Written by Ganeshwar SV
Karthi had just returned to Bengaluru finishing a tour with his office mates to a beautiful hill station, Kodachadri, Karnataka. Wherever he went, he always had an eye for birds. One species which was yet to get added to his Life List then, had already taken his heart with its mesmerizing song. As he was exposed to birding only recently, he thought that the whistler was a human and recorded it! Later, me and my friend Sharang teased him where at a point, Karthi wanted to see one of India’s flawless songsters, the Malabar Whistling Thrush Myophonus horsfieldii, and the next moment.
He was so much energized such that he wanted to go to Valparai instantly to meet his new darling. I stopped him by saying that we have those super singers in Yercaud itself. “What Malabar Whistling Thrush in Salem? Man! Is our city that special? Make sure you show me one or else you’ll have to face my wrath.” Karthi’s excitement made me to question myself if I can show him the bird.
From Call Lifer to Sight Lifer
We were twisting and turning in the fog-filled hair-pin bends and as we got to a good elevation, “Kurrrr….kutrroo…kutrooo” the call of the White-cheeked Barbet Psilopogon viridis started to resonate throughout the hills and the Bonnet Macaques Macaca radiatawhich we converted as beggars were gradually taking their positions by the road side to fight for the junk food thrown by visitors.
The population of Malabar Whistling Thrush is good in Kiliyur Waterfall and surroundings and I told Karthi to make a left turn to catch the Kiliyur road.
“Hit the brakes you lucky fellow!” I rejoiced and told him to stop the bike as I heard its typical song and surprisingly we were not even close to the blue cascade. Karthi was awestruck to see the thief at close quarters, hardly four meters away from the road and started shooting her with his basic camera.
“Wow! This… this charming song is enough to carry me for the whole of next month!” Karthi whispered so that he won’t be disturbing the bird in anyway. Within minutes, he got two more Lifers, the Rufous Woodpecker Micropternus brachyurus and Brown-cheeked Fulvetta Alcippe poioicephala which were hopping among the branches of the tree behind the Thrush. Finally, the Whistling Schoolboy which was his call lifer in Kodachadri had become one of his memorable sight lifers in Yercaud.
We spent one and half hours in the Kiliyur area and saw the customary species like the Dusky Crag Martin Ptyonoprogne concolor, Plum-headed Parakeet Psittacula cyanocephala, Red-whiskered Bulbul Pycnonotus jocosus, Jungle Myna Acridotheres fuscus and so on. Forty plus Oriental White-eyes Zosterops palpebrosus on a single tree was a delightful warmth in that cold morning.
Bonus addition
It had become more than a year since the renowned birder Ramit Singal recorded Rufous Babblers at Pagoda Point. I never even thought that this would be the trip to add them to my own Salem list as I was determined to add few species from Ramit’s eBird checklist. We saw four of them by the road side and in that limited time of birding and we were just glued to the road.
My Special Yercaud Oranges
The highlight of this trip to me was the surprise sighting of the two races of Orange-headed Thrush, the migrant race citrina and the resident race cyanotus. Of course, these aren’t rare birds. First, we saw a male bird (citrina) on the road, soon after we left Malabar Whistling Thrush. Near the Rufous Babblers, we saw three birds (all cyanotus) and seeing two races on the same road in less than half a kilometer, left me puzzled. Maybe the male citrina was simply an overwintering individual. To see the complete list of the species during this trip, click here.
We got down before the Sun started to unleash rays as I expected Butterfly Migration to happen in Salem, for the third straight year. And yes! It happened too!
