13th October 2019, 5:45am
We arrived at our rendezvous near Sai Baba temple and met Sai Vivek, my senior. I took my water bottle and camera bag from my car. My father dropped me there and left, by the time, Sharang arrived.
Vivek introduced Sharang to me. All three of us got into Sharang’s Jeep and started at 5:50am from the spot. On the way we had random talks and got to know about us.
We reached Bedathapuram, via Mettupalayam road at 6:40am, a remote forest area which is located near Karamadai. A Amman temple is located at the top of the hill, which could be reached by a small trek of 1.2 km.
We parked our car, took our gears and were ready for the birding trek. We saw dogs playing around, they were little hesitant initially, soon they got comfortable and started following us for a while.
We went up a little and I noticed a bird sitting on a thorny tree. Sharang and Vivek were looking at them and said it was a White browed Bulbul. We saw the bird from a bit far distance and when we went little closer, it flew below the rock. We were standing there to see if it comes back, but to our surprise! a Bay Backed Shrike came and sat on the same tree.
We saw a small flock of Red Rumped–swallows flying, a Eurasian hoopoe sitting on a stone fence, yellow billed Bablers sitting on the rock and suddenly a Blue Rock Thrush came out of no where, sat up straight on the edge of the rock. All of us got excited after the sighting of the Blue Rock-Thrush, we took some shots and climbed further up.
While we were moving further, I saw a reddish brown bird with black hood, came flying, glided out from a tree to the clear path, gave me a welcome sight and in a blink of an eye it disappeared into the valley, my guess was, it could be an Indian paradise flycatcher.
The path to the temple has mud, rocks, natural and also paved. There are large steps of rock were made for almost to the top, where the temple is located. Both sides of the trail are covered with trees. To the left when you climb is a valley where you can hear lots of bird chirping and to the right is a hill, also covered with trees.
The valley has a major vegetation of thorny trees and rocky mountains. I also saw few neem and gulmohar trees and also trees which I could not identify. There was a rain on the pervious day which helped in bringing out the vivid colours of the habitat, we could see the track of water flows on the mud path. The skies were clear and bright, providing the perfect light for birding and also for the trek.
We were about to enter the rock paved steps and we hear sounds, Sharang and Vivek were using their binoculars to find the birds. While I was standing there in between the two, looking with my naked eye, I found a fair amount of Red-Vented Bulbul and all of a sudden, Sharang identified a Blue-faced Malkoha. Vivek gave me his binoculars to see the bird, I was like where? Where? I cant see anything, Sharang started to panic a little and said there! there! look, 12 o’clock, they showed me the direction of the bird sitting but I was not able to see it. I tried to take a shot and somehow I got a blurred image, I was so happy to see it in my camera. It was too far and we were not able to take a good shot.
On our way we stopped randomly here and there, took few photos. I saw a pair of Green bee eaters sitting on a line, the day before this trek I saw one at Krishnampathy lake and took a shilouette and this time I wanted to take good shot. I was little sceptical about moving closer as they could see me and fly. Just as I thought, when I raised my camera and I was about to click, one of them flew. Yet I got a good photograph of the one sitting, just for me.
Further when we moved we saw a small flock of Red-Rumped swallow and a laughing dove sitting on the electrical line. I was hesitant to get closer, but Sharang told me to go, he knows which will stay and which will fly when we get closer. I took some clicks and we started moving.
To the left, in the valley, we saw a Eurasian collar dove sitting on a tree. I started taking photos and suddenly Vivek said, there is something big behind the dove, far near the rocks . It was a Raptor, I don’t know what it was and they were also not sure of what kind.
Later we saw a Laughing Dove sitting on a neem tree.
I also took a good shot of a Red-Rumped Swallow, sitting on a line.
A small bird was sitting and rubbing its beak on its body, I was told it was a Pale-billed flowerpecker, it is one of the smallest bird in Southern India. I started taking few shots of it and a Common tailor bird came and sat close to it. I tried to click a snap of each and got confused. Man, I got crazy and I was looking at both of them through my camera, moving my head left to right. The tailor brid flew away, seeing me turning my head.
While we were walking I saw a small bird sitting on top of a tree, I din't know what it was, but I took a shot. later I found it was a Sykes Warbler.
It was around 7:30 am the sun was too hot, and I was little exhausted and Vivek offered me water (I kept my bottle in the car) and biscuits. Both of them had backpacks, We were in the middle of our destination, we saw a Blue-Rock thrush sitting on a line, it was so fortunate to see it from such close proximity.
Sharang found a pair of Common Iora, we were able to see it so close. They were actually sitting under the dense thorny trees, light was low, but we can see them. I was not able to take a photo, but was glad to see them. Such a beautiful yellow bird. Vivek took a photo and showed it to me in his camera.
I was little disappointed for not able to take a shot of the Common Iora, but I had hope that someday I will. Later we found a female Jerdon’s Leaf bird sitting on a tree, this is the first time I am seeing this bird (all the birds in this blog) and really wanted to take a good photo. We moved little closer and for few seconds it was there and eventually I ended up not taking a photo of it. Soon, a male Jerdon’s Leaf bird came flying and sat on a tree which looked different with a small black patch around the beak. I took few shots and I was so Happy.
With me being happy, climbing further up the way, we saw three Blue-rock thrush flying around, they were playing, flying from one tree to another, such a beautiful sight. The sun was little comfortable, we stood there admired the birds until they flew.
Sharang again spotted a White bellied drongo with his binoculars, and told me to take a shot and I took few. We reached the temple area and on the top of a tree we saw a pair of Rufus Treepie. I saw few yellow billed babblers sitting along with the Rufus Treepie. Took few shots, but it was not clear. We sat there, took rest near the temple for 10 minutes, had biscuits and water.
We started to move further inside the forest, we saw a well. The ambient light was amazing.
We climbed through mud trail between the thorns and somehow reached the little plains area on the hill. We sat, relaxed and we were waiting for some raptors to fly. After 10 – 15 minutes of waiting and because of the hot sun we came down. We dint seen any birds but, saw lots of butterflies, Colorful!
On our way down I took photos of a purple sunbird and a Jungle prinia. I have seen Ashy prinia before but this one almost looks the same but, little bigger.
We were little tired, we almost came down and finally we saw two raptors, the Short-toed Snake Eagle flying high near the mountains and touching the skies. Amazing to see. It was around 9:50 am, we started from Bedathapuram hills and decided to have breakfast at Annapoorna. Later, Vivek dropped me near TNAU and I reached home by 10:45 am.
We were there for 3 hr 10 min (approx), and saw almost 40 different birds.
Bedathapuram is such a wonderful habitat for many birds, I enjoyed this bird watching trek to the core. Thank you so much Sharang and Sai Vivek for this wonderful experience and I hope to do bird watching with you again. Will definitely visit Bedathapuram hills, soon.
Cheers!!!
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