Wimpy
Well-known member
I'm just back from a two-week holiday in Kerala and Goa and thought I would give a brief review of our birding experience.
We don't do birding holidays; we holiday and fit in some birding.
It was fairly easy to pick up birds around the hotels we stayed at, but the highlights have to be a visit to the Periyar wildlife park, backwater cruise near Alappuzha, the Salim Ali reserve on Chorao island Panjim and a trip to the wildlife park at Bondla.
With the trip to Periyar we had an excellent, knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide who pointed out so many birds as we trekked through the forest.
At the Dr. Salim Ali reserve we were very lucky to meet Uday Mandrekar. We hired his boat and we were so lucky, early morning, low tide and a wonderfully hospitable local guide. Great birds but also an unforgettable experience gliding through the mangrove swamps and having tea and cake in Uday's house.
We completed our birding experience meeting Rama Govekar otherwise known as "Rayman" for the trip to Bondla. This was superb. It was hard to keep up with the variety of birds we saw.
How many ticks did we get? I'm still working on that!
We used "Birds of Southern India" by Grimmett and Inskip and Collins "birds of India" both of which were useful to a point, not very impressed with the colour plates. I had a couple of apps that were next to useless.
We had a wonderful experience in Southern India, so many good memories and so many good birds.
Roger
We don't do birding holidays; we holiday and fit in some birding.
It was fairly easy to pick up birds around the hotels we stayed at, but the highlights have to be a visit to the Periyar wildlife park, backwater cruise near Alappuzha, the Salim Ali reserve on Chorao island Panjim and a trip to the wildlife park at Bondla.
With the trip to Periyar we had an excellent, knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide who pointed out so many birds as we trekked through the forest.
At the Dr. Salim Ali reserve we were very lucky to meet Uday Mandrekar. We hired his boat and we were so lucky, early morning, low tide and a wonderfully hospitable local guide. Great birds but also an unforgettable experience gliding through the mangrove swamps and having tea and cake in Uday's house.
We completed our birding experience meeting Rama Govekar otherwise known as "Rayman" for the trip to Bondla. This was superb. It was hard to keep up with the variety of birds we saw.
How many ticks did we get? I'm still working on that!
We used "Birds of Southern India" by Grimmett and Inskip and Collins "birds of India" both of which were useful to a point, not very impressed with the colour plates. I had a couple of apps that were next to useless.
We had a wonderful experience in Southern India, so many good memories and so many good birds.
Roger
