Itenerary: 3 nights / 4 days at Thattekad
This is the first time I am writing a trip report after 11 months of visiting various jungles and wildlife photography. Hope you enjoy the trip report and please bear with me for any mistakes/errors in flow.
What has infact prompted me to write this trip report is this place (Thattekad) and the man behind this place Eldhose - The Magician.
Day 1: Myself and Nurdeen reached Thattekad at 12:30pm. Eldhose was waiting for us at the Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary entrance. From there we were taken to the Hornbill camp run by Eldhose. Currently 2 rooms are functional and 2 more are getting built. The room was neat, basic and the best part for the bathroom which is open to the sky. Infact one day Nurdeen spotted koels mating from the bathroom while taking bath.
Lunch was then served and was like a full course delicious kerala meal prepared by Eldhose's wife. Great food. Immediately after lunch we started our first expedition in to the sanctuary with Eldhose. We started off the trip with sighting of 2 owls...the Brown Hawk Owl and the Collared Scops Owl. Clicked some snaps and proceeded further in to the sanctuary. We spotted cuckoo drongo, white bellied treepie, large woodshrike. Managed some shots of the large woodshrike...the rest were good sighting. The main item during this expedition was to sight and photograph the Srilankan Frogmouth. Eldhose asked us to wait and one place before he fixed appointments with the frogmouths. I think we had the best sighting possible and clicked lot of snaps. On the way had sighting of the Rufous woodpecker but no shots. The climate is very humid there. Had lemon soda on the way and got back to camp. On the way back saw the Phillipine shrike. Managed a shot but with clutter. Black lemon tea was served and we did some photography at the camp itself. Nurdeen got some good shots of the Indian Pitta. Dinner was served along with fram fresh pineapples and we hit the bed by 10pm.
Day 2 : Woke up at 6am and an eloborate breakfast was served at sharp 6:30am. We did some photography around the camp and were ready for the morning expedition in to the sanctuary with Eldhose. We then took a bus to a particular place and then an auto from there. The habitat was awesome with dense tall trees. We were welcomed by a distant sighting of 2 Black Baza's. I managed to click a rceod shot of one of them sitting on a very tall tree and with zero light there. Then we had some great sightings of the Great Woodpecker, Malabar Trogon (Male) and the Ruby throated bulbul. After clicking some snaps we returned back to the camp for lunch.
After lunch, we saw the snaps that we clicked in the morning and then left to Cuckoo Paradise which is around 4kms from the camp. We spotted Black Hooded Oriole, Drongo Cuckoo, Common Hawk Cuckoo and Jungle Owlet. Manged a few shots and then went in search of the Mottled Wood Owl. But we did not have luck on our side. The auto which had to pick us did not turn up. So we walked all the 4kms to the camp in the hot humid weather. We were served hot lemon tea in the camp and went on a boat ride shotting Darters (or Snake Birds) take off and land. Eldhose promised us to show the Jerdon's Nightjar and after some searching he soptted it (only god knows how he can spot in that pitch dark with just flashing of torch). I did some goof up there and we missed shotting the Nightjar Sad But the boat ride was just awesome and Nurdeen just loved it. Back to the camp, had dinner and hit the bed after processing some images.
Day 3 : After breakfast we headed off to a place called Edamalayar (where Suresh V S shot the Wayanad Laughing Trush). This is a lovely habitat and good sightings of Hill Myna, Malabar Parakeet, Yellow Browed Bulbul, Paradise Flycatcher, Malabar Trogon (male & female), Ruby Throated Bulbul, Asian Brown Flycatcher. Clicked some snaps and returned back to the camp after having some lemon soda's on the way.
After lunch, Nurdeen took a nap. But I went to th hide waiting for some birds to come. After sitting there for 90mins, I photographed 5 species of birds. Nurdeen was kicking himself for having took the nap. After evening tea we went to another lovely habitat where we photographed the Heart Spotted Woodpecker and the Brown Breasted Flycatcher. Eldhose was very happy that we managed to shoot the brown breasted flycatcher and he said it was a rare species. Happy with the evening result we headed back to the camp to spend out last night. After a heavy delicious dinner, we hit the bed thinking...should we leave this lovely place.
Day 4 : I woke up early to get ready to head to Munnar. Eldhose guarenteed shots of 10 different species. Nurdeen had to get back to Cochin in the afternoon to take his evening train. He just sat in the hide the whole morning and made some good frames of Malabar grey hornbill, koels, barbet and the grey jungle fowl.
The car came to pick me and Eldhose at 6:30am sharp and we left to Munnar at sharp 7:00am. It is a 2 hour journey from there. Just 20kms before Munnar, Eldhose heard the calls of the Rufous Babbler (just cant imagine how he heard it in all that traffic noise). We stopped, reversed and Eldhose made calls and the babblers wanted to check out and popped out of the bushes...then what else you need, I fired the shutters and made some good frames. We were thrilled with the start we had to the Munnar trip. On the way we also photographed the Pacific Swallow. Reached Munnar by 9:30am, had tea and headed off for some photography. Managed some shots of the Grey Breasted Laughing Trush, Malabar Whistling Tursh, Long tailed shrike, Liitle Grebe. We then headed back to the town for lunch and checked in to a decent lodge.
Immediately we headed off to the shortwing spot and waited for 30mins. We could see any movement or hear any call. After waiting for almost an hour we spotted the shortwing and he slowly popped out. But he was up on the tree and with less light. Then clicked away to glory till we were both happy with what we got. Thrilled with the result we moved to another habitat and got some shots of the Nilgiri flycatcher (Male & Female). Later we went to another habitat where you can sight the long tailed grassbird. But all the grass had been burnt, so we Eldhose wasn't confident of sighting the grassbird. So we did some photography around the place. Came back to room, had dinner and hit the bed after watching India score 413 runs.
Day 5 : The final day of my trip and I wanted to improve my Grey breasted laughing trush snaps. Eldhose took me to a place and on the road we had some great sighting of the laughing trushes and shortwing. This time could not manage a shot of the shortwing. At another place managed some good shots of the grey breasted laughing trush, 'OK' shot of crimson backed sunbird and and some decent shots of the Orange and black flycatcher. That made the western ghat endemic count to 5 during the Munnar trip. I have to thank Air Deccan for goofing up with my ticket. If not I would not have visited Munnar. We had lunch and I headed off to cochin to take my flight after dropping Eldhose at Thattekad.
Eldhose is truly a magician. He has got this intuition and knows which place to go when and what you will get. If anyone of you is planning to visit Thattekad, make sure you go with Eldhose and you will not come back disappointed. You can reach him at 09447486664 or contactus@birdinginsouthindia.com
Other pointers:
1. There is another place called Hornbill camp which is no way related to Eldose. So just call him on his mobile to block him.
2. Thattakad is 70 kms from Cochin and 40kms from Cochin airport. You can hire a cab to reach that place. It should cost you around Rs 600.
3. There is no electricity but the generator will be working from 6:30pm to 10pm.
4. No ticks at Thattakad.
All images taken during this trip can ve viewed here.