Kudremukh Trip Report 27-09-2005

From Wild India

Trip report from 23th Sept to 26th Sept 2005, Participants : Harsha, Kalyan and Noella

We stayed at the Kudremukh Nature Camp, which is about 9km away from kudremukh town towards kerekatte. Luckly there were no rain all three days and most of the sightings have been on the drive on the main highway.

The caretaker at the Nature camp - Shetty was a very friendly chap. He had a pet sambar fawn which we played a lot with and got attached to. There is a large resident bull gaur inside the camp, which scared us like crazy in the nights.

The highlight of the trip was the Lion tailed macaque. We saw one right outside our camp and one enroute to Bajgoli from SK Checkpost. We spotted about 13 species of snakes (half of them run over on the road by cars), few Western Ghats endemic birds. The amazing part was the forest itself along with the thick vegetation.

Table of contents

1 Kudremukh Sightings 1.1 Snakes 1.2 Mammals 1.3 Birds 1.4 Butterflies 2 Birds enroute to Kudremukh

Kudremukh Sightings

Snakes

1. Common Cobra
2. Rat Snake
3. Large eyed bronzeback ? (dead)
4. Stripped Coral Snake ? (dead)
5. Cat Snake ?
6. Vine Snake
7. Checkered KeelBack
8. Green Keelback
9. Beddome Keelback
10. Unknown Shieldtail (dead, possible new species)
11. ellot Shieldtail
12. Travancore Wolf Snake (dead)
13. Common Krait (dead)
14. Cat Snake (dead)

Mammals

1. Lion tailed macaque (Two lone ones on different days)
2. Small Indian Civet (At night on the highway)
3. Black faced Langur (Western ghats sub-species?)
4. Bonnet macaque (at the checkpost and not inside the forest itself)
5. Sambar
6. Gaur
7. Dusky Striped Squirrel
8. Black Naped Hare

Birds

1. Malabar grey hornbill
2. Malabar Lark (Outside kudremukh about 20km before belur)
3. Yellow Browed Bulbul
4. Rufous Babbler
5. Scimitar babbler (call)
6. Malabar Whistling Thrush (call)
7. Stock Bellied Kingfisher
8. Scarlet Minivet
9. House Sparrow (Lot of them at kudremukh town)
10. Jungle Crow
11. White Throated Kingfisher
12. Greenish Warbler
13. Red Whiskered Bulbul
14. Black Bulbul
15. Grey Wagtail
16. Magpie Robin
17. Pied Wagtail
18. Ruby Throated Bulbul
19. Hill Myna (None inside, but found right outside the park)
20. Long tailed shrike
21. Black Eagle (Near Kottigehara)
22. Black Capped babbler
23. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo
24. Yellow-footed Pigeon
25. Green Bea-Eater
26. Malabar Parakeet
27. Pompadour Green Pigeon
28. Ruby Throated Bulbul
29. Imperial Pigeon
30. White-rumped Shama
31. Coucal

Butterflies

1. Southern BirdWing
2. Common Rose
3. Crimson Rose
4. Lime Butterfly
5. Common Mormon
6. Blue Mormon
7. Malabar Banded Peacock
8. Malabar Tree Nymph
9. Red Helen
10. Blue Oak Leaf
11. Great Eggfly
12. Common Grass Yellow
13. Common Jazebel
14. Pioneer
15. White Orange Tip
16. Great Orange Tip
17. Nigger
18. Rustic
19. Grey Count
20. Danaid Eggfly
21. Blue tiger
22. Plain Tiger
23. Stripped Tiger
24. Tamil Lacewing
25. Common Palm fly
26. Common Indian Crow
27. Chestnut Bob
28. Blue Oakleaf
29. Grey Pansy
30. Common Jay
31. Chocolate Pansy
32. Lemon Pandy
33. Stripped Tiger
34. Common Emigrant
35. Mottled Emigrant

Birds enroute to Kudremukh

1. Spotted Dove
2. Common Myna
3. Red Vented Bulbul
4. Jungle Crow
5. Indian Roller
6. Rose Ringed Parakeet
7. Brahminy Kite
8. House Sparrow
9. White Throated Kingfisher
10. Ashy Prinia (call)
11. Pale Billed FlowerPecker
12. Collared Dove
13. Common Coot
14. SandPiper ?
15. Indian Cormorant
16. White Cheeked Barbet
17. Barn Swallow
18. Green Bee-Eater
19. Purple Swamphen
20. Little Grebe
21. Pied Kingfisher
22. Pheasant Tailed Jacana
23. Intermediate Egret
24. Baya Weaverbird
25. Red Wattled LapWing
26. Pied Wagtail
27. Scaly Breasted Munia
28. Large Cuckoo Shrike
29. Greenish Warbler (call)
30. Grey Wagtail
31. Shikra
32. Vernal Hanging Parrot (call)
33. House Sparrow
34. Honey Buzzard (near magundi)
35. Wire-tailed Swallow
36. Barn swallow
37. Eurasian Marsh Harrier (near magundi)
38. Little Egret
39. Intermediate Egret
40. Pied Bushchat