Birding @ Bandipur

Posting on behalf of Deepa


Trip to Bandipur was extremely productive of sightings; we saw...
Crested Serpent Eagle
Crested Hawk Eagle
Common FlamebackFemale
Streak-Throated Woodpecker
Cattle Egrets
Intermediate Egrets
R R Parakeets
Common Ibis
Lesser Coucal
Peafowl
Oriental Honey Buzzard
Oriental White Eye
Great Tit
Common House Sparrow
Common Crow
Jungle Crow
Common Mynah
Jungle Mynah
Tailor Bird
Red-Whiskered Bulbul
Red-vented Bulbul
Coppersmith Barbet
White-cheeked Barbet
White-browed Wagtail
Magpie Robin
Indian Robin
Spotted Dove
White-Throated Kingfisher
Black Kite
Red-Wattled Lapwing
Some ducks spotted at a distance and not identified
Indian Roller
Indian Nightjar
Jungle Fowl
Indian Bushlark
Jungle Babbler
Black Drongo
Rufous Treepie
Brahminy Kite
Red-Rumped Swallows
Swifts (variety not sure)

Well that's really all the birds I can think of; more than spotting, we were able to watch the behaviour of the lapwings with chicks, and feeding behaviour on the part of several birds.We also saw:

Monitor Lizard
Indian Mongoose
Rat Snake
Various frogs
Millipede
Leeches
Indian Gaur
Sambhar
Spotted Deer
Pond Terrapin
Black-Naped Hare
Langurs
Bonnet Macaques
Elephants...and

one Penguin (used as a waste-paper basket in front of a shop in the Forest Dept reception area!)

Birding @ Kabini

Team - Lokesh(Colleague), Sunil (Previous NTP batch) and Niranjan

Date - May 17th, 18th and 19th.

After taking 3 days leave for the elephant census, it was time again to ask for two days leave so that I could go to Kabini JLR with Sunil and Lokesh. We thought, going there on weekday would save us from the weekend crowd. But this was not the case to be, Kabini JLR sells like hotcake and it was completely booked even on a Thursday and Friday with nearly 60-70 guests. Anyways let's leave all the JLR logistics and concentrate on birds.

Just after crossing Mysore, we spotted a hornbill with some berries in it's beak perched on a tree. Upon further observation we found out the nest and the young ones in it. Around here there's a small water body and we found plenty of water birds here. We moved into the JLR property and checked into our cottage and went for a short walk around the campus and found woodpeckers, sunbirds and plenty of other birds. The highlight of the trip was a crested hawk eagle eating a giant malabar squirrel which we saw on one of the safari's.

Pics >>

The checklist is as below. Thanks to Sunil for typing the list :-)

1.Indian Grey Hornbill
2.Purple Swamp hen
3.Cattle Egret
4.Little Egret
5.Ashy wren Warbler
6.Indian Pond Heron
7.Black Ibis
8.Red headed Ibis
9.Little Cormorant
10Greater Cormorant
11.Brahminy kite
12.Pariah / Black Kite
13.River Tern
14.Grey tit
15.Flame Backed Woodpecker (M & F)
16.Brown Capped Pygmy Woodpecker
17.Common Iora
18.Scarlet Minivet (M & F)
19.Red Vented Bulbul
20.Red Whiskered Bulbul
21.Blue Parakeet
22.Rose Ringed Parakeet
23.White Cheeked Barbet
24.Loten’s sunbird (F)
25.Purple rumped Sunbird
26.Purple sunbird.
27.Black Shouldered Kite
28.Jungle Babbler
29.Common Myna
30.Jungle Myna
31.Common House Crow
32.Jungle Crow
33.Crested hawk Eagle
34.Painted Stork
35.Eurasian Spoonbill
36.Brahminy Starling
37.Pied Kingfisher
38.Common Peafowl
39.Jungle Fowl
40.Grey Heron
41.Small Green bee eater
42.Crested Serpent Eagle
43.Indian Roller
44.Spotted Dove
45.Laughing Dove
46.Racket Tailed Drongo
47.Small Blue Kingfisher
48.White breasted Kingfisher
49.Little Ringed Plover
50.Indian Bush Lark
51.Red Wattled Lapwing
52.Spot Billed Ducks
53.White Bellied Water hen
54.Malabar Pied Hornbill
55.Common House Sparrow
56.Common Cuckoo
57.House swift
58.Hoopoe
59.Snake Bird / Darter
60.Red headed Vulture
61.Indian White backed vulture
62.Common Coot
63.Yellow legged Green Pigeon
64.Imperial Pigeon
65.Chestnut headed Bee eater
66.Blue Tailed Bee eater
67.Rufus Wood pecker
68.Black Drongo
69.Rosy Starling
70.Common Hill Myna
71.Common Treepie
72.Rufus Treepie
73.Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher
74.Thick Billed Flowerpecker
75.Common Tailor bird.
76.Pied Bushchat
77.Magpie Robin

78. Open billed stork.

Birding @ Lalbagh

Location - Lal bagh
Team - Deepak, Niranjan and Prashanth
Date - 13 May 07

Actually had planned to go to Manchinbele area, but changed the plans and did birding at Lalbagh. Started at 7:00 and finished at 8:30. Good to see so many birds. The check list goes....
1) Brahminy kite (Adult and juvenile)
2) Common Myna
3) White breasted water hen
4) White Cheeked Barbet
5) Common Coot
6) Purple moorhen
7) Common moorhen
8) Grey Tit
9) Spotted Dove
10) Common Teal
11) Eurasian Wigeon
12) Pond Heron
13) Little Egret
14) Black kite
15) Little Cormorant
16) Jungle Myna
17) Purple Rumped Sunbird
18) Shellduck (needs verification)
19) Rose ringed parakeet

Birding @ Akkikandi, Coorg

Location - Talakaveri reserve forest.
Team - Deepak, Niranjan and Sangeeta.
Date - May 7-9, 2007

Well it was not entirely a birding trip. We actually went there to attend the elephant census conducted by the forest department. Alas no elephants sighted but this never bothered us as the sheer beauty of the place took out breath away. We stayed in the Akkikandi anti poaching camp and participated in the census. Coming back to our feathered friends we did make a attempt to do some bird watching but were unable to spend much time as we had to concentrate on the census part.Early morning of day two we decided to do some birding and prepared ourselves to do the same. We walked along the road with hope of spotting some but the tree cover here is too thick and we could not sight any, we could hear many :). Later we decided to take the route into the forest instead of the road, for this we had to apply salt on our feet to keep the leeches at bay. They were omnipresent, you could just scoop out kilos of them from the ground if you wanted to. With salt workng it's magic we could concentrate on some bird watching. Again the tree cover proved too dense and we were able to hear the calls but could not trace the birds. The Malabar whistling thrush was on a song and kept on whistling. Then just by luck we saw some movement in a opening among the trees, we stood thee for quite some time to find out the bird. Behold a pair of Indian Treepie's flying around in the opening, what a sight!!!!! To add to the joy a Racket tailed Drongo comes flying in, it was a treat to watch these birds. We returned to the camp with just these sightings. On our way to the water hole to conduct census I got a chance to speak to the forest watcher, and asked him about the racket tailed Drongo(RTD). He told me how the bird got it's tail feather that way. Well the RTD is called Bhima Raja in Kannada for the fact that it chases away bigger birds, even some Birds of prey and it's an excellent mimic. The folklore goes this way, the RTD had complete tail feather similar to a treepie, and in it's quest to master all the animal's call it came to a water side. The final task was one that of mastering the Tiger roar. As it was practising this, termites began to eat away on the tail feather. The RTD saw this very late when only a small patch was left. It stopped mastering the call and flew away to save it's tail and hence the shape of the tail. May seem hard to believe but atleast we now we know where that tail came from ;-).

Some pics from the trip >>

The check list is as below.

1)Indian Treepie

2) Golden Oriole

3) Red Whiskered bulbul

4) Red vented bulbul

5) Parakeet

6) Racket Tailed Drongo

7) Spotted Dove

8) Common Myna

9) Pompadour Green pigeon

10) White cheeked barbet

Birds sighted on our way back @ Dubare....

11) Grey Hornbill

12) White breasted water hen.

13) White breasted kingfisher.

14) Pied Bushchat

15) White browed wagtail

Birding @ kondajji

Venue - Kondajji lake, 18 kms from Davangere towards Harihara, 260 Kms from Bangalore.

Team - Niranjan n Prashanth.

Date - 29-Apr-07

The idea of bird watching in Davangere started with a invitation to my friend Naveen's wedding. A mail to JLRNTP-1 yahoogroups got a surprised reply from Karthik who started his birding hobby in Davangere. Karthik suggested two places one was Bathi kere (lake) and the other Kondajji and we chose the later. Sunday morning started of from Davangere and drove along to kondajji, on the way we saw plenty of Pond Heron's, Bulbul's, White breasted Kingfisher and Black shouldered Kite. We reached Kondajji @ 7:00 and were pleasently surprised by the amount of bird life there. For a beginner like me it was like "Birds, birds everywhere but not a clue to identify". Feathered friends here are much more shy than our Bangalore counterparts. Hence it became tough to identify many of them as they flew away even when we were at wuite a distance. We could not even make a note of the details. This place is truly a birder's paradise and many thanks to Karthik for sharing this place.

The check list is as given below and the pics are here >>

White breasted king fisher
Jungle babbler
Cattle egret
Bank Myna
Spotted dove
Pond heron
Peacock (male & female)
Little cormorant
Plover
Red vented bulbul
Red rumped swallow
Parakeet
Sunbird
Koel
Black shouldered kite
Indian robin
White browed wagtail
Paradise flycatcher
Pied king fisher
Ducks (no idea which one)
Grey heron
Common IORA (male)
Coucal
Hoopoe
Long tailed cuckoo shirke
Racket tailed drongo - Needs Verification.
Bramhini kite
Oriental magpie

Black headed Myna

Indian Treepie