Two days in Thekaddy

It's been a long time since I've posted anything from India and I couldn't have found a better place to re-engage with Wild India! Here's a few images from last week's trip to the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Thekaddy, Kerala.

I was last here in Jan of 2004 and it felt amazing to be back. This time I had an old school friend (Vineet) along with me and as soon as we got there (late evening) we signed up for an early morning hike in the forest. This would be my second time doing this hike and I really hoped that it would be as great as my last one!

Early next morning we headed to a small guard house on the edge of the forest where a slightly eccentric local Adivasi (tribal) guide awaited us. After we wore the anti-Leech socks that he provided we headed straight into the forest.

This was Vineet's first tryst with real wildlife and I was hoping that we could see something.. A tiger would have been great but I knew that was asking for too much so I was willing to settle on some wild elephants..

And for the first hour or so we had no luck with mammals but I kept ticking away on my bird list - mostly the usual suspects.. like the (above) Jungle Myna (Acridotheres fuscus)

and we also observed some insects .. butterflies.. spiders...

a whole group of flying Plum-headed Parakeet (Psittacula cyanocephala), I found this guy sitting on one of the tall trees..

And an hour into our hike we came across a couple of wild elephants.. Now the think about wild elephants is that people don't really understand that this is probably the most dangerous animal you can come across in India - because they are a familiar sight to most indians (either literally or culturally) people tend to think of them as tender/calm animals..

Now this was also when we realized that our guide was really crazy, in a attempt to show us the elephants and his bravery he kept trying to get closer to the elephants to a point where the elephants were clearly aware of our presence and one of them even signaled a loud warning to us. Thankfully the elephants were heading in the opposite direction and was descending into a slight valley allowing us to have some great views of them.

One of them was a tiny tusker!

By then we had started to stop our guide from getting carried away and asked him to head in another direction away from the elephants.

Moving on we came across more birds ..

first there was a lone Southern Hill Myna (Gracula religiosa indica)

and then a tree full of them...

And while we took a small break near a stream I photographed this beautiful

Stream Ruby (Rhinocypha bisignata)

a Loten's Sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius)

a White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus)

and as we were about to end our trail I found this charming little fellow - a Heart-spotted Woodpecker (Hemicircus canente)

Vineet was now slightly bitten by the wildlife bug so we decided to extend our stay in Thekaddy by one more night and to go for the night-time hike in the forest.

But we had a few hours to kill before it was night and since this is famous land of the spices I decided that we should check out a spice garden.

And while we were walking thru a spice garden I got found this endemic (a lifer for me) - White-bellied Treepie (Dendrocitta leucogastra)

and not far from the tree pie was this great Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor)...

It was finally getting dark ....

Very few forests in India allow visitors to walk inside the forest and even fewer allow you to walk when its completely dark! It is a great experience.. not soo much for the wildlife cos you can't see much .. but for the ambiance of the forest by night .. the sounds .. the smells .. and of course the fear! It's awesome..

Once again our most crucial safety feature was the anti-Leech socks .. but this time there were two guides .. one of whom was an armed forest guard - just in case!

Surprisingly we saw a large no. of Sambar dear (Cervus unicolor) grazing along the river's edge and as expected heard some crazy sounds.. once again totally worth it! If you ever go to Thekkady don't miss the night hike! It's a great way to experience the forest...

Three days in Scotland

Just got done with an amazing two weeks travelling in Europe - and I couldn't have asked for a better ending... after five blissful days in Switzerland I headed for yet another amazing landscape - Scotland for the last three days!

Starting with snaps from Edinburgh :

It was probably the best time of the year for wild flowers and since I know very little about it I will share a few photos but no ids for them...

And as expected all these flowers were attracting all sorts of insects and bugs

The rest of the snaps from Edinburgh were clicked along the road side behind the Scottish Parliament below Arthur's Seat.....

started with a Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)....

....this here is the national flower of scotland - the Thistle

And this is the weirdest butterfly I have come across so far.. It seems to be a Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) . ..

and all three images are of the same individual - what is most puzzling is that in the UP side photo (above) one of its wings are coloured like a male - while the other has a female wing pattern!!!

(Apparently this does happen although quiet rarely and is called - gynandromorph)

Then A few Common House Martins (Delichon urbicum) caught my attention for a while

And while I was busy clicking more wild flowers and butterflies I saw the only wild mammal of this trip -

and what was better was the fact that it was a lifer. A Least Weasel (Mustela nivalis) - of course at the time I thought it was a Stoat I had seen some on TV and they looked exactly the same.

But a little bit of internet research told me that it was in fact a Least weasel. Which is distinguished from the Stoat because it lacks the black tip to the tail - this one had rich chocolate brown tail like the rest of its body.

After a brief few minutes of checking what I was up to the small fellow made a dash into the thicket and didn't reappear....

So I went back to more butterflies

a Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

and an unided Satyrid butterfly...

and lastly a Carrion Crow (Corvus corone)

On the next day I went to Loch Lomond,

a Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

A few insects snapped on various halts -

an unided frog

Similar to Switzerland the landscape here too is extremely pristine and mind blowing at times..

On a small lunch break I came across these Common House Martins (Delichon urbicum) nesting below the roof of a roadside cafe..

and not far from the Martins this - Common gull (Larus canus) flew by..

and so did this Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)

and above the nest site this White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) did what he does best - wag his tail!!

And some more great landscape

these Highland cattle or Kyloe (an ancient Scottish breed of beef cattle with long horns) are quiet a common sight in the Scottish highlands

and after some more amazing landscape I got to Fort William where I halted..

Only to be back on the road early next day heading for Loch Ness

At this particular part of the journey I was reminded a lot of a trip I had done a few years back to Shillong (Meghalaya) in the North-East of India... and I realized why the British had named that part of India the Scotland of the East!

a swooping Common Swift (Apus apus)

and at yet another small halt I found another set of (common) birds

an unided gull (probably a Herring Gull)..

a European Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)

a hiding Dunnock or Hedge Accentor (Prunella modularis)

a female House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) as she took off...

And to end this post another image of a Highland cattle

Cheers Scotland!!