Nature watch

2012-01-28-IIT Powai

2012-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

Started birding at 7:35am at the lake with my friend Abhijit who is an IIT, Mumbai alumnii and Rohit Prabhu.

The first thing was a crocodile swiming across the lake. It was atleast 5feet. It was a wonderful sight watching it swim elegantly and pretty fast.

Within the hycinths on the shore of were Purple moorhens, bronze winged jacana, pond heron, purple heron, glossy ibis, egrets, lesser whistling teals and a Marsh Harrier sitting on the opposite shore.

From here we moved towards the boat club.
The road just after the end of guest house turned out to be most rewarding.

It started with a Ashy drongo.

Ashy Drongo

Followed by Black kite nesting and having breakfast.

Black Kite with a feast (The tail of the prey can be seen hanging from within its legs)

A flock of jungle babblers were create a lot of noise nearby and within this noise was a

Jungle Babbler

white throated kingfisher and a long tailed shrike sitting still.

White Throated Kingfisher

A paradise flycatcher was giving us repeated nice views.

Paradise Flycatcher

There were the usuals red whiskered bulbuls, magpie robin, crimson breasted barbet, purple sunbird, golden oriole, a single tickels blue flycatcher and a crow pheasant.

Crow Pheasant

There were also lot of palm sifts flying high up in the sky above us.

Palm Swift

As we reached the boat club we saw a purple heron, common coot and little grebe along with purple moorhens, bronze winged jacanas, glossy ibis and a red wattled lapwing.

Bronze Winged Jacana

Purple Moorhen

Blyths reed warbler

Ashy Prinia

At the boat club we saw a great show by a kite doing some fishing showing his somewhat acrobatic skills of diving.

Black Kite

Black Kite doing some acrobatics

A juvenile kite was sitting on the tree next to the boat club and on an island in the lake was sitting a

Juvenile Black Kite

Intermediate egret with a non-breeding Pheasant tailed jacana.

Non-breed pheasant tailed Jacana and an Intermediate Egret

The posts in the lake were filled with cormorants and barn swallows.

A blyths reed warbler and ashy prinia were jumping on the grassblades around.

While returning on one of the trees we saw a colony of Night Herons with a juvenile.

Wonderful way to end this wonderful birding morning was to have a sumptuous breakfast at the IIT canteen :-)

2012-01-22 Bhandup

2012-01-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

Last few days morning had been very cloudy, foggy and very cold (of course Mumbai very cold :-)) so we had decided to meet at Bhandup pumping station at 7:30am.

Me, Ritesh, Abhijeet, Rohit and his brother Asim were the members of todays birding trip.

As we reached the sun was already up but it was still very dull as it was unable to penetrate the thick layer of fog.

On the road the pumping station saw a kingfisher, spotted dove and grey heron.

As we reached the other side of the pumping station on the Meswak plants to the left we saw a flock of baya weavers and scally breasted munias.

We decided to move ahead on the road to the end of the road.
At the end of the road in the water were spot billed ducks. The trees around this places were full of golden orioles and a single rose ringed travel.

Rose Ringed Parakeet

There were atleast 5-6 individuals with 2 males and other females and juvelines.

Golden Oriole

A clamorous reed warbler was creating a very big noise,
Barn swallows were flying around,
Ashy prinias were hopping around,

Ashy Prinia

a pair of Bhardwaj giving us the lucky start,
a grey heron on the top of a tree and
painted stork flying by.

Painted Stork

High above in the sky were a flock of ducks flying which turned out to be Pintails.

Pintail

Just as we were about the turn around there was a huge commotion on the water.
2 Marsh Harriers were scanning very low and the other birds were disturbed.

Eurasian Marsh Harrier

Got some good views of the harrier in flight and then sitting on a bush nearby.

Eurasian Marsh Harrier

From there we headed back to have a look at the waders in the water body.
Before reaching there we encountered a Rui plant infested with aphids.

Aphids on Rui pod

Infested Rui plan with cotton coming out of the pods

At the junction where the side road to the water body meets the main road we saw a flock of atleast 15-20 baya weavers and a flock of 5-8 white cheecked bulbuls.

White Cheeked Bulbul

White Cheecked Bulbul

In the water body there were cormorants, redshanks, wood sandpiper, common sandpiper, Gulls, a caspian tern, gull billed tern, grey heron.

Grey Heron

And also saw a Eurasian spoonbill flying overhead.

Eurasian Spoonbill

On the ground there were red avadavats and in the mangroves were white cheeked bulbuls and clamorous reed warblers and mongoose.

Ruddy Mongoose

It was a wonderful morning photographing White cheeked bulbuls and observing many golden orioles!!

2011-12-25 Hessarghatta

2012-01-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

We started early morning at around 6am for Hessarghatta from Malleshwaram.

We reached in around 30-40min. We asked a few people on the road for directions for place to entry for birding in the dry lake.

It is a man made lake built in 1894. The total catchment area draining into the Lake at the dam built on the Arkavathy River is 73.84 km²

Hessaraghatta Lake

At the entrance to the lake on the trees on the left we encountered 5-6 chestnut tailed startlings and 3-4 drongos followed by a flock of jungle mynas.

Chestnut Tailed Starling

Ashy Drongo

Chestnut Tailed Starling

The main aim of the visit was to get some raptors harriers, eagles, kestrel, etc.
At the start of the trail what we saw were only many kites.

Black Kite

Indian Silverbill

The main attraction of the visit turned out to be a lifer for me the blue faced malkoha which gave us good views at different locations.

Blue faced Malkoha

Other sighting was a Grey Francolin and Common Hoppoe.

Grey Francolin

Common Hoopoe

Saw Montagu's Harrier flying around and a big eagle flying high in the sky so difficult to ID.

After reaching the center of the lake there were already a few cars waiting on the tracks for the eagles to sit down on the ant hill mounds.

We had some cake and kachori with water to fill our stomach a bit for remaining birding and till we reached the bangalore city.

From there we proceed towards the exit of the lake. Just a few meters away we saw the famous Common Kestrel perched on the top of a tree.

Common Kestrel

It gave us some very near and clear views. After a while it also landed on the ground in front of us to give us some ground shots.

Common Kestrel

Just before leaving we saw a lark and pied bushchat

Paddyfield Pipit

Pied Bushchat

We started back by 12:30 and went to satellite bus stand to catch a bus to Mysore.

It was a good birding day with a new bird giving us multiple sightings from near quarters, the blue faced Malkoha and Common Kestrel giving very nice views.

Have a look at following album for more pictures

2011-12-25 Hessarghatta

2011-12-24 Hebbal

2012-01-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

This is a very old lake built in 1573. Its total area (as per wiki) is estimated by 75ha.

Its a wonderful place to find water birds like spot billed ducks, pintails, spot billed pelicans, greater cormorants, waterhen, moorhen and pied kingfisher.

I had been to this place some 3years back on an official trip to Bangalore.
At that time had visited this place in morning and had seen these birds along with pale billed flower pecker and sunbirds on the trees along the lake.

This time visited this place in the evening.
Me and Ritesh had started from Mumbai by bus on 23rd Dec evening and reached Bengaluruon 24th 1pm. We stayed at one of my family friends in Malleshwaram.
We started from here at 3:30pm and reached Hebbal by 4:30pm.
Went by an autorickshaw which charged Rs80.

On one of the island just near the shore there were a few cormorants, a white breasted waterhen and a pond heron. After some time a snake came up on the same spot on the island.

White Breasted Waterhen

Spotted Dove

White breasted Waterhen

Spot Billed Duck

Brahminy Kite

Pond heron and snake

Pond Heron

Snake

Greater Cormorant

The spot billed ducks, pintail and spot billed pelican was swimming at a distance.
Later the spot billed ducks swam very nearby.

At the far end of the lake we got a pond heron, little egret, purple heron, pintail, spot billed duck and a pair of pelicans.

Spot Billed Pelican

Purple Heron

Pond Heron

We wound up the trip with a brahminy flying over us as the sunlight had faded a lot at around 6pm.

Brahminy Kite

We ended the day by roaming about the majestic circle just to explore around and back to Malleshwaram after a dinner.

For more pics visit the following album

2011-12-24 Hebbal

The next day was a big birding day with Hessarghatta in the morning and then travel to Mysore with a hope to be able to cover Karanji Kerre in the evening.

2011-12-10-KavdiBhuleshwar

2011-12-18T10:52:00.000-08:00

Started 6:30am from Kothrud, Pune, with my friend Ritesh and his wife, for Kavdi the first destination.
Reached Kavdi by 7:15am. Bank Myna at the village was the first sightings.
At the temple just near the river there were house sparrows and a yellow eyed babbler gave good views.

Yellow Eyed Babbler

House Sparrow

At the river the calls of river tern fighting over something welcomed us.

Also Brahminy shelducks were also flying around.

Brahminy Shelduck

There was a huge flock terns in the middle of the river.

On the right side of the bridge there were wood sandpipers, common sandpiper and a common snipe near the shore.

Wood Sandpiper

There were lot of Little Grebes.

Little Grebe

After doing some photography of these on the right side came on to the bridge and there was a White Throated Kingfisher sitting beautifully on a small stick.

White Throated Kingfisher

While I was photographing it sitting on the bridge there was a yellow wagtail and paddy field pipit in the ground below and a pied kingfisher hovering above searching for food.

Pied Kingfisher

In the water there were lot of ducks mainly northers shoveller and Common teal.

Common Teal (Female)

Jungle Crow

Wood Sandpiper

As i was sitting on the shore clicking the wood sandpipers and little ringed plovers i could see on an island in front a Common Snipe and Small Pratincole, one of the birds on top of my list for some time.

Common Snipe


Small Pratincole

Small Pratincole

From here we went to the Bhuleshwar via Uralikanchan. We had some heavy brunch at Urali.
The food was very tasty :)

We were an hour late to start from Urali as we had tyre puncture at Kavdi and it was needed to attend to it before we take it on a not so very good road with no guarantee of shops in between.

So we were on this barren road at around 12noon. Not a very good time for birding and so we did not spot any exciting birding activity.
Near the temple we saw a bay backed shrike, black drongo and a booted eagle.

Bay Backed Shrike

Booted Eagle

Bhuleshwar temple was built in 1230 AD. It is built in block basalt rock not the same found around which is brown rock.
The carvings are beautiful but many have been destroyed by attackers. The specialty is the carvings of gods in women attire (see pic below).

Bhuleshwar Temple

A dog relaxing in the temple

View from Bhuleshwar Temple

A Sadhu just outside the Temple

Carvings inside the Temple

Rock pillars supporting the Temple

Ganapati, Shiv and Karthikeyan in women attires

Nandi in front of the gabhara

Bhuleshwar Temple

There was lot of activity on a peepal tree in the campus of the temple. Small minivets, crimson breasted barbet, oriental white eye, a warbler and last but not least lesser white throat.

We left from the temple after clicking some pics inside and outside at around 2pm.
Just near the bottom of the hillock on which the temple stands we saw a white eyed buzzard sitting elegantly at the top of a tree. It gave us short glimpse and then flew on a tree behind.
We decided to go behind walking on the bunds of the fields.

White Eyed Buzzard's back of the head

White Eyed Buzzard

At the back of the fields was a completely different world. We saw many brahminy mynas flying. Then came 3 hoppoes and sat on a tree in front of us. As we were clicking hoppoes came samll minivets (2pairs) on the same tree. It gave us fantastic views for a long time.

Small Minivet (Female)

Small Minivet (Male)

We saw some activity on the fields and saw a grey necked bunting on a wire over the field.
Sensing that it could be bunting we decided to explore but they turned out to be baya weavers but in big flock of around 10-15.
Just then came a black shouldered kite and hovered just above us.

Black Shouldered Kite hovering

After around 20-25 minutes we started towards Sasvad to proceed towards Dive ghat.
On the way got usual sightings of yellow wattled lapwing and Common Kestrel.

Yellow Wattled Lapwing

Common Kestrel

As we reached Dive ghat after tea and a good tasting bhel in sasvad it had turned into beautiful golden light of the evening.
We started seeing activity along the narrow road. There were common stonechat, pied buschat and red vented bulbul.

Red Vented Bulbul

As we were deciding which area to explore we saw a raptor flying high in the sky.
It was a short toed snake eagle

Short-Toed Snake Eagle

There were many larks coming down for roosting. Also saw an harrier.

Indian Robin

Syke's Crested Lark

The surprise before we left Dive ghat was a India Grey Hornbill which came out of nowhere and went the same way

Indian Grey Hornbill

We got down from Dive ghat and reached pune station by around 6:15pm and took Shivneri back to Mumbai.
Another wonderful day of birding in Pune came to an end!!

To view more pics visit the following album

2011-12-10-KavdiBhuleshwar

2011-11-25-27-Tadoba

2011-12-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

Had a wish to visit Tadoba for a few years but finally it came true when few of my friends from office planned a trip.
The plan was to start by Thursday afternoon by Siddheshwar express to Chandrapur, do 4 safaris and start back by Sunday afternoon to resume office on Monday :-)

It worked out exactly the same.

One of our friend Rohit took the lead to do the bookings of train and MTDC stay and I contacted our INWian Mr Manish Varma for the safaris and Chandrapur to Tadoba and back transportation.

The main challenge in front of us was a long 18hour journey to Chandrapur but it went well with a nice sleep in AC 3 tier compartment of the train which was to our surprise exceptionally clean. The blankets looked to be new and very clean.
The only surprise for me was absence pantry on this long distance so we managed with snacks we had carried and a biryani (which was hopelessly tasteless) taken at igatpuri station. But the wada sambar and idli sambar bought at igatpuri was tasty.

25th November

Reached chandrapur just some 30min late at around 9:30am. Manish had already arranged for a Sumo for pickup and the driver had called earlier day evening and also same day morning and was waiting outside the station.
Immediately hopped into the Sumo and our journey to Tadoba started.

A few km after leaving Chandrapur we started seeing the huge chimneys of the thermal power plant. As we passed through the area of the power plant the scenario was very gross with roads completely black due to coal deposits even the tree leaves had turned black. The surrounding hills here complete stripped not only of greenary but also of the stones and we saw huge craters carved out for mining of coal.

As we reached the forest gate the scenery changed completely. Both sides had beautify thick forests and no sign of pollution any where. The first sighting here 2 huge cheetal deers running across the road in front of us. They seemed to be very health and it was a pleasure to see them.

I had taken the role of bird guide with some knowledge on birds and just before and after leaving chandrapur we could sight some birds like Pied starlings, White throated kingfisher, Indian Roller, Spotted Doves, etc.

Grey Pansy

24th November

As we approached the Moharli MTDC resort we could see some birds in the backwaters of the dam surrounding the MTDC resort. We reached MTDC by 10:30am.
The check out time is 12:00noon and checkin time is 1:30pm.
So we decided to have tea/coffee and then ordered for lunch till we got a room.
In the meantime we moved around the MTDC resort to look for photography opportunities and birding.

The reservoir around the MTDC gave a good opportunity for birding. We could see black headed ibis, open billed stork, Purple swamphens, bronze winged jacanas, pond heron. There were also some butterfly photography also done in the campus.

Manish was back from safari in sometime and he met up with us. We did some chat about the sightings within tadoba, condition of other tiger reserves, some of interesting incidents that Manish had faced in so many years in Tadoba.

Had our lunch and got room by 12:30. Freshened up, got some rest and then started for our first safari at 1:40.
When we reached the moharli gate of TATR we were already 5-6 in the line of jeeps and we had to wait 20-25 minutes till entry is made by the forest officials. It seemed to be an unecessarily slow process which was taking around 5min per person when only information to be entered was name of the person, vehicle details & guide details who was already present at the window.
From next day onwards either got used to it got a little faster but it did not take that long :-)

There was a reported sighting of a tigress with 2 cubs from the Telia dam region. So we decided to this region first. Saw some cheetal grazing near the dam.

Cheetal at Telia Dam

Then we heard a alarm call from within the forest and so we decided to wait there for sometime but no sign of the tiger.

We left Telia dam and again on the main road. Here we saw a sirkeer malkoha, jungle babblers and a jungle cat.

Jungle Cat

We proceed ahead towards the todoba range and took a diversion at one point to go to one small hillock overlooking a small waterhole (can't remember the name).
There from the top of a hillock we could see a water hole with many birds around and a sambar herd.

Sambar and faun with a kingfisher

We waited there for some time observing the sambar and the birds. Here we could see green beeeaters, white throated kingfisher, White bellied drongos and plum headed parakeets.
An Indian roller sat on a tree very near the road and we had a gala time shooting it.

Indian Roller

The evening time when we were returning back was very exciting.
Our driver was excellent not just at driving skills but also spotting skills and instincts, I guess. Because for some reason before leaving he took a diversion from the road while all other jeeps behind us (atleast 3-4) of them just went straight.

It was a narrow road with very nice dense jungle on both sides. At one point our guide that day (Mr. Bhagyawan) who was equally very sharp spotted fresh pugmarks.
We immediately had questions how he knew they were fresh and he explained us well that see the depressions are still very deep with no dust on it.
To confirm this a little ahead we got more proof. There was a small stream besides the road and just ahead that we could we wet pugmarks which would they had to be very recent.
We followed it for a few meters and suddenly the driver stopped the car and we could hear something went inside the jungle just to the right of where were standing. It was a very disappointing but equally exciting to think that just a tiger had went in from here. Immediately the guide said that we go ahead and wait for it at an intersection ahead. We waited for sometime but no movement. Then we decided to take a right angled road and wait a few meters on it just in case the tiger decided to cross the path somewhere ahead. This road was much narrower and now it was starting to get dark too (around 5:25pm). At one point we thought we heard some movement nearby but then nothing. Finally we decided to move and then there was a big shock. Our gypsy would not start. This was a scary moment we were at the middle of the jungle, on a narrow path, it was getting dark and there was a tiger nearby. But fortunately it was just a small battery wire loose and we started our journey back.
We again waited for sometime at the junction on the main road where we again heard a movement but then many gypsies started arriving to return back and the movement was lost.
But it was a wonderful way to end the day even without seeing a tiger.

26th November
Looking at the time taken at the main gate we decided to start on time in the morning but this time it did not take much time we entered the gate exactly at 6am.

The Group - Anushree, Shabri, Mandar, Abhijeet and Rohit

Moharli Gate

It was a nice cool morning, the sun was just rising.

We moved from here and went to another water body on the left side of the main road. No movement there but we saw crested serpent eagle, an egret, pond heron and lot of spotted doves.

Crested Serpent Eagle

Spotted Dove

We went around the same route as last evening which was the Telia dam.
Again at the dam we heard alarm calls and this time they were continuous and pretty loud. Then we also heard a series of something like cries and the guide said "Bagh ne shikar kiya hain lagta hain". We were waiting there in the hope that the tiger might come to the water. But then came the elephant ride tour from opposite side of the lake and directly inside the jungle from where we were hearing the calls. But guess they could not penetrate much in a returned from there but alarm calls stopped and everything went silent.

The Elephant ride which played spoiled sport

Not much activity for rest of the morning except for the regular birds and we were back to MTDC for lunch. Some rest, some photography and we were back in safari by 1:30pm.

Common Mormon on Bougainvillea

With a very dull morning we were not very excited this time but who knew there was something exciting in store.

This time we did not take the Telia dam but went straight to the Tadoba range.
Had some wonderful birding on the way.

Green Beeeater

Black Hooded Golden Oriole

BlackHooded Golden Oriole

And also a sighting of a mongoose and

Mongoose

a cheetal very near the road

Cheetal

We went to another water hole this time where there was lot of bird actvitity. Lot of swallows catching flies on the fly. Laughing doves, green beeeaters and wonderful Yellow footed Green Pigeons. Atleast 4-5 on a single tree just on the other side of the water hole. There were also Lesser whistling teals in the water and Red avadavats in the grass just adjoining the lake.

Yellow footed Green Pigeon

Just besides it was a big dry grassland on which a cheetal was grazing and a black drongo flying around. It was already 4:30pm and we started our travel back.

Cheetal

As we were returning we were on the Nagpur-Tadoba road and we saw an ST bus going to Tadoba. We were now completely sure that we were not going to see a Tiger near so much traffic. We took a left from the main road towards Moharli.
And there in our front was a surprise. We saw 2 jeeps in front of us on the road and ahead of it was a Tigeress walking away from us.

Tigress walk in front of us

What an elegant walk it had. Surprisingly it was not at all disturbed by 4-5jeeps following it at a distance of 10-15feet. And luckily we were the first jeep and got good views.

Just then a sambar came from nowhere and was foraging on the leaves of a tree to the left side of our jeep. The tigress stopped and started watching it and the sambar was completely unaware. After around 1min it realized that there is a tigress staring at it. It became very tense and started giving alarm calls very loudly. We were expecting some action but may be looking at the huge size (around 4feet tall and 7feet in length) i think it dropped the idea and continued on the road.

Tigress watching the sambar

The huge Sambar

It did territory marking and then climbed up a small hillock, the same one on which we were standing the earlier evening hearing the alarm call from below.
And now from the bottom of the hillock we were seeing the tigress moving up the slope. It was an awesome experience.

We were all very delighted and returned back to the hotel completely satisfied with the sighting.

That night we met Manish at the MTDC and narrated the complete episode of sighting. He told us that another safari jeep had sighted a live hunting by a group of 10-15 wild dogs in the Kolsa region of TATR.

We learnt from him that it is a very thickly vegetated area with some big grasslands to giving a good chance to sight a bison. So we immediately decided to the Kolsa region the next day morning.

27th November
We had decided to be the first to enter the gate as we had to go to the kolsa region which itself take 30-45 minutes from the Moharli range.

On the way we could see wonderful grassland and at one of water crossing a small blue kingfisher and pond heron.

Kosla range

The grassland of Kosla

As soon as we reached the Kolsa lake we could see around 7-8 wild dogs. Some were resting and some were playing. They seemed really very fearful.

Wild dogs at the lake

Wild dogs

The vegetation here was very thick and looked very undisturbed. There were huge webs of Giant Wood spiders every few meters. The road was narrow and very well covered with bamboo jungle.

Web of giant wood spider

Giant wood spider

We could not sight any bison but the overall scenery was very wonderful and worth visiting.

While returning we visited some water holes to search for some activity and got some birds.

White browed Fantail

Black Drongo

Spotted Dove

Return back to MTDC. Had bath, freshened up, had lunch and waited for our vehicle back to Chandrapur. There was some hitch here as our vehicle did not arrive till 3pm and we started looking for alternatives. Got information from the MTDC guys about a bus which we can catch at around 4pm from the village and drop us at Chandrapur before 5:30 just in time for 6pm train to Mumbai.
But at the village bus stop we searched a bit for a private vehicle and luckily got a gypsy who agreed to drop us at chandrapur station. Concidentally it turned out to be Manish's vehicle. It was a very enjoyable drive back again till the forest gate.

Visit the following album for more pics

2011-11-25-27-Tadoba

2011-11-19 Alibaug

2011-11-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

Was planning to do a trip to Alibaug from last year, but could not do it.
Had done one trip with MBC to Ramdharneshwar hill few years back but that was a very brief and not covering Askhi.

Me and my friend Ritesh were very certain that we want to make this trip and planned it for this weekend.
We were pondering over multiple options like going to Mandwa by ferry and then hiring an auto or a vehicle from there or to hire a vehicle from Mumbai itself.

Finally decided on hiring a vehicle from Mumbai itself and Vaishali Kulkarni also joined us.

We started in morning at 6am from Anushaktinagar and reached Ramdharneshwar, after taking directions from the expert Dr Vaibhav, by about 9:30am. Almost a perfect time to raptor watch.

We parked the vehicle at the foothills and started climbing in a zigzag manner to the top of the hillock.
On the way saw an India robin pair and a laughing dove.

As we reached the top and settled down below a tree to get the view of both the sides of the valley a calotes was clinging to a rock. As we were busy observing it suddenly a common kestrel came from the left valley out of nowhere with a prey in its feet. It hovered around sometime having feast on air.

We were busy clicking its images a booted eagle came from behind us and circled right in front of us for sometime. It was a pale morph and gave us some fantastic views.

After that the kestrel came up a few more times from the left valley which seemed to be mostly feasting on dragon flies.

An Oriental Honey buzzard made a brief appearance again on top of us and then vanished as quickly as it had come.

We sat at the same point for a while then walked up a few more meters scanned for some activity and came back to the same point after half an hour without any more luck.

A banayan tree just a few meters below us was providing a feast to thick billed and pale billed flowerpeckers.
A lone white bellied sea eagle flew straight without making any circles from left valley towards the sea in front of us at a pretty fast speed for us to react and take any pictures.

Even though we saw less raptors but the enjoyment of seeing these huge birds at eye level is a very fulfilling experience.

From here we left at around 12:30 to have lunch in Alibaug and then proceeded to Akshi beach by around 2:30pm.

We had seen the tide timetable and there was a low tide at 12:30pm and the high tide at 6:15pm.
So we had a nice 3-4hours for wader watch.

When we arrived at 2:30pm the water was pretty much in the sea leaving a wet muddy path for waders to wade and feed on.
As we were approaching we could see huge flocks of gulls/terns moving from left to right.

On the rightmost end of the beach we could see a huge congregation of gulls/terns.

And in between us and the gulls on the complete beach there were 1000s of waders.
There were lesser sand plovers, kentish plovers to start with.

A very fast moving, a very unsteady wader caught our eye and it was a Terek Sandpiper.
We found them very difficult to click.

As we moved ahead we came across the flock of 10-15 Great Knots, must have been from the batch which Dr. Vaibhav had reported a few days back.
We got some good pics of these.

One more observation was a flock of around 5-8 Terek Sandpipers.
With them were also a flock of 5-10 Ruddy Turnstones. Very colorful waders (very odd term of waders, isnt it? :-))
But really their orange legs contrasts very well with their black/brown feather on the back and black throat with white belly.

Moving ahead we went to observe the gulls. There were atleast 3000+ of them in total.
We could observe the black headed and brown headed gulls and within them many juvenile & Adult heuglin's gull. There were also a few terns which we could not observe well as they flew away.
This was the first time I was seeing such a huge congregation of gulls/terns and it was a site to behold.

We spent time photographing and observing different waders through the scope for a long time. Just as the high tide was approaching saw a pair of wood sandpipers come and go.

We observed that as the shore started drying around 4pm or so with tide gone back long time ago and high tide yet to come the sand plovers went lazy and sat down with some dozing around. It was a pretty site to see so many of them sitting down on the ground and dozing away.
Within them were also a few Dunlins.

We sat at the beach till the sunset at the horizon by which time the tide had come in and the plovers were again starting to be very active and also were many tourists who had come to spend their saturday evening and Sundays on the beach away from the sounds of the city.

For more pictures from this trip visit picasa web album

2011-11-19-Alibaug

2011-10-30-Kombudbhuje

2011-10-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

Today morning 7am we (Dr. Saurabh and me) started from Vashi for Chirner and decided with good advice from my friend Ritesh to do some birding on the way at Kombudbhuje.

But with such a nice birding experience at this place we ended up doing birding here till 9:30, when the sun was pretty high in the sky and shining with full force.

This place has a wonderful mix habitat with marshy land and mangroves and a small hillock with grassland and small trees & bushes.

Taking left from from the road towards we stopped at the waterbody to get a glimpse at a lot of activity over mangroves.
It was a flock of 30-40 Baya weavers and equal number of rosy startlings all in non-breeding plumage and some molting.

Baya weaver Female

Baya Weaver Male

Within these flocks were also laughing dove pairs, scaly breasted munia flocks and a spotted dove basking in morning sun and taking bath.
There was also a pair of purple heron.

In the marshy wetland just besides were little ringed plovers and the wonderful Pacific golden plovers (4 of them), first sigthings of the migratories this season for me.

Clamorous reed warblers were calling and as usual not very visible but one came very near and gave good views.

Clamarous Reed Warbler

Ahead there is grassland and small hillock we got some good surprises.
A Eurasian Wryneck on the grass gave us a quick view.

Eurasian Wryneck

And 3 jungle bush quails chasing each other on the slopes. We were watching them playing for around 15min.

Jungle Bush Quail

There was a purple sunbird displaying with its yellow-orange tufts.

Purple Sunbird

On the otherside of the hillock is a vast marshy land where we could see grey herons, egrets, Wood sandpiper, common sandpiper, a common snipe and common redshanks.

Other sightings were
red avadavats
plain prinia
ashy prinia
Indian robin
black headed munias
long tailed shrike
Green beeeaters
Common stonechat
Red wattled lapwing
Pied starlings (15-20)
3 Glossy ibis (highup in flight)

Mud Skipper

Picturewing or is it only a dragonfly?

Indian robin with a plastic :-(

All in all a wonderful Sunday birding!!!

Trip to Cold Desert - Ladakh Part3

2011-10-16T01:55:00.000-07:00

This part describes the 3 days Day7-Day9 of the journey into Nubra valley covering the Khardungla, Deskit, Turtuk village very near the LOC, Hunder.

Day 7 -22nd Aug - Leh - Deskit

This was going to be a day when we were going over the highest motarable road in the work via khardungla pass.
It was going to be a short journey (compared to other days:-)) so we started at 10am after taking sumptous breakfast.

Leh town while climbing Khardungla

Climbing Khardungla is very fast by 10:55 we were already at South Pullu, an army camp south of khardungla, at a height of 15300feet. Permits are checked at this place.
Then we reached Khardungla top at 11:40 which is 18000feet.
So just in 1hr 40min we had climbed from 11000ft to 18000ft.

We had decided to stop at Khardungla while coming back from Deskit as Ritesh and his wife had just arrived in Leh the earlier day and were not completely acclimatised.

Even after travelling from Srinagar to Leh and staying at Kargil & Leh I was not feeling very good at 18000feet.
I had just got down at the Ktop to take a few pics and felt very drained.

From Khardunla top

Fresh snow on the peaks near the top

While climbing down the Khardungla we stopped just before North pullu.
There was beautiful green medow with a small waterbody having a buddha statue.
Just sat there absorbing fresh air and beauty of nature of 10min.

Near north pullu

On the way some marmots were seen and finch like birds but we did not stop.
But little ahead of North pullu got our first Tibetan Snowfinch.
There were also a lot of Red billed choughs. While observing them suddenly saw a huge sized raptor and it was the Golden Eagle. It was a fantastic sight!! Its a bird with a wingspan of 5-7feet.

Red Billed Chough

Golden Eagle

Reached Khalsar at 1:15pm from where the road splits. One goes to Panamik and other to Deskit and ahead to Turtuk.
From here we enter the Shyok valley. The road is very flat and the valley is huge and very sandy.

Flat sandy road made in the valley near Khalsar

Shyok valley while approaching Diskit

Reached Deskit by 14:30 and checked into our Hotel Oltang.
Very nice place with a direct view of Deskit Gompa.

Old gompa taken from the hotel

The rooms were big and clean with 24hr hot water a very difficult thing to find in remote place, even in guest houses in Leh.
Just behind our room was a small stream and village path going into the village behind. Some houses were also visible. In the front was a garden with flowers and trees of apple and apricot.
Got a black redstart and a white wagtail at this stream and some more birds the next morning.

Apricot tree full of fruits in the hotel

White Wagtail

Post lunch we had some rest and then started for the Deskit gompa by 17:00.
First we went to the old gompa.The road goes till the gompa.
The sight from gompa was wonderful. The complete shyok valley was visible and in the front the new fompa with a big statue of buddha.

New Gompa statue as seen from Old Gompa

From there we went to the new gompa just as the sun was setting.
We just got the buddha in good light. It was very peaceful up there and we just wanted sit there.
We sat for some time till sunset and then returned back to the hotel.

Statue of Buddha at new Gompa

Front view of the statue

Old Gompa as seen from the New Gompa

Day 8 - 23rd Aug - Diskit - Turtuk

Turtuk is a village 100km from Diskit very near LOC. This was opened to tourists just last year.
One can see shyok all the time along the road.
We started at 8:15, just half an hour after start we started seeing the sand dunes of Hunder.

Shyok on the way to Turtuk

Formations possible by Glaciers

Shyok river

Reached Turtuk by 11:30. On the way saw blue rock thrush and red billed choughs.

Gushing waters of shyok

It was little difficult find the exact village because initially we crossed many shops and thought it was a village but looked very much like small roadside town. But fourtunately it was not the village.
The village was much ahead and the entrance to it was very a beautiful bridge over a gushing stream which was finally flowing into Shyok river.

Gushing stream near Turtuk Vilalge

The bridge connecting the village to the road

The bridge from the road to the vilalge

The village roads were narrow with fields on one side and houses on the other. There was also a primary school in this distant village which was very nice to see.

There was small hotel cum guest house in the village itself where we checked for food.
The owner told us that he can cook a vegetable and roti quickly.
Along the village road there was a constant stream of water flowing. We were told this was fresh water flowing from the mountain and very safe to drink. It was nice, cold and sweet.

The guest had 2 rooms and also 2 tents outside. He also had a tented accomodation near the road below the village where we had seen lot of shops.

It was a wonderful experience and started our journey back to Diskit after nice lunch at around 14:00.
On the way back near around a town called skuru we got wonderful views of a flock of Chukar crossing the road.

The plan was to stop at Hunder for the sand dunes and reached there by 16:45.
Clicked some pics of the Double humped camels.
These are not original of this place but had been brought here by the traders very very long time back as this was on the old silk route from central asia (mongolia).
They have now grown here and the locals here breed them for rides on the sand dunes for tourists.
It is said that they are left in the wild in the evening and brought back in the morning.

Hunder sand dunes

Sea-buckthorn. Popularly known as Leh berry and its juice is very famous

Double humped Camel

Sand dunes

Tourist on double humped camel with the Deskit old and new Gompa in the background

Reached back to our hotel by 6:15pm.

Day 9 - 24th Aug - Diskit - Leh

The main attraction of the day was the halt at Khardungla.
In the morning around an hour was spent birding.
Just when we were planning to leave for birding from our hotel room we saw a cuckoo like bird flying.
It turned out to be a eurasian / oriental cuckoo (still to confirm id).
So we went behind the hotel and got some good shots. Other birds seen here were the black redstart, white wagtail and the rosefinch pair.

Eurasian Cuckoo

Common Rosefinch

Started our journey to Leh by 9:15.

Shyok valley

At North Pullu there is a stream next to the army camp.
We got white winged redstart (2males and 3 females) and little ahead, marmot, red billed choughs and Hill Pigeon.

Reached khardulngla at 12:15. The height really starts affecting.
It was not very cold as we had expected and the weather was also very clear.

We had lemon tea here which was very soothing.

Spent around 30min on Khardungla and then started to Leh by around 12:45.
Reached by late afternoon around 5pm in Leh.

Trip to Cold Desert - Ladakh Part2

2011-10-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

This blog describes the journey from Day3 to Day6 of the trip which includes a trip to Ancient Village Dah, to the beautiful Suru Valley with the View of Nun-Kun peaks, Kargil-Leh travel with Lamayuru and Alchi monasteries and local sightseeing aroung Leh.

Map showing the route from Day3-Day6

Day 3 - 18th Aug - Kargil - Batalik - Dah - Kargil via Sanjak valley, Mulbek, Namikala

Started from the Hotel at 9:30am towards Dah.

From Kargil 4 roads go in 4 directions.
West road is from where we came that is Drass/Srinagar.
East road goes to Leh.
South road goes to Suru and Zanskar valley to Padum.
And North road goes to Dah village via Batalik. Proceeding on the same road one reaches Lamayuru by getting onto the Srinagar Leh highway at Khaltse. There is another road in a little bad condition which comes via Sanjak valley onto Srinagar-Leh highway just before Namikala.

This is the road we followed on the 3rd day to cover Batalik and Dah villages.

Just after leaving the road climbs up and we got some nice views of the Kargil town from this road.

Kargil Town view after just leaving the road towards Dah

There are 2 passes on this road to Simola village Hanula and Lalungla.
Simola village view from lalungla was very beautiful.

From Lalungla

Shimola village from Lalungla

No permits are required to travel via this road to Batalik and ahead.
Just before the last loop to Batalik village entry we stopped to get the view of the village below and the mountains in front on the other side of which was POK.

Eurasian Magpie

Houses in Dah Village

Reached Dah village by 1pm. It is an old village inhibited by people with ancient Aryan origin.
It is a very beautiful village with a narrow path leading to upwards on the hill.
As we go up we reach a little level ground which has fields mainly cultivating vegetables like tomato, cauliflower,etc.

Road to the village

There were huge number of apricot trees full of apricots.
We just pluck a few (ofcourse with the permission of the villagers) and ate them.
Their taste was amazing.

Apricots drying in Dah Village

Tasty Apricots

Tree full of Apricots

Also met one elderly lady in their traditional dress.
She was very neatly dressed with flowers and all. It must be taking time but we were told that they dress this way daily.

Old lady in Dah village wearing their traditional dress

Started back by 3:15pm and decided to return via sanjak valley.
This road is completely along the river Sanjak at the bottom of the valley. No passes at all till we reach the Srinagar-Leh highway.

Sanjak Valley

An old fort in ruins

From here we start climbing Namikala (12000ft)

Srinagar Leh highway

Namikala Top

Stopped at Chamba statue just before Mulbek for something to eat as we had not found any suitable place to have lunch on the way.
Had maggi and coffee. It felt fantastic !!

Chamba statue is a huge statue of Maitreya Buddha just besides the highway.

Just outside Champa statue before Mulbekh while going towards Kargil

Matriya buddha statue also called Champa statue

Prayer wheel at Champa statue

From here moved on to Kargil and back at Hotel by evening.

Day 4 - 19th Aug - Suru valley and back

The plan for the day was to go till Parakchik to see the suru valley and get view of Nun-Kun peaks and then return back to Kargil for lunch. From here we were to proceed to Lamayuru for stay.

The road to Parkachik is not very good so we decided to leave early so that we can come back on time.
We started at 7:30am. Had breakfast at Sanku.
The sceneary was beautiful.

Suru Valley

Colorful mountains in Suru Valley

Snow peaks seen from Parkachik

From Panikhar we started getting views of snow peaks.

There was lot of bird activities and at a particular spot we stopped to do some birding.
Here there were as usual Magpies all around and some very near.
Also there were European goldfinch some smaller birds at a distance which could not be identified.
Then came the biggest delight, a fire fronted serin came and sat right on the road to drink water.
Then it flew a little and sat on a rock very near giving very good shots !!

Fire fronted Serin

Eurasian Magpie (mostly Juvenile)

We went to parkachik but were not very impressed by the views but surely got very near to the peaks.
The landscape little before parkachik changed from tall trees along the road to a little open contryside and rocky faces.

Nun - Kun Peaks

Nun Peak

View of Nun from Parkachik

Here there were many rosefinches. Also saw many Marmots on the way.
Got our first red billed choughs also at Parkachik.

Red billed Chough

We turned back from here at 12:30 and were back at Kargil at 3:30.
We straight away started for Lamayuru and would have reached Lamayuru well in time but unfortunately just 10km before Mulbekh there was blasting done for road widening in which some huge boulders had got loose and we were told that the clearing will be complete only by 12midnight.
So the only option before us was to come back and stay at Kargil.

Day 5 - 20th Aug - Kargil - Leh via lamayuru and Alchi

Today we had to cover longer distance than planned as we were staying at kargil and not Lamayuru.
So we started at 7:15am. Stopped at Mulbekh for breakfast at 8:30.
Stopped at Namikala at 9:35am for some shots and then at Fotula (13500ft) at 11am.
Fotula is the highest pass on the Srinagar-Leh highway.

Climbing Namikala

At Namikala top

Fotula top viewable while climbing

Fotula top

Very short distance from Fotula is Lamayuru monestry.
Lamayuru is one of the oldest monastries of Ladakh.

On the way to Lamayuru

View of top from Lamayuru Monastery

Lamayuru Monastery

Huge prayer wheel at the monastery

Right in front of the monastery is Niranjan Guest House which is run by the monastery.
It is situated at a fantastic location and have heard that it has good facilities.
Unfortunately we could not stay here the earlier day because of the blasting before Mulbekh.

Monastery on the right and Niranjan guest house on the left

Next stop was at Alchi monastrey.
The entrance if through the village and there are many restaurants on the way.
Had some apricot juice in one of the restaurants.
Its a big complex having a prayer hall and temple and lot many prayer wheels around the boundary of the monastery.

On the way to Alchi

The back of the monastery has the amazing view of the Indus river and there is a way to walk around the monastery.

On the way to Leh there is a place called Nimoo which is famous for the sangam of 2 big rivers Indus and Zanskar. We reached this place at around 5pm.

As we approached Leh we started seeing Stok peak on right with greenary in front of it being Choglamsar and Shey. Leh was in the left valley and Rumbak in the right valley.

Reached Leh by 6pm and checked into Paul Guest House right in the Zangsti area of fort road. It was very reasonable at 900Rs for 3bed and Rs800 for 2bed, clean and with all basic facilities of electricity and hot water and very spacious.

Day 6 - 21st Aug Local sightseeing around Leh

Next day was kept for acclimatisation.
Ritesh and his wife had arrived at 7:35am and as they had just arrived by flight they were to take the whole day rest.
We started at 9:45am for the sightseeing.

First stop was Thiksey with a big prayer hall and a Buddha statue.

From the terrace of monastrey we got good view of the leh city and stok.

As we climbed down we got fanstastic views of Thiksey monastery from below.

Thiksey Monastery

Next we went to Shey palace where there is a 7.5m tall Buddha statue.While climbing to the shey palace we could see the shey marshes on the other side of the road, a fantastic place for birding as per reports.

Shey Marshes

Went back for lunch to Leh city and started by 4:15pm for Choglamsar for some birding.
Saw lot of wagtails, some juvenile, a rosefinch, magpies, hoppoes and mostly a mountain chiffchaff.

Mountain Chiffchaff (yet to confirm)

There were also wader sightings mainly singular - green sandpiper, black winged stilt, common sandpiper, little stint.
We also got a surprise sighting of an Himalayan Weasel.

Himalayan Weasel

Trip to cold desert - Ladakh Part I

2011-09-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

A 16 day dream trip was planned (16days from mumbai to mumbai) from 16Aug to 31Aug.There were 5 of us. Me & my parents and my friend Ritesh Bagul & his wife. They joined us at Leh on 21st of Aug.

This time the itinerary was changed compared to last year (which got cancelled due to unfortunate cloudburst around Leh) with Manali-Leh road trip dropped due to reports of bad and uncertain road conditions.
Also it would have taken 2 more days out of our itinerary.

So the final itinerary was as follows
16-8-11 Flight Mumbai Srinagar. Local Sight seeing
17-8-11 Dep Srinagar reach Kargil
18-8-11 Kargil – Batalik – Dah – Kargil
19-8-11 Kargil – suru valley – kargil - Lamayuru
20-8-11 Lamayuru – Alchi – Leh
21-8-11 Acclamatization / Sightseeing – Shey, thikse,choglamsar
22-8-11 Leh – Diskit via Khardungla
23-8-11 Diskit – Turtuk – Diskit
24-8-11 Diskit – Leh
25-8-11 Leh - Pangong - Stay at Spangmik
26-8-11 Pangong - Chushul – Loma - Nyoma - Tso Moriri
27-8-11 Tso Moriri – Tso Kar
28-8-11 Tso Kar - Leh via Tanglangla
29-8-11 Leh Local sightseeing
30-8-11 Leh Local sightseeing
31-8-11 Dep Leh by Air, Arrvl Mumbai

Before the start of travel unlike 2010 all the news were good.
Clear Weather!!

We had not booked any hotels before hand since our visit was towards the end of season so we were told that rooms would be available and also bargaining plays a big role in this region, which can be best done only face to face :-)

Though we got some very good references from our friend Mr. Vivek Nagvekar who himself takes multiple tours to Ladakh every year and is an avid trekker (He has done the chaddar trek on frozen Zanskar).

We got a reference to one of the very good driver Mr. Liyakat from our friends from BARC who had been to Ladakh few years back.

Day 1 - 16th Aug - Mumbai - Srinagar

As soon as we landed in Srinagar i had an instant feeling that it is very different than other hill regions we have visited. The main reason for this must be a very different landscape & flora of Kashmir as compared to other hill regions I have visited like gharwal, kumaon or Himachal.

We were in Srinagr only for one night.
Reached Srinagar at 1300.

Stayed at Hotel Pine Groove near Boulevard.
We visited Shankar acharya hill, Nishat & Shalimar gardens and of course a Shikara ride in Dal Lake.

Pine Groove Hotel Entrance

View of Dal Lake from midway on the Shankaracharya hill

Dal Lake full of Shikaras

Chukar on Shakaracharya hill road

Shikaras in Dal Lake

Dal Lake view before just getting down from Shankarachrya Hill

Nishat Gardens of Srinagar

Beautiful flowers in the garden

A small landscaping in Nishat

Shalimar Gardens

Eurasian Jackdaw

Himalayan Bulbul

Shalimar garden

The evening ride in the Shikara was the best part.
The lake was awesome and it was more interesting to learn the business that goes around inside the lake.
Ofcourse there are house boats but there are also shops.
Not only that there are also floating fields in the lake where vegetables are grown and every morning a bazaar is setup in the middle of the lake to sell these vegetables.

Sunset over Dal Lake

Dal Lake in evening sky from Shikara

Sunset over Dal Lake

Floating shops on Dal Lake

With only half day at Srinagar we were very late in the lake so could not see everything and that is one thing for which I will surely return to Srinagar.

A night stroll back to hotel on the bolevaurd along the lake was wonderful.

Day 2 - 17th Aug - Srinagar - Kargil

Our driver had informed us earlier day that he will not be able to make to Srinagar from Leh as he was stuck somewhere. But he had sent another driver and he was on time in the morning.

We checked out of our hotel and started by 9am for Kargil.

Before leaving Srinagar we decide to take some snaps of Dal Lake but it was very hazy and could manage a few birds shots.

Whiskered Tern

Black Kite

Little Grebe

From there we proceeded towards Sonmarg and on the way just before Sonmarg stopped for a view of Tazivas glacier. There were lot of horsemen standing here to take the tourists very near the Tazivas glacier. I could also see a JKTDC resort here.

Next destination was Dras via Zojila.
On the way there is a place called baltal from where the road leaves to Amarnath yatra.
Since the yatra had ended only a few weeks back we could still see the posters about the yatra on the way.
Here is snap of the trekking route going to Amarnath.

The next milestone was Zojila.
This is a 11500ft high pass on Srinagar Leh highway. Earlier this pass used to be closed for almost 6months now generally it is closed only for 4months and opens much before May.

Just as we were on the other side of Zojila we saw the Lammergeier or also called a bearded vulture.
Its a huge bird with a wingspan of 10feet. Its also called a bone beaker as it takes huge bones high up in the sky and then drop them on a rock to break it into smaller pieces.

Lammergeier or bearded vulture

The road to Dras was scenic with view of snow peaks also.
Here are some of the shots.

Draas is a small town which was the center of Kargil war.
Geographically it is the second coldest habitable place in the world. Temperature of -60C has been recorded from here and people live all round the year.

At Draas one can see the Tiger Hill, Tololing range and other high points which were captured by Pakistan in 1999. The memorial is in the memory of all the armymen who fought for India in this war.

Tiger Hill

Tololing range which is very close to Srinagar - Leh highway. So one can imagine how close Pakistan had reached.

Draas memorial with the Tololing mountain range in the background

Tololing range

Draas Memorial

From Memorial looking at the entrance of the memorial

European Goldfinch

We reached kargil by 6pm and checked in at a Hotel Greenland.
A decent hotel and rooms (may be because the building was just constructed in 2010 :-))
Here we met our driver Mr Liyakat for the first time.
He informed that for Dah as well we will a local vehicle (JK07) and Leh vehicle (JK10) will not be allowed by local Taxi union as we were going to come back to Kargil.
But that was not a problem for us as he was going to arrange everything.

We went out at night to find a nice place for dinner but as had heard from mutliple source Kargil does not have a decent restaurant and that too veg. Initially i had not belived it looking at the size of the town but it turned out true.
Only one dabha type restaurant run by a Sardarji having one bench was where we had dinner and that too dal and chawal, No roti. But after a long first days ride the hot food was tasting good.

Day 3 - 18th Aug - Kargil - Batalik - Dah - Kargil via Sanjak valley, Mulbek, Namikala.

2011-06-26-Talawe

2011-06-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning we (Ritesh and me) started towards our favorite hotspot for birding and photography - Talawe, Nerul.
Each time I visit this place a question comes to the mind "How long it will remain this way?". Hope it remains so for a very long time!!

Already one can see huge buildings in the backdrop increasing day by day.

This is a wonderful place to visit for every season.
Winter is for larks, pipits, blue throat, buschats, harrier and waders.
Summer and especially in rains its breeding season for beauties like prinias, cisticola, munias and weavers.
These were the ones we had specially gone to see.
Also this is wonderful breeding ground for different butterflies after the end of monsoon.

This time we saw blue tiger pupas and fresh adult butterflies emerging out of it.
Already had a complete lifecycle caught on camera

Lifecycle of Blue Tiger

except for the complete transparent pupa out of which fresh butterfly had emerged.

Blue tiger pupas with fresh butterflies emerging out of it

Blue Tiger adult butterfly

Baya Weaver

Baya weaver (male)

Gang of Bayas

Red Munia

Green beater

Scaly Breasted Munia

Cinammon Bittern

Marsh Glider

Sleeping Beauties

Lesser Flamingo (Juvenile)

Lesser Flamingoes with Slender billed gull and Brown headed Gull

Brahminy Kite

Black Crowned Night Heron

Gull Billed Tern

Black Headed Munia

" School in progress"

Zitting Cisticola

Still farming is in progress in this part and the villagers are very nice

2011-06-18-19 Matheran

2011-06-24T05:12:00.000-07:00

Toad with their croaking indicative of rains

A closeup of the back of the toad

Generally heavy moss is seen on trees in areas having high like Matheran during the rains

Thick and dark forests form a part of major landscape of Matheran

Orange Headed ground thrush a very common resident of Matheran very vocal and active during mansoon

Beautiful flowers like these with droplets of water form a very good subject of photography during mansoons

Matheran was established as a Hill station during the British Raj. Still one can see old bungalows with beautiful architecture still somewhat intact in Matheran


Pugmarks of an animal from a cat family.

How do we know whether its

2011-04-23 Karnala

2011-05-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

Birding in Karnala has always been interesting.

This is the best time to see the resident birds as it is the breeding time they are the most active.

The road leading to the guest house was usual the most rewarding.
It started with a pair of Pompodour Green pigeons.
A golden oriole was calling from the background.
The cicadas were making noise at their peak.
Some interesting fact about the noise made by cicada.
These are not created due to rubbing as in case of insects like grasshopers, crickets, locusts etc.
Male cicadas have loud noisemakers called "tymbals" on the sides of the abdominal base.
Its a membrane and the vibration of this membrane causes the sound. It is amplified by the hollow abdomen which serves as a resonance chamber.

Cicada


Cicada

A little ahead an Kaushi tree (Scarlet Sterculia) was in full flowering.
This tree hosted a lot of birds and we got good views of
Eurasian Golden Oriole
Gold fronted leafbird
Crimson Sunbird
Small Sunbird
Pygmy woodpecker
Chestnut Shouldered petronia

Chestnul Shouldered Petronia

Gold Fronted Leafbird

Gold Fronted Leafbird on flowering Kaushi tree

Gold Fronted Leafbird in flight

Crimson Sunbird

Eurasian Golder Oriole

A moved ahead towards the guest house and from got the bronzed drongo and Black hooded oriole.
A purple sunbird gave us some wonderful views as we moved down the MorTaka trail.

Just a try to capture Spider Web

Forest Calotes

The common woodshrike was calling out.

Just before getting out in the open at the end of the Hariyal trail we saw the male and female Shama. The male was also calling out intermittently. I guess just the starting of breeding season.

White Rumped Shama

At the end of the trail near the flycatcher point we saw the plum headed parakeets male and female.
The spotted doves were very active and exhibiting fantastic breeding plumage.

Chestnut Shouldered Petronia

An emerald dove also gave a brief but good view.

In the trees in the valley just besides the flycatcher point a large cuckoo shrike was circling around us.
Either establishing territory or just moving around.

Large CuckooShrike

Moving towards the machan point we could hear and see the crested serpent eagles high up in the sky.

After crossing the bridge a little ahead is another flycatcher point which is a huge tree with a constructed base.
Here we saw first the common iora, small sunbirds, some warblers and brown cheeked fulvettas.
Then came another woodpecker beauty the heart spotted woodpecker. It was feeding around for sometime. In fact there was a pair.

Heart Spotted Woodpecker. Note the heart shaped markings seen from the back

Heart Spotted Woodpecker

Also saw a female paradise flycatcher and shama again.
We called it a day and headed back!!

Morning light entering from the tree canopy

2011-02-26 Birdrace

2011-03-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

Participated in the Mumbai bird race held on 26th Feb 2011.
Me, Kunal, my dad and Prachi formed the team.
Route taken Karnala-Talawe(nerul)-Airoli bridge-Bhandup pumping station-powai-MNP

We started early morning at 6:30 at Karnala.
Here we could see some interesting species very well like black naped oriole, white rumped munia, orange headed groundthrush, Shikra, Paradise flycatcher, gold fronted chloropsis, Brown headed barbet.

Orange headed ground-thrush

Ashy drongo

Black naped oriole

White rumped Munia

Gold fronted chloropsis

Brown headed barbet

Paradise flycatcher

Thick billed flowerpecker

Crested serpent eagle

Reached at around 11:00am at the waterbody just behing sea wood, thanks to Mr. Julius.
This is again a wonderful place.
Even with sun shining very high many waders were seen with little egret, intermediate egret, great egret and an Osprey circling high above.
Wood sandpiper

Osprey

Painted stork

Osprey

At around 12 we reached talawe.
The common stonechat, pied bushchat, lauging dove, black drongo, plain prinia were still very much out.
The bluethroat, red avadavat and larks were missing.
Common Stonechat

After lunch at vashi we proceed to Bhandup via Airoli.
Took a halt on the Airoli bridge and spotted large number of godwits, black/brown headed gulls, norther shovelers, black headed ibis and flamingoes.

At bhandup the timing not at all good and other than a shrike and common stone chat only spotted a gull billed tern and grey heron.

Next stop was IIT powai but it was a big disappointment.
Because of some miscommunication no permission letters were available.
With the help of one of the professors whom my dad knew we just went to the lake without much birding as we had no permission came back.
Saw the usuals purple swamphen, bronzed wing jacana, little tern.

Reached MNP early and did some birding in the campus and came accross the common birds like koel, crow pheasant, golden oriole, shikra, crimson breasted barbet.
In the river behind saw a flock of sand plovers and black winged stilts.

Overall a nice birding day!!

2011-02-13 Pune

2011-02-18T01:37:00.000-08:00

Me, Ritesh Bagul and Dr Saurabh decided to do birding in pune this weekend.
We decided to cover Kavadi in the morning and Dive ghat and road to Bhuleshwar in the afternoon.

Route taken for the trip was as follows
Started at 6am from Kothrud
Kothrud-Swargate-Hadapsar-Kavdi
Birding on the road from Kavdi phata till the river.
Birding at the river.
Started return by 10:30am.

Took the road exactly opposite the kavdi phata going towards Phursungi
Kavdi-Phursungi-Pune Saswad Highway-Dive ghat-Saswad-Road towards bhuleshwar

Started back at 3pm
Saswad-Dive ghat-Manterwadi phata-Katraj bypass-Katraj-Banglore highway-Chandani chowk-Expressway-Mumbai
Reached Mumbai by 7pm

The start
The road leading from Kavdi phata to the river is also full of activty.
Good place to spot pied bushchat, bulbul, laughing dove, babblers, barn swallows.
Pied Bushchat (male & female)

Crimson breasted barbet

Large Grey Babbler

Bank Myna

Brahminy Myna

Jungle Myna

Ashy Prinia

Ashy Drongo

Common Rosefinch

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Warbler(?)

??

Laughing Dove

Wire Tailed Swallow

White Throated Kingfisher

Yellow Wagtail

White wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Kavdi is the best place i have ever seen to spot a snipe.
In a single frame you can spot atleast 10snipes sitting pretty in open if not in complete open and far away for a camera but very good view for a scope.
Common Snipe.

Brown Shrike

Purple Heron

Northern Shoveller

House Sparrow

From Kavdi via Phursungi we joined the pune saswad highway.

Had amazing maharashtrian lunch of bhakari, pithla, vangyacha bharit (baigan bharta), bhajanicha thalipith at this junction.

Proceed after lunch to Saswad via Dive ghat.

As we reached the top of Dive ghat we spotted a raptor and stopped the car to a side and observed the raptor. There were black kites and within them was a single steppe eagle.

Steppe Eagle

Just look at the difference in size of a black kite on the left and a steppe eagle on the right.

After reaching saswad turned left towards bhuleshwar.
Indian Roller

Rufous Tailed Lark

Common Kestrel

I was looking out for sometime for black bucks and finally saw a group of 4.

They were very far and extremely shy and immediately ran away.
Black buck

As we were returning back we saw a huge raptor sitting on a leafless tree. It was a steppe eagle.

Soon it took off and then flew right above. It was amazing experience to see such a huge raptor just above us.
Steppe Eagle

2011-02-06 Rabale

2011-02-06T07:04:00.000-08:00

How to reach Rabale. Refer Map below.

While going from Rabale to Airoli take the first right after rabale station.
Take the first right, there is an MIDC map on the corner.
Take left from where the road ends, there is Indoco research at this corner.
Take the right on the main road.
Take left from Alfa Laval.
At the end of this road on the right side is some open space in front of a factory and a small garden.
Park your car here and walk from the right of the wall in between the wall and the hill.

Today morning me and friend Dr Saurabh decided to do birding at a place where we had not gone for a very long time - Rabale. This place was introduced to us by Mr Julius some years back and at that time we had seen an oriental dwarf kingfisher back in June 2007. Later had gone again in 2008 and had seen the beautiful Black Eagle. Here is the link to that blog http://alokbhave.blogspot.com/2008/11/16th-nov-2008-rabale.html

Its a fantastic place where you can have birding along with some mini trek :-)
The route is along a stream which is full of boulders. So you have to walk up and down on these boulders.

Today however i did not feel like taking my camera out (which is not very often :-)) and did only birding most of the time. It was really very nice experience as was not carrying the weight of the camera on my hand and neck :-)

We decided to start little early than usually required because I was not sure if I could find the place at the first go. But I had gone through the google map a day before to see the possible route to the possible place.
It helped a lot and bang at 7am we were at Rabale.

Since its a valley which opens on the west the sun does not come in till late morning and mostly because of the same reason the activity started a little late in the morning.

But at the start of the trail itself we saw some ashy prinias and a flock of yellow eyed babblers. Both of these were seen almost every where on the trail along with redvented bulbuls and the red whiskered bulbuls.
Red Whiskered bulbul

The bushes that grow along the stream seem to provide a shelter to many fantail flycatchers too.

We could also see a couple of common ioras and crimson sunbirds.

Crimson sunbird

We sat on the boulders on the stream from time to time and could watch the ashy prinia and a warbler(mostly blyth's reed) flitting nearby on the grass around the stream.

When the sun was hitting the trees along the stream we could enjoy the redwhiskered bulbul, crimson sunbird and tailor bird feasting on a red silk cotton flower. During this time i was tempted to get my camera out. Took some shoots and then decided to put it back and just enjoy birding.

The interesting part of this trail is that since its a stream at many places small/big patches of water are still remaining. We were hoping to see some activity on these water bodies which were formed. For some time we could not see any but on our way back at a particular place the bushes had branches were very near the ground and there was water just below it.
This formed a ideal condition for many birds to hop on these branches and then zoom down to drink water.

We sat down and observed the species coming there. It contained 3-4 fantail flycatchers, a pair of crimson sunbird, a single warbler (mostly greenish leaf), a tickel's blue flycatcher and a paradise flycatcher female.
At some distance we felt that we saw the white morph male but was it actual or just our wish which transformed into a visual could not be confirmed :-)
Here again i was tempted to take out my camera and take some pics again not much pics taken but watched them for a long time.

Tickell's blue flycatcher

Crimson Sunbird

Warbler (ID please)

We decided to call it a day and return by around 10:30am.

Also seen were some butterflies like the common crow, blue tiger, plain tiger, common sailor, stripped tiger and yellow orange tip. Many of them mud pubddling along these wet patches on the stream.

So a nice mini trek along with good birding.

2010-12-26 Talawe

2010-12-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

The high tide was at 3am and me & my friend Dr Saurabh Jindal decided to reach the sea shore at Talawe, Nerul by 7am.

We were there on time and the fisherman just getting ready to wrap up their catch as the tide started receding.
With receding tide the birds had also gathered to have their morning catch.
There were painted storks, large & intermediate egrets, Eurasian Curlew and many other waders mostly red shanks, plovers and stints.

Nearby there were many little ringed plovers and temminck's stints.

Common Redshank

Little Ringed Plover

Temminck's Stint

As every year there were around 3-4 beautiful waders the Pacific golden plovers.
Pacific golden Plover

Oriental White Ibis

After the waders we moved inwards towards the land birds.
On the fields besides the sea shore there were red vented and whiskered bulbuls, spotted dove, Indian robin, magpie robin, small green beeeaters, Golden oriole, Black drongo, Greater coucal and Common Hoppooe.

Black Drongo

We were looking for the Talawe special the red munias.
As we were trying to find them in the grasses we observed a hoping bird on the ground who was also cocking the tail.
It was the Bluethroat. There were 3 of them.
We sat still for a long time near the grass and got very good views of the the blue throat.
Also came he red avadavats and settled right in the front of us.
But once they settle they are very difficult the spot.

Red Munia

Red Munia (Female)

Blue throat

Now was the time to search for another regulars here the larks.
But no larks were seen. There were the usual Prinias everwhere. There was a lone greenshank and few common sandpipers.

To search for the larks decided to take a detour to explore one of the grasslands at Talawe.
There we could see many long tailed shrikes and Common Stonechats. There were also the red wattled lapwings.

Long Tailed shrike

Common Stonechat

Just then I saw an unusual bird and it was the red headed bunting.
This was the first time I saw it hear. It was very silent and afraid.
It was hiding within the tall grass and was not moving much.
May be had got lost but it was also feeding in between on the seeds of the grass.

Red headed Bunting

Red Headed Bunting

Brown Shrike

Then there was also the brown shrike and finally the rufous tailed larks.
But no ashy crowned sparrow larks.

But all in all Talawe did not dissapoint!!

7th Dec 2010 Dandeli

2010-12-25T00:08:00.000-08:00

Next morning the last day of the trip was for safari. It was good, not many sightings but some new sightings in terms of a common hawk-cuckoo right at the gate.

At a water body we saw a oriental honey buzzard.

Some distance ahead on the way to observation point we encountered a mixed hunting party consisting of black headed cuckooshrike, large woodshrike, minivets, pied flycatchershrike, startlings, etc.

Black headed cuckooshrike

Large Woodshrike

At the observation point down in the valley we were searching for the great pied hornbills.In the nearby bushes a purple sunbird, common iora, small minivets were seen and also a plain flower pecker.
Plain Flowerpecker

Common Iora

Small Minivet

On the way back just on the road a jackal was walking in front of the jeep.
Jackal

A little ahead on the right hand side water body shore we saw a family of wild boars.
This ended the safari and we came to our favorite restaurant for breakfast.
Today was poha and shira. As usual very very tasty.

While we were just starting the breakfast a few who were yet to join came in calling for us.
It was a pair of lorikeets sitting in the open at a very close distance. They gave us good views. Fantastic birds!!
Lorikeet (Vernal Hanging Parrot)

Back to the camp we packed our luggage and dumped it into a single tent as we had to checkout.
We had time till around 5pm before we started our journey back.
So before lunch we decided to have a quick round till Bommanhalli intake (intake meaning backwaters).

On the way we stopped at the spot because as usaual we had encountered a mixed hunting party.
There was lot of comotion and a pair of drongos was driving away a shikra. More deeper we could see the yellow browed bulbuls and a paradise flycatcher white morph male.
Here we spotted the rufous woodpecker, greater flameback, large cuckooshrike, velvet fronted nuthatch, brown cheeked fulvetta, scarlet minivets,etc.

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Velvet Fronted Nuthatch

At the intake we took group photos scanned the coast for birds. There were mainly the cormorants, egrets, river terns and thats it.
We turned back from here for a lunch at the camp.

There was some time before the lunch was ready. So we were sitting and discussing about different topics when someone spotted a large cuckoo shrike.
After that what started was a huge hunting party which was an ultimate closing session to our trip.
Following were the birds in this party and all not at a distance of more than 20feet: Scarlet minivet, chestnut tailed starlings, brown cheeked fulvetta, common woodshrike, black headed cuckooshrike, bronzed drongo, brown capped pygmy woodpecker, velvet fronted nuthatch, black naped monarch, verditer flycatcher, greater flameback, gold fronted chloropsis, black lored tit.

Golden-fronted Leafbird

Large Cuckooshrike

Brown capped pygmy woodpecker

Drongo Cuckoo (thanks Adesh for correcting ID)

Black lored Tit

Velvet Fronted Nuthatch

After lunch when we were stitting we saw an interesting bonnet macaque behavior. There were some onions kept in the open and the macaques were filling whole onions in their mouth and also carrying it away.

Mokey eating an Onion

We started back for Dharwad at around 4:30. On the way back encountered 10-15 crested tree swifts sitting on a wire.
Also some distance ahead near a water body there were a few wonderful surprises waiting. A maratha woodpecker was drumming away ona a bamboo branch for a long time. A lesser adjutant came and sat on a tree behind us, a green sandpiper on a water log in the water, a paradise flycatcher male and female and the best and the last surprise a forest wagtail spotted fantastically by Mandar.

Crested Treeswift

Lesser Adjutant Stork

Yellow-crowned Woodpecker

Forest Wagtail

A mindblowing end to a fantastic trip!!

6th Dec 2010 Dandeli

2010-12-24T23:29:00.000-08:00

The morning was planned for the abandoned mine at Shirval village.
On the way stopped at the watch tower. Here we spotted the brown cheeked fulvetta, orange minivet, bronzed drongo, black naped monarch and a female blue rock thrush. On the way also saw a crested serpent eagle perched on a tree at a distance.

In the mine we got the best surpise a Savana Nightjar.

One of our friends Vijay an enthusiast photographer was photographing some birds a distance away and he flushed a bird which had pretty impressive wing span and was immediately identified as a nighjar.
Once seated it was difficult to spot again but some of our very good spotter (Riyaz ahmed) spotted it seated on a rock.
We could approach it very near but did not wanted to disturd it a lot.

There were white rumped munia, gold fronted chloropsis, crimson breasted barbet, plum headed paraket and a very nice view of pompodour green pigeon & Ruby throated bulbul.

Pompodour Green Pigeon

Ruby throated bulbul

Plum headed parakeet (Female)

We had our breakfast to the same place. This time it was idli.

On the way back to the camp we decided to stop at the timber depot for some birding.
It was a very rewarding birding. The session started with the calls of the greater flamebacks.
There was a pair and mostly a juvenile flameback. They gave us good views.

While observing the flamebacks there was some movement on the bark of the tree near and it turned out to be a flying lizard or the draco.

A little ahead was an asian brown flycatcher.

The small green beeeaters were very bold and allowed good shots.

Then we spotted a gem the jungle owlet. Very similar to the spotted owlet but differentiated by barring of the front and very dark rufous back.

There was a mixed hunting party comprising of small minivets, velvet fronted nuthatch, chestnut tailed startlings, common iora, white eyes, brown capped pygmy woodpecker and on the way back a white bellied drongo.

Back to camp for lunch and after lunch was the trip to syntheri rocks. A monolithic rock structure.
On the way a crested serpent eagle was sitting on a tree just near the road and again a look at scarlet minivets and barwinged flycatcher shrike.

At syntheri rocks there was a surprise the form of a black capped kingfisher.

The night trail was purely for the frogmouth and the scoops owl but no sightings.

5th Dec 2010 Dandeli

2010-12-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

The next day morning we decided to do go back to the Ganeshgudi bridge.
We started early morning at 7am.
One the way we encountered a grey jungle fowl on the road and decided to stop a little.
There we encountered a mixed hunting party, infact 2 mixed hunting parties and so our group also got split :-)
A few us we seeing a mixed hunting party containing the chestnut tailed startlings, racket tailed drongo, ashy drongo, scarlet minivet, white eye and a very good sighting of barwinged flycatcher shrike.

Barwinged flycatcher shrike

Once the mixed hunting party moved own we saw the malabar parakeet sitting far away on a tree top.
Malabar parakeet

We reached ganeshgudi a little late and there was no activity of hornbills. Just a brahiny kite sitting in the sun and it also flew away soon. Adesh spotted a malabar grey hornbill sitting closing to the road going up along the right bank of the river and we decided to move there.
We got down at that spot and
the grey hornbill was sitting still for a long time.
We observed it through the spotting scope and also had a lot of shots taken.

Malabar Grey Hornbill

On a tree opposite to the hornbill there were chloropsis and chestnut tailed startling. From here we decided to walk ahead on the same road.
First we spotted a purple sunbird pair. A little ahead we got a flock of hill maynas come and sit on the top of a bare tree. The light was not very good and they were too high for photography but very enjoyable to watch.
Hill Mayna

Before heading towards the breakfast we decided to a small jungle trail which ended in an abondoned mine.
At the start of the trail itself we encountered a pair of heart spotted woodpecker and a bloack lored tit. There were also some brown cheeked fulvetta and yellow browed bulbul.
At the mine we could see barn swallows, chestnut headed beeeater, paradise flycatcher white morph male, white browed wagtail. On the way back in the undergrowth there were black napped monarch, barwinged flycatcher shrike, white rumped shama, brown cheeked fulvetta. A pair of malabar pied hornbills came and sat on a tree on the top giving good views.

Chestnut headed beeeater

White rumped Munia

Just on the road outside the trail Adesh heard the crimson fronted barbet. Some meters ahead we spotted 3 of them.

Crimson Fronted barbet

Had set dosa breakfast at the hotel just at the crossroads before kulgi very late almost 11am.
Near this place we saw wonderful Ashy wood swallows red rumped swallows perched on the bamboo.

Ashy woodswallow

Red rumped swallow

Brahminy kite in flight

Brahminy Kite

Purple Sunbird displaying its yellow tufts

There were also purple sunbird displaying, gold fronted leaf bird, brahminy kite.
Walked back to the camp and on the way spotted a crimson breasted barbet.

After lunch we started towards a nearby waterbody to see some waterbirds.

Outside the camp there was a surprise waiting for us. Bang opposite the gate on a tree a malabar giant squirell was happily munching away.
It was sitting right in the open and was not at all distirubed with the n number of binoculars, cameras and a spotting scope pointing at it :-)

On the way we stopped to have look at a mixed hunting party near a timber depot very near to the camp.
Here as usaual (by now) we spotted the common woodshrike, velvet frontted nuthatch and even a vernal hanging parrot, first time on the trip.

At the lake the grey headed fishing eagle flew from our side to the other side. The other water birds spotted were the pheasant tailed and bronze winged jacanas, cotton pygmy goose, lesser whistling teals, grey heron, common darter, white throated and small blue kingfisher.
On the way back we decided to do the timber depot to see the roosting sites but invain.

Anyway after we reached the camp after a cup of tea we were welcomed by the grey nightjar sitting on the tree at the center of the camp.
We tried to do some photography in the torch light and then decided to leave it alone.

Todays night trail was going to be a longer one and there was anxiety to see the night species.
As soon as we went to the water body we heard and saw the flying squirells and got some really good views through binoculars as well as cameras.

We got some good views even on our way back after an hour or so. Again today we could hear the frogmouth and the scops owl but no sightings of them.
We we had an interested sighting of a bigger a mamal on the ground which mostly was a civet cat.

4th Dec 2010 Dandeli

2010-12-13T07:45:00.001-08:00

Started 3rd evening by Southern travels bus to Dharwad.
It was a comfortable semisleeper bus playing the movie Golmal3 :-)
Boarded at chembur at 9:30 and readched Dharwad at 7:15am.

Freshened up and had breakfast at a very good restarant called Hoysala. It is just a 2min walk from where the bus stopped which is near the Dharwad court.

In the bus from mumbai we were 8 of us including Adesh and Mandar.
6others who had travelled from banglore and 1 from hyderabad met us at Dharwad.
After hefty brekfast we left for dandeli (50km from Dharwad).

We reached Dandeli forest office for acquiring the permit at 10:30am.
Right in front of the office is a timber depot.
we had just got off from our jeeps and someone exclaimed a woodpecker. It turned out to be white bellied pied woodpecker.
After that followed a frenzy of activity. Bang on the first tree we encountered there were chestnut tailed starlings (blythii), chestnut bellied nuthatch, velvet fronted nuthatch, scarlet minivet. Then we saw the black lored tit, great tit, common woodshrike, white rumped munias.
The list went on to become around 20-25odd species.
All in all a fantastic start to the trip.

Chestnut tailed Starling

White rumped munia

Black lored tit

After collecting the permit we proceeded towards kulgi nature camp around 15km from here.
We were alloted rooms, we freshened up and had lunch nice lunch.
The Kulgi nature camp is at a very nice location in midst of the forest.
It has ordinary tents(with no attached baths) and executive tents (attached baths) but all furnished with one small cupboard, one CFL lamp which used to give enough light, one stand fan, cots with pillows and blankets.

In front of the huts was a big open space with a few trees. Adesh showed a branch of the tree which was the favorite spot of the grey nightjar to be seen at night.
There was a four sided open dining place with a big table which could accomodate all 15 of us.

After lunch we strolled for a little while in the campus of the camp.
There is a nature interpretation center on one side of the camp and a bridge over a small stream connects the two.
Dr Ravi rajgopal had spotted a black throated munia here before the lunch so a few of us went to explore this location.

we spotted a purple rumped sunbird, common iora and plum headed parakeets here.
Common iora

Just when we were about to leave we heard a loud noise and spotted the Malarbar giant squirrels. One of them stayed enough to give us some shots.

After that we proceeded towards supa dam and Ganesh gudi.
Just outside the camp the great flameback was calling aloud.
We got very good views of it before it flew into some thick trees.

On the way to supa dam a pair of pied hornbills flew over the road and settled on a far tree.
Immediately the spotting scope was in place and we could observe the difference between the male and the female with the female having a white arounds its eyes.

There is an inner road which sees over the supa dam.
We got off from our jeep at the start of the road and decided to walk over it. Its kind of an elevated road. On one side is the dam waters and on the other side is a thick vegetation. In the far side on the water side there were bamboo thickets and we could see a lot of activity everywhere. Birds seen here were small green beeeater, common iora, purple sunbird.

On one of the trees there was a lot of activity of sunbirds. On looking through the binoculors one could see many crimson backed sunbirds displaying there wonderful crimson backs.
Crimson backed sunbird

There were some golden orioles, ashy drongos and a verditer flycatcher

Verditer flycatcher and a Golder oriole

On the slopes on the vegetation side Riyaz spotted a grey necked bunting, an unusual find for this area. So it was a nice surprise. Above all this it gave us very good time to observe and also approch it very close for taking good pictures.

Grey necked bunting

On the bamboo thickets we good see nicely even through the scope flocks of munias, petronia and very beautiful small minivets.
The star attraction to search here was the asian fairy bluebird and finally we spotted a pair at the far end of this road. A very beautiful species indeed.

Asian fairy bluebird

We were getting late to see the malabar pied hornbills coming to roost from the Ganeshgudi bridge. We reached there at around 5:30pm and were welcome by a pair of hornbills sitting on a bamboo branch. Soon after another pair flew above us from right side to left side. A single hornbill gave us good views from the top of another bamboo branch.

Malabar pied Hornbill

Once it started getting dark we decided to call it a day.
We had tea and onion pakodas at a place little ahead from the bridge.
Once back to kuligi after a short rest we headed for the dinner.
It was already late and As everyone was tried by the nights journey we decided to have a short night trail. We could hear flying squirrels and frogmouth but no sightings.

2010-09-12-Talawe

2010-09-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

Morning 7:30am reached Talawe
Most active Plain prinia, ashy prinia and Zitting cisticola.
Munias making appearance in between, scaly breasted, red and black-headed.

Brahminy Juvenile

Plain Prinia

Ashy Prinia

Lizard

Pond Heron

Spot billed duck

Black Headed Munia

Frog

Black Drongo

Oil slick impact

Chestnut tailed starling

Plain prinia

Talawe Landscape

2010-04-25 Talawe

2010-04-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

Reached at 6:30am on the palm beach road.

In the water there were some waders, gulls and egrets wading around.
First one to be seen was a pond heron, then a redshank and few slender billed gulls near the trail end of the body. Gull billed terns were also flying around.
Gull billed tern

On the farther end was a huge group of brown headed gulls, curlew sandpipers and grey plovers.

Brown headed gulls

Some little stints and curlew sandpiper came in the nearer water body and gave some good photo opportunities
Little stint

Curlew sandpiper

Curlew sandpiper

It was very nice to see the waders in breeding plumage. Even saw the brown headed gulls and gull billed tern in breeding plumage. There was a lone great egret with its breeding plumes fanned out, legs red and blue gape.
Curlew sandpiper

Slender billed gull

We watched them through the scope for around an hour and a half and then headed towards the sea shore.
While watching these a huge flocks of waders flew in and these were lesser sand plovers. It is amazing to watch these flock of birds fly in complete sychronisation turning from one side to other causing a flash of white.

Some of the lesser sand plovers were in partial breeding plumage with orange head and breast and a black eye band.
Flock of lesser sandplover and curlew sandpiper

Lesser sand plover

Lesser sand plover

On the way some people got a glimpse of ashy crowned sparrrow larks in the grasses and a flock of red avadavats flying away.

At the sea shore we saw a flock of grey plover, lesser sand plover and greater sandplover.

Grey plover

There was also a lone eurasian curlew
Eurasian Curlew

In the tree patch between the grassland and the sea shore there were eurasian golden oriole, iora, clamarous reed warbler and grey headed myna also called the chestnut tailed starling.

Chestnut tailed startling

2010-01-02-Bhigwan Part2

2010-01-30T02:25:00.001-08:00

Spotbilled Duck

Pond Heron

Spot billed Duck

Spot billed Duck with a catch (mostly a snail)

Glossy Ibis

Glossy Ibis

Northern shoveller

Grey lag goose (An individual)

Ruff

Common Coot

Open billed stork

Black headed Ibis

Purple swamphen