Pelicans at Kokkare Bellur

Location: Kokrebellur, Mandya District
Date: Dec 6th, 2008
To get there: From Bangalore on Mysore road turn left after Channapatna and before Maddur. There is a prominent yellow sign saying Kokrebellur and a circle. It is about 5km after Indradhanush hotel.
Distance: Apprx 75km. Final 10km after left turn is on badly maintained road. However birding starts here so slow going should be more fun!
Trail type: We did not find any good trails to take other than walking village roads. One possibility is to walk around the Thylur Lake. Have to explore options next time.
Facilities: Indradhanush Hotel, Coffeeday (5km before left turn) and even a McDonalds now(3km before left turn) on Mysore road. There is also a fairly large village 5km before Kokrebellur having many bakeries.
Map: Thylur Lake. Kokrebellur is just further down about 7km.


Saturday afternoon we just felt like going somewhere out of Bangalore. Kokkare Bellur or Kokrebellur was a place we had heard of many times but had not visited yet. Kokkare in local kannada language means a stork refering to the colorfull Painted Stork which along with Pelicans comes to this village every winter and occupies its trees for breeding since 100's of years as described in this article. Since it was the start of the Pelican season we made a spot decision after lunch and heading out towards Mysore road tagging along 3 kids, ours Nithila & Swarup, Tejas our neighbour carrying biscuits, bananas, dates and a bar of chocolate for food.


We left at 3pm and were taking the left turn towards Kokrebellur from Mysore road just before 5pm. Immediately we were enveloped with a flurry of bird activity. Drongos, Bulbuls, Indian Roller, Swallows, Sunbirds and other small birds (unid as always for us :( ) were all over the place. There was even a Red-wattled lapwing calling urgently in its inimitable style did we do it? rendering. It was a period of utter frenzy as we tried to take in all of this and at the same time aware that we needed to get going if we wanted to reach our destination before dark. Reluctantly moving on, we were rewarded with an Eurasian Collared Dove sitting on an electric wire. The road goes by Thylur lake where we could only take a quick look and saw several common coots. In a field close by we found a large group of Black headed Ibis feeding and one Black Ibis flying by. Behind it further away was an even larger bunch of Cattle Egrets following a tractor digging up the field. This I am guessing is similar to its instinct of following cattle to get to worms disturbed by it thereby giving its name. So, should they now be called Tractor Egrets?

Soon, we were at a small 3-way junction in the middle of Kokkare Bellur village. A fading sign there had a painting of the Pelican indicating that we were at the right place. Going right we went about 10 mtrs and were amazed to see the giant and majestic Pelicans nesting right above our heads! Getting down from the car we saw that 3 to 4 trees in that area were all habited by them. It is truly an amazing sight. We did not do any count but I would guess at least 20-30. We were told more will arrive in the following days. Painted storks were not to be seen anywhere. The villagers said that the storks usually start arriving from late Jan onwards. We drove further down and crossed the bridge over Shimsa. By this time, dusk was almost upon us. For some reason, not sure why, we thought there was a lake here for more birding. We found out that it was not true. Shimsa river is the biggest water body close by other than the Thylur lake. The Pelicans apparently go some distance each day to get food and get back to their host village! We were advised to come in March when the bird activity will be at its peak. Have to keep that in mind.

I was able to capture an interesting behaviour of Pelicans where they do some tongue stretching, a kind of Pelican yoga, to keep their pouch in good condition. In these photos you can see that it has turned its lower beak or pouch inside out. More details can be found in this National Geographic article.


Reluctantly we headed back as darkness spread over the fields, stopping once to snack near some fields. Made the obligatory stop to buy Maddur Vadas at Indradanush Hotel ( they were very good at 10rs each) and were back in our homes by 8.40pm.
Well worth the drive but we needed at least one hour more to enjoy birding along the road towards Kokrebellur.

Please be sensitive to the villagers and birds. Do not trash or be noisy when visiting. As always take all the pictures you want and leave only footprints!

Courtship dance of Red Rumped Swallows

After our Muthodi trip we spent a couple of days at Sakleshpur where we went around birding both mornings and evening. I happened to notice this behaviour of the Red Rumped Swallows which were doing flying acrobatics with each other which I can only assume to be their Courtship Dance. They would sit on the electric wire couple of feet apart. Then move towards each other in short movements. Nuzzle each other and then both would fly high and do some acrobatic moves. Eventually one would settle down and watch the other continue this show. Then it would also sit down, move closer, nuzzle and repeat it all over again. This went on for about 5 minutes. Then they just flew away, interestingly in opposite directions!

No confirmation as yet from experts in this area on whether this is a courtship dance. If you are one please do leave a comment! :)

All good images that I captured are on Picasa in the same sequence that I shot them at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/naturerambles/CourtshipDanceOfRedRumpedSwallow#

Enchanting Muthodi

Date: Oct 9th-10th 2008



Every year we have a family get-together during Dasara usually at my sisters house in Sakleshpur. This year we decided to change it a bit and meet at some place around Chickmagalur first and then spend time in Sakleshpur. My brother-in-law was able to book 2 rooms at the forest bungalow in Muthodi through a friend of his in the DFS. It is called the Sighekhan Estates and is open for all public for booking as well as a vista point during daytime. Muthodi is one part of the Bhadra Wildlife Reserve which I believe is spread over 492 Sq Km. Other parts are Lakkavali and Hebbe.



We left Bangalore around 6.30am, planning to reach Belur via Kunigal, Chanrayapatna and Hassan by 11am where we hoped to connect with my sister. But Bangalore traffic thought otherwise and it took us more than an hour just to get out of the city itself even at that early hour and it was past 12 by the time we got to Belur. Sister couldn't wait and they proceeded to Chickmagalur and then Muthodi while we followed at a much leisurely pace looking out for birds. My daughter was thrilled to get a count of close to 30 on the drive. The best was a wonderful lake and swamp just before Chickmagalur where we got to see Purple Herons, Spot Billed ducks, River Terns, Grey Herons and a Bronze-winged Jacana (our first time). The road from Chickmagalur to Muthodi is quite tough going and took more than an hour before we drove the 30km to he Bhadra Check post. From there the Sigekhan Estates was a steep climb up the hill, 1st gear all the way! The thick forest was a welcome relief. My wife spotted this Giant Wood Spider web as soon as entered.


The bungalow is nicely located on top a hill with a wonderfull view of the Bhadra Valley. As soon as we settled in, the meti (man-in-charge) suggested that we could go on the Safari at 4pm as if it rains during the night the next day safari's will be cancelled. The reason being we need to cross a river to enter the forest. So, we immediately drove down to the pick up point. As the river was already swollen we had a squeeze into a Jeep. It was also getting dark forcing the driver to get through fast. The most exciting or rather scary part of the safari was the realization that leeches were everywhere! You could hardly step down for a minute without a leech scrambling up your leg. The mystery to me is, where do all these leeches find the food (blood) required to survive?

Next day morning, I was up before dawn hoping to catch the sunrise. It was indeed a good decision as the valley is almost magical with layers of clouds in between green covered hills slowly becoming brighter as the dawn breaks. The cloud or mist on the group is very fast moving and changes within minutes climbing up and with the dawn breaking into its orange and red colors, it is too beautiful to describe in words. Instead I tried to capture it with my camera and ended up moving my tripod from on end of the balcony to the other unable to decide what I wanted to click. It may have been better to just pull up a chair and soak it in. I think that way this langur had the right idea using a branch for a chair! :)

Once the sun brightened and it was truly morning, we were greeted by much activity and calls. That is when I wished we had few veteran birdwatchers to identify the calls. Instead, it was sighting a bird and trying desperately to find it in our Grimm Skipp. :). The most active early morning birds were the Scarlet Minivet, Racket-tailed Drongo, Small (Crimson-backed) Sunbird and BulBuls. The minivet was my first time and its colors matched the dawn. The male and female pair of Crimson-backed Sunbird had a nest just off the balcony and was very active trying to feed its young. After few minutes we could understand its routine. Get some food, land on bush in front, then high up on a tree next to the nest, wait for few seconds, then dive quickly into the nest opening. It stayed on the nest for less than a minute before starting all over again. The male visited maybe once for every 10 visits by the female. A giant Malabar Squirrel became very active on a tree close by. Its call is loud and ferocious coming from a squirrel. We got to watch it quite nicely though it was difficult to get any good photos.




We then walked on the road which continues around the hills. We saw lots more drongo activity and calls. Another bird that we spotted and were finally able to identify was the Malabar Parakeet. We also got to experience what Mr Subramanya termed as a “fashion show” on bngbirds. That is sudden burst of activity where we get calls from all sides and at least 4 to 5 different species of birds seem to be on the move around us. It lasts for about couple of minutes and things become quiet again. Under the thick forest cover we were not fast enough to spot and identify most of them but the experience is quite exhilarating. I realized that taking shots of these colorful spiders was much easier than that of birds.







Afternoon was spent lazily on the balcony where we managed to spot a Gold fronted leafbird. The sunbird was also actively feeding its family and I was able to get few shots of its home from the balcony itself without disturbing it in any way. Later in the evening, unfortunately some guests arrived to take the single room left Since they seemed to be in the party mood we decided to return to Sakleshpur in the evening itself and avoid any incidents. That spoilt our plan for the evening and the next day morning rounds. We did a quick round before departing and saw some Ashy Drongos and Black lored Tits. On the drive back it got dark before we left the forest area and though we hoped for some tigers, you can always hope :), we didn't encounter any mammal.
That ended my first trip to Muthodi. It is indeed a very beautiful place and the experience is quite different from Kabini or Nagarhole due to the majestic Baba Budan Giri range.



For booking this bungalow or the cottages you can contact the Forest Offices at: 08262 234904


Other birds we were able to spot and identify (click on the links to see the image):

Malabar Parakeet
Racket-tailed Drongo (silhoutte)
Ashy Drongo
Black Drongo
Female Scarlet Minivet
Female Small (crimson-backed) Sunbird
Gold fronted Leafbird


Other articles on Muthodi/Bhadra:http://westernghats.blogspot.com/2006/03/wildlifing-in-indias-youngest-tiger.html
http://www.wildwanderer.com/journal/muthodi-and-coorg-a-trip-report.html