India; Western Ghats - Day 5: Mudumalai National Park

  Initially we had planned only a half day more in the Mudumalai National Park area, before we would then travel south in order to breakup our long drive to Munnar in the south. However, we enjoyed the previous afternoons game drive so much that we decided to alter our plans, and have another game drive before heading to Ooty tonight and then completing the long drive in one go tomorrow, which had been our first plan anyway.

  The agenda for the morning was to bird around the national park with Daniel, our guide, and hopefully target the species we wanted. Any mammals we bumped into would be a bonus, with the afternoon drive concentrating on mammals. Our first species, and most important for this site was the Malabar Lark. Helpfully we knew where to go so headed straight there. Along the way however we were waylaid by first a herd of Indian Elephants and then a group of at least Dhole or Asian Wild Dog! The latter especially we were buzzing about seeing, as unlike elephant we had either never seen or only seen on one occasion the Dhole. 

  Once we arrived at the Malabar Lark location it did not take us too long to find a group of three individuals feeding among the rocks, showing nicely and quite confiding at times with a juvenile also in tow. In the same area we were able to find another Indian Pitta, which showed nicely as well but generally stayed deep in cover. Happy with these two species, we continued to another location.

  This next location was full of dead trees with no understorey, but was still quite birdy. We found Black-rumped Flameback and Indian Nuthatch here, as well as other common species. Unfortunately the White-naped Woodpecker that we wanted to find did not show, but we still had some enjoyable birding and in the end we were able top it off with another Indian Pitta!

  Although it was already hot we still had a couple more stops to make. First we visited the village garbage dump for half an hour to look at some raptors that were visiting. We had a smart immature Brahminy Kite and a few Steppe Eagles soaring. And then to wrap up our morning with Daniel we went to target the Jerdon’s Bushlark in a few areas that he knew. The first site did not produce the lark, but we did have a Dhole come and bark at us, as well as a flyover Red-headed Vulture. At the second stop we had a Jerdons Bushlark distant but perched up and singing, as well as Orange Minivet and Pale-billed Flowerpecker, rounding out an excellent morning.  

  Our afternoon drive did not produce much different, although a Large Grey Mongoose was a mammal tick and a nice boost for our mammal trip list. We had a few of the same species we had the previous day, as well as nice views of Malabar Parakeet for a new species. At dusk we came very close to a Tiger, with one being seen not long after we had passed through the area. Despite our best efforts we could not find it and we had to leave it be. At night we did a little exploring, finding another Indian Chameleon, before driving up the hill to Ooty, where we would spend the night.