooty At Last!

Right before sunrise a few of us were lucky enough to get the Mottled Wood-owl in the scope just as it headed off to roost, before we set off on a little walk around the local vicinity. A few new birds were found starting with Common Woodshrike, followed by Black-shouldered Kite, Red-throated Flycatcher, Siberian Chiffchaff and White-browed Bulbul. Other birds seen included Grey Francolin, Shikra, Asian Paradise-flycatcher, Common Iora and others. After breakfast we set off on the long 5 hour journey to the hill station of Ooty, noting Wire-tailed Swallow, Brahminy and Black Kites along the way. As the road began winding its way up into the hills the temperature dropped quite quickly and a bumpy last stretch of road took us to a viewpoint teeming with people. 

Black-chinned Laughingthrush

Indian Blackbird

But behind the stalls selling all manner of goods, lots of rubbish and wasted food had been thrown and here numerous Black-chinned Laughingthrushes and Indian Blackbirds were present, feeding on the scraps. The latter species is now a good split from Eurasian Blackbird and is quite different as you can see from the above photo. They even came up to the stalls on occasion to scrounge for more food. Amazing!  

Nilgiri Blue Robin

Nilgiri Blue Robin

It took a few minutes longer to get onto Nilgiri Blue Robin, but sure enough we did and enjoyed great views of this little skulker.  This used to be called Nilgiri Shortwing and it's hard to fathom why it was ever called that considering its jizz and behaviour! But it's a great little bird all the same and one of my favourites on the tour so far. And that was it but we hung around for a while enjoying repeated views of all these species before heading off to a great hotel and fabulous buffet dinner.

Moving on to Topslip

So this was the morning of our attempt for Broad-tailed Grassbird, a hike up the mountain to the rocky, grass covered steep slopes just visible from our hotel. 

Grassbird habitat

The day dawned bright and clear and the hardy few made it without too much bother and as I suspected the grassbirds weren’t tape responsive, probably due to too many birders/groups visiting the same site. We did get brief tail-end views and Jeff had a conclusive view of another bird but it was far from satisfactory, and all we really had to show for our efforts up here were a couple of Tickell’s Leaf-warblers, Ashy and Plain Prinias and a pair of Black-throated Munias. The walk down did give us nice looks at Indian Blue Robin and we flushed a small quail from beside the path that called agitatedly for ages in the undergrowth that must have been a Painted Bush-quail, but failed to show.

Nilgiri Flowerpecker

We also had Nilgiri Woodpigeon and Nilgiri Flowerpecker to add interest this morning before returning to the hotel and packing up for the drive to our next hotel at the base of the mountains that leads to Topslip – which as I said earlier is closed. Great! 

This is the Olive Brook Hotel

The drive took upwards of 4 hours during which we stopped for our packed lunch, and then again when a small herd of Indian Elephants were causing a parking melee and again later for coffee and ice-cream for some. Better them than me – well for the latter anyway. Good luck with that then! But we passed through varied scenery of huge rolling, forested hills before reaching the plains and passed through Chinnar National Park and then Animalai Tiger Reserve where Hanuman Langurs and Bonnet Macaques preyed on innocent parked cars. As we approached our nice digs a covey of Grey Francolins ran across a small field and after checking in we heard and had brief silhouetted flight views of a Mottled Wood-owl and also heard an Indian Scops-owl.

A Good Day!

The day got off to a flyer with a pair of really confiding Indian Scimitar-babblers calling back to my ipod before breakfast! 

Malabar Whistling-thrush

After our best breakfast to-date and extremely close views of a perched Crested Goshawk, Malabar Whistling-thrush and Grey Junglefowl we headed up to Eravikulam National Park via use of the park’s shuttle bus service which ferried us and thousands of local Indian tourists as well during the course of the morning. 

Eravikulam National Park

But it didn’t seem to put the birds off and after admiring the fantastic scenery and the endangered  Nilgiri Tahr, had a close encounter with a pair of Kerala (Grey-breasted) Laughingthrushes that perched up nicely for us. 

Nilgiri Tahr

Kerala Laughingthrush

We walked uphill for about a kilometre and spent some time in a shady, damp area where a couple of Black-and-orange Flycatchers showed closer than yesterday’s bird. A White-bellied Blue Robin was also seen, and Nilgiri Flycatcher was also quite obvious. 

Black-and-orange Flycatcher

Other birds up here included Black Eagle, Long-tailed Shrike, Dusky Crag-martin, Hill Swallow, Plain Prinia, Tickell’s Leaf-warbler and Blue Rock-thrush. It was quite astonishing when Sudeesh asked the shuttle bus driver to stop for  minute as he had spotted an Indian Jungle Nightjar perched on a branch above the road, much to the amusement of the locals on board. But a great spot anyway. 

Indian Jungle Nightjar

Returning to the hotel for a quick lunch we then headed up to the Gap Road and spent a while searching for Painted Bush-quail at the rubbish dump area and succeeding in finding a couple of Nilgiri Pipits before continuing on. 

Nilgiri Pipit

At a certain spot we tried for Yellow-throated Bulbul and nailed it within 2 minutes! What a result! 

Yellow-throated Bulbul

So we returned along the same route, stopping to spotlight a pair of Brown Fish-owls and finally made it back to the lodge for 7.30pm.