2009 India Year Listing

Despite the recent rains Hessarghatta Lake was still completely dry, so the absence of hoped for passage waders was no surprise. Raptors made up for it though with 11 species seen, the pick being excellent close views of an immature Indian Spotted Eagle.

With a few days available a few hurried calls and emails found Vinay Das and I headed off to Thattekad to meet up with Eldhose for some Keralan birding. Having failed on them before I was keen to try for both Spot-bellied Eagle Owl and Oriental Bay Owl and we had several evening, night and early morning attempts, braving rain, leeches and treacherous slopes in the dark! We heard Bay Owl on our first attempt but never managed views, but had more luck with good telescope views of Spot-bellied Eagle Owl in torchlight. Of course, Ramki was destined for better luck with the Bay Owl just a few days later... Overall our "owling" was productive though, with views of Oriental Scops Owl, Collared Scops Owl, Brown Fish Owl, Jungle Owlet, plus Jerdon's Nightjar, and Sri Lanka Frogmouth heard commonly.

The Thattekad area produced many of the nice regulars such as Dollarbird, Malabar Trogon, Malabar Woodshrike, Heart-spotted Woodpecker, White-bellied Treepie and Black-throated Munia, but Wynaad Laughingthrush eluded me again. Five Great Cormorants at Idamalayar were probably the most significant sighting!

A day and a half spent at Munnar was very productive, gaining me lifers with Broad-tailed Grassbird and Nilgiri Pipit at Rajmalai, plus White-bellied Shortwing (or White-bellied Blue Robin) and Painted Bush Quail. All took some effort except for the Grassbird which we first head as we stepped off the bus and got excellent scope views immediately. Mountain Hawk Eagle, Grey-breasted Laughingthrush (or Kerala Laughingthrush), Hill Swallow, Black-and-orange Flycatcher, Speckled Piculet, Large-billed Leaf Warbler were also good here.
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I was keen to try some coastal estuaries since this seemed a good time for wader passage, so we went to Purathur one day. Unfortunately we were quite near high tide so not too much mud was exposed and waders were limited to Eurasian Curlew and Common Sandpipers. There were three flocks of gulls though, one quite close. These were a mix of Heuglin's heuglini and Steppe Gulls barabensis.
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Not really a birding trip but a quick break to Bandipur with my daughter did give us some nice sightings, including Red Spurfowl, Tawny Eagle, Bonelli's Eagle, Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Pied Cuckoo, White-bellied Woodpecker, Indian Pitta, White-browed Fantail and Hume's Whitethroat. Sighting of the trip would of course have been the Tiger sitting in a lantana bush, were it not for the fact that it was so well hidden I could only see it poorly and there was no way that Tiya (aged 3) could get on to it! Elephants though were somewhat easier: an excellent herd of 24 when we were walking outside the park.

Four year ticks take me to 394 for the year.

No year ticks but all the regular goodies back at Nandi Hills, including Steppe Buzzard, four Pied Thrushes, Blue-capped Rock Thrush, Indian Blue Robin, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Hume's Leaf Warbler and Large-billed Leaf Warbler. Also Bonelli's Eagle, Nilgiri Woodpigeon, Yellow-throated Bulbul and Indian Scimitar Babbler.

A short afternoon pop-in to Hebbal Lake produced my highest count of Spot-billed Pelican ever, with about 270 seen.

Eurasian Wigeon and Sand Martin were year ticks today, the latter following on from my sightings here in the spring . Common Teal, Pintail, Shoveler and Pochard (four males) were also seen. A Pintail Snipe and Little Stint were of interest, and a Blyth's Pipit was seen briefly.

A family weekend in Coorg at the Neemrana Green Hills Estate was a relaxing break. No specific birding was done but a Little Spiderhunter was seen and was a year tick.