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Participation in Shendurney WLS Survey
Camp : Kattilapara Team : Pavendhan A , Nishanth CV , Rama Warrior , Baburaj PV Narration : Pavendhan A
The team to Kattilapara consisted couple of us from Coimbatore and a couple from the city of Bangalore . Although most of them are familiar with birding , were primarily into butterfly chasing now and hence had to double up as both birders and butterfliers for the survey . The camp was a forest guest house with basic facilities .
Kattilapara derived its name from a couple of carved frame in a nearby rock ( which resembled more like an attempt to carve some idols from the marked area ). The area is a mixed deciduous forest with rubber plantation present here and there and the dam backwaters a short distance away . The very unique Myristica swamps a mile away .
As soon as we landed on the AN from Thenmala , we took a walk towards Kurunthotti road until the spot where the road to the right takes you to Myristica . We did not go to the swamp which was reserved for the transect , and rather we took the left path which is cutting the forest onto the backwaters . Being an afternoon , just into the evening , we could not get to see many a butterfly species , however , species like Common Cerulean , Indian Dartlet , Psolos fuligo , Chestnut Bob , Glad-eye Bushbrown and Rustic made their presence in reasonable numbers immediately . The water level in the backwaters was high too and not much is seen in the after noon within the forest . The light fade away quickly around 6 PM .
On the day , narked for the transect , all of us were ready and were fortunate to witness a good number of birds on the high canopy of the tall trees present in the camp and that included species like Black Baza , Indian Paradise Flycatcher , Scarlet Minivet , Greater Racket-tailed Drongo , Bronze Drongo , Bulbuls , Flamebacks and Jungle Babblers . We were soon joined by couple of Beetle Research students and we began our 3 hours transect towards Myristica swamp .
Either side of the roads were the primary targets and we were concentrating areas where sun was sneaking through the canopy and that paid dividends as far as the sightings , and we could notice Coon , Chestnut Bob , Indian Dartlet , Common Snow Flat and a lone Pygmy Scrub Hopper which was really tiny . Common Cerulean was abundant and a few Banded Blue Pierrots were seen from the blues . Grass Yellows represented the Pierids . Chocolate Pansy , Dark-branded Bushbrown and Glad-eye Bushbrowns represented the Nymphalids . A few Tamil Yeomans were seen on the canopy . Malabar Rose and Malabar Banded Swallowtails were flying past . We have reached the point where we now need to take the path leading to Myristica Swamp . We could add only a Brown Awl and a Malabar Tree Nymph to the list and the transect ended when we touched the road again .
Our decision ( or rather my forced one ) to walk towards Kurunthotti instead of the path to Choodal proved to be very effective as we were able to many species to the list . This was the most productive part of the survey . The walk was a further 4 Km . Immediately after we walked a few meters we saw a few Banded Blue Pierrots , Common Albatross and a Grass Yellow were feeding on a millipede carrion and that Grass Yellow later turned out to be the pricy Nilgiri Grass Yellow . Yellowjack Sailer was the next to make appearance and a quick and unsettled approach by it . Other species sighted and added to the list include Tamil Catseye , Grey Count , Tamil Lacewing , Long-banded Silverline , Commander , Clipper , Chestnut-streaked Sailer , Monkey Puzzle , Quaker , Lineblues , Angled Pierrot , Common Pierrot , Rustic , Southern Birdwing and Blue Mormon . The Ypthima species Common Four-ring and Common Five-ring were omnipresent .
We have reached the Forest Guest House at Kurunthotti and relaxed for a while . The debate of taking which route back to the base camp was finally in favour of the road on which we walked up , since the lunch time was nearing . It was a 6 Km walk again and we could add Yamfly and Tawny Rajah ( which encircled all of us for a few minutes before vanishing ). We witnessed the courtship act of Malabar Tree Nymphs . Immediately after the lunch , we were forced to take the Choodal path , which was through a Rubber plantation behind the campsite and this 5-6 Km total walk did yield just a solitary Dark-branded Bushbrown which actually looked different in the filed . Near the camp , we added species like Treebrown , Dingy Lineblue and Water Snow Flat . The day ended with a long 18 Km walk and about 50 + butterfly species . Malabar Trogon , Asian Brown Flycatcher , Indian Grey Hornbills were the significant addition to the birds list ( we ended with 31 species of birds for the camp ).
Our plan to walk on the road side / dam side on the last day was changed since Dr Kalesh joined us and we took a different path to Myristica Swamp and Choodal . The focus on the walk on early stages of caterpillars and host plants and we were benefited greatly from the knowledge of Dr Kalesh . We could see caterpillars of Malabar Raven and Malabar Rose and a pupa of Blue Admiral . On the adults , only Notocrypta species were the additions . The rubber plantation however gave us species like Glassy Tiger , Grey Pansy , Tawny Rajah , Grey Count , etc . Our final attempt before leaving to Thenmala to locate Dark Pierrot sighted by the other team failed , but an Autumn Leaf was added to the list from the same location . After concluding meeting and discussion , we departed our way back to Coimbatore and the rest of the team members to Bangalore and Trivandrum !
PATTAMPOOCHI A TNBS MAGAZINE WINGS 2 VEINS 1
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