The Thattekad bird sanctuary, more precisely called the Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary lies about 80 kilometers north-east of Kochi. Salim Ali, one of the best known ornithologists, described this sanctuary as the richest bird habitat on peninsular India.

I wanted to visit this place for ages…. Finally it has become a reality and planned to drive to Thattekad via hilly region of idduki toward Kothamangalam taking some of the scenic roads in Kerala.

The beautiful hills of western ghats on one side and the majestic periyar river on the other side as we neared Thettakad was mesmerizing.

We checked into the place for the night, our room was facing the backwaters of Bhoothathankettu dam. The locals advised us not advised to move around with our vehicles after sunset due elephant movement on the other side of the dam.

We were there near the backwaters of the resort until mid night chit chatting about our travel and our experiences on the places we had visited.

Next day it was an early morning wake up call as our guide reached our hotel by 5.30 am…. we were all set to go for the much awaited birding trail in Thattekad bird Sanctuary. As always went with a lot of wish list and on top was “Srilankan frog mouth” and next was “Malabar Trogjen”.

Our guide stopped us on the way to see the sunrise near Periyar river adjoining the forest reserve. We could see quite a few fly catchers and couple of eagles as well. Then next stop was the Salim Ali sanctuary.

Could feel the freshness in air, it rained a bit previous night so that odd leech creeping on you, fog slowly clearing up paving way for the sunlight to take over the mountains was definitely a sight to remember….

 

Treat for any birdwatcher, the great pied hornbill were just flying past us at a distance with the helicopter sound of flugging it’s wings.

We spotted the leaf bird pair, rocket tail drango and a vernal hanging parrot. All of them in a close proxity and a rapptor flying just above us. It was some good bird activity going on….

Then our guide was quick to spot the malabar barbet…. that was my first sighting of it. We trekked a bit and suddenly our guide said there is an elephant around so we need to take a different route. Could hear the tree breaking noise and smell of elephant.

After a fair walk on the mountain, we saw a lot of butterflies on a particular plant. In local language it’s called Kilukillupai. He gave me few seeds of it and asked me to try sowing in my garden.

We rested on a rocky slope with a tribal house near by. It was an open area could see the birds clearly and saw a lot of them infact. Then we started the decent, half way through a few bird watchers were taking pictures of something. Suddenly realised it was a Malabar Trogjen. Again my first sighting of it. Our guide said are you happy. I replied “top of the list is missing – frog mouth”

He stopped by a thick bushy area and said wait let me go in to find out something for you. Then he quickly came out and said your l, sir your bird is here find out. Although i searched for a while i couldn’t. Then spotted it sitting just a couple of metres away from me. Since they are generally nocturnal they didn’t move a bit and were stuck at that place. Yeah! our trip is fulfilled now……