India; Western Ghats - Day 8: Munnar & Periyar National Park

  We spent the first two hours of the morning birding the roads around Munnar, hoping to pick up some of the targets that we were missing. Although we failed to find them, it was still pleasant birding with a Palani Laughingthrush eating a lizard being the highlight, as well as only our second encounters with Nilgiri Woodpigeon and Blue-capped Rock Thrush. Towards the end of our walk we had a great encounter with a small family group of Indian Black-lored Tits, which came down from the canopy and showed quite well.

  At 09:00 we departed Munnar and drove along the road to Pooppara, along the way making two stops to search for Nilgiri Pipit in open areas of dried lava slopes. It was already hot at this point and our slim chances were already dwindling, but there was always a chance. At the second site we visited there was a brief moment of delight when we did find two pipits together but it did not take us long to work out that they were infact Paddyfield Pipits and not Nilgiri Pipits.

  After this frustrating morning we continued on our way to the town of Kumily near the Periyar Tiger Reserve National Park where we would spend the next two days. We found nice cheap lodging and settled in during the heat of the afternoon before setting out birding. We unfortunately found that the logistics of the park were far from straightforward and we had to spend some time organising ourselves for the following day.

  Once the beurocracy was done we tried to bird an area called Bamboo Grove, a community outside the national park. We were told by guards that it was not possible to enter, which was frustrating but fortunately only one of the many entrances was guarded, so we entered via another pathway. The area was quite lively but our targets eluded us. There were a few commoner species that we picked up such as Malabar Starling and Malabar Grey Hornbill, but for the most part the birds we saw were birds we had become familiar with over the last couple of days. Other non-endemics we saw here were Black-hooded Oriole and Jungle Owlet.

  On the mammal front however we had a nice surprise with a small group of Nilgiri Langur. Sadly they did not stick around for long, or show well but since this was a species I feared that we would miss, it was great that we had been able to see them on our first day here.