2 -day Birding trip to Maredumilli, AP
Maredumilli in Alluri Sitaramaraju district of Andhra Pradesh is known for its rich flora and fauna making it a hotspot for biodiversity conservation and ecotourism in the Eastern Ghats region of Andhra Pradesh, India. It shares borders with the state of Telangana to the northwest and the state of Odisha to the northeast.
Maredumilli is known to be a birding haven with over 288 species of birds recorded, including rare and endemic species such as the Malabar Trogon, Malabar Pied Hornbill , Pale-capped Pigeon and Green Avadvats. This region is inhabited by a variety of mammal species, diverse reptilian fauna and supports a rich diversity of butterflies and insects, contributing to its ecological significance. It is also home to several endemic plant species found only in the Eastern Ghats, including rare orchids, ferns, and medicinal plants. Besides, being a popular location for variety of bird species sighted in any season, it is also famous for its local delicacy, the “Bamboo chicken”.
Maredumilli is covered by tropical moist deciduous forests, characterized by a variety of tree species such as teak, rosewood, bamboo, and mahogany. It also has extensive bamboo groves, which play a crucial role in the local ecosystem and economy.The presence of rivers, streams, and waterfalls in the region supports the growth of aquatic plants and riparian vegetation along the water bodies.
In the last 10 years , this area was being developed to promote ecotourism infrastructure such as nature trails, viewpoints, and eco-lodges to accommodate tourists while minimizing the impact on the environment. It is a great place to visit away from the maddening urban life.
My visit to Maredumilli could become a reality as I happen to be on leave in Hyderabad and fortunately, during this period my Hyderabad birding pals ,Sriram Reddy & P.Harikrishna also planned a birding trip to this place for 5 days. In the last couple of years, Sriram has been extensively travelling AP and Telangana to explore bird species from different locations. Both Sriram & Harikrishna are outstanding bird photographers. Not to miss the golden opportunity, I decided to make a weekend whirlwind trip to this place during their stay. I had few lifers to see and high on the list was Rosy Minivet , Indian Nuthatch , Green avadavat , Ruby cheeked Sunbird and Abbot’s Babbler. I had motivated my birding friend Dr Chita Shankar, an agricultural scientist and entomologist from Hyderabad to accompany me.
My friends were absolutely sure that I will be able to see at least 3 of my wishlist of birds without much pain as they were all resident birds and were seen during all their trips to Maredumilli.
On 3 rd May , our flight from Hyderabad reached Rajahmundry at 3.00 pm and we started immediately to our destination which was one and half hour drive. We passed through Rampachodavaram , a hotspot for naxal activities at one time , which now is the head quarters of Alluri Sitaramaraju district. We reached our modest hotel room at 4.30 pm , quickly checked our bags, grabbed our cameras and set out for birding . It was a cloudy day and the light was poor but still wanted to try our luck in seeing any birds. As the light receded , we stopped at a road side tea stall and had a good cup of coffee. We wanted to have an early dinner as Chitra & I missed our lunch and were famished .We decided to go by 7.30 pm to the only small decent restaurant at this place by the name ‘Bamboo Restaurant’. Interestingly, they don’t serve Bamboo chicken but on our request they got it from outside while the rest had paneer biryani. “Bamboo Chicken ” as the name signifies has chicken pieces cooked in the hollow of bamboo giving a smoky flavor, bringing a unique taste of the bamboo to it. As impressive the cooking of chicken sounds , the taste was not anywhere close to our imagination. During the leisure dinner, my friends assured that I will get all my lifers on the next day. With that beautiful thought ,we slept early as we had to start by 5.30 am in the morning.
4 May - We were up and ready to hit the road by 5.30 am; stopped briefly for a cup of aromatic hot coffee at a road side stall and packed breakfast of freshly steamed hot idlis with two varieties of chutneys.
We proceeded directly to the location of Green avadavats ( munias ) which was nearly 40 km on Maredumilli – Mattam Bheemavaram road. It was 7.00 am when we reached Koyyuru, we walked through the growth of parthenium weed in fields adjacent to the road , looks like they have been left for reclamation of soil after a crop or waiting for rains to sow the next crop. Millets are apparently grown in these fields .The other end of the fields has a boundary with the forest area with thick vegetation and trees.
The Green Munias are usually found foraging in the fields. We waited for an hour for any call of the Munias amongst the vibrant persistent calls of Buff - chested babbler. There was no sight of Great Munias but recorded 14 bird species at this location. It was only 8.00 am in the morning and the sun was very hot making us sweat profusely in the humid conditions. It was thoroughly disappointed not to find them as the range of Green munias is very small and are resident birds at Mount Abu in Rajasthan . It is another story that I could not see it there too , as it was raining all day during my short day visit to Mount Abu.
After having our packed breakfast of idlis under the canopy of tamarind trees, close to a tribal hamlet on Dumpa Valasa waterfall road ,we started for the next location to see Rosy Minivets.
The time was 9.00 am and the sun was blazing hot. On the way, we saw a flock of White-rumped munias, close to our next stop. It was a half hour drive to this location on the roadside with a good view that overlooks a valley on one side with huge mango tree covered with vines and thick vegetation below. A short walk from the road through the vegetation leads to a stream surrounded by tall trees , thick bushes and vines .Despite the blazing sun, it was much cooler here as the canopy of tall trees had blocked the heat of sun effectively. Rosy Minivets are usually seen on the huge mango tree with hanging vines and it was only the previous day my friends got fantastic shots at the same spot. We could see Scarlet Minivets flying over but no sign of Rosy Minivet. The heat and humidity was so severe , we moved from the roadside to the stream, following the calls of Buff- chested Babbler and Pinstripe -Tit Babbler. Both skulkers were foraging in the thick vegetation .We waited for some time at this spot watching scarlet minivets flying around the trees. I went back to the road side with two of my friends to sit vigil for Rosy minivets , braving the hot sun. We were drenched in our perspiration from heat and humidity but waited patiently for the Minivets to appear. It was 10.30 am , already an hour at this location and the day was getting hotter. After 10 minutes on the roadside, I was getting restless and wanted to go into the coolness of our vehicle and suddenly one Rosy Minivet flew over on to the vines and in the next 10 minutes there were 3 birds, 2 male and one female flew over and gave us good shots for few minutes before disappearing into the canopy of trees of the jungle.
I was super thrilled with the good sighting of Rosy minivets and getting my first lifer of the day while our other two friends ( Sriram & his birding friend Manoj , a professional photographer) who stayed at the stream came back beaming with few good shots of the Buff -chested babbler.
We all went back to the stream to try our luck and waited patiently for the Buff - chested Babbler. After 15-20 mins, we got few good shots of the Little Spider hunter foraging on the branches for insects and some hazy shots of Buff- chested Babbler in the canopy of the trees.
We decided to leave the spot and get back to Maredumilli to have lunch and go for my next lifer.
It was 1.00 pm by the time we reached Maredumilli , the streets were crowded with people who had come for the Saturday santha (fair ). Few vendors were selling vegetables on the road under a cloth canopy and some vendors on the carts were selling local fare. Everything seem to be glistening in the hot sun at 38-39 C. We had to park our vehicles a little away , near some old looking government buildings and walked for few minutes navigating through the crowded narrow lanes with sellers and an electioneering group addressing public, to reach a small mess by the name ‘ SivaPrasad Vilas’ run by a couple in one room serving authentic Andhra food. After eating a satiating lunch of rice with chintachuguru pappu ( tender tamarind leaves dal ), sambar and vegetable curries we went to our air conditioned rooms to rest for an hour before leaving for our next target at 3.00 pm.
Moving out of our cool comfortable rooms to pursue our next target in the hot afternoon required herculean effort. Nevertheless, we reached the location on GM- Valasa road in 15 mins for the Indian Nuthatch . It was a short walk from the road to the spot which had tall old deciduous trees and many old dead trees. Looks like some movie shooting had taken place at this location as two fixtures were still there and plastic waste littered on the ground covered with leaf fall. My friend Chitra calls this jungle as the ‘Indian Nuthatch country’. As we just reached the spot , we saw a pair of Indian Nuthatch fly to the other side into the tall bare trees. Most of the trees at the spot were without foliage. We waited for 45 mins, squatting on the ground hoping the Indian Nuthatch will come back to the spot. My friends got extremely good close shots of the Nuthatch pair on the previous day, feeding each other. With patience waning , Sriram could hear the call of Malabar Trogon from the other side of the road , which had coffee plantation. We moved across to see the beautiful Malabar Trogon , which is an endemic bird of this region. We followed the call and could see the bird perched on the tall tree with thick canopy. Adjoining the coffee plantation was forest area and we could see smoke coming from the burning leaves on the ground. At many places in the forest along the road , the ground was in black soot and ashes , the leftovers of the fire. Through a small opening in the branches we managed to get some shots of the Malabar Trogon.
We also could hear the call of an Indian Nuthatch. So, we waited for some more time , hoping to get a glimpse of the Nuthatch . Disappointed, we found a beautiful Oak leaf butterfly to elevate our spirits.
This spot was getting dark as the setting sun rays were not coming through the thick canopy of the trees.
We went back again to the same location for another try before calling it a day. With no luck, walked along the road to see if we could hear any call of the Nuthatch. On the other side of the road on a low branch we saw a Crested Serpent Eagle watching us with smoke from the ground moving up towards it. It was a surreal sight with the smoke billowing up towards the Eagle.
After giving us few shots , it flew into the thick jungle. With no luck and receding light , we moved from that location and stopped near a culvert where the light was still good and on one side had tall trees and few old dead trees.
We waited here for 10 mins hoping to pick some bird calls. Except for the odd call of Emerald Dove and Cicadas there was no bird activity so we started back to Maredumilli. Before going back to the hotel we stopped at a road side shop to have our evening coffee and unwind for a while. Two of our friends who stopped at a different location had trekked down the valley and got a good sighting of Pale-capped pigeon, Blue -bearded bee eaters and Pin-stripe babblers.
We reached our rooms at 6.45 pm for a quick shower before going for dinner at 7.30-8 pm to the Bamboo Restaurant which surprisingly has no dishes cooked in Bamboo. Our conversation at the table was around the disappointment of not finding Green munias and Indian Nuthatch. We planned to start our morning by 5.30 am as we had only the morning session of birding before leaving by 1.00 pm to reach the Rajahmundry airport in time to board our flight at 5.00 pm to Hyderabad. Sunrise was at 5.34 am.
5 May -We were up and ready by 5.30 am for the morning session , with high hopes of getting atleast few shots of Indian Nuthatch and if lucky to get to see Ruby -cheeked sunbird, another lifer. The plan was to bird along the road for 10-30 kms till Gudisa , which is a tourist spot.
We stopped for a quick morning coffee at the popular road side stall. Steaming idlis were ready to eat , while we got our idlis with putna ( channa) chutney packed , the other three decided to have an early breakfast.
We started by 6.30 am on the Maredumilli - Alluri Sitaramaraju road . Within 5 mins on the road , Chitra heard calls of the Indian Nuthatch from the huge tree on the road side, we stopped and jumped out of the vehicle , and before could focus at the spot , I could see 4 nuthatch birds fly from the tree into the valley. We moved on driving for another 10 mins and stopped on the road hearing numerous bird calls on a huge flowering tree. The next 15 mins , we could see flock of Vernal hanging Parrots , Pygmy Grey woodpeckers , Yellow- eyed Babblers .White eyes and beautiful Crimson sunbirds.
A little further on the road saw the Black-hooded Oriole pair calling loudly while moving in the lower branches of trees.
We drove till a bridge on Bandi River and stopped at this spot for 30 mins. Blue-eared Kingfisher and Orange- breasted Green Pigeons zipped across and a flock of Grey Treepies could be seen on a tree top, opposite the bridge. We heard no call from Indian Nuthatch.
We tried at many places on the jungle tracks , but could only see Velvet -fronted Nuthatch. It was 9.00 am , we decided to take a short trek down in the jungle to the stream hoping to see the Abbot s babbler and also look for the elusive Nuthatch while walking down. The forest floor was covered with leaves making the ground slippery at some places. After 10 mins we walked into a scene of cool water surrounded by greenery of low lying branches, a soothing sight to my mind heated by the raising temperature and the anxiety of finding the Nuthatch. There was no call of any bird but could see some beautiful Emerald Cascader & Damsel dragonflies, a new revelation to me. Sriram and Manoj were in the water clicking them while Hari , Chitra and myself sat on the rocks and just soaked in the calmness of place. It was going to be 10.30 am, we had another 1 1/2 hrs of birding left before going back to our place of stay.
Meanwhile, Chitra was chasing butterflies and could hear our quick steps walking on the carpet of dry leaves. The rustling sound on the dry leaves was sufficient indication that the most sort after bird was sighted. After few minutes, the bird came closer on a tree and was foraging up and down giving me ample opportunity to get some fantastic shots.
Sriram was enthusiastically giving directions to take shots of the Nuthatch while it was moving into green background. It was an euphoric moment for all of us; Mission accomplished !!
Finally , we left the place after getting some excellent shots and with a sense of sigh that the Indian Nuthatch did not dishearten the birders , especially myself who travelled to this part of the country just to get a glimpse of it. During this birding trip of one and half days, we recorded 73 bird species https://ebird.org/tripreport/232832 . I would love to come back to visit this place again next year during the winters.
I left the place with a hope that the Eco-tourism initiatives in the Maredumilli will maintain a balance between economic growth and environmental conservation of the area and actively involve the indigenous tribal groups in the conservation efforts for a sustainable development.
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