Home sweet home…

Olichuchattam falls as viewed from my backyard

After a very long hiatus… I’m back on WordPress. A lot has happened since i last logged in here about 4 years ago. Our family has grown. We have a son, he’s almost 2 years old now. He keeps us busy and we don’t travel like we used to before….

Also…. we have finally fulfilled a long cherished dream of ours. A small house in the lap of the mighty western ghats. Anakkampoyil is a small village about 45kms from Calicut. Drive uphill from there for about 4 km and you reach a place called Karimb. Another kilometer uphill and that’s where we have our small house.Its about 600 meters above mean sea level, ensuring fantastic climate (depending on your apetite for heavy rains)

Mobile and internet connectivity are poor and non existant respectievely, and that means more time spent on soaking in the views and climate…

A black eagle hovers in the mist

The mists and rains are constant companions throughout the year. The place is blessed with fresh water streams originating from pristine forests which start from about a kilometer away from our house. Clear days provide us with spectacular views of the Vellarimala range from our yard. Birding is fantastic….and so is the wildlife apparently. Elephants , Sambar , and many other wildlife visit our neighbours who live closer to the forest boundary. I’ve not yet mustered the courage to go for a night walk.

Moonrise over Vellarimala

I will try to keep updating/boring everyone with few sights from our patch of paradise.

 

Frogs and Frogmouths

On Oct 2nd, the Malabar Natural History Society ( MNHS ) along with the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department and, The Zoological Survey of India conducted a Frog Survey at  the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary.Now while I am primarily a birder, and Herpetology not my usual cup of tea, I jumped at the chance of exploring the insides of the wildlife sanctuary at night.

So, along with my friends Riyan ( Asst.Prof in Zoology) and Sudheer ( Physician), we set out from Calicut at around 4:15 pm. The route we took was, Calicut-Thamarassery-Poonoor-Thalayad-Kakkayam-Kakkayam dam (entrance to Malabar WLS) . We made it just in time by 6:00 pm, when the rest of the team were disembarking from their vehicles.

After a quick cup of tea and refreshments at the dorms, we were given a brief introduction and objectives of the day’s survey by Dr.Jafar Palot ( ZSI and Hon.Sec of the MNHS). We were also in the esteemed company of Dr. Varad Giri of the BNHS and Satyan Meppayur of MNHS. Other members from the MNHS and BNHS has also come for the survey.

Ceylon Frogmouth | Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary(Kakkayam), Calicut | 2nd Oct 2014 The frog survey conducted by MNHS yielded a superb bonus….lots of frogs and this Frogmouth !!! It was a thrilling experience to hear the calls of the Frogmouths ( Many of them) in the crisp clean night , accompanied by the million frog and insect sounds… We had taken precautions by using torchlight ( and not a flash) and high ISO ( ISO 3200) to click this image.Though this might still have caused the bird some inconvenience,we left it on its way as soon as we managed this record shot. Many thanks to the excellent spotting skills of Riyan Konkath, and DrSudheer Mullakkal

Eagerly we set out and were soon set upon by the million leeches which are present in the rain forests at this time of the year.While the herpers,came well prepared with gumboots, headlights etc, we birders were not so well prepared and did not join them when they waded enthusiastically into the streams and pools inside the bamboo thickets.

Raorchestes ochlandrae (Ochlandrae reed frog) is a species of shrub frog in the Rhacophoridae family. It is endemic to the Western Ghats, India. This species of the oriental shrub frog was described from Kakkayam Reserve Forest of Calicut district, Kerala state, in the southern Western Ghats. ( Wiki) This was perhaps the prize catch of the night, and worth the numerous leech bites all over my body.

We stayed on the main path sufficiently thrilled to hear the calls of the very rare Ceylon Frogmouth. We even managed to spot and photograph one while the Herpers were finding many rare endemic frogs.The survey went on long into the night and finally we all trudged back to the base camp around midnight for a delicious dinner of steaming hot rice and sambar and pickles prepared by the foresters. As it was a working day the next day we drove back the same night a reached our homes by around 2:30 am.

I must put in a serious word of appreciation for the remarkable spotting ability, dedication and determination of the herpetology group.They are just too good, unmindful of the leeches and terrain, including negotiating small waterfalls at night, they kept on in full enthusiasm searching and finding frogs well into the night.

I must also give thanks to the gentlemen of the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department, who were fantastic guides and wonderful hosts, staying up so late into the night to take care of our group.

A Himalayan Sojourn.

In late August 2013, my dear wife started reminding me that she had applied leave for a week, in November. She wanted us to do something more exciting, than our usual jaunts to the jungles of Southern India. I suspect she’s had enough of Tigers and leopards (What with the resident 100 kg Tiger she sees every day at home..!!! ) As usual, I enthusiastically agreed at that time, and conveniently forgot all about it till mid October.

Mid october…
Wife: Vineeth, so where are we going then ?
Me: I have it all figured out, We’ll do 2 days in Bandipur, 2 days in Kabini, 2 days in BR hills.
Wife: That is something we can do any weekend, I specifically said something different !!!
Me: What??!! Why ??!!! This is such an awesome plan !!!

Wife : You Moron !!! I had given you enough time to plan,chuck everything and lets stay home…Pffftt

Me: (Panic)  Lets do Leh !!! we’ll call up Vivek(my brother) and do a week-long trip to Leh.
Wife : Now you’re talking….

So we call up my brother, and he agrees( What a sport ! ) as he too has leaves pending and so we plan….flights,hotels, destinations…..

Late october…
Bro calls up and informs that he has to leave to Singapore on an assignment…all plans go for a toss.

We still wanted to see the Himalayas,and perhaps do a bit of birding…So I mentioned Pangot and Sattal, birding hotspots in the Himalayan foothills in Uttarakhand.
Reshma agrees, so we call up the guys at Asian Adventures, who handle the bookings for Jungle lore Birding Lodge at Pangot and Sattal Birding Camp at Sattal. We dealt with Mithun, who was very professional in chalking up an itenary which suited our needs.
The plan was that , we reach Delhi airport, get picked up by our guide Shyam Sharma, and driver Adeshji. Reach Pangot and spend 2 nights there, move on to Sattal and spend another two nights in Sattal.Efectively we’d have five days of sightseeing and birding.We were to have a Toyota innova all to ourselves for all 5 days…Airport to airport.

So we transferred the money, booked air tickets from Bangalore-Delhi-Bangalore,leaves finalised in my office….and oh,bought a new Canon EOS 70D for the trip.No more fighting for the SLR, I was to use the 70D and the 4005.6 and Reshma the 500D and the 100-400.

So we are all packed and ready to go to Bangalore( we planned to reach one day before to do some last-minute shopping).Our Karnataka KSRTC multi axle Volvo is scheduled to depart from Calicut at 2200 hrs.Around 1700 hours we see news flashes of violence and rioting on the Calicut-Bangalore road due to opposition to the Kasturirangan report. We hope it’s not too bad and keep our fingers crossed.Around 1900 hours we hear in the news that its going to be hartal in Kerala ( equal to a Bandh) from midnight. We still hope to travel…
Around 2000 hrs we get a message that our bus has been CANCELLED !!!
Panic sets in….we have visions of all our money going up in smoke. Nevertheless we decided to check out the bus station  at around 2130 hours or risk driving the car to Bangalore( yeah we were desperate…)
As we reach the bus stand we find a Kerala ksrtc ordinary bus ( believe me..ordinary it was) bound for Bangalore leaving…I ran up to the driver, and luckily he says seats are available and he will wait for us to bring our luggage…very few people wanted to travel that night.
We desperately drag all our luggage into the bus and finally start our adventure !!!  The bus took a long detour avoiding the problem areas, and very late into the night managed to cross into Karnataka, unscathed.

It takes crazy ass mallus to handle crazy ass mallus…no one else would have risked driving that night.But we had serious money at stake here…worst case we might get stranded on the highway…The bus was originally scheduled to depart at 2000 hrs.The stars and planets were on our side….Some seriously brisk driving over some atrociously bad roads, made for a bone jarring ride…

We finally reach Bangalore in the morning, much earlier than we thought we’d reach, shop for gloves/skullcaps,thermal inners,  new camera bag…and call it an early night.

Our cab picks us up at 3am,and after another brisk  and hair raising drive ( putting it mildly ) reach airport before 4 am…well in time for the 6 am flight to Delhi. Our flight thankfully, is on schedule and lovely weather greets us in Delhi when we finally land around  9 am.
We find a dude wearing a cowboy hat and dressed in the manner of a hardcore wildlifer/ desi cowboy  waiting for us at the airport.

Shyam Sharma is not your typical guide…in our 5 days together I have never seen him in non camouflage gear…”Sir, yeh to hamesha andar ki wildlife feelings ko zinda rakhne ke liye hain” he says(Err…loosely translated he meant, Sir, this is to keep the wildlife feelings alive inside me all the time). A veritable store house of information ( and tall tales too, claims to have seen 2o black bazas on a huuge tree ) he proved to be an excellent guide and a fantastic travel companion, netting well over 100 species in 4 days of birding and sightseeing….

Our driver Adeshji was waiting and so we started our long ( 8hr) journey to Pangot.Sunday traffic in Delhi was sparse and we made a quick getaway from the airport and soon crossed Delhi limits. We stopped for brunch at Maama’s dhaba ( Out of this world paranthas and butter roti and daal makhni and…you get the drift ) Somewhere after crossing the river Ganga, I drifted off to sleep..something i’d never been able to do when someone else was driving.Cant praise Adeshji’s driving enough…never had any nervous moments except for the occasional tractor and bullock carts and crazy bikers  that you encounter in the highways of Uttarpradesh.
Woke up when we reached choti haldwani ( Jim corbetts village). From there we started climbing…crossed nainital and saw our first views of the mighty Himalayas. I’d probably have to write another post to describe my feelings on seeing the Himalayas, but for now I’d just say……(speechless)

Reached Pangot, and Jungle Lore Birding Lodge around 6 pm, and was warmly welcomed by Tejpalji who is a caretaker/manfriday at Jungle Lore. It had already gotten dark by then….and very very cold !!! From 32 degree Kerala weather to a cool 8 degree Himalayan evening.

Sunset at Pangot clicked with my iphone

We settled into our cottage…comfy enough because of the heater they provided. Had a shower and an early dinner and hit the sack…we were finally here !!!

To be continued….

Sunday Drives…Kadalundi Bird Sanctuary.

My friend Kishore had been itching to test out a Sigma 150-500 lens for sometime.The opportunity finally came on the second weekend of October.We decided to visit Kadalundi Bird Sanctuary which is about 30-45 mins drive from Calicut.

Our plan was to reach there as early as possible, make a few images and return back home before lunch.We started off at around 5:45 am, stopping for some hot tea at Feroke, and finally reached Kadalundi before 7am.

Little Egret.

Now I had visited Kadalundi about 2 years ago and was least impressed with that place.Little did I know then that, to get to do some serious birding/bird photography in Kadalundi Bird Sanctuary, one has to trek a bit.
So for those who like me have/had no clue about the precise directions to get to the birding spots read on….
We parked the car near the tourist information center.Alternately one can also park their vehicle behind the Kadalundi railway station.We had to cross one bridge across the river.Now there are two bridges, the new one and the old(infamous Kadalundi train crash). While the new one on the left has an excellent footpath, one has to cross the track on the right to reach the birding site.
We had a tough time as we had taken the new bridge, and then climb down a scary ladder, jump from a height across a ditch and climb up back and across the railway track. Now as you walk along on the right side track you will come across a second set of bridges. Just before the start of the second bridge on the right side track, there is a small rough path which starts with a rock climb down.One has to be very very careful while descending down, especially with expensive cameras and lenses.Also it is recommended to wear waterproof sandals with a good grip rather than shoes.
Now once you descend down, you reach the island/prime birding site.
We had taken permission from the authorities before venturing on this trek and I would recommend that to anyone visiting this site as this is a protected area.

3 Whimbrels with a Eurasian Curlew

Lesser Sand Plovers

We came across Sandpipers, Gulls, Redshanks, Wagtails,Kites, Whimbrels, Eurasian Curlews, Kingfishers,Egrets, Sand Plovers at this site. Apparently the winter migrant birds had not started visiting.

Western Reef Heron

We photographed birds till around 9 am.The sun was getting hot and the light harsh….we decided to make the walk back to our car.
Now on the way back we walk along the old railway bridge. The foot path was broken and we had to walk along the tracks…SCARY !!! Finally we made it to the car safe and sound, and headed back home in time for a late breakfast.

Eurasian Curlew

Brown Headed Gull

Common Redshank

Photography tip: The birds are skittish and very vary of humans.It is best to lie flat on your belly and crawl commando style to get close to the birds and also get some good eye level shots. Make sure you have a clean towel and spare clothes as one is bound to be covered in wet sand…not a very comfortable feeling.

Ps. The wiki on Kadalundi Bird Sanctuary.

PPS. Please ask me before using any of my images.