Mesmerizing Chikmagalur

"The town of the younger daughter", does it ring a bell ? Ok, fair enough, this is the place where coffee was cultivated for the first time in India. Any guesses ?

Well, I am referring to the beautiful town called "Chikmagalur" located in the state of Karnataka. Coffee plantation do excite me but the main intension behind scheduling a trip to Chikmagalur was 'bird watching'. Being a part of Western Ghats, the place is hilly & covered with trees all over. It is also home of more than 250 species of birds.

I planned a trip to Chikmagalur along with my wife for 2 days in the month of July. We stayed in a beautiful homestay which was located 20 kms far from Chikmagalur town. The early morning ride from Bangalore was very pleasant & scenic. As expected in the month of July, it was drizzling when we got inside the Chikmagalur town in the afternoon. Though I was loving the climate but on the back of my mind I was a bit worried, what if it starts raining heavily ? I didn't wanted to squander any time, fortunately it never rained too heavily during our stay.

Day 1 -

My eyes opened automatically at 5:30 AM, I opened the door but, it was still quite dark. I ran back, got ready & by 6:15 we proceeded towards the backyard of the homestay which has a pond. It was overcast & drizzling, not an ideal setup for bird photography. We sat along the balcony, sipping a cup of hot coffee from their local plantation & waiting for the rain to ease off a bit. There is a tree tower on the left side of the photo where we sat for a couple of minutes hoping to witness some bird activities but couldn't see much.

We came down from the tree tower & walked in its surrounding areas, that is when I saw one White Throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) sitting pretty on a rope that runs across the pond. With a powerful bill and rapid flight, these kingfishers have few predators when healthy.

Within a minute I discovered a beautiful Red Whisked Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) sitting on a nearby tree & fortunately I was very close, hence could capture some crisp close range shots. Though they are quite common, but that does not take away the beauty they possess. They fall under the Conservation status of Least Concern (LC), implying they are abundant in number.

After clicking the Red Whiskered Bulbul, we went back to our room & decided to take a break. I was standing in the balcony when I saw a small bird making a swift landing on a small branch. As destiny would have it, my camera was ON with correct settings & so could able to click some beautiful pictures of this gorgeous Common Tailor Bird (Orthotomus sutorius). They normally range between 10 to 15 centimeters in length & weigh 5 to 10 grams. They also falls under the Conservation status of Least Concern (LC).

Getting out again under the sky, we lazed around the property & absorbing the beauty of the mother nature, all lush green wherever you see. That is one of the solid reasons why people travel to Chikmagalur even during the monsoons, it is so pleasing to the eyes. The battle between the sun & dark clouds continued for a couple of hours. The heaven couldn't able to hold the clouds any longer & it started to drizzle soon after.

But that did not deter us from exploring the place & our perseverance paid off when we sighed a Rufous Babbler (Turdoides subrufa). It is dark brown and long tailed & their usual habitat is scrub, open forest or grassy hillsides.

You may observe the rain in the backdrop of the above picture as well as some droplets in the spider web. The intensity of the rain increased as the day progresses & eventually we called it a day with some good sightings & a long walk in the uneven terrains amidst birds.

Day 2-

On our final day of the tour, we planned to leave by 11:30 AM which means I own the golden hour for birding, you see everything counts.

As usual woke up quite early hearing the morning calls of Peafowls/Peacocks, tried to follow the sound in search of them but no trace whatsoever.

The first sighting of the day for me was that of Common flameback (Dinopium javanense) feasting on termites for the breakfast I believe. They are large woodpeckers which are resident breeders in tropical southern Asia & derive its English names from their golden or crimson backs.

The calls from Peafowls/Peacocks was becoming real clear & intense with every passing minute, as if it is nearby somewhere but not able to locate them. I decided to explore the coffee plantation section in search of Peafowls/Peacocks as well as other birds.

Due to overnight rain, the ground was slippery, but nothing to worry as long as it doesn't start pouring heavily again. Before moving out towards the coffee plantation area, the owner of the property suggested us to put some shampoo around the boots. I couldn't hold back but had to ask the intension behind this weird idea. He explained the area is infested with leeches & applying shampoo will prevent the leeches from climbing through your boots to an extent.

We started to move ahead after applying shampoo in the boots & this time we were accompanied by some local people who have extensive knowledge about the place. On our way they explained the different types of coffee grown in this part of Karnataka - Arabica & Robusta being the most commonly cultivated species of coffee. Very informative indeed & was pleasantly surprised with the depth of knowledge they have on coffee plantation.

We moved quite far but still no signs of any birds, though we can hear the chirping sounds. After close to an hour of walk, we saw a bunch of Black-throated Munias (Lonchura kelaarti) sitting on a branch of a tree, enjoying the morning breeze though one of them flew away shortly but not before I clicked them together. The Black-throated Munia is a small gregarious bird that mainly feeds on seeds.

Moving on, I heard multiple calls of different birds as if some fight was going on, we started walking faster towards the sound & guess what, indeed a fight was taking place between a Common Flameback & a Greater racket-tailed Drongo. It looked like Flameback had an insect which Drongo wanted to snatch.

The Common Flameback won the battle while the disappointed Drongo flew away. That is how life is, you win some, lose some!!

The Greater racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) sat on a separate branch looking dejected & waiting for the next opportunity. By the way they are good mimickers of the calls of other birds, especially when there are birds of other species. So next time you hear some familiar sound, it can be a call from Greater racket-tailed Drongo . They are aggressive and will sometimes mob larger birds especially when nesting, no surprise it was taking on the Common Flameback for food.

With so many actions taking place around us, we forgot to keep a track of time. We were late, but the time spent was not wasted, had a lot of sightings including a fight. It has been a very eventful morning & with that thought, we decided to move back to homestay.

We packed our bags, had breakfast & just when were leaving the place, an Olive Backed Sunbird female (Cinnyris jugularis) sat on the balcony railing. Probably it came to say goodbye one final time. As per wikipedia, these birds mate between the months of April and August in the Northern Hemisphere, and between August and January in the Southern Hemisphere. Probably it was looking for a partner. By the way, they also falls under the Least Concern (LC) Conservation status.

As I look back now, it turned out to be an amazing & incredible trip. Unfortunate that we could not see any peafowls/peacocks, but while trying to track them down, we came across different varieties of birds. The fight between Common Flameback & Greater racket-tailed Drongo for me was the highlight of the trip.

I felt fortunate to spend some quality time amidst nature, breathing fresh air & of course hearing the chirping sound of our fellow friends almost throughout the day. I also experienced walking barefoot on green grass laden with morning mist, it is such a small thing yet feels awesome. These are tiny yet wonderful experience many of us miss out while staying in concrete jungles, including me.

I looked back one last time & waved goodbye with a promise to come back soon.

How to reach Chikmagalur:

If you are driving down from Bangalore I suggest you to take Bangalore -Nelamangala – Kunigal - Hassan - Belur - Chikmagalur.

There are many buses also from Bangalore which ply in this route.

Kadur (40 km) and Hassan (60 km) are the two nearest railway stations to Chikmagalur, so anyone planning to travel via trains can keep these two stations in mind.

The nearest airport is at Mangalore, about 160 km from Chikmagalur. The airport is well connected to flights from Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and other major Indian cities. One can get pre-paid taxi from the airport for Chikmagalur.

Where I stayed:

We stayed in a beautiful Homestay named "The Hidden Valley" situated in a place call Handi, around 20 kms away from Chikmanglur town. It was a very pleasant stay, it offers clean rooms & tasty local cuisines.