Every friend who’s gone with me on the UGS (Usual Gang of Suspects) nature trails this year, has enjoyed the sight of the Pakshi Darshini (Eatery for birds)…
for the short photo-feature on Citizen Matters.
Tag Archive: Bannerghatta
Black-crowned Heron, strolling slow
High above, on the tree-trunk…
You may think you’re a balanced bird
But, oh Heron, did you know…
That being red-eyed means you’re drunk?
When Chandu and I planned an outing, we didn’t realize that we would wind up with a fairly large group of friends, but we did…and in alphabetical order, our list went:
Brinda
Chandu
Deepa
Geetanjali
Harish
Harsha
Hrishi
Ranjani
Savitha
Sharmila
Shudhanta
Sumanth
Vinay
Vishnu
Here my friends are:
We started at the parking lot of the zoo area. One sad development that I am seeing, having haunted this area for some years, is the increasing building of enclosures everywhere, cordoning off access for visitors like us. Everywhere there are “watchmen” who harass us, barring access for no valid reason. The parking lot is closed in the mornings, and though I must say it saves us the parking fees, I can’t see why the attendant should prevent us from walking in a deserted parking lot, especially when that is the place where a pair of resident Rufous-tailed Larks always delight us!
Well, we walked through the BMTC Bannerghatta Bus Terminus and walked down the path (to the left) to the Butterfly Park, and looked at the quarry pond, where we did not find the usual Small Blue or Pied Kingfishers. We then slowly walked down the path towards JLR. Here, too, we were harassed, and we had to say we were from JLR (which in a sense, many of us who have done the NTP are!). Luckily, the JLR people and some of the Forest Dept people also know me, so we were granted access, and we walked around the JLR property and went down the sheet rock to the Flycatcher Avenue that runs along the Zoo wall, down to the Kingfisher pond, and looked across into the Herbivore Safari area, and returned.
Flycatcher Avenue did not disappoint us.In alphabetical order, he Asian Brown, the Asian Paradise, the Grey-headed Canary, the Tickell’s Blue, the Verditer, and the White-browed Fantail…all of them delighted us with short or long appearances!
We had a nice dosa breakfast (sponsored by Chandu) at the Mayura Dose Camp, and then some of us decided to go to Gulakmale. So of course I led the others on a chase of that elusive bird, the Wild Goose, as I took the wrong route completely, and wasted quite an hour of everyone’s time until Geetanjali set us on the right route. We went straight to the Gulakmale stream, and on the way back, we touched Gulakmale lake as well.
It was sad to see that Gulakmale lake is in a very dry condition. However, the stream runs as strongly as before, and that was a relief. We do hope that a good monsoon next year will set the lake to rights, and that the drying up is not due (like the case of Puttenahalli Lake) to construction activity in the catchment areas.
So much for the route; our bird list was quite good, and it went like this (alphabetical order again…I never remember to write down birds in their order of appearance, and find it difficult to locate birds in such lists, so I prefer AB order!)
At the zoo area:
Babbler, Jungle
Babbler, Tawny-bellied
Babbler, Yellow-billed (yes, we saw the difference!)
Barbet, Coppersmith
Barbet, White-cheeked (Small Green)
Bee-eater, Blue-throated
Bee-eater, Small Green
Bulbul, Red-vented
Bulbul, Red-whiskered
Bulbul, White-browed
Bushchat, Pied
Bushlark, Indian
Bushlark, Jerdon’s
Cormorant, Little
Cormorant, Indian
Coucal, Greater
Crow, House
Crow, Large-billed
Cuckoo, Common Hawk
Cuckooshrike, Large
Dove, Laughing
Dove, Spotted
Drongo, Ashy
Drongo, Black
Drongo, White-bellied
Drongo, Spangled
Eagle, un id
Egret, Cattle
Egret, Little
Flameback, Black-rumped
Flowerpecker, Pale-billed
Flycatcher, Asian Brown
Flycatcher, Asian Paradise
Flycatcher, Tickell’s Blue
Flycatcher, Verditer
Flycatcher, White-browed Fantail
Francolin, Grey
Heron, Grey
Heron, Pond
Iora, Common
Kingfisher, Pied
Kingfisher, Small Blue
Kingfisher, White-throated
Kite, Black
Kite, Black-winged
Kite, Brahminy
Koel, Asian
Lapwing, Red-wattled
Lark, Rufous-tailed
Leafbird, Blue-winged
Leafbird, Golden-fronted
Munia, Scaly-breasted
Mynah, Common
Mynah, Jungle
Oriole, Eurasian Golden
Parakeet, Rose-ringed
Pigeon, Blue Rock
Pipit, Paddyfield
Prinia, Ashy
Prinia, Plain
Shikra
Shrike, Brown
Sparrow, House
Sunbird, Purple
Sunbird, Purple-rumped
Sunbird, Loten’s
Swift, Common
Tailorbird, Common
Tit, Great
Wagtail, Grey
Wagtail, Pied
Warbler, Blyth’s Reed
Warbler, Booted
Warbler, Greenish Leaf
White-eye, Oriental
The Butterfly list is smaller because a) the focus was birds and b) I am pretty ignorant about them. So here goes:
Baronet, Common
Blue, various types
Cerulean, Common
Emigrant, Common
Emigrant, Mottled
Gull, Common
Hopper, various
Jezebel, Common
Leopard, Common
Pioneer
Psyche
Rose, Common
Rose, Crimson
Skipper, various
Wanderer, Common
Let me know if I have left out anything
We also saw several types of Spiders….Giant Wood, Hermit, Orb-weaver, Signature, and so on.
But most of all, it was the mammals…Homo sapiens naturophilus….that made the day very enjoyable for me. The group gelled really well, and we laughed a lot, too! A big thank you to everyone for a very pleasant day, especially considering the fact that some people came from as far away as Sahakar Nagar and C V Raman Nagar.
I have put up the photos and the narrative on my Facebook album…
In the same tub/sump where we found the two fieldmice, we saw this deadly beauty:
is what the Wiki has to say about scorpions.
Let me remind you of the tiny creature we saw in Arikere Reserve Forest:
Death, this IS thy sting!
It was great to have one more day at Bannerghatta forest area. Lot of construction going in the area and all for BAD. Anyways, I know 5-6 ways to reach any of the place, so it was not tough to find another route.
Morning discussion with Chandu, we were sure, we were going to get some new birds. And it was surprise to see, see, see Blue Capped Rock Thrush 
, Blue Bearded Blue Bee eater and many more…
I have, of late, been going to the Bannerghatta Zoo to introduce schoolchildren to various animals and birds, but, of course, I never expected to see a wildlife drama straight of out of National Geographic while I was there!
At the enclosure of the King Cobra, we found that there were many Rat Snakes, as well as the King himself….and suddenly, the King decided he (I am saying he because it’s the King…but it could have been the Queen as well!) needed a meal. Quite rapidly, he attacked one of the rat snakes…which literally flew out of the vegetation into an open patch of grass in the desperate need to get away from the predator.
However, the King was in no mood to let the prey off. The two fought furiously, intertwined. Since all this was happening on the other side of some fairly close-sized metal mesh, I could not get a video of the fast-paced action. However, after swaying to and fro in an embrace of death, the two snakes fell, together, into the trench between the raised patch of vegetation, and the metal net (beyond which there was a further barrier of plants, and a railing, from where we had to watch.)
At this point, through the crowd, I was at least able to get a few photographs.
The King managed to get his fangs right into the middle of the rat snake.
The Rat Snake coiled itself around the King Cobra, and actually tried dragging the much larger snake for quite a distance, backwards, along the circular trench.
Amazed, we watched as the intensity of the death-struggle showed itself as much in the deadly stillness of this bite and embrace, as the all-over-the-place fight a few moments ago…
However, we could not wait to see if the King finally did eat his prey; we had to take the children to the other enclosures, and we left them in mortal combat..and in the embrace of death for one, and food for the other….
Here’s the signboard at the King Cobra enclosure.
“Ophiophagus” means, “one who eats snakes”….and obviously, a lot of the rat snakes have been put into the enclosure to ensure that the King Cobra can hunt, as it would do in the wild. But because the two snakes came out of the vegetation, and the incident took place out in the open, we were privileged to watch one of the raw moments of Nature, very much as it would take place in the wild….
So…never imagine that a visit to the Zoo is going to be a pleasant and humdrum affair…sometimes drama can occur there, too!
Been gallivanting as usual….Lalbagh on the 25th morning, to Gulakmale on the 26th, to Bannerghatta JLR on the 27th, to volunteer with 48 children from Vidya Niketan, Bangalore…. it’s been a wonderful time.
Here is an image of a push-cart seller from Lalbagh:
And this one, with a shaft of sunlight:
On the night of the 25th, I also went to “Yamini”, an all-night music and dance festival at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Here’s a photograph of light percolating through the smoke of the mosquito-repellents:
In the dark, I got the colours of this Bougainvillea because of some back-lighting:
I enjoy colours very much…and unexpected effects on my MLC!
I was delighted to take 15 children of Sindhi School, Malleswaram, to my favourite zoo area in the Bannerghatta National Park. Subbalakshmi, a teacher in the school, enthuses the children and organizes nature trails for them entirely on her own initiative…the school does not take any responsibility. Even the van was hired by her! More power to her and may her tribe increase!
Here are the children, posing with the Kids For Tigers poster:
For the photographs from the outing,on my Facebook album,
One of the very interesting things the children spotted on the outing was this caterpillar:
I asked my nature Guru,
whether the caterpillar was carrying some eggs…and he, and
Saptarshi, a wildlife friend on Facebook, had a very interesting story to tell.
This caterpillar, apparently, is carrying the Load of Death!
(click on the name to find out more about these wasps)
apparently select caterpillars, and lay their eggs on them; the larvae, when they hatch, feed on the caterpillar, and form small cocoons on the body of the caterpillar…that’s what we saw, above!
The amazing things that happen in Nature are infinite….
Kaggalipura – again one of the awesome place for birding and to watch nature beauty. Here are some of the birds, butterflies and flowers. For direction, please see the Place section of BangaloreCaptured.com.
It is more than 4-5 kms of walk.
Common Kestrel
Drift of common Kestrel
Blue Pansy
Golden Oriole
Golden Dartlet
White browed fantail flycatcher
Purple Rumped Sunbird
Pale billed flowerpecker
Common Leopard
common jezebel
Common Emigrant
Coppersmith Barbet and Flowerpecker
Brain fever bird
