Loris Land: Thattekad 2019

The autorickshaw was noisy. Its light was trying to split solid darkness in vain. Black asphalt of the road soaked the light like a deep hole.

We stopped somewhere. Through the darkness we could see that we were almost surrounded by woods.

Vinod asked us to follow him. We crossed a small barrier. An uneven dirt road went deeper into the wood. Faint light from our torches advised us of the rough contour we were treading through.

The headlamp of Vinod was searching something. The light penetrated through the jungle revealing nothing much. Then a feeble reflection came. Vinod whispered - “there it is”. He left the dirt road and ran deeper into the jungle - dodging threes, rocks, and fat creepers.

We followed his footsteps. We followed his focus. My shoe hit something hard at the ground, and I fell through the darkness.

***

Earlier in the evening, we stopped our car near a small house at the lap of Salim Ali Wildlife Sanctuary in Thattekad. The 10 hour travel from Valparai through the Sholyar Reserve Forest was long but rewarding. 

A tall man came out of the house to greet us. He was Vinod Narayanan - our host and naturalist for next three days.

Without much ado, he opened the species list I sent him beforehand. He set out a plan for ourselves. He clearly did his homework. Tonight, we shall try to spot something special - Slender Loris.

In next 30 min darkness settled. Vinod called an autorickshaw. We set off our night safari.

***

Fortunately my camera and lens were still fine. No bones were broken either. But we learnt our lessons. We could never match Vinod’s skill and speed. We needed to take care of the uneven ground and move at our own pace.

But the Loris was gone. Apart from a couple of glowing eyes we did not see much. Vinod assured us that we would see them again.

True to his word, he found another on other side of the road. In his spot light, we saw it alright. With the size of a kitten, with large round innocent eyes, and rickety limbs, it was difficult to believe that it was a primate - a close relative of humans.

On our left a large animal moved. Vinod’s spot light could not discover it.

We found another group. They entered earlier into the jungle. Apparently they heard a growling. Possibly a leopard.

We waited some more minutes. No sign of leopard. Loris’ also did not come back either. But a civet cat was found at a tree.

Near the entrance of the jungle, an Indian Scops Owl played peek-a-boo with us. The autorickshaw returned to pick us up. It was nine o’ clock.

***

All through the night, an Oriental Scops Owl hooted. He did not stop even when we boarded the car for morning birding at 6:30 AM.

In half an hour, Vinod killed the engine near a check post. The forest ahead had electric fencing - obviously to stop elephants. Vinod collected permission and we drove further on. Few more forest quarters were visible now. We got down and started walking.

The air was chilly. Showing a tree hole, Vinod said - “that was the nest of a trogon pair. Just three days back, they flew out with the chicks. There were excellent opportunities to click male and female together in open perch.” I let go a frustrating sigh.

Another fencing came. Vinod checked whether the wire was live. Satisfied, he held one of them up to enter. A rocky hillock stood ahead of us.

We climbed up to the top. Forest all around. The tree tops were almost at our eye level. It provided an excellent vantage point for photography. A tribal family made the top their home. Sliced wild turmeric roots were left open for drying.

And birds were not too far away. Flame-throated Bulbul, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Heart-spotted Woodpecker, Orange Minivet were all around. Distinct chuckling calls of White-bellied Woodpecker drifted to us. High on our wishlist, we were all alert. But they were not within our range of vision.

We climbed down and entered the woods. A beautiful Malabar Woodshrike sat behind a beautiful green background. A Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, and a Fork-tailed Drongo-cuckoo sat close to each other.

We came near a dead tree with a hole high up. “Couple of White-bellied Woodpeckers are making it nest”, Vinod said. Alas they were nowhere around.

A temple inside the jungle. Colourful fungi adorned a dead tree trunk. Calls of Indian Scimitar Babbler flew in. But the birds did not provide appearance.

A stream was crossed. Jungle was very dense here. We moved inside a bush in search of an Indian Pitta. We saw the bird but failed to click it. Light was frugal and vegetation was heavy.

White-bellied Woodpecker calls again. And this time we saw them. But they were high up - some record shots only.

They took flight. Vinod’s hypothesis was they would move to the nest we saw before. So we ran.

Vinod was right. They provided us some good opportunity to observe and photograph. Large birds. Black body with white underpart and bright crimson crest. A beauty.

Vinod took us to another deeper part of jungle. He pointed to a small shrub about five feet away. What seemed to be a lump of dry leaves turned out to have eyes and bit of moustache. Uh! Srilankan Frogmouth. Another endemic of Western Ghats. Without Vinod pointing, there was no way we could have spotted her. What a camfloague.

Back at homestay, we found couple of noisy White-bellied Treepies near a small bird bath Vinod kept. Malabar Giant Squirrels jumped from branches squealing metallic calls.

In the afternoon, we came near a scrubby forest  patch, an area frequented by Grey Junglefowl and Red Spurfowl. To our frustration, some workers clearing some bushes around. It was unlikely that the fowls would come. Yet we decided to wait.

We sat over a rock in front of a bush. Some faint stirrings inside the bush and Vinod whispered - “Indian Pitta”. Pitta it was. But inside bush again. Record shots again.

Junglefowls gave us a miss. But Spurfowls came.

Evening came. With that hoots of owls. A Mottled Wood Owl flew above us. Apparently another large homestay owner fed them regularly - not entirely an ethical practice. The owl was after his daily rat meal and little time for us. There was no call of Jerdon’s Nightjar.

By 7:30 PM we entered Loris forest. Today we were far alert and cautious. At every step we observed contour under our step.

But it was easy. Five minutes into the forest, and Vinod spotted our first loris. He was less shy today. He was coming down to ground in search of some juicy caterpillar or grasshopper. But on his way he was caught surprised by a volley of light. A pair of innocent round eyes looked at us with permanent amazement. His every step was slow.

We took some good shots and let him go in his evening food hunting.

Further down, Vinod spotted a Great Eared Nightjar, another celebrity in Western Gat jungles. But he was in no mood to pose. We had to be satisfied with some shots of one eye, one ear and a great deal of body and tail.

At homestay, Mrs. Narayanan served us some delicious fish curry, served over local red rice. Delicious would be an understatement.

Oriental Scops Owl continued his late evening raga.

***

Morning over the hill was crowded. We saw a White-bellied Woodpecker only from great distance. Heart-spotted Woodpecker was close though.

We came down and moved towards a rubber plantation in search of Indian Scimitar Babbler. But they denied us of any appearance.

So far Malabar Trogon gave us miss. So we tried a lot to find them. After great deal of moving into denser part of forest, we found a female - only from distance. By nine thirty we decided to move on. We need to visit a different forest in search of another celebrity - Black Baza.

When we entered the forest, it was already half past ten. I was not sure whether this was the right time for bird spotting.

Yet, we found a Black Baza alright. However, it quickly disappeared by flying inside. We followed it. And found it again. But backlight was too strong. And distance was not conducive either.

And that is when Tum said - ‘snake’. She was behind us. Vinod was focussing on the bird. So I traced my way back to her. And to my great horror, I saw she was trying to take the photo of a coiling Malabar Pit Viper of brown morph using her mobile. I literally dragged her from it. She was not amused.

We moved forth. After a small rocky patch, we found a Brown Wood Owl. But it refused to show its face.

Soon Vinod took us towards a damp place and pointed us towards a bush. I could not believe my eyes. An Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher sat on a branch. Light was low. Yet, it was open. We got some belly shots.

But the bird is more beautiful from its back. So we moved to other side. Vinod managed to get a view for us through the foliage. Suddenly a light wind came and the bird left. But we got some shot of its brilliant back.

Near the entrance of the forest, Vinod tracked some white-bellied treepie call. He disclosed White-bellied Treepie and Black Baza often feeds together. And his hypothesis was true. The Baza was there again. Not in open. But close enough the get some shots.

In the afternoon we came back to morning forest in search of trogon. We were unsuccessful. A Shikra provided an appearance.

Near the bridge over Periyar, we found a tea shop. We drank tea to kill some time. Idea was to try spotting Jerdon’s Nightjar again.

A twilight, we walked inside a jungle and sat near a tree. The nightjar called. But it flew away. Apparently, it could spot us before we could spot it.

We came near a small open field. Vinod whispered to us to keep our camera ready. And then he switched on his torch on a small tree stump. Nightjar was there. We clicked to our heart’s content.

We checked Loris forest once more. We found traces of light in front of us. We lost hope of loris today. However, Vinod asked us if we were interested to take a photo of Malabar Pit Viper. Of course we were.

So we followed him slightly deeper into jungle. Strong beam of his torch fell on a branch of a tree. A Malabar Pit Viper! A beautiful green morph.

A dinner we had an excellent pork curry with rice.

***

Vinod was not happy that we still did not see trogon. So we were back at trogon forest. Without taking the main entrance, we followed metal road and parked near a big tree.

There are days when you start feeling lucky. The moment we alighted out of car, a pair of White-bellied Woodpeckers came and started drumming on a tree in front of us.

Vinod moved inside the forest. But bad news came from a lady. She lived in a forest quarter. Apparently an elephant was around. Thus we decided to follow the fringes.

A call came. A trogon call. But not exactly the usual call. We followed.

Then on branch nearby, we saw a chick. A trogon chick. That was why the call was different.

Chick’s mother came soon. She carried a grasshopper. She fed and flew away.

We found the father soon as well. He carried a grasshopper again. Apparently that was what the chicks loved. But finding us, he took several short flights. As we followed him, his flights were gradually taking us away from the chicks. It was obvious that he did not want us to discover his chicks. What a great fatherly instinct!

***

Our trip was over. We would be taking a flight from Kochi. As we left behind the leafy streets to enter urban Kothamangalam, we started to miss the loris, nightjars, and beautiful trogons.