BANGALORE-KUDREMUKH-BHADRA-CHIKMAGALUR-BHAGWATHI-BANGALORE
TRIP REPORT 25-29 may 2014
As my daughter was to attend the Eco Volunteer Training Camp at Bhagwathi,held by the forest dept. I decided to take the night bus ,to kudremukh.My daughter had left tht morning with a friend of mine who was to drop of 2 more trainees to the camp.
Getting into the Sugama Night bus at 10.45 pm,reached kudremukh forest gate at 6.30 am,alongwith a few more of the participants for the camp. All bones in place,and after a lot of emmission inhalation, the forest air was a blessing.
Basavanna frm Bandipur Jungle lodges was there with his jeep to receive us and take us to the camp.We reached camp ,which is an initiative by the jungle lodges and Forest dept.to train Eco Volunteers to assist in forest conservation,censuses etc,I must mention Vijay Mohan Raj the present ED of JLR and CCF,Indian Forest Service., doing an exemplary job as usual.Hope he is allowed to continue the good work.
Was happy to meet him after a long gap,and we did a bit of catching up over tea.
I wandered off with my camera,and imbibed the superb ambience of the camp fr around 2 hrs. Birding was good but photography nuthin to talk abt. So let my camera be n identified some really nice species.
We then decided to leave for Bhadra Tiger reserve,taking the route thru forests rather than the conventional route via chikmagalur.
After a stop fr lunch at sringeri we entered the bhadra reserve,sighting many birds on the way with short stops fr birding.
The entry to the estate was frm the bottom end and it was dark by the time we started climbing the treacherous estate roads,losing the back left wheel protecting fender on the way.But reach we did to an amazing piece of news that 6 tigers were seen in the vicinity over the last 1 mnth. A male,Female and 4 cubs all of 12-14mnths old..amazing indeed as no male will be around after 3-4 mnths of the tigress giving birth.
The late evening and night was exhilarating,with alarm calls of Chital,and barking deer at regular intervals.
The next morning we were off to try and track the tiger. We came across a lot of pugmarks and then at the streamside a Sambhar Kill,already rotting ,around 3/4 days old.Did manage a trek fr a couple of hrs, super birding but no tiger!
Again the birding was amazing but as the forest was so dense it was impossible fr good photography.
We decided to go to Muthothi for the safari at 3pm bt when we arrived were surprised to note that there was no vehicle.1 jeep in repair and the other with the RFO in Chikmagalur.
The only option was lakkavali Jungle lodges safari but too far at 45 kms fr us to reach in time.So we decided to go through other estates to reach our place,going thru some amazing jungle.Again on the muthoti road we got the smell of a kill,but as the light was fading,we decided it was prudent to head back to camp.So back to homestay,no alarm calls tht night,so after a good chicken curry rice dinner hit the sack early.
The next morning we were back on the way to Bhagwati,with stops on the way and reached around 8 am. After some interesting birding on the way. Met up with Gauri shankar, sheshadari, Karthik again over a cuppa tea did exchange good thoughts.The nuthatch mystery was solved by naming it an abberation! blk eye no velvet no blue ,blk n white.
Return to bangalore was boring,but for the 1 stop in malnad to hv coffee n buy jungle honey. Lunch at a good Dhabha outside Hassan n then back to the concrete jungle.
BIRD LIST seen by team Rajpal,Sunil,Karthik n Kasturi.
1.Jungle Crow
2.House crow
3.Sparrow,
4.Cattle Egret
5.Grey Heron
6.Pond Heron
7.Lesser racket tailed Drongo
8.Spangled Drongo
9.Greater Racket Tailed Drongo
10.Black Drongo
11.common myna
12.Jungle Myna
13.Asian Paradise Flycather,male/female
14.Black naped Monarch
15.Malabar Whistiling Thrush.
16.indian Robin
17.Magpie robin
18.white browed wagtail
19.Yellow Wagtail migrant left back?
20.Shama white rumped.
21.pied bush chat
22.brahminy starling
23.velvet fronted nuthatch..abberated,black eye,black markings very prominent.
24.great tit
25.Barn Swallow
26.red whiskered bul bul
27.red vented bulbul
28.yellow browed bulbul
29.Ashy prinia
30.plain prinia
31.zitting cisticola
32.oriental white eye
33.common iora
34.common babbler
35.jungle babbler
36.yellow billed babbler.
37.yellow eyed ( maybe not sure)
38.ashy crowned sparrow lark
39.purple rumped sunbird
40.purple sunbird
41.paddy field pippit.
42.indian silver bill
43.short toed snake eagle
44.black kite
45.blk shouldered kite
46.brahminy kite
47.Shikra male
48.oriental honey buzzard
49.little grebe
50.Coot
51.darter
52.little cormorant
53.indian cormorant
54.blue winged leafbird
55.indian roller
56.asian fairy bluebird
57.baybacked shrike
58.southern shrike
59.long tailed shrike
60.baybacked shrike
61.malabar trogon
62.Ashy wood Swallow
63.blk hoode oriole
64.golden oriole
65.orange/scarlet minivet
66.white throated fantail
67.white browed fantail
68.Rock Pigeon
69.White breasted Kingfisher
70.Common blue kingfisher
71.vernal hanging parakeet
72.roseringed parakeet
73.plumheaded parakeet
74.malabar parakeet
75.indian night jar,
76.crimson throated barbet ( need verification,pix available with sunil)
77.white cheeked barbet
78.coppersmith barbet
79.grey jungle fowl ( heard)
80.indian Peafowl.
81.Streakthroated woodpecker.
82.Greater flameback
83.black rumped woodpecker
84.Indian grey hornbill
85.Great Hornbill (Heard,unmistakeable on route frm sringeri to Bhadra)
86.Malabar Grey Hornbill
87.Malabar Pied hornbill ( heard texwood estate Muthati)
88.common hoopoe
89.malabar trogan ( female)
90.Imperial Pigeon.
91.Green bee eater
92.Chestnut headed bee eater
93.Common Hawk Cuckoo
94.indian cuckoo
95.Drongo Cuckoo
96.Asian Koel
97.blue faced malkoha
98.greater coucal
99.Laughing Dovr
100.Spotted dove
101.Eurasian Collared dove.
102.red wattled lapwing
103.yellow wattled lapwing
Mammals.
Sambhar
Indian Hare
Chital
Barking deer
Giant Malabar Squirel
Bonnet Macauque
Langoor common/hanuman
Ps: team advise if I left out anything.
