It was a surprise when I visit Thattekkad this time. It is the nearest well known bird sanctuary in my home town; it is just 75 km of journey. I have visited Thattekkad lot of times and I used to roam around the visiting area. Of course there are lot of birds but photographing them is really difficult. The forest is dense and we cannot expect the birds in eye level. Always they will be at the top and the background will be bad with shadows and highlights. I had a notion that Thattekkad is only good for bird watchers not for photographers.
I should say thanks to my friend Priya for arranging the trip. When we had a plan I was expecting only Sri Lankan Frogmouth which is the ‘logo’ of Thattekkad. I was absolutely fine if I get a good snap of this species as it is very rare and endangered. Believe me I didn’t expect anything other than Frogmouth as it was the end of the season.
The plan was for two days, a weekend and we couldn’t go for the morning session as we were late. So again I went to the same area were people used to visit. But this time I could spot few species and I got Black-headed Oriole, Crimson fronted Barbet and some record shots of Jungle Myna & White bellied Treepie.
In the evening session I could spot Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher male and female which were new to me. Also Orange headed Thrush, Black napped Monarch, Tickle’s Blue Flycatcher, Nightjar etc. Again they appear only after 6.00 PM and the light was a big concern. Most of the shots taken were without any details. But still happy that I got 2 new species
The next day morning was a super lotto for me. I didn’t expect that I could get Malabar Trogon male and sub Adult – One of the rare and beautiful bird of Western Ghat. Awesome… Again the next surprise – A pair of Sri Lankan Frogmouths. I got excellent shots. They are so camouflagic and we were just around 3 meters away, but still couldn’t spot them easily. The jungle trail was really beautiful and we were following the instruction of our guide as we are going for hunting :).
Next – we spotted Golden fronted Leaf bird, Blyth’s starling, Fairy Blue bird male and female. But they were so far and got only the record shot. But before the end of the session, I got a nice shot of the Fairy Blue bird male which was really fortunate.
Evening session – this time we spotted a Juvenile Frogmouth. It was really cute and sitting alone. It was really pretty and really enjoyed watching it. Next, we spotted Dollar bird male and Female. It was sitting in a telephone line – personally I don’t like shooting them in telephone lines, but is it is a new species, really doesn’t matter. We searched for Indian Pitta at the end of the session; but we didn’t spot one.
I really enjoyed the trip because of two things; One, I could able to join a fantastic team of nature enthusiastic people. It is always happy to mingle with people like this. Second, I could meet my tour guide Mr. Gireesh – A man with excellent tracking skills. Really I should thank him too for arranging a wonderful session.
I got lot of Record shots and I don’t really mind if it is record shots. I want to collect as many species as possible. It was really surprising that, though this was the end of the season of this year in Thattekkad, there were lot of people, especially foreigners are coming to visit this place.
At the end of the story, I got 6 new species for surprise. This is wildlife; if we expect a lot, we may not get anything. But we always have an option to expect the unexpected :). According to Gireesh, even the off seasons are good for Owls and for some exotic species; so probably I may visit this place soon. Because I looove Owwwlsss… 🙂