Birds V/S Birders @ Ganeshgudi

As usual, it wasn’t a planned trip to old Magazine House in Ganeshgudi which is a part of Western Ghat in Dandeli, North Karnataka. I had been thinking to visit that place quite long time. I knew it is a very good destination for birders. I had observed from social networking sites, lot of beautiful bird photographs has been taken from Ganeshgudi. I had a plan to visit there; but it was a sudden plan on a Thursday. I booked a room Old Magazine House which is a jungle resort under Karnataka Government.

As I am a regular visitor of jungle lodges and I have collected information about the place from the website. I called my friend Yogesh,  he is also a nature photographer and he told the exact places to visit and given few contact numbers of some guides there since he has already been there one month back.

So on Friday night, I started my journey to Ganeshgudi; alone (as usual) with my Camera bag. I had lot of work in office that day and I started from my apartment just one hour before the bus leaves. I forgot that it was Friday and the heavy traffic in Bangalore- I was sure that I will miss the bus. I wasn’t that worried because the room rent was cheap. I reached bus stand by 10.20, in fact my bus was on 10.00. I don’t know what happened; surprisingly, for my luck the bus was about to start.

I have reached Dandeli morning 7.00. It was a small town with minimal facilities. None of the shop was opened. it was a misty day in February. I waited almost 1 hr in the bus stand; had breakfast. My check in time was 11.00. I just got bus to Ganeshgudi; I didn’t know where to get down exactly. Luckily on the way I found Old magazine board; got down there. The resort was about half kilometer inside the jungle.

I reached there; The first surprise: there were lot of photographers with 800mm, 600mm, 500mm lenses. I didn’t find any bird on the way and I was thinking what these guys are doing with these big lenses. Everyone had tripod; I didn’t- my mistake. When I got introduced with them and the first question they asked is where is your tripod? I said- I didn’t take it. They said, it is must here. Okey, letz see. since those guys were there for last 4 days, I asked, whether they got something special. The answer was really interesting, ‘everything in Western Ghat is special’ 🙂 Yes; he was right; Each and everything in Western Ghat is very special 🙂

Till 3.00 we were chatting and only seen few common birds. I roam around the jungle after lunch; I got Malabar giant squirrel, Shikra and all.

Evening 3.30, My gooooooood, the next two hours, I never seen such variety of birds. I didn’t see anything other than those beautiful avians. I didn’t hear anything other than camera clicks. I felt; this is the place, this is the place I would have come long back. It was the best birding spot I have ever visited. Believe me within that 2 hours I would have got at least 20 varieties of birds.

The compound of Old Magazine House was very small and there have kept water for birds. This setup was done almost 15 years back and the bird knows exactly the availability of water. The place where the photographers stand was so congested. Some time lot of birds will come at the same time and we will get confused what to shoot and it was very difficult to change the setting fast. The moment we see a bird everybody will start clicking and the it sounds like machine guns. Birds V/S Birders 🙂

The only problem I felt was, we won’t get enough sunlight after 5’o clock. It was inside a jungle and lot of giant trees were there and it was difficult to get enough light. But the most interesting thing is, you don’t have to go anywhere, be ready with the camera; birds will come to you, you just need to wait for them and shoot them.

In the next day I started by 7.00. The bird activity was less in the morning and it became in peak by 3.00 PM evening. I stayed there till 5.00 in the evening and had to rush to bus stand to catch the bus to Bangalore. Only thing I missed was the Malabar hornbill which I have only record shots. I am sure I will get it next time. There is a place called Timber yard in Dandeli which is very famous for Hornbills which is very near to the place. But I didn’t go there; may be next time. I got introduced with of lot of passionate birders from there and it is always happy to meet the people with same passion.

I got lot of good shots and few record shots also. For my luck most of them came really good. Here the birds I found; 

Paradise Flycatcher Male & Female
Malabar Thrush
Orange headed Thruch
Tri-coloured Munia
Black napped Monarch
Malabar Giant Squirrel
Malabar Horn bill
Malabar starling
Grey Hornbill
Brown Fulvetta
Dark Fronted Babbler
Blush headed Thrush
Rock Thrush Male & Female
Spider Hunter
Crimson Sunbird
Oriental White eye
White-rumped Shama
White breasted blue flycatcher
Oriental Magpie Robin
Malabar Trogen male & Female
Yellow-broaded bulbul
Flame-trouated bulbul
Red-wisked bulbul
White-bellied Blue Flycatcher Male & Female
Blue Robin
Verditer flycatcher
Blue lored tit
Common white cheeked babbler
Scarlet Minivet male & female
Emerald Dove
Purple Sunbird
Common Munia

I got really exited with the experience. Normally in Bird Sanctuaries like Ranganathittu and Thattekkad we have to roam around to find the birds. But here the birds will find you. I got around 20 varieties of birds and lot of record shots which includes Malabar thrush and flying lizard. The first thing I did when I reached back in Bangalore is, to book for the next two weeks in Old Magazine House.

I felt like, this would be the best birding spot I have ever visited and really felt bad that I came to know about this wonderful place very late. Western Ghats is a wonderland and Ganeshgudi is the gateway to this wonderland; expecting more wonders next time…

You can see the snaps from Geneshgudi; Here