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Nelliampathy Bird Survey - 26-29 Dec 2003
A bird survey of Nelliampathy forest range in Kerala was conducted by long time birders from Kerala together with the Forest Department. I also participated in it, in an effort to add to my little knowledge of birds.
Nelliampathy forest range are reserved forests and is adjacent to the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala. As is typical of the great Western Ghats, Nelliampathy comprises of dense evergreen forests(though now declined to semi evergreen) and moist deciduous forests, with grasslands and sholas occurring at the upper reaches. Needless to say, such forests house a great variety of bird and animal life.
I had previously parked my bike at Coimbatore on my way home for Christmas, so on the 26th, started from Coimbatore at 4AM and passing Palakkad and taking a left turn at Alattur on the NH, rode up to Nelliampathy, reaching there at around 9AM. I met with a couple of birders from Bangalore there. Slowly participants turned up, and at around 2 PM we were some 25 people, a majority from the College of Forestry, Thissur. We split into 5 groups to go to 5 different camps in the forest range. My group consisted of myself, a final year BSc forestry student from the college, and another government employee of BSNL from Thrissur, and two forest watchers. We were assigned the Nellikulam Hilltop, which is also called the peak. This region occurs at the high ranges, I was told, and that there is no camp there, and we will have to make do with a tent and some ration for the next 3 nights. We are to report back on the 29th by 12Noon.
We were dropped off at a estate entrance at the foothills. A 2hr climb took us to the place we intended camping. We were now at a good altitude and we pitched tent adjacent to a small shola where there was a small water stream. It was getting dark when we pitched the tent, and after supper, settled for the night. Due to the cold wind that blows over such hill tops at night, it was very cold and we had a fire going through the night.
The next day 4 of us spent ranging the hill tops, sholas and grasslands, and noting down bird life, activities, counts, etc. By afternoon we returned to camp, and after lunch, wrapped up the camp, and doing a 2hr trek reached another adjacent hill and camped near a water point. This place was considerably of lesser altitude than the previous night's site, and the wind was milder. We were also only some distance away from a coffee and tea plantation.
The next day fully we spent ranging this side of the hills, and again entered many sholas and evergreen patches. On 29th morning we documented all that we had noted down in the past 2 days, and found that our tally was 60 species of birds. After breakfast, wrapped up camp, and walked back to the road head where we had been dropped 3 nights back. All other camps were also on their way back. Since I had a long way to go I excused myself early and skipped the post survey discussions.
Starting from Nelliampathy at 12pm, I rode through Palakkad, Coimbatore, Mettupalayam, and then rode up Ooty. After tea at Ooty at 5pm, rode down to Masinagudi, Mudumalai. It was 6pm when I did a slow ride through Mudumalai and Bandipur. Then passed Gundlupet, Mysore, and had supper at Maddur. Thereafter I reached Bangalore at 11pm.
I enjoyed the survey thoroughly, and the 3 days and nights we spent at the Nelliampathy forests are memorable ones. I also enjoyed watching some new species of birds I'd never seen before, and learnt a few calls of birds too. All in all a very fitting end to a glorious year. I will look back at year 2003 as one in which I enjoyed much, learnt a lot, had a lot many days in the field, and many pleasant moments in close associatin with nature. I also had two tiger sightings in this year. Nevertheless, I remain thankful to the Almighty for all this and more.
Birds I saw and identified:
Animals: