Nelliyampathy – A perfect weekend destination for birders

Vinod and myself had visited Nelliyampathy when we were novice birders. We wanted to visit this place again but somehow it didn’t happen. So when Bryan Scholes and Lana, a Canadian couple wanted to go for a birding trip Vinod suggested Nelliyampathy which we all happily agreed. Lana is a keen birder and have done birding in several countries. She doesn’t like to do birding with a bird guide which works for us perfectly. Bryan is a photographer and very observant. He had taken very beautiful bird pictures from several countries and is currently working on a bird book. So we were a perfect birding combo!!

As usual we started our trip to Nelliyampathy early morning. We wanted to be in the base of the mountains when the early morning sunlight hits the trees. As planned when we reached the checkpost, bird activities had started. Orange minivets, Malabar grey hornbills, Asian fairy blue birds, Yellow-browed bulbuls were flying around. The recent rains had made the mountains very green and there were waterfalls everywhere.

So the scenery looked very beautiful. While all the weekend bikers were taking selfies in all different angles, we four were chasing behind the birds hopping on the trees. After some intense birding we were all quite hungry. So we stopped near a beautiful waterfalls and had our home cooked breakfast – Idly. We ate our breakfast enjoying the surroundings while Bryan, Lana particularly loved the idlies. The passersby gave a quizzical look as they couln’t figure out the relationship between the four of us !

We stopped at the beautiful viewpoint and were imagining if only Great hornbills would cross that path what a view it could be. But we saw White-cheeked barbet only, no luck for great hornbills. The rock slopes were in pink color as the sonerilas were in full bloom. We enjoyed the drive seeing all these wild beauties and stopped at many other places to see flowers and birds. We saw Blyth starlings on Erythrinia subumbrans tree which was in full bloom.

The starlings were glowing in that sunlight with the bright orange colored flowers which was a beautiful sight. We watched it for few minutes and continued our drive.By the time we reached our stay we had seen Emerald dove, Bamboo orchid, Blyth starling, Greater racket tailed drongo etc etc. It looked like the rain waited for us to reach because once we reached the resort there was a sudden downpour. While waiting for the rain to stop, we all got refreshed and had our lunch. I just roamed around the coffee plantation after lunch. I saw a very colorful awl under a coffee leaf. He looked very comical with his big eyes. I tried to show it to Vinod but before that the awl flew away. When I showed the photo to Vinod, he was very surprised and told that was the Indian Awl King.

Indian Awl King was a surprise visitor.

He got very envious on my sighting and I tried to compensate it by showing him various other colorful insects, but nothing came near the Awl King.

In the evening Vinod, Lana and myself decided to saunter in the woods while Bryan rested in the room. There was not much  bird activity but we saw many colorful insects. Surprisingly, Lana who had travelled so many countries and had wide wildlife experiences enjoyed everything from tiny bugs to dragonflies to mushrooms. That matched us exactly as we were not strict birders. Lana suddenly pointed us something in the ground, I was thinking it should be frog and went to look at it more closely. It was a baby turtle !! I had never seen baby fresh water turtles , so I was pretty excited. But we were also pretty worried to see him alone wandering on that trail. So Lana took him and left him on the trail edge.

We continued our walk excitedly talking about the different turtle species and then saw few more colorful insects like Lantern bug, Leaf hopper, Shield bugs etc. We returned back to the resort for refreshments. We were sharing our turtle story to Bryan and suddenly there was a loud screech sound. The sound got closer and closer and we saw some 20 Malabar parakeets flying closely to the restaurant. When we were in Nelliyampathy every day evening we got to see this Malabar parakeet show. While we were watching the parakeet show, the resort employee had a chat with us and warned us not to roam around the woods in night as there were even sightings of tiger near the resort. But that didn’t stop Vinod and Lana to go for herping after hearing different frogs sounds in the night. After finishing dinner they started their night walk but decided to stick along the pathway inside the resort after hearing the warning from the employee. But within few minutes Vinod spotted the Indian Gaurs by their reflecting eyes. There were so many eyes glowing in the night. So they both didn’t want to disturb the animals, so they quietly returned back to the rooms. 

Morning Birding inside the Nelliyampathy resort

Next day early morning we were greeted with our forest singer Malabar Whistling Thrush. It was very misty and we waited for the mist to clear as there could be Indian Gaurs on the trail. We wandered inside the resort paved pathway itself. As we were roaming we heard a loud woodpecker call. Inside the forest , usually we hear calls from Grey Jungle Fowl and Racket-tailed drongos early in the morning. So we were surprised to hear a woodpecker call at that time. It was not just any woodpecker, it was the White-bellied woodpecker which flew to a nearby tree. We were all stunned by his sudden visit and then saw him in binoculars. What a fascinating woodpecker he is!!

We got to see Nilgiri wood pigeon, Jungle owlet, White-bellied Treepie, Malabar barbet, Bronzed drongo in that misty morning. Once the mist started clearing, we began walking in the trail.  It was a pleasant walk to listen to the music of the birds and insects. Blue-bearded bee eater was perching silently on a dead tree. Heard a loud knocking sound of Greater flameback at distant. Malabar Tree Nymph was casually gliding amidst the trees. Oriental white-eyes came in a flock and jumped around. We sauntered around the forest path watching the birds. Vinod usually looks for animal scats and footmarks in the forest out of curiosity. He spotted a long hairy scat and it surely belonged to some big cat. The employees were right to warn us not to wander around in the night.

We are in a time period where mass extinction of wildlife seems to be the norm. So any sign of wildlife that makes us happy. We shared stories about our big mammal encounters and reached back to the resort. Hot aappam and vegetable stew was waiting for us there. We greedily ate the food and then decided to go to Seetharakundu viewpoint.

On the way to the viewpoint, we watched the tea pluckers with sadness and guilt thinking about the leech bites they had to suffer everyday just for a casual drink. Their suffering is not only the work environment but the whole lifestyle. The tea pluckers are paid as less as Rs.137 for plucking 24kgs of tea leaves. Not only they are below the poverty line, but they are also treated worse, facing beatings and sexual violence and having wages and benefits withheld. All this modern slavery,  just for a cheap casual drink.

To lighten our mood we again searched for Blyth Starling on the same Erythrinia tree. But to our dismay that tree was cut down and the place looked so empty. We were deeply saddened by the unnecessary tree cutting and grumbled all the way to the viewpoint.  When we reached the viewpoint parking lot, the place was crowded with tourists. All four of us hate crowded places, so we reluctantly started walking. But within few minutes a Great Tit caught a caterpillar and sat on a tree near the trail. So we all started watching how he was eating his food. But within few seconds it turned out to be so Yukky as his food was very slimy. Me and Lana decided to continue our walk while Vinod and Bryan stood there patiently watching the bird eating his food. Our walk was interrupted frequently when people stopped Lana for photographs. I was laughing at her embarrassment on the sudden attention she was getting and we talked about the obsession of Indians to foreigners. The view point looked very beautiful , so we didn’t mind the crowd. Bryan and Vinod joined us soon. We always love to watch rain clouds, but we had never seen it the way we did in this trip. We were above the rain clouds and we could literally see the clouds moving and pouring rain on the villages below us. 

Seetharakundu viewpoint

As the rains approached we wanted to run to protect our cameras, but we were amazed at the cloud movements and stood still. Obviously, we got drenched in rain but we protected our cameras with the raincovers we had. We didn’t get to see many birds here but it was ok as we enjoyed the scenic beauty of Nelliyampathy. When we reached back to the resort entrance , our elusive state bird Emerald Dove was casually pecking on the ground. There were African tulip flowers on the ground which looked like a colorful carpet. Lana was so excited to see this beautiful dove very closely.

Having stopped here and there for birding, we lost track of time and  reached the resort very late. The resort employees were patiently waiting for us to serve lunch. We were very hungry and started gulping the wide varieties of food. Bryan and Lana were astonished at seeing the amount of food served. All four of us over ate and regretted that till next morning. In the evening, we just rested and watched the show of White-bellied Tree pie and Malabar parakeets. Next day morning we again did some casual birding and walked on a small hill slope in search of flowers. Lana was very excited to see Land Crabs on the grasses. We saw few Impatiens, Cyanotis, Sonerlia in bloom. We returned back and quickly packed our stuffs. Lana told us how she was pleased to see the wildlife side of India and Bryan also thoroughly enjoyed the trip. All four of us enjoyed seeing the wildlife together and learnt a lot from each other.

Food in Nelliyampathy

The first time we came to Nelliyampathy we didn’t notice these many details in nature. We just took so many pictures of sceneries and went back. Now with years of experience we learnt to look deep in the forest. We learnt to appreciate the biodiversity in the forest. We were happy to see the woodpecker and the design of the barks, we loved the different leaf shapes and the colorful insects , we loved the unique shaped flowers and the bees, we loved to see how everything interacted with each other. Even though me and Vinod are widely different from Bryan and Lana in culture, ethnicity, language etc. the one thing that connected us together is Nature. That connection was so strong that we didn’t realize any other difference between us. That was my biggest learning in this trip. If we are all united together with nature you will feel the humbleness infront of this big Universe, so we won’t mind the simple differences like race, language, culture etc. 

We were feeling bit down when we started our return journey from Nelliyampathy as we all started feeling so close to each other. When you are very close to nature, it understands you and sends you message in some way. For us the message came through the Crested Serpent Eagle. He perched on a stick amidst the tree plantation and he made loud continuous calls. We saw him closely and admired his beauty. Usually he flies away even if he spots us at a distance, but this time he just sat. We all watched him to our content and bid farewell to this serene place which gave us lots of wonderful memories to remember for a lifetime. We continued watching birds on the Ghats road and saw Square-tailed bubul sitting beautifully amidst moving clouds singing us a goodbye song.