Ooty and then on to the Jungle Hut

We headed out first thing in search of Painted Bushquail, which involved a 30-minute car trip and then a walk through a village (feels quite rude wandering through their streets as they are so close together and open) but it's clearly rich agricultural land:

After listening to calls and wandering around we did indeed find what we were looking for, a male Painted Bushquail:

In an adjacent plot we were lucky to add Malabar Lark:

We then headed back up to the second highest point in Southern India, this time after the crowds had gone, and as hoped for, the Nilgiri Laughingthrush was much easier to spot:

splendid bird and with a really very small geography in which to find, we had to get it this morning or probably miss it for good...

The Cinerous Tit is a recent split form the Great Tit, which is good as it looks nothing like the parus major:

We finished our birding, headed back to breakfast (by now feeling the effect of the salt poisoning) and then headed on our next lodgings at The Jungle Hut.