Bhoothathan Kettu-Idamalayar Birding Trip

Dear friends,
CNHS held a one day birding trip to Bhoothathankettu-Idamalayar region on 5th December.We started from Perumbavoor early morning and had breakfast at Bhoothathankettu and started our birding there.We saw a group of Grey Jungle in the fields behind the dam.On our way to old Bhoothathankettu we saw many birds including,a large flock of White Bellied Tree pies flying in a group.It was a good omen as it is our logo.Many chestnut headed bee-eaters were seen and photographed there.We also saw a guy with 600mm Nikkor lens on a strap around his neck.It was amazing how he could carry it so effortlessly;should be having a neck of steel!!!We next proceeded to Idamalayar at about 11.30am. We saw the eclipse male of Purple Sunbird on the way and all of us clicked it to the heart`s content in the scorching sun for some time....We reached the Dam site at about 2.00 and had a spartan lunch at the KSEB Canteen there.We went up to the tunnel , birding till about 5.30pm there and returned.
This is the complete list of birds sighted:

1. Darter 2. Cattle Egret 3. Indian Pond Heron 4. Little Green Heron 5. Crested Serpent Eagle 6. Shikra 7. Changeable Hawk Eagle 8. Grey Junglefowl 9. Red-wattled Lapwing 10. River Tern 11. Whiskered Tern 12. Blue Rock Pigeon 13. Pompadour Green Pigeon 14. Mountain Imperial Pigeon 15. Indian Hanging Parrot 16, Plum-headed Parakeet 17. Blue-winged Parakeet 18. Brainfever Bird 19. Drongo Cuckoo 20. Indian Edible nest Swiftlet 21. White-rumped Needletail Swift 22. Malabar Trogon 23. White-breasted Kingfisher 24. Lesser Pied Kingfisher 25. Chestnut-headed Bee-eater 26. Oriental Broad-billed Roller 27. Malabar Grey Hornbill 28. Greater Golden-backed Woodpecker 29. Heart-spotted Woodpecker 30. Dusky Crag-Martin 31. Red-rumped Swallow 32. Large Pied Wagtail 33. Large Cuckoo Shrike 34. Black-headed Cuckoo Shrike 35. Ruby-throated Bulbul 36. Yellow-browed Bulbul 37. Common Iora 38. Brown Shrike 39. Blue-headed Rock Thrush 40. Malabar Whistling Thrush 41. White-throated Ground Thrush 42. Black-headed Babbler 43. Jungle Babbler 44. Common Tailorbird 45. Greenish Leaf Warbler 46. Large-billed Leaf Warbler 47. Asian Brown Flycatcher 48. Brown-breasted Flycatcher 49. Asian Paradise Flycatcher 50. Plain Flowerpecker ( Nilgiri Flowerpecker) 51. Purple-rumped Sunbird 52. Small Sunbird 53. Purple Sunbird 54. Chestnut-tailed Starling 55. Common Myna 56. Jungle Myna 57. Eurasian Golden Oriole 58. Black-headed Oriole 59. Black Drongo 60. Ashy Drongo 61. Bronzed Drongo 62. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo 63. Ashy Wood Swallow 64. Indian Treepie 65. White-bellied Treepie 66. House Crow 67. Jungle Crow

68.PlainPrinia
69.Little Cormorant

70. Egret

71. Gold-fronted Chloropsis

72. Red-whiskered Bulbul

73. Crested Tree-Swift

74.Cheeked Barbet

75. Crimson-throated Barbet

76. Grey Wagtail

77. Oriental Magpie-Robin

78. Southern Hill Myna
79.Green Imperial Pegion.

Participants:
Dr.Dileep K G,Ginu George ,Jai P Jacob and his son,Dr.Prasanth,Dr.George Moti,Prasad M George,Anna George,Gopinathan Nair,Madhukrishnan,Binny V A,Jayesh,Rifaz,Manjesh,Rajsree Bhatter,Firoze,Prof.Muthafa, Ramanathan and myself.

Vishnu