Down Kerala Way or South India Part 2!

So away from the cities now and a bit more rural, although a small Indian Town is still large by our standards, well when your population is 1.3 Billion it is bound to be the case.
We had a walk in Eravikulam National Park, home to the Niligri Tahr and endangered mountain goat that only lives in the Western Ghats. There are about 700 left and we were very lucky:

 Red-whiskered Bulbuls also showed well

 along with a Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher, (Bit of a mouthful that one!)

 Pied Bush Chat,

 and Oriental White-eye.

 A Tahr even came down onto the track that we were walking for a close up.

Another bird of note was the Kerala Laughing Thrush, but it was very skittish in the bushes and I couldn't get a decent photo.

So onwards... we stayed in Munnar and visited a Tea Plantation,

which was fantastic, a few birds were seen round and about;
We added Jungle Myna in the early morning murk

 and Long-tailed Shrike

plus a Citrine Wagtail a first for us, sadly no photo.

From Munnar we travelled to Thekkady, where the following day we went on a bit of a forest walk with a guide, not too many birds were seen but lots of dragonflies and butterflies, most of which I haven't identified, but we started with an Indian Pond Heron,

 then a Common Sandpiper,

 Grey Wagtail,

 lots of Fungi,

 Niligri Langur,

 a Damselfly,

 Malabar Parakeet,

 and various Butterflies and Dragonflies.

 Fulvous Forest Skimmer

 This is a Microgumphus. I can't seem to find a common name for it.

 Back to birds... a Wooly-necked Stork flew by,

 followed by a Cormorant.

 This I think is a Crimson Marsh Glider, but not sure!

Then later at a spice farm,
Jungle Babbler,

 White-cheeked Barbet,

 a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

 and some rather large ants, bringing lunch back to the nest.

From Thekkady we made our way to Kochi, more sights, but some good Urban Birding, while we had a coffee in a restaurant by the riverside.
Intermediate Egret,

 Brahminy Kite

 and an Indian Pond Heron

Little Cormorant, Black-headed Ibis, Black Drongo, White-bellied Drongo and Chestnut-headed Bee-eater were also seen.

Our final major bit of birding was from the Houseboat cruising the backwaters of Kerala, unfortunatley this was only the second time in the holiday that we had any substantial rain, and boy did it rain! As this Stork-billed Kingfisher will attest to!

We did get a little respite from the rain, seeing:
Darter,

 Swallow,

 Black Kite,

 Cattle Egret,

 White-throated Kingfisher,

 Pon Heron,

 Juvenile Brahminy Kite,

Brown-headed Gull

 Egrets by the score!

Oriental Magpie-Robin

Plus Greater Coucal, Indian Cuckoo, Little Cormorant, Gull-billed Tern, Purple Heron.

I haven't listed all the birds that would be a bit boring, but we had a great time, although after 13 hotels in 16 days, we need a holiday!

A bit of Urbanish Birding in Southern India

We have recently returned from a full on holiday to the south of India, starting in Chennai and working our way across and down to Kochi in Kerala. It wasn't a birding holiday but of course we were always on the look out and a few short opportunities did present themselves. We achieved 75 species of birds and a few other things along the way. Photo opportunities therefore were few as mainly I had the wrong lens on the camera for birding, it was was set up for sight-seeing.

However.....
We start with a bit of Urban Birding, the most common bird you will see in India, the House Crow.

 A Lizard, haven't sorted out the species yet!

 Common Myna

 and a Palm Squirrel.

In all the towns we visited the next most common bird after the House Crow, is probably the Black Kite, they were just everywhere. (Not complaining though!)

Again with visiting a lot of towns and cities, it's difficult to get a natural photo of some birds, so you will have to put up with a Green Bee-eater on a wire.

 Another common birds as you would expect was the Cattle Egret, with so many cows around, they know where their 'pat' is buttered.

 Macaques were also a common sight.

 Less common was the Olive-backed Sunbird,

 the Short-toed Eagle

 and even the House Sparrow.

We spent some time travelling between places, and while the distances weren't that great, the travel times could be! Although this was tempered with driving through some national parks, stopping not allowed, but presenting some photo opportunities:
Spotted Deer

 and Grey Langur

In Ooty we visited the botanical gardens, but not much in the way of bird life, this was down to the fact the gardens were full of non-endemic trees and plants so the birds didn't come in apart from some Oriental White-eye.

A rest room stop on the edge of another park provided a bit of action.
Bonnet Macaques,

 Not sure on this one!

 Little Cormorant,

 Bonnet Macaque,

 and Long-legged Buzzard.

The as we approached Munnar we had a treat....
Firstly a Niligri Langur,

 the a family of wild Elephants wandering through a Tea Plantation. Made our day!

That will do for now! The next stage of our trip was much more rural, except for Kochi where there is some great Urban Birding to be had, plus a cruise around the Kerala backwaters and ovenight on a houseboat. All this to come 😀😄😄😄