OF BIRDS, BIRDERS & The PALGHAT GAP - Part 2

My obsession with birds are reaching a new level that I've taken to carrying a bird book or field guide wherever I go. In fact, my collection has swelled recently (more about it later, but you can read about the early days here) that I can keep a book in each of my cars and backpacks and still have a few lying around!

Sometime in the late 90s the wilderness bug bit me and the effect has not left me since. I was a 'tigertracker' initially but in 2001 I started a Yahoo group; the Woodcrawler's Den, which was taken over by a hack, and I never managed to recover it. My first linking with serious birders was through this group, and one of them has become a good friend and comrade in arms on our trips into Malamapuzha's forest fringes. The irrepressible Namassivayan Lakshmanan!

Malampuzha Dam, in Palakkad District of Kerala was commissioned in 1955 and is the largest irrigation reservoir in the state. The dam, almost 2 kilometers long has a catchment area of close to 150 square kilometers. Situated on the Palghat Gap, the reservoir is hemmed in by the low hills forming the northern edge of the Palghat Gap. It is fringed by the moist tropical forests of the deciduous and semi-evergreen types and has a rich biodiversity. 

When I say I have been wandering around Malampuzha almost every week, it is in these fringes and NOT in the famous Malampuzha Gardens. As a matter of fact In the last twenty years I have been inside the gardens about 5 times, but I have stopped counting the visits to the forests!

Sometime in early 2008 I laid hands on my first DSLR, the Olympus E3. It was a shift from the prosumer Fuji Finepix to the next level, as the wilderness bug had bitten me well and truly hard. The yearning to run off to the wild become a full blown disorder! As is natural with all wannabe nature photographers, in their early days, the tendency to shoot anything that moved afflicted me too.

With a digital camera, the worry about cost of film, developing negatives and printing some unprintable photos was gone. Earlier, the worry about film was a restriction on shooting but with the dawn of the digital age, that was gone. With a DSLR that could shoot at a respectable 8FPS, worries evaporated. Kabini and Bandipur were too far away for a day trip and also a little heavy on the pockets. That is when I discovered the forests around Malampuzha.

Most of the initial forays were in the Kava area. In summer, as the reservoir dried we'd drive inside it, otherwise we drove around the road along the edge of the reservoir. It was most often raptors and water birds that I 'noticed'. Perhaps their larger size and visibility in the open spaces ensured that I noticed them.

Then as we drove around we started noticing that there were smaller ground birds that had hitherto not been noticed because we were novices and small birds were less interesting perhaps.

Once out of the reservoir our eyes were now scouring the trees, bushes and electric lines. That was an even bigger treasure trove of birds.

That was then my birding eyes really opened. It suddenly dawned on me that I had been missing so much. My jungle trips were much too tilted in favour of the mammals, that birds were considered incidental. Everything changed from then on. Malampuzha transformed me. I realized, unlike mammals, I did not have to look for birds. One or two were always around. It was hard to avoid them,in fact. It was just that we took them so much for granted.

My birding eyes then realized that there were little patches of forests on the side of the road around the reservoir. It was time to explore a little further, but that is for the next post!

Fire & Water

Summer is here and I've just been woken up from hibernating. Not too much woodcrawling except a small trip to Bandipur (more about that later).

The dry cold winds sucked the moisture from everything, living or dead. The reservoir, where only a couple of months ago, I had test driven a new car to see its off roading capability, was already dried up significantly.

News of wild fires were trickling in from everywhere and that is worrying to everyone. The forest department is worried about the devastation and effect on wildlife, conservationist worry about everything and owners of farms and estates (encroached or legitimate holdings) on the fringes are worried about the monetary loss.

It was a very different Malampuzha. The water levels had receded so much that we had to drive out to a considerable distance to reach the edges of the remaining water. Even there it was shallow enough to wade through. The shoes kept sinking into the mud so we didn't fancy testing the capability of the car, especially with no other human being in sight. It would be a long walk if I had to get a tow truck to dig us out of trouble!




There was still a tinge of green along the water's edge, the result of a minor thunderstorm that lashed Palakkad a week before, but there were also places which looked like it was part of some desert.

The little water that was still remaining meant that fish would be surfacing for air regularly. There weren't many birds around but the ones that were there were having a field day.





The Northern Pintail ducks were too busy exploring underwater to take notice of me. Most of the time I was around they were with their head underwater!

LITTLE RINGED PLOVER

The few waders present were not in groups. I spied individuals of  a few of species. 

SANDPIPER

GREAT EGRET

GREY HERON

There were also a small group of black headed ibises and Asian openbills

BLACK HEADED IBIS

ASIAN OPENBILL STORKS

Cormorants were the only birds on large numbers and they were dive bombing in the shallows and finding great success.

LITTLE CORMORANTS

Other than the kites gliding overhead the only other birds were a lone wagtail and many pipits.

WHITE BROWED WAGTAIL

PADDY FIELD PIPIT 

It seemed that the birds were having a good time as the water disappeared. The unfortunate part was that the forest on the edges of the reservoir were passing through their worst crisis. The leaves that had been shed during the winter months with the dried grass form a deadly combination. A carelessly thrown cigarette or even a spark from a fire lit to clear the under bush can lead to disaster. 

It almost happened on the other shore a few weeks previously. The farm owner was allegedly clearing his property but things quickly went out of control.

It took a mere half  hour for the fire to spread but mercifully it died out before doing too much damage. The forest official whom we ran to inform could only watch helplessly. The nearest fire station was in Kanjikode, at least 10 kilometers from the scene of fire. The water in the reservoir was only about 100 meters away but there was no way to bring it to the fire. Perhaps God intervened!

Our Bandipur trip in late January too was spoilt by fire, but of a different sort. Watch this space for that story.