Southern India - 13 February 2012 (2)

 Mettupallam

Red-Whiskered Bulbul

We reached Mettupallam and kept on going.  Our rooms for the night were in the Black Thunder Resort on the Ooty Main Road.  It was a long way out of town.  We were welcomed with a blessing, a garland and a soft drink.

Red-Whiskered Bulbul

Our rooms were all in the same building and looked out on the national park which was right behind the back wall of the resort.  I went out on the balcony for some bird spotting.  There were more red-whiskered bulbuls and a chestnut-headed bee-eater.  Some of the bulbuls flew into the resort to drink from a puddle left by a leaking tap, so I got a very good view of them.  The bee-eater had a perch just outside our window and kept flying off to catch an insect and returning to the same perch.  I watched him for ages.

Chestnut-Headed Bee-Eater

Chestnut-Headed Bee-Eater

I decided to go outside for more birdwatching and headed round the back to see if I could get a better view of the bee-eater.  Several members of our group with downstairs rooms were sitting outside, enjoying the sun and drinking beer.  Not liking beer, I hadn’t appreciated how much it figured in other people’s enjoyment of the holiday.  It turned out that Harish’s cool box was carrying bottles of beer as well as water.  I’m not sure how long that had been going on.  Unfortunately, disaster had struck and they had just drunk the last of the beer.  The bee-eater was still flying around, but when I tried to get the others to look at him, they just said they would only be interested if he could bring more beer.

Paddyfield Pipit??

So off I set to the nearby football pitch, where there were a lot of mynah birds.  There was also a brown bird which might have been a paddyfield pipit.

Ground Squirrel

We were due to meet up in reception for a trip to the lookout tower, with views of the national park.  I got there a bit early, but I wasn’t the first.  Another British couple were already waiting.  They came from Croydon and were travelling on their own but were due to meet up with an Exodus tour in Ooty.  While we waited, a man who did massages was touting for business.  Apparently some members of our tour had gone to him for a massage, but were far from impressed.  We refused his offer, because looking at wild animals was so much better.

Indian Pond Heron

White-Browed Wagtail

The others arrived and we set off for the lookout tower.  We were led past a lake where an Indian pond heron and a white-browed wagtail were sitting on some boats.  A snake was swimming in the water.  A ground squirrel ran across the paved surface next to the lake.

Gaur at Waterhole

Not much was happening when we got to the top of the lookout tower, but we waited patiently.  Then Jen spotted some gaur, making their way down to the waterhole from the left.  They disappeared into the bushes for a while.  A chital stuck its head out and then walked across the main clearing.  Then the gaur came into view and started to drink at the waterhole.  There were two females and two small calves.  They were there for quite a while.  Then we saw two samba and, finally, a wild boar.  By then the light had faded, far too much for photos.  It was nearly dinnertime, so we headed back.

Gaur at Waterhole

Lukose invited everyone back to his room for beer and rum and coke.  Jen and I just went back to our room and then went to eat, which meant we were first.  In fact, we were already on our main course when the others arrived.  Dinner was on the lawn to the back of reception.  The only animals about were cats.  We could hear two fighting and then we saw one dash off, presumably from the scuffle.  A cat came and sat under our table – I’m not sure whether it was for protection from another cat or in the hope of food hand outs.

Sunset over the Nilgiri Hills

We left the others to their desert and went back to the room for an early night.  There was a very early start the next morning.  I tried to plug in my battery charger so pulled out the TV plug as this had the only socket.  Strangely, I was unable to push the plug in the socket – and then I couldn’t put the TV plug back either.