Talawe - 9th August 2008

Common Grass Yellow laying egg on its food plant (Sesbania)


Egg of the common grass yellow


Food plant of common grass yellow - Sesbania


Tamarix aphylla ( Faresh , Athel tree ) mainly a tree of drier regions. Grows in saline soils. Scale like leaves.
http://www.answers.com/topic/tamarix-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarisk

Plant


Buds of the flower


Flowers of the plant


Caterpillar found on the above plant


Caterpillar of unid butterfly/moth (on Bor plant)


Cocoon of the above caterpillar


Damselfly

Airoli 3rd August 2008

Started morning 7:30 from the mudflats behind sector 14 bus stop along with
Julius (leader), Amit, Mangesh and Rupali

Waders (Common redshank, common sandpiper, Curlew sandpiper in breeding plumage), common kingfisher, Magpie robin, Brahminy kite.

Then we headed towards the open ground next to Patni.
Before reaching there Julius showed us a trail going into the mangroves on the left.

It turned out to be a wonderful trail followed by trail on the ground next to Patni We saw

Butterflies (Grey pansy, peacock pansy, common gull, salmon arab, Common Grass Yellow, Blue tiger, Common Jezebel)
Blue Tiger


Had seen its caterpillar and pupas at Talawe.
12th July we saw the caterpillar.
19th July weekend we found a lot of green pupas and few ripe ones on the same plant. 26th July Julius saw a blue tiger coming out of these.
Food plant is called wattakaka.


Peacock Pansy


Insects (Jewel beetle, grasshopper)
This is an amazing spider. I have seen these different sizes. This one was a big one.


There were a lot of Grasshoppers hopping around. Got a good angle on this one and it big compared to others.


Birds (Little heron, White breasted waterhen with chicks, White cheeked bulbul, Yellow eyed babbler which was very vocal, plain and ashy prinias, black headed munias, Fantail Flycatcher, Clamourous Reed Warbler, Grey heron, sparrows collecting grasshoppers, Red munias, Scaly breasted munias, Zitting cisticola, Black kites and more)

Yellow Eyed Babbler. This one is an interesting bird. At this time of the year it was very vocal and very very active.


And also Julius introduced us to some mangrove plants which were flowering and some plants which are found around Mangroves.

http://www.mangroves.godrej.com/GodrejNew/Templates/CommonLinks/Environment/MangroveVegetation.htm#MangroveVegetation
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/m104.htm
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/m101.htm

Grey or White Mangrove variety (Avicennia marina) Fruit


Grey or White Mangrove variety (Avicennia officinalis) Flower


Grey or White Mangrove variety (Avicennia alba) Fruit


Blind-your-eye tree (Excoecaria agallocha)
The white sap of this tree is know to blind the eye temporarily. It also causes blisters and irritation of the skin.

Killa Gaothan and Talawe - July2008

Saturday 5th July 2008 reached Killa gaothan at 7:00am

Lizard



Black Headed Munia



Baya Weaver (Male)



Baya weaver (Female) and single Male Sparrow



Black Drongo



Red Munia





Indian Silverbill



Pale Billed Flowerpecker











Caterpillar (Mostly blue tiger)


Green Beeater

Kille Gaothan July 2008

Kille Gaothan is a a small village at Belapur on the palm beach road.
To get there Belapur station is a nearby station connected by harbour line to CST.
From Belapur station you get autorikshaws till the palm beach from where it is just a 2 min walk.

Now there are lot of new complexes that have come up though the remanants of the old the fort.


But the road leading from here to the CIDCO guest house is full of bird activities.

At the palm beach road itself there are tall grasses in which most of the grassland birds could be seen. Reaching there immediately we got the view of the scaly breasted munias and a baya weaver pair.


Soon after a flock of Red Munia came a settled in the grasses at the back.
Few birders also saw a white breasted water hen.

A juvenile White Breasted Kingfisher was sitting on a fence. It was posing very nicely and giving us ample opportunity to photograph this.
Note the yellow at the tip of the beak and the black beak as compared to the red of the adult.



There were also Jezebel and Common Eggfly flying around.
We had 2 very good bird experts and very keen observers from whom there are lot of things to learn, Mr Julius and Adesh.

Saw the nests of
Pied startling which is like a very shabby collection of twigs and grass and other one which was of a shape of a honey bee comb.

Crimson sunbird nest which is like just a few grass blades hanging at the edge of a branch and

A beautifully stitched leaf of a tailor bird.

Indian robin could be seen hoping on the ground.


The common birds seen were the red vented bulbul, red whiskered bulbul, tailor bird, Fantail flycatcher.
On the way to MIDC guest house we also came across a group a Jungle Babblers.


Also saw a Night heron with very good plumes.

At the end of the road before the guest house is a college building whose other end wall looks over the grassland below and the creek on the other side.
There we could witness the acrobatics of the Brahminy kite.


A garden lizard crossed the road and climbed over a tree and gave a good pose.


On the way back the white breasted Kingfisher was still there and got some good snaps.

Karnala June 2008

MBC outing reached at 6:30am on 1st June

There had been sightings of Indian Pitta which is a passage migrant in our region from this place.
There has also been one sighting last year of a pitta carrying some nesting material which suggests that it might be breeding here but this is not yet confirmed.
This year there have already been reports of Indian Pitta at Karnala.

Indian pitta


So MBC decided to have an outing on 1st of June.

This is also a good time to see the resident birds as they are very vocal as this is their breeding season like white rumped shama, malabar whistling thrush, orange headed ground thrush.
Though surprisingly today we did not get to see orange headed ground thrush and only heard the call of malabar whistiling thrush.

We started , on the road to the rest house, with a sighting of a white rumped shama pair, crimson sunbirds, pompodour green pigeons, gold fronted chloropsis, purple rumped sunbird.



Then came the main attraction of the day, the Indian pitta.
It was calling away at the top of his voice. Then came another pitta on the other side of the road.


We continued with the rest of the bird watching. Scarlet minivets, rufous woodpecker, again shamas coming very nearby, heard a malabar whistling thrush, common ioras.


Then we started on the hariyal trail. Where we heard a lot of quakker tit babblers, puff throated babblers and baya weavers. A pair of racket tailed drongos was flying from one place to another, most probably nesting somewhere nearby. Also saw a bronzed drongo make a lot of noise.
Also heard the black napped monarch flycatcher ( making similar calls as that of the tailor bird which Adesh explained is the breeding call of the flycatcher).

Somewhere from above the mountains was heard the call of the Changeable hawk eagle and the crested serpent eagle.

Also one of the surprising call which Adesh heard was that of the grey headed canary flycatcher which is not supposed to hear at this time of the year. One possible explanation could be that it was on the way to its breeding grounds in the north.

Forest calotes


Bird List
Redvented Bulbul
Red Whiskered Bulbul
Scarlet Minivet
Small Minivet
Common Iora
Crimson sunbird
Purple rumpled sunbird
Oriental Magpie robin
White rumped Shama
Malabar whistinling thrush(call)
Indian Pitta (Passing migrant)
Quacker tit babbler (also called brown cheecked fulvetta)
Spotted babbler (also called puff throated babbler)
Racket tailed drongo
Black drongo
Bronzed drongo
Rufous woodpecker
White throated kingfisher
Grey breasted prinia
Black naped monarch flycatcher(call)
Crested serpent eagle
Changeable hawk eagle
Gold fronted leaf bird
Green beeater
Brown headed barbet
Crimson breasted barbet
Emerald dove
Pompdour green pigeon
Spotted dove