The tale of the Broad 'Tailed' Grassbird

The tale of the ‘Broad Tailed Grassbird’-- a note I wrote for Agasthya the newsletter of KMTR

It was a cloudy morning in the middle of June in 2011 and yet, the rain in Kodayar was hardly a trickle. I was returning from Kakachi with Preeti and Chian after searching for frogs the previous night. We rode past a swamp in Nalmukh tea estate when a sharp warbling call caught our attention. Weary of previous nights work, we did not stop to investigate but kept going and as we navigated a curve, it occurred to me that the bird could be the Broad Tailed Grassbird! We got off the bike and ran to investigate. The sky was overcast and a light drizzle brought out a nip in the wind. The calls were incessant. It came from the base of two eucalyptus trees. The swamp had a lot of thick sedge growing in it. As we intently waited, the bird flew out from a clump of sedges and perched on the tree and began warbling. One could clearly see the black mouth inside when it was calling. The broad tail too was distinct. Elated on seeing an endemic and vulnerable bird in a tea estate, we tried to photograph the bird in vain.

A record picture of the Broad Tailed Grassbird calling from a eucalyptus plant

I had on one earlier occasion, seen a pair of Grassbirds in the Muthukuzi area albeit being obscured by grasses. This sighting was clear and is etched in my memory.  For the next couple of days, we would regularly hear the bird from the same place. The bird possibly had its nest in the sedges and from literature; I came to know the nest remains water tight through the monsoon. Very little knowledge exists about this bird. 

A few days later, we noticed a pile of the very sedges in which the bird was nesting being harvested and stacked along the road. Turns out the sedge was being used as mulch for growing organic tea.  Organically grown tea was supposedly environmental friendly but on the contrary, the exact opposite seemed to have been happening. What the estate owners had not realized was that their tea growing practices had in-fact allowed a vulnerable bird to persist and even breed in their estates. 
 

A sedge of the cyperaceae family being harvested and ferried to the organic estate. The bird nests in the thick clumps of this plant.

While tea consumers and tea production is bound to increase, the fate of the bird lies in limbo across much of its geographic range. The estate could help in conserving this bird by maintaining a situation where even vulnerable species survive in an island of tea. Such a situation could lead to a certification for following ‘green’ practices and definitely boosted their sales. But, in the name of organic tea, a bird is being pushed a step closer to extinction.

Mis-adventures on a bike

Working inside a Tiger Reserve is a privilege. Working inside a Tiger Reserve on a motor bike is taking things one step further.  I have had some very nice experiences when on work inside KMTR. I have seen anything from a rare snake to birds like broad tailed grassbird to elephants and even a leopard when on the bike.

A gaur that almost threw me and Chian off the bike!

Similarly, I have also faced situations when death (well almost!) looked me in the face and I lived to tell the tale, especially when working at night. On several occasions the tires get punctured when on the road, away from human settlements and I end up walking atleast 3-4 km to get stuff to fix the bike or push the bike itself in hilly country back to field base.  Other times, at night, with the rain gods pouring away, I have had to ride back with heart in my throat hoping not to bump into an elephant or two which apparently come to the road when it rains! Another time, I have had to ride thru a mud slide!

With the trusted Yamaha navigating thru a mud slide!  PS: No bravado here! got this for the records!

A recent experience in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve with my cousin vinay becomes one among the long list of misadventures when doing field work.

We were visiting a Tea Estate near Gudalur called Madhuvanam. Our task along with many other biologists and researchers was to survey the place for amphibians and arrive at a comprehensive list. We took two days to do this and the estate was a wonderful place to be. Over 50 species of birds made our day including the Great Pied Hornbills! At night, we were treated with sighting of the rare Malabar Torrent Toad which Vinay spotted and picked up to show me- the only so called expert around at that time! For two days we enjoyed our stay there and got back to Gudalur where another colleague, Thomas from the French Institute had to head back to Bangalore. We then went with Tarsh (our host) to his house on top of a hill in the outskirts of Gudalur. The house was serene and I wish I could have lived there for ever! 

the valley at Maduvanam estate

Me and Vinay were bound to return the next afternoon and had half a days time to spare. We dint know what to do. Eventually, we decided to ride into Mudumalai and then to Bandipur. Getting transport early in the morning was tricky. It was Deepawali time and all were either celebrating or plain busy catering to the high tourist demand. Luckily, Joby, who lives in Gudalur had a bike which he offered to us. We agreed and left early the next day. The mist had not lifted and chill was strong. The 20 odd km felt like 100 km! The National Highway inside the park was relatively empty and not many vehicles, except only at few places. The forest, however, was Pink. Yes. Pink because of dear Lantana which has grown everywhere. Up the trees, up the tall bamboo shoot. Down into ditches. You name it. We did not see any animal except for the Cheetal and a group of Sambar deer.

Not satisfied with this, we decided to take the forest department safari in Bandipur. Surprisingly, the bus was almost empty and we got tickets!. I dropped a few names and said I had worked in bandipur a few years ago. Probably that and my camouflage attire made the ticket issuing forester to allow me to sit next to the driver in the bus and get a front view of the forest!. The ride started. People were yapping in the bus. An well meaning idiot googling on his smart (ass) phone for calls of lion, tiger and peafowl and playing it loud in the bus for his kid and the kid aping the call. Another bunch apparently slept off!

Torrent Toad spotted by Vinay

The forest was pretty pink again. The game roads were muddy and the view lines for 10 m on either side were empty. Again, only a few cheetal. An odd langur.Vinay spotted a treepie and yelled Malabar Trogon. The bus driver stopped. People wanted to see what we had seen. I saw the tree pie but the mind's eye was looking for a trogon. A trogon in a Dry deciduous forest! It took me a while to figure out what vinay had seen and he too, by then realized that it was only a lowly treepie. 

We moved on. No animal crossed our path. A small heard of gaur were up ahead. We reached closer and the poor animals tried to move away from the road but could  not penetrate the thick wall of lantana. They ran helter skelter and some ran on the road. Further ahead, one gaur became two and two became four and soon there were not less than 50 Gaur all walking on the road. I could count 25, the driver said there are not less than one hundred. It seems Gaur never go in such big herds. I had never seen or heard of such a large herd. 

That done, we got back from the ride and waited for the critical mass to take another ride at a discounted price. A bunch of hippies came by and said the fare was expensive and returned. The department chaps wound up the tour saying the time was up. We had time left and decided to drive down to Moyar. We stopped enroute to shoot a great black woodpecker which was on a roadside tree and calling away. About half way to Masinagudi, a small town before Moyar, disaster struck.

The throttle became non responsive. The bike would not move. It was illegal to stop a vehicle inside the reserve but who cares and what choice did we even have anyways?! Unfamiliar with the bike, vinay and myself started to figure out what went wrong, then we saw a small piece of cable hanging loose from the carburetor. We tried fixing it but the cable was too short to fit in and we dint see any loose end to fit it in! Assuming the piece had fallen off, we walked up and down the road for a few meters in vain. 

Vinay suggested we upturn the bike and see where the cable connected. But, I had in the past removed and put the throttle cable in my bike and knew that it fit in the carburetor and decided against it. Instead, I pulled out my ever trustworthy swiss knife and unscrewed the throttle handle and noticed that the cable was cut!. Such a simple thing. We stopped the next vehicle that went past and checked up if there was a mechanic nearby. They said the nearest was in Gudalur. By then, we were starting to run short of time for the bus. I called up Tarsh, our host who was on a survey on other side of Gudalur. He said that I will either have to push or leave the bike there and get back somehow to catch the bus. 

I tried pulling the cable back and fixing it but it fell short. By then I had pulled out a pocket nose plier. I decided to try pulling the cable with the plier and see if the bike moved. It did! Quickly, wiping our greasy hands on to the grass nearby, we picked up our bags and began our journey.
Initially it was hard to pull the cable in one hand and controlling the gears on the other and all the while concentrating on the road ahead! Somehow, we reached Gudalur. A distance of 25 km from where we got struck! All the passing cars and busses were all eyes at our antics. Vinay on the pillion with 2 camera bags, me riding the bike with a nose plier and both of us trying desperately to spot some wildlife!

With an hour to spare for the bus, we quickly got the cable fixed and then raced to Tarsh's house where we had left our stuff and again raced back to eventually catch the bus.

While our misadventure taught us a good lesson, all through the bike ride, I was hoping against hope that our tiers would not get punctured. That would have been the last thing we both wanted! Luck, seemed to be on our side and nothing of the sort happened. And yet again, I won and the Bike lost!

With Muthu and John, trying to fix a punctured tube back in the field station! Ages ago.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Not formally edited. Forgive typos!

Fern Ball at the Fern House

It was late in the afternoon. Johnson and I clambered down the tall Cullenia tree atop which we sat the whole morning enumerating epiphytic orchids. Hungry, weary of the cold gale and with hopes of ascending another tree, we grabbed our lunch boxes and gobbled up the stale Idly. We set off soon, in search of the next tree to climb. While doing so, we had to cross the Palaquium stream, a shallow stream that cuts across the ‘Green Trail’ which leads to a forest bungalow called the ‘Fern House’. Fern House, as the name suggests, is surrounded by lush growth of ferns of various types, including the tall tree fern. The idyllic Palaquium stream gets its name from the numerous Palaquium trees that are around it. There, on the low bushes, a clump of ferns caught my attention. The fronds were rolled into what looked like a clenched fist. 

The fern frond folded into a ball- © Seshadri KS 2009

The first thing that came to my mind was a story I had read a short while ago. The story, rather an incident, written by the noted Kannada writer, Poornachandra Tejaswi on his encounter with such rolled up leaves on a hot summer afternoon in the forest was fresh in my mind. We too, like the author were dumbstruck at the rolled up leaves. In the case of Tejaswi, he ponders over it over a while and takes it to an entomologist friend of his and they manage to open the roll and see eggs inside. Later the eggs hatch into what is identified as a Giraffe Weevil, with a disproportionately long head! The sense of wonder intrigues them to watch how the insect made the roll. After about two years, they happen to see it. The adult, by cutting off the mid rib, makes the leaf wilt and lays eggs in the tip and rolls it up quickly and lets it drop to the leaf litter where the eggs hatch and the adult bites its way out to freedom.

In our case, the young fern frond was rolled neatly and held together by some form of adhesive. We observed a few of such things around and decided to open up one of them! The leaflets were folded inwards and made into a neat ball with the top most leaflet folded and stuck inside holding it all together. For the untrained eye, it looked like the young fronds of ferns which are clenched like a ball before opening up. May be it was an act of deception by the insect. Inside the ball, there was a translucent spotted grub about an inch or two long and a lot of dark black pellets. The grub was probably of some beetle. On sensing its fortress to be breached, the grub coiled up. By the time we finished taking some pictures, the grub settled down and began to much away on the leaves. For every inch of leaf munched, there was a pellet dropped out from its rear! Such feeding machine! It was eating the ball inside out! 

Fortress breached! the leaf, the grub and the pellets © Seshadri KS 2009

Some silken threads were holding the folded leaflets together. Not knowing what to do further, we left the opened ball on a fern and hoped that the grub would survive. For over three years, I forgot about this incident till I saw one such grub in the stomach of a frog. The frog, called Nyctibatrachus had one of these grubs in its stomach content. Surely they must regularly be feeding on the grubs which are aplenty in ferns along the streams. 

The grub which I cared little to identify © Seshadri KS 2009

Sitting outside the forest and reminiscing about the incident, I am left with awe at the many ways in which various forms of life interact. An insect, that goes to great lengths to conceal its young one from being eaten up. A grub that eats the house made of leaves inside out. A frog that lurks beneath the leaves to grab a morsel of food. Truly a wonderful chapter in the eternal drama of life. I do not know what the species of insect is, nor did I make an attempt to find out. That the ecosystem has such wonders and mysteries for anyone and everyone to uncover and see is gratifying to me.

PS: Shyamal L tells me this "Some of us had reared this and it is a moth and not a beetle grub. Not able to remember the moth but check with the moth group, they might be able to identify the family based on the habit. The giraffe weevilsl make a nice tubular case and beetle grubs lack prolegs (false legs from the abdominal segments)".

The little tale of the little Spider Hunter

It is a common notion that in every walk of life there is something for humans to learn. A walk in the wilderness is no different. Every time, there is something new. Something unique. Sometimes surprising. Sometimes strikingly common. 

Recently, I was walking a trail in KMTR known as the ‘Green trail’. The name, originating in the honor of an old primatologist Stephen Green, who was one of the first persons to do ecological studies on Lion Tailed Monkeys and it was his work that helped build a case for protecting the mid elevation evergreen forests of Kakachi. Though, the name does not exist on official records, we use the name. What happened to all the work he did, one does not know. It never was published is what is heard. His legacy is not lost altogether. Some of the trails in this area, one will come across boards which bear alphabets N, S, E and W. These palm sized boards painted in red nailed to trees have stood the test of time of about three decades. They must have served as a route mark for green and his assistants when they were afoot following monkeys in the thick forest. 

the Western route of green near kodayar.

Most of the researchers in KMTR are aware of the green trail. A 2-2.5 km trail that starts from fern house and emerges out not far away from the origin on the main road. The trail can be walked either way and goes through some good undisturbed forests. Crosses three streams and provides ample opportunity to watch wildlife.

Myself and two other colleagues were accompanying our supervisor Dr. Ganesh and we were helping out with Long term Phenology work. Most of the time we spent looking up at the tall trees and noting if they were in flower, fruit, fall etc. It is a pain in the neck that much I can assure!

All through the trail, we noticed fallen leaves. Leaves which were eaten up but for the veins left intact. I had not taken note of this even though; I had certainly seen it before.

The eaten up leaf

 We went on and at a point, the trail narrows down and one has to pass through some saplings and wild cardamom plants. As we did that, we all heard a constant call of the little Spider Hunter. A pretty little bird with a long curved beak. The calls of the bird are often heard near wild cardamom and in the canopy where loranthus grows. They are known to be good pollinators as well. 

an old picture of the bird from nagarahole

We dint pay much attention to it and kept on. Close to the point, we were trying to locate a numbered tree and by chance, we noticed a clump under a sapling having broad leaves. The calls got ever more intense. A closer inspection revealed that there was something like a nest hanging underneath the leaf. I took a picture and it was pretty simple to deduce that it must be nest of the spider hunter.

We moved on, lest the bird should abandon the nest. Done for the evening, we returned the same way and luckily the bird had occupied the nest and flew out on our approach.

The nest was pretty intricate. Though I don’t generally indulge in nest photography, once in a while its good to document things. As one can see in the photo below, the nest is quite complex. The spider hunters are believed to build nests out of cobwebs. Presumably the name was coined when the bird was sighted in search of spiders or rather the cobweb. The nest was made completely of fallen leaves or rather I will say the un-eaten veins of the leaves. Interlinked with each other, the whole set up was linked to the leaf by some sticky material. I am not sure if it’s a cobweb but is certainly a strong material. The nest appeared empty. May be it had eggs inside but we did not check.

the hanging nest on a broad leaved tree whose name I seem to forget!

The fallen leaves, for a common man, seem like wasted resource. In many places, fallen leaves are collected as mulch for farms. Many places, people burn them. Fallen leaves are far from waste! In fact nothing in any sense is a waste! Humans are an exception.

The fallen leaves are potentially food for the million arthropods and microbes that help in recycling the nutrients back to soil. Some other critters like centipedes, beetles etc dwell in this litter. Anything from a skink to a snake is found in these litters. A wonderful leaf litter ecosystem one could easily say!

I had not known that the framework of a leaf could become useful for a bird, that’s hardly the size of the leaf! That’s something new I learn't. I look forward to catching a glimpse of many more mysteries of the forest. The more the time spent in forests, the more mysteries unraveled I would think!

 More on the bird on wiki can be seen here.

Kalliveli-the wetland of eternal bliss

If I were to make a list of disasters in my life, my brief stint at the Pondy University would be one among them. From the start, I hated the place. Maybe it was the sultry weather or the filth strewn roads (outside the white town of course!) or loud jarring music played through cheap Chinese speakers in all busses or it was just the thought of spending over a year in a place with all the above which I seriously did not look forward to. But then, eventually, things started to settle down. University life was mundane (to put it mildly) but, I had other things to keep myself occupied. Bird watching, as always topped the list.

Being a Bangalorean, and on top of it, being a student of the Ecology department, I called upon myself, the luxury to presume that most people would be passionate about natural history and nature itself. How wrong I was! Except for a few, a majority, numbering no less than 25 in the class just happened to take the course because of Environmental Sciences! Some, others joined because they wanted to do a post-graduation! A few in particular, had no foundation in basic ecology what so ever, forget the environment.

I was not new to Pondy Univ. I have had the privilege of working and learning from people who passed out of the Univ. right from the first batch, when ecology was introduced to just about mid 2000’s over a period spanning two decades. From what I understood, life was good. Pondy was nice, the campus was wild and there was a big wetland called Kalliveli, very close to the university campus.

 My roommates in the hostel were also my classmates and Vivek Chandran shared similar interests of mine. He came with the expertise of wetland birds which he gained in  Kole wetland in Trissur,Kerala. I knew wetland birds but was not an expert. With his expertise, we were pretty comfortable to identify most of the birds we encountered. For those who have gone to universities and have seen the world rot, the urge to make the difference is immense. We were no different.  Distraught by the absence of foundation among fellow-to-be-ecologists, we invited them to join us on a bird watching trip to Kalliveli.

On a Sunday morning, armed with binocular, camera, a book, nine of us headed to the wetland by cramming ourselves in an auto. None of us had been there before and had some bit of explaining to the auto driver. The man promised to pick us up when we were finished and dropped us off at a place saying this was it.

I was in for a rude shock. The place looked like a desert. By no means a wetland. This was just after the peak summer. The water was all but gone. The grass had dried up, the ground was parched and the sun was belting down our backs as early as 9 am. We started marching and talking to people and getting to know each other a little. This was meant to be the first field trip of any kind in our class and for a few, this was the first time ever on their own!!

The baked land

 Some kept slipping and tripping over and some could not walk in the dry ground. One gentle lady who has never been in such a dry landscape showed clear signs of having sunstroke! A few hours were spent there and Vivek and myself had some bird watching opportunities in the small tanks dug within the big wetland. Fearing the sunstroke and fore thought of having to carry the lady back, drove us to head back to the university.

That day on, I was clear that we are not taking any one else along with us. I don’t know if Vivek felt the same but did not insist otherwise.  The next trip did not happen for a month. We went to other wetlands. The second trip happened in December 2009. The rains had filled up the tanks and there was water. I was not prepared for the water as I had gone with my dear woodland shoes. Vivek had no problem wading right into the water while I thought a great deal before following suit. The nudge really came from a major shortfall of birding in Kalliveli. The birds are really far away. In small tanks, the birds when disturbed move to another location often close by. But in Kalliveli, the vast expanse of wetland gives the bird an opportunity to fly off and away at ease. We had to resort to crawling on ground, wading on knees in water and what not to try and approach a bird to get a decent look at it. Wading in the water for close to four hours had gotten my feet soggy and crumpled. The shoes were ever heavy and the sun was as bad as it could get. My camera had gone for repair and all that was retained were memories.  

Janurary of 2010. The water had increased. There were more birds because of the winter. We were delighted by the sight of Glossy Ibises, A lone Jackal,  a few ruff’s and black tailed godwits. We had creeped so close to the flock of godwits that we could hear the wisps of air  as the birds took off to the air. This time around, I cleverly wore Hawaii  chappals while wading. This, I realized later was a foolish thing to have done. The chappals got stuck in the clay and made walking with ease impossible. Frustrated, I had walked the tank barefoot and this caused more trouble as thorns went into the feet. That day was very eventful.  Vivek had got a new SLR camera. Mine had not yet returned from repair. He was getting used to photography and we thoroughly enjoyed the birding experience. There were so many things to shoot.  We continued walking and reached waist deep water. Now, the sun was really bad and we were hungry and tired. So, instead of walking back to the bund the way we came, I gave the idea of cutting across the tank t reach our cycles. And so we did. Walking back was not easier than I had thought. The reeds had grown tall to about 6 feet. We were in waist deep water and could not see what or where we were stepping. One thing we knew was the water would get deeper on the west and so we kept to the east but then, it was mid day and soon we did not know which side we were keeping to!. The reeds were tuff and my feet were bruised. There would seem to be a path only to lead to a small deep pool. To go round it, we took detours and eventually we went round in circles for over 2 hours. Finally, we reached a small tank, climbed on top of the bund and located where we were. Still over a kilometer away from the cycles. This time, we had landmarks in the backdrop and headed straight towards it and managed to reach the cycles. We must have been the only two people who got lost in a wetland!

Photo by vivek. Showing the grass in which we got lost!

 We went again and again atleast once a month for the one and half years we stayed in Pondy. Every time we went, there were surprises.Each time, a new bird added to the list. European White Storks, Eurasian Stone Plover, Indian Courser, Pratincole, Grey Headed lapwing, Black Tailed Godwit, Eurasian Curlew, Pintails, Garganey, Water Cock, Plovers, Terns, Pallid Harriers, Pied Harrier, Greater Spotted Eagle, Ruff, Pacific golden plover,  Common teal, Whistling teals, Great reed warbler, and Red necked Falcons were among the distinguished birds that were lifers for me!

Once, we were walking in the vast wetland and a Coast Guard chopper hovered over us. Both of us were in camouflage and were holding cameras. The chopper made another pass over us and we began taking pictures of the chopper! The guy there was also looking at us through Binoculars! Soon after, we saw a Jackal bolt out of the grass and run for its life!

Photo by Vivek

 Another time, we were accosted by a loud mouthed forest department staff. He began yelling at us asking for permits to visit the tank and who we were? He wanted money. He would not ask and I would not give. Instead he tried bullying us around and asking us to talk to the DFO. I pulled out my phone and said give his number. At which he became quiet and let us go, warning us to inform them the next time we visit. That was the last I saw of any human being there. Only other time I saw people was during grass harvest season. The reed/grass which grows in the tank is harvested in cartloads by locals and made into mats and brooms.

Now, I have passed out of the Univ. Life has come to what it was before, peaceful and pleasurable. The madness of Pondy does haunt me at times. But the Kalliveli tank, the cool waters, hot sun, muck and flying beauties haunts me more than ever. Vivek and Myself did visit Kalliveli before parting ways. I do not clearly remember when but vaguely remember it to be an evening of November. We saw a jackal and a few waders in flight. The fading sun turned the entire tank shimmering gold.

We were to do one last trip before parting ways after doing our Masters Dissertation work. Unfortunately, this never happened. When we met again in May, to submit our reports, it was peak summer and there would be no birds in the wetland. The trip got postponed and so far, it has never happened. We defended our dissertations and got results that we passed the MSc. He is back in Kerala and I am back in Bangalore. Kalliveli must be as lively as it was in the past.

Photo by Vivek when a red necked falcon zipped past!

I must confess, if there was one thing I liked and am actually missing in Pondy. It is this wetland. I cannot seem to get enough of it. In all the 20 odd trips we did, we have never reached the other end of this huge wetland and that should give you an idea of its vast nature. The days spent cycling to the tank, walking in the muck, wading in water and getting lost are among the most pleasant things that happened on bird watching trips. The lengths we went to identify the birds, watch them up close and relish the joy until the next month are fresh in my memory. Hoping that  someday, that ‘one last trip’ trip will happen, followed by many more. 

PS: Photos shot  by Hopeland, My junior in the university and the amazing birds he has been seeing pushed me into writing this. He can be found here.