Thattekkad diaries. Part 3

As usual we were up by 6.15 am & off for birding at around 6.45. This time into the nearby Orulanthany forest. Some of the trees were unimaginable. The base of the trees was so big, probably it would take 5-8 people with their arms outstretched to be able to hug the tree !!

Plus they were also so tall. Thattekkad is a tropical evergreen forest. Some of the tree species were Vellapine (Vatera indica), Bhadraksham (Eleocarpus tuberculatus), Cheeni (Tetrameles nudiflora) Thambakom (Hopea parviflora), Nedunan (Polyanthia fragrans), Anjily (Artocarpus hirsuta), Rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia) , Venga ( Prerocarpus marsupium), Elavu (Bombax cebia), Teak (Tectona grandis) Maruthi (Terminalia paniculata) Thembavu (Terminalia tomentosa) Venteak ( Lagerstroemia lanceolata).

The calls of the Puff Throated Babbler were really beautiful, plus it was a really cute bird.

Suddenly i saw something. I pointed out to Girish........ he jumped up in joy and he announced it is a male & female of Malabar Trogon.

A truly beautiful bird, with amazing colours !!

We saw the Asian Fairy Blue bird. Then suddenly the heart stopping moment came when we saw the Heart Spotted Woodpecker. It was really small & it was busy on a very tall tree (all of our necks very paining), infact i was getting irritated when everyone around me saw it, but i was not been able to see it. Finally my binocs closed in on it, a very tiny wood pecker.

Then we went to sit on some rocks, with the forest all around us, lovely White Cheeked Barbets, then the While Bellied Woodpecker made an reappearance, entertained us for a good 10 mts. It was really nice sitting on the rocks & watching all the birds chirping away. They were all so active. Then by mid afternoon we returned back to our rooms.

I have heard about Banana leaves been used as a plate, so this was first time for me to enjoy a nice lunch on Banana leaves, with no curries streaming out of the leaves!!

In the evening Girish promised us to show all the Fly catcher's. After our walk through the forests, while coming back we got excellent views of Asian Brown Fly Catcher, Asian Paradise Fly Catchers, Blue Throated Fly Catchers, Brown Breasted Fly Catchers & the Tickell's Blue Fly Catcher.

We just waited quietly, near some water on a rocky area, most of these birds were coming in to have a dip in the water.....................

Plus we could see & hear the Green Imperial Pigeon & the Mountain Imperial Pigeon. So that was yet another fruitful day of birding !!

Pradip Krishen visits Mirambika...........

Our project on trees got a major fillip when the author of Trees of Delhi, Mr Pradip Krishen visited our school.

He was really nice & patient. We went for a walk with him on our campus, he was able to identify all the trees. Infact with one of the trees he had his doubts & all of us appreciated his honesty, when he said he will get back to us with all the details.

Now we are trying to work on making the database we have created of all the trees/ flora in the campus into a compilation. That will be done after the holidays.

As of now i would like to thank Pradip Krishen to have come to our school & spend time with us. It was really wonderful & useful. Also i got him to autograph on my copy of the book Trees of Delhi !!

Thank you...... sir !!

A very interesting three part interview with Pradip Krishen can be read here, here & here

Mirambika campus is more diverse than Yamuna Biodiversity Park

....................But the only thing missing in our campus is a waterbody, but there are more variety of trees in our campus, than YBP.

We started doing a project on trees & i am kind of smitten by it. We are using Trees of Delhi, A field Guide by Pradip Kishen to do our work. Today morning my father was telling me your school bag is getting heavy. Apart from the Trees of Delhi book, it had Asterisk & a couple of novels, apart from the usual note books. We do not have any textbooks in Mirambika.

Using this field guide we are making a list of trees in the Mirambika campus, which by the look of things is much more diverse than the Yamuna biodiversity park which we visited recently as part of our project work.

At the Yamuna biodiversity Park i learned to identify some butterflies like Brown Awl, Grass Yellow, Forget me Not, Striped Tiger, Plain Tiger, Blue Pansy, Yellow Pansy & Peacock Pansy.