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: Birding
Hi All
What started out as an informal idea amongst a few friends has got a bit
carried away, and we’d therefore like to invite others to take part in a
co-ordinated birdwatching activity in the Bangalore area this Sunday, 17
February. A few of us thought it would be interesting to spend a day birding
not together but spread out in different habitats, and then see what species
we would have recorded between us all. We decided on a few sites to cover
but gradually introduced more and more, and a few more people. The aim is to
concentrate on thorough and reliable observations, spending as much time at
a site as we think it justifies. Different sites/routes have been allocated
amongst us, and anyone else is welcome to join these on the day. The plan of
approximate routes (with main contacts) is as follows:
North
Hessarghatta area – Sachin Shurpali shurpali@gmail.com
Hebbal Lake, GKVK, Yelahanka, Jakkur, Rampura – James Williams
hornbilljim@gmail.com, Subbu Subramanya subbu.subramanya@gmail.com
Nandi Hills area, Madhure Kere, Hessarghatta – Mike Prince
mike.prince@yahoo.co.uk
East
Hoskote area, Yellamma Lake – Praveen J paintedstork@gmail.com
Sarjapura area – Vijay Ramachandran vijay750@gmail.com
South
Kasavanakunte area – Ullas PA (3rd Sunday Outing)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bngbirds/message/24378
Bannerghatta area – Sudhir Naik sudhirsnaik@gmail.com
Kanakpura area – Vinay Das vinay.das@gmail.com, Sree Kumar
sree.kumar.h@gmail.com
West
Ramnagaram area, Nelligudde Kere, Byramangala/Bangalore University – Anush
Shetty anushshetty@gmail.com
Savandurga area, Manchanebele – Dipu Karuthedathu, Jayaram Jahgirdar
dipu.kp@gmail.com
TG Halli area – Vinaya Kumar Thimmappa vinaya.kumar.t@gmail.com, Atanu
Mondal atanumondal@gmail.com
Centre
Lalbagh, Cubbon Park, IISc Campus – MB Krishna krishnamb@gmail.com, Abhijit
Rao Abhijith.Rao@in.ey.com
All these intend to start in the early morning, and most will be full day
sessions. If you are interested in joining one of these groups then please
email the given contact(s) above directly. They will let you know where and
when they plan to be, and you are welcome to find them and join in. Each
group will complete a checklist for each site they visit, with a
concentration on relaxed birding and confirmed identifications. After the
day we’ll consolidate and publish the findings from all checklists.
This wasn’t meant to be such a big thing, but if all goes well we may look
to expand and improve on it in the future.
If you have any questions about it then please email me. Enjoy the day!
Cheers
– Mike –
Record, share and compare with BUBO Listing at http://www.bubo.org/>
www.bubo.org
Dr M B Krishna writes:
“The Hesaraghatta lake bed is facing another assault. Parts of the lake bed have become barren and have been laid waste due to heavy vehicular movement on the lake bed. In this case most of the damage is due to nature photographers chasing migratory birds using cars and SUVs.
“A rapid assessment of the impacts caused by nature photographers driving on the dry Hesaraghatta lake bed reveals a wide and extensive network of vehicle tracks amounting to about 43 km. About 136 ha of habitat was either lost or disturbed because of vehicular movement and on an average, 20 vehicles were found to be pursuing birds on weekends and holidays. If one considers the area coming directly under the wheel, it amounts to almost six standard football fields!
“The assessment was carried out in December 2012 by independent researchers and students from St. Joseph’s College using the plant line transect method, onsite measurements and imageries to assess the full-scale damage on the habitat.” writes Sunil in the report.
To see the full report,
T G Halli – Water level is going more down with time and there is no sign of rain in Bangalore. Most of the lakes are completely changed into grassland.
Some pictures to just enjoy birding.
Male Kestrel with its habitat
Oriental white ibis
Indian Spotted Eagle – A very different morph
Indian Roller
Male Kestrel
Ashy Crowned Sparrowlark – Female
Siberian Stonechat
Hoskote Lake was a bit in discussion. So, we decide to have a 4-5 hours of Sunday birding. This is one of the marvelous grassland, i have seen around Bangalore. For those who want to do birding, please go in group. I heard a lot of community problem. This place is THE land of stork, ibis, sandpiper, snipe, raptors and worth to watch their habitats. I tried to put all the pictures here, so that we can see the habitat as well for the birds.
white stork – Family
Oriental Honey Buzzard
northern shoveler – Flocks at flight
northern shoveler
northern shoveler
northern shoveler – float show
I guess combination of some more ducks
Blyth Reed Warbler
Blyth Reed Warbler
Green Sandpiper – Pair
Flock of Garganey at fight
Glossy ibis
Flock of Sandpiper and Little Stint
Flock of Sandpiper and Little Stint
Glossy ibis with Purple Heron
Common Kestrel
Common Hawk Cuckoo
Marsh Harrier get attacked by Eagle
Marsh Harrier
Marsh Harrier
Short toed Snake Eagle
Indian Spotted Eagle – I believe
Indian Spotted Eagle – I believe
Kannan – Down for shot
ID required
Barn Swallow Family
Yellow Wagtail
Black eared Kite
Oriental White IBIS – Family
Brahminy Kite
Flock of Baya Weaver
Flock of Baya Weaver
Clamorous Reed Warbler
Clamorous Reed Warbler
ID required
Sykes Lark
Spot Billed Duck
White eye buzzard
Short toed Snake Eagle
Skyes Lark
Poornima with camouflage to the grassland
Common Snipe – Sorry for the quality
Wooly Necked Stork
Marsh Harrier attack to the flock of garganery
Thippagondanahalli Reservoir, also known as T G Halli Dam or Chamarajsagar, is located at the confluence of the Arkavathy River and Kumudavathi River, 35 km west of Bangalore, India.
I already written a post about T G Halli, here goes another. The interesting sighting was Small Pratincole and a family of river tern taking rest. Enjoy pictures.. !!
Woolly necked stork
Ashy crowned SparrowLark
Brahminy Kite – Juv
Brahminy Kite took off
Small Pratincole
Yellow Wagtail
Little Cormorant in flight
River Tern
Birders
Small Pratincole
Small Pratincole
Small Pratincole
Family of river terns
Spot billed ducks
Asian Openbill – You can see the open bill
Family of Asian opnebill
Jungle Myna
common greenshank
Red Rumped Swallow
Yellow Wagtail
Asian Openbill + White headed stork
Grey Francolin
Ramanagaram – yes, a place famous because once Basanti danced there on the call of Gabbar Singh. Forget the past, this place holds the most critically endangered life of India and Pakistan. This is THE place for those critically endangered Vultures who reduced in 96 percent in their count in last 15 years. In the last few years, we have noticed that vultures count have improved in Ramanagaram. Don’t want to go into the details of Vulture dead. But Diclofenac medicine – the real cause for death has been banned as well.
Don’t know the action of Government but at least they declared the place as Vulture sanctuary.
A closer look of Long billed Vulture or Indian Vulture
Long billed Vulture – a close look
Habitat of Long billed Vulture
Long billed Vulture -Courtship rituals
Long billed Vulture -Courtship rituals. Eye membrane visible
After Courtship they are ready for mating.
A comparative size of kite with Long billed Vulture
Egyptian Vulture constructing home
Egyptian Vulture – Flight shot
T G Halli is a huge grassland with almost no water. Good for raptors and water birds. Enjoy pictures.
Flight of River Tern
Common Sandpiper
Gray Wagtail
Juv. Brahminy Kite
Spot Billed Duck
Greenish Warbler
Greenish Warbler
Pale Billed Flowerpecker
Little Ringed Plover
Skyes Lark
Ashy Crowned SparrowLark- Male
Ashy Crowned SparrowLark
Ashy Crowned SparrowLark
Barn Swallow
Black winged Stilt
Black winged Stilt
Common Sandpiper + Little Stint
Common Sandpiper + Little Stint
Indian Lark
Green Sandpiper
Black Shouldered Kite
Tawny Eagle
Skyes Lark
Openbill stroke in flight
Openbill stroke in flight
Montagu Harrier – Male
Montagu Harrier – male
Montagu Harrier – Female
Citrine Wagtail
Brahminy Kites enjoying fish
Common Kestrel – Male
Oriental Honey Buzzard
A battle of human and bird to get fish. Brahminy Juv. attack.
folk of pintail with female in center
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?
My field trip report:
Hi, everyone
After a very long gap, I was able to go for the 4th Sunday outing to the Sarjapura area,thanks to Suneel’s very kindly offering to pick up my friend Ravi Srinivasan (from Chennai) and myself.
However, co-ordinating with multiple members and multiple meeting points caused a lot of delay and instead of depending on the correct directions that Shishir had given, we made the mistake of asking the locals, and this delayed us even further! When we finally reached Muthanallur kere, we were never able to meet up with the main group, and we wandered around the lake bed and the banks on our own. The mist also played its part…
After a pathetic monsoon this year, it’s a blessing to be able to visit any kere with water in it, and Muthanallur kere was very picturesque and scenic (with not too much of litter, either). We were able to observe many of the waterfowl, whether resident (like Brahminy Kites or Pied Kingfishers) or migrant. While we felt sad that we could walk so much on the lake bed, it certainly allowed us to get just that little bit closer to the waterfowl.
However, the presence of the bodies of three dead Brahminy Kites at various places on the lake bed, and that of many dead fish along the banks (uneaten by any predator), made us wonder about the quality of the water. There was a lot of algae in the lake, which, at places, gave it a bright emerald colour. However, since there were live fish, too, and some Checkered Keelbacks, we felt the water might be OK.
Several raptors soared on the thermals and being “rocky on raptors”, I was hard put to id them. The Red-necked Falcon delighted us with an appearance, as did several other birds of prey. However, it seemed to be Brahminy Kites which have adopted the lake; we saw many juveniles soaring and hunting.
As usual, there were not too many small waders, but there was a good number of Painted Storks and Openbills. Two Pied Kingfishers hovered, dived, and then dried themselves on the mud banks. We managed to sight, and observe, the
WESTERN REEF EGRET
for a while…
Ravi and Suneel decided to go to Decathlon, and I took a ride with the Managoli family, Vaibhav and Deepu. Of course we got lost again, and finally decided to eat brunch at Sarjapura before making our way home, watching Kestrels and some of the warblers on the way. Moral of the story: never try to use the words “early return” on a birding trip!
I do not know who else was there, but our group consisted of:
Aparna
Deepu
Ravi
Sanjeev
Suneel
Surekha
and I.
Bird List (let me know if I have left out any)
Babbler, Jungle
Barbet, Coppersmith
Barbet, White-cheeked
Bee-eater, Small Green
Bulbul, REd-vented
Bulbul, Red-whiskered
Bulbul, White-browed
Bushchat, Pied
Bushlark, Indian
Coot, Common
Cormorant, Great
Cormorant, Little
Coucal, Greater
Crow, House
Crow, Large-billed
Cuckoo, Common Hawk
Cuckooshrike, Large
Darter
Dove, Laughing
Dove, Spotted
Drongo, Ashy
Drongo, Black
Drongo, White-bellied
Eagle, Indian Spotted (I think)
Eagle, Short-toed Snake
Eagle, Tawny
Egret, Cattle
Egret, Great
Egret, Intermediate
Egret, Little
Egret, Western Reef
Falcon, Red-necked
Flowerpecker, Pale-billed
Flycatcher, White-browed Fantail
Flycatcher, Asian Paradise
Heron, Black-crowned Night
Heron, Grey
Heron, Indian Pond
Heron, Purple
Honey-Buzzard, Oriental
Ibis, Black
Kestrel, Common
Kingfisher, Pied
Kingfisher, Small Blue
Kingfisher, Whitethroated
Kite, Common
Kite, Brahminy
Koel, Asian
Lapwing, Red-wattled
Leafbird, Golden-fronted
Martin, Dusky Crag
Minivet, Small
Munia, White-rumped
Mynah, Common
Mynah, Jungle
Openbill, Asian
Oriole, Eurasian Golden
Parakeet, Rose-ringed
Pigeon, Blue Rock
Pipit, Paddyfield
Plover, Little Ringed
Prinia, Ashy
Prinia, Plain
Redshank, Spotted
Robin, Indian
Robin, Oriental Magpie
Roller, Indian
Sandpiper, Common
Sandpiper, Green
Stork, Painted
Sunbird, Purple-rumped
Swallow, Barn
Swallow, Red-rumped
Swallow, Wire-tailed
Swift, Asian palm
Tailorbird, Common
Treepie, Rufous
Wagtail, Grey
Warbler, Greenish Leaf
Warbler, Booted
Warbler, Blyth’s Reed
Warbler,
Wagtail, Pied
White-eye, Oriental
Butterflies were there in plenty, too.
Blues, various
Castor, Common
Emigrant, Common
Emigrant, Mottled
Gull, Common
Jezebel. Common
Leopard, Common
Pioneer
Psyche
Rose, Common
Rose, Crimson
Tiger, Plain
Wanderer, Common
Yellow, Three-spot Grass
We also saw many Dragonflies and Damselflies; and I thought of Ajay as I watched some Weaver ants for a while, as I rested in the shade of the Eucalyptus trees, through which the wind soughed as it rippled the surface of the lake. The fine Cirrus clouds overhead promised only sunshine….and we came back feeling much hotter than when we set out!
I am sending some photographs to the experts I know, for id…so the list may get amended. Sorry, folks, I make LOTS of mistakes!
I have put up photos from my Mary’s Lamb camera (Sony HX200) on an FB album, at
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151215624103878.471834.587058877&type=1
Please, if I have made wrong id’s, feel free to correct them!
Cheers, and with heartfelt good wishes for the festive (and holiday!) season ahead…
Deepa.
