Once I moved to Spain after my master’s at the University of Helsinki, catching up with birdwatching geek friends back in Finland has been difficult. Mebin Varghese had planned to visit his family over Christmas in Kerala, India. Visiting him and his family, spending the winter holidays together and getting to know the birds of south India sounded like a great idea.

Kerala is located almost at the south end of the Indian subcontinent, bordered by Karnataka in the north and Tamil Nadu in the west. The border between Tamil Nadu and Kerala is marked by the south end of the Western Ghats, a mountain chain running parallel to the Laccadive Sea shore. Quite close to the equator, the Western Ghats along with Sri Lanka comprise one of the global main hotspots, renowned for its incredibly high endemicity levels and numerous pressure drivers jeopardizing the large biodiversity in the area. Between the Western Ghats and the shore, a vast plain area is scattered with lagoons, paddyfields and backwaters, adding to Kerala’s diversity of landscapes.

Mebin’s family has been kind enough to host us at their place in Mannar, in the central Kerala floodplains, after reaching from Kochi International Airport. They had settled down most of our itinerary to make the most out of our visit, succeeding our expectations.

The journey was divided in three circular trips, starting and finishing at Mebin’s place, where we were based.

The first part of the trip brought us up north to Karnataka by train. Spending New Year’s in Mysore, we did some typical tourism and visited protected areas including Kabini and Bandipur National Parks. The north was particularly productive in terms of waterbirds and mammals, even if we missed our chance to connect with tigers and leopards.

The second stage took place in the tropical rainforests of Thattekad and Periyar and the highland grasslands and sholas around Munnar in Eravikulam National Park. The landscapes of these areas were some of the finest I have ever seen, and we bagged numerous Western Ghats endemics and major target birds.

The last and shortest part of the trip was more relaxed and we toned down the birdwatching in the backwaters. We also diversified our trip scope again, doing some science outreach about our research at university.

We collectively connected with 225 bird species including 15 of the 25 Kerala’s Western Ghats endemics (as of the Atlas of the Birds of Kerala) without the use of playbacks or hides and mostly thanks to combined collective efforts to learn plumages, songs and calls. We visited two different states, three National Parks and numerous other reserves and bird sanctuaries, and got to taste many new flavors in different places. Despite some health contingencies, everyone’s first visit to India was extremely improved with the hospitality and Mebin and his family.