A rainy morning at Nanmangalam

One early morning last week, seeing clear skies, we decided to go to Nanmangalam reserve forest (which is about 20 km from my house). By the time we were halfway there, dark clouds started piling up all of a sudden from nowhere! We were in half a mind to turn back, we proceeded nonetheless.

Sun was peeping through the clouds on and off. We reached there, parked and started walking into the forest. We reached a large clearing which is one of my favourite birding spots in Nanmangalam and saw that part of it had become a small pond due to the rains over the past few weeks.

We saw several cormorants, little egrets and cattle egrets fly away from the water as we walked closer. The calls of Greater Coucals and Laughing doves were teasing us as we were trying to spot the birds.

Suddenly, this Shikra (picture on the right) majestically flew out of nowhere and perched on a tree closeby, giving chance for a couple of pics, before flying off again. We saw light fading quickly and noticed dark clouds covering up the sky. Before we could even think of what to do, it started pouring. Heavily.

Packing the camera in a polythene bags and stuffing them in to the camera bag, we started walking. But, there was no shelter as we were in the middle of the forest. After a 15 minutes walk, we reached the road and took shelter in a house there. The owner of that house was so friendly and was speaking to us for about half an hour.

The rains stopped, and we were tempted to go back into the forest. But, the dark clouds were still threatening.

But having come that far and having been drenched anyway, we thought we'll go back in to the forest. The rain seemed to have sent all the birds back to their nests and we couldn't find much activity, barring a few purple rumped sun-birds and ashy prinias. As the sun started to peep through the clouds again, couple of Green Bee-eaters came out to dry their wings and started preening, giving us more photo opportunities.

Another short spell of rain and spotting of a few of our regular favourite birds (Oriental Magpie Robins, Black drongos etc) later, we returned - with a few photos and some good bird sightings.

Birding in Yelagiri

While my previous post covered details about accomodation, sight-seeing and food in Yelagiri, this post is dedicated to Birding.

As I already mentioned in the previous post, Yelagiri is not fully commercialised. There's minimal pollution, not much human interference. Hence, birds can be spotted everywhere. Birds like Red-vented bulbuls, Red-whiskered bulbuls, drongos, munias are found almost everywhere - you don't have to specially go and look for them!

Here's a map showing birding places in Yelagiri. I've prepared this based on my 3 day birding trip. There may be several other places which I'd have missed. Also, I didn't go for the trek to Swamimalai, which is surely bound to be great for birding.

Here's a list of Birds that I spotted. I've also mentioned the place where I spotted them.

(YN = Yatri Nivas - the place where we stayed
NP = Nature Park)

Birds that I spotted commonly in Yelagiri:

1. Red vented bulbuls - Guauva trees in YN Garden. Eucalyptus forest area behind YN. Several in NP.

2. Red whiskered bulbuls - YN garden, NP

3. Rose Ringed Parakeets - Several of them on a tree near the bus-stop. Could spot them there at any time of the day.

4. Ashy Prinia - YN. Also in many scrub bushes along the road.

5. White Throated Kingfisher - Behind YN, On the way to Jalagamparai.


6. Common Tailorbirds - YN garden.

7. House Sparrow - behind YN.

8. Purple-rumped Sunbird (The pic below) - YN, NP and near the lake.

9. Pied Bushchats - YN. Several pied bushchat's spotted inside YN compound, behind the building, in the place where the kitchen wastes are dumped. I clicked several pics from the balcony itself as they weren't afraid to come close to the balcony.

10. Brahminy Starling - Road behind YN.


11. Green Bee Eater - behind YN and in the vacant land next to YN.

12. White-bellied Drongo - YN. Also, in several other places on the way to the lake.

13. Spotted Munia (Scaly Breasted Munia) - Near YN, NP, the main road, the road leading to the lake, Nilavoor park. They were everywhere. I could find ALWAYS a couple of Spotted munias in the creepers in the Nature Park's archway entrance.

Green Bee-eater, Spotted Munia and White-bellied Drongo.

14. Oriental Magpie Robin - YN and a few in bushes along the roads.

15. Indian Robin - YN and the road behind YN, Lake, Murugan Temple.

16. White Browed Wagtail - YN, Lake and NP.

White Browed Wagtail

17. Yellow Billed Babbler - Near the Murugan Temple

18. Laughing Dove - Near the Murugan Temple.

19. Common Iora - a few seen behind YN.

20. Black Drongo - YN and NP. Also, at several places along the road.

21. Baya Weaver Bird - Nilavoor

Apart from these, the calls of Common Hawk Cuckoo (Brain-fever bird) could be heard very often in YN and NP, though the bird was elusive as always!

(I've not mentioned the palm-swifts, common rock doves and pigeons that were commonly spotted.
One interesting thing is that there are hardly any crows in Yelagiri. I saw hardly one or two during my 3 days there)


Birds that were not common

1. Tickell's Flower Pecker (or Pale billed Flower Pecker) - In a kitchen-garden near YN.

2. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Several people have clicked pics of this bird at YMCA. I just caught a glimpse of it, before it flew away before I could click.

3. Rufous Treepie - in the Forest behind YN and Banyan Tree.

4. Coppersmith Barbet (or Crimson Throated Barbet) - Banyan Tree.

5. Lesser Golden Back woodpecker (Black-rumped Flameback) - Banyan Tree.

6. Yellow-crowned Woodpecker - This is special. I've not come across any listing of Yelagiri Birds which mentions Yellow Crowned woodpecker. I didn't expect to see one. But, couldn't get a clear photo. But, this collage of cropped images that I clicked is enough to identify the bird. The scaly back, the yellow crown and the red patch in the belly are prominent. Clicked at the Banyan Tree.

7. Jungle Myna - Forest behind YN.


8. Yellow Eyed Babbler (The pic on the left) - YN

9. Jungle Babbler - YMCA

10. Spotted Owlet - Don Bosco compound wall.

11. Indian Roller - On the way to Jalagamparai.


12. Greater Coucal - On the way to Jalagamparai.

13. Grey Wagtail - Spotted at Jalagamparai.

While I've talked about several places for birding, the banyan tree behind Yatri Nivas (refer map) was the one I loved for the surprises it was throwing. Every time I went there, I spotted some different species, which I didn't see anywhere else in Yelagiri. There could be a few other places which are good, but these were the places that I frequented.

To see more photos of Yelagiri birds, hop on to my Flickr photoset.

A trip to Yelagiri

When my dad made plans for us to go to Yelagiri, I was reluctant. Had been there with my colleagues for a workshop. "Not much to see there", I told him. Knowing my interest in birds, he tempted me saying it'll be great for birding. I was not convinced, as I searched on the web and could find not find much to say that it's a birding spot.

But, right from the time I got down from in front of the hotel (Yatri Nivas), I spotted birds everywhere and started clicking even before we even checked in! Before we move on, lets get all the basic info out of our way.

How to reach
From Chennai, we reached Jolarpet (the nearest railway station) by train. Jolarpet is closer to Bangalore, making it an ideal weekend getaway for people from Bangalore. From Jolarpet we took an auto-rickshaw to Yelagiri, for which we paid Rs 300. There are also regular buses which start from Thirupathur via Jolarpet. However, we're told that buses get fully crowded by the time they reach Jolarpet. On the way to the top, you'll cross 14 hairpin bends, each bend named after famous tamil kings and poets.


Accommodation

We stayed at Yatri Nivas which is a government owned hotel, but it is run by a private company as it has been leased out. I think the rates are fixed by the government, and hence the the tariffs in Yatri Nivas are the lowest you can get in Yelagiri (not considering dorms). We paid Rs 550 for a double room (The room had a TV and geyser) and they didn't even charge for an extra bed.

The place is decent. The rooms and the garden are very well maintained. The garden has various flowering plants and fruit-bearing trees (like Guava and Pomegranate) which attract a lot of birds. In fact, I spotted and clicked a lot of birds in and around Yatri Nivas.

Apart from Yatri Nivas, there are plenty of options for accommodation. There are tons and tons of hotels and resorts, but I was told that everything gets filled during weekends. So, if you're going on a weekend, make sure to call and book rooms, and send demand drafts if necessary.

Food
We tried only two places - Yatri Nivas (the place where we stayed) and Hotel Yelagiri (not far from Yatri Nivas). The quality is decent at both the places, and both are not over-priced. Apart from the hotels and resorts which serve food, there are several separate restaurants serving different cuisines.

If you are a strict vegetarian and you hate having food in a restaurant which serves both veg and non-veg, you'll have a tough time in Yelagiri. We enquired a lot, but everyone said the same thing - there are no pure-vegetarian restaurants there.

What to see?

There are 4 main villages - Punganoor, Athanavoor, Nilavoor and Mangalam.

If you can read tamil, do go through this sign board:


Nature Park: The summer-festival (Kodai-vizha) ground has been converted into a large beautifully landscaped garden, with a small artificial cascade. The place is superbly maintained and you can spend hours there just enjoying the beautiful plants and lovely birds. There's a musical fountain, which wasn't working when we went. But, I was told that regular shows do happen. It also has a children play area with swings, slides etc.
 
Punganoor Lake is a large man-made lake. You can walk around lake in the well laid-out pathway or enjoy a refreshing boat-ride. There's also a small park. You can take a walk around the lake and the park early in the morning or late afternoon/evening if you're interested in birding.

Murugan Temple
There's a small Murugan temple. After visiting the lake and boat house park, you leave from the back entrance of the park and walk about half a km to reach this temple. If you're to go through the main road after coming back through the front entrance of the park, it takes 3 km!

Nilavoor Lake
Another man-made lake, but this one is smaller. Boating is available. There's also a small park nearby, which again is well maintained. But, if you've seen Punganoor Lake, Boathouse and the Nature park, this is not worth it.
Right opposite the lake is a temple called Kadhava Naachiamman Temple, which opens only on Fridays. As it was not a Friday when we went, it was closed.


Jalagamparai
This is a small waterfall. There's a 6km trekking route to this place from Nilavoor. If you want to reach the place through road, you've to come all the way down from Yelagiri, reach Thirupathur and then drive to Jalagamparai. The total distance would be about 40km (including the descent from Yelagiri). There's a Murugan Temple. What's special about this temple is that the temple itself is shaped like a Shiva lingam.

Apart from this, there's Swami Malai temple, which can be reached by trekking. We didn't visit this temple.

As you might've figured there's very little to see at Yelagiri. To me Yelagiri is not a touristy location, but a calm, not-much-exploited getaway where you can enjoy nature. Maintenance of all the places - be it the lake, the gardens, the temple - is top notch, unlike most tourist places, which is what I absolutely loved about Yelagiri.

That covers the basics of Yelagiri tourism. To know about birding in Yelagiri, check out the next post.

Egrets fishing.

My previous visit to IIT Madras was really worth it - captured these beautiful little egrets fishing!