Friday, December 11, 2009

Third Sunday Outing - December 20th , 2009

Hi!

Its time again to reconnect with nature, and enjoy the flora and fauna around Bannerghatta.

This month's Third Sunday trail will be on 20th of December 2009.

Place :  Ragihalli Village Tank

Time : 6.00 AM

Meeting place : Govt Primary School, Ragihalli

Google Map Coordinates : 12.739328, 77.574592

Group Leader : Mahesh Chand


Comfortable clothing,good walking shoes, cap, water bottle,binocular ( if you have), a camera ( if you like to shoot)  is what you need to join the trail. This outing is free and open to all ages who can walk the trail of around four to five hours . 

We recommend car-pooling between participants. While confirming participation please also indicate your contact details and the route you will be taking to reach Ragihalli. If traveling in your own car, please do indicate if any spare capacity is available. 


Call Mahesh @ 9448384472 to confirm .


Happy birding,

Geetanjali

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Third Sunday Outing - November 2009



Heavy winds and the light drizzle didn't deter around 30 birders to meet up in the morning of 15th November for a trail around the Anekal Lake which is around 48 kms from the city center.Four groups scattered around in different parts of the lake. Apart from the usual birds, it was interesting to see few migrants too.

This trail is also dedicated to Dr.Salim Ali, whose birthday was on 12th November.

Here is the list of birds spotted by our group: Geetanjali Dhar, Aditi,Vikranth & their Child,Sainath Vellal, Kiran Kumar and Joy.

Spot Billed Duck
White Cheeked Barbet
Indian Roller
White Throated Kingfisher
Pied Kingfisher
Green Bee eater
Asian Koel
Rose Ringed Parakeets
Spotted Owlet
Rock Pegion
Common Coot
Purple Swamphen
Common Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Pheasant Tailed Jacana
Red Wattled Lapwing
Black Kite
Little Grebe
Little Cormorant
Cattle Egret
Indian Pond Heron
Black Headed Munia
Grey Heron
Yellow Bittern
House Sparrows
Eurasian Golden Oriole
Black Drongo
Indian Robin
Pied Bushchat
Common Myna
Barn Swallows
Wire Tailed Swallows
Red vented bulbuls
Plane Prinia
Ashy Prinia
Blyth's Reed Warbler
White Browed Wagtail
Scaly Breasted Munia
Stint?
Gargany?

Request others to fill in the bird names if they are missing here.

Photo link by Rajesh ( rb.rajesh@gmail.com)
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/rb.rajesh/AnekalLakeThirdSundayOuting2009_11_15

Flickr link to the pictures taken by Mahesh Chand ( mahesh81chand@yahoo.com)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/81mahesh/

Here is the link to the beautiful shot of the Barn Swallows taken by Sainath Vellal (svellal@gmail.com)
http://sainath.livejournal.com/131211.html
















Tuesday, November 10, 2009

November 15th ,2009 - Third Sunday Outing





Friends,

Its time again to reconnect with nature, and enjoy the flora and fauna beyond Bannerghatta.

This month's Third Sunday trail will be on 15th of November 2009

Place : Anekal Lake

Time : 6.00 AM

Meeting place :At the end of the lake near the signboard of Nisarga Restaurant.(That is if you are coming via Jigani Anekal Road)

Google Map Coordinates : 12.715430, 77.683747


Group Leader : Mahesh Chand

Resource Person : Volunteers needed!

Comfortable clothing,Good walking shoes, a Cap, water bottle,Binocular ( if you have), a camera ( if you like to shoot) and rain gear is what you need to join the trail. This outing is free and open to all ages who can walk the trail of around four to five hours .

We recommend car-pooling between participants. While confirming participation please also indicate your contact details and the route you will be taking to reach Anekal. If traveling in your own car, please do indicate if any spare capacity is available.

Folks who would like to come and stay overnight pl. confirm earliest so that we can make adequate arrangements.

Call 9845383882 or 9902913882 to confirm or email me at itnatureclub@yahoo.com

Monday, November 9, 2009

Devrabetta to Ancheti

On Sunday 8th November myself ,Subir Mahesh and my four years old daughter Avantika decided to brave the rain ,and head off to Devrabetta which is a small rocky outcrop on the southern edge of the Bannerghatta forest. We left Nisarga layout at around around 7 am. But by the time we reached the base of the hillock, it started raining heavy. We were mulling over, either returning back home, or exploring Ancheti. After a hot cup of tea on the way to Thalli, we decided to go ahead with the Ancheti Plan in spite of the rain, just to enjoy a good ride.The road from Thalli to Ancheti is in excellent shape, its really a joy ride. We stopped whenever a bit of light came out and were rewarded with some good sightings.





Sightings were good all along the road passing through the forest patch,while at Ancheti, though the lake was quite full, there were not many birds.

There were also many birds we could not identify. Mahesh has few pictures taken of those birds, so will post it here when he uploads them so that members here can id them.

All in all a it was a great Sunday well spent.

Here is the list birds :

1 White Throated Kingfisher
2 Marsh Harrier
3 Common Crow
4 Common Myna
5 Asian Palm Swift
6 Yellow Billed Babbler
7 Grey Jungle Fowl ( Call)
8 White Headed Babbler
9 Rock Pegion
10 Common Kestrel
11  Greater Coucal
12 Brahminy Kite
13 Common Iora
14 Blue Rock Thrush
15 Little Cormorant
16 Bay Backed Shrike
17 Rufous Treepie
18 Red Wattled Lapwing
19 Oriental Magpie Robin
20 Green Bee Eater
21 Red Rumped Swallow
22 Red Rumped Bulbul
23 Black Kite
24 Ashy Prinia
25 Rose Ringed Parakeet
26 Indian Roller
27 Tailor Bird
28 Pond Heron
29 Little Grebe
30 Painted Stork
31 Intermediate Egret
32 Red Whiskered Bulbul
33 Pallid Harrier
34 Common Kestrel
35 Eurasian Sparrow Hawk
36 Spotted Dove
37 Common Coot
38 Jungle Crow
39 Golden Fronted Leafbird
40 Black Drongo
41 Indian Robin
42 Pied Bush Chat
43 Brahminy Starling
44 Purple Sunbird
45 Purple Rumped Sunbird
46 Loten's Sunbird 
47 Jerdon's Bush Lark




Also spotted a bird which looked like Loten's Sun Bird but had big white patches on the chest and underbelly.


Here is the link for the pictures taken by me.


http://picasaweb.google.co.in/itnatureclub/DevrabettaToAncheti#


And here are the beautiful pictures taken by Mahesh ( mahesh81chand@yahoo.com)


http://www.flickr.com/photos/81mahesh/




Thursday, October 22, 2009

Few other photos taken around my house at Nisarga Layout


Shikra


Grey Wagtail



Black Drongo



Great Tit

Third Sunday Outing-18th October 2009-Trip report by Ulhas P A

Here is the report of the Third Sunday Outing of October by Ulhas P A (http://wildcards.blogspot.com)


Place: Behind Ramakrishna Mission School (Google Map Link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=12.722772,77.57206&num=1&t=h&sll=12.760743,77.624567&sspn=0.009397,0.019162&hl=en&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=&ll=12.72239,77.57199&spn=0.002794,0.003449&z=18)


Start Time: 8:15 AM
Date: 18th October, 2009
Weather: Clear & sunny, no clouds
*
List of Birds*

1. Black Headed Cuckoo Shrike
2. Red Wattled Lapwing
3. Oriental White-eye
4. Red Vented Bulbul
5. Palm Swift
6. Ashy Wren Warbler
7. Copper Smith (calling)
8. Red Whiskered Bulbul
9. Laggar Falcon
10. Small Green Bee-eater
11. Hair Crested Drongo
12. Purple Sunbird
13. Jungle Crow
14. Pariah Kite
15. Loten's Sunbird
16. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
17. Greenish Leaf Warbler
18. White Breasted Kingfisher (calling)
19. House Crow
20. Paradise Flycatcher (male, brown with long tail)
21. Magpie Robin
22. Small Green Barbet (calling)
23. Bright-green Leaf Warbler
24. Tailor Bird
25. Indian Shag
26. Little Cormorant
27. Collared Scops Owl
28. Jungle Wren Warbler
29. Gold Fronted Chloropsis (mimicking the call of a Shikra)
30. Short-toed Eagle

*
List of Butterflies*

1. Common Rose
2. Crimson Rose
3. Common Leopard
4. Blue Mormon
5. Unid. Bush Brown
6. Dark Blue Tiger
7. Common Crow
8. Unid. Dart
9. Two Spot Grass Yellow
10. Three Spot Grass Yellow
11. Common Gull
12. Double Branded Black Crow
13. Psyche
14. Common Sailer
15. African Babul Blue
16. Small Grass Yellow
17. Emigrant
18. Striped Tiger
19. Tailed Jay
20. Tawny Coster
21. Glassy Blue Tiger
22. Common Mormon
23. Common Lime
24. Spotless Grass Yellow
25. Common Castor
26. Common Wanderer
27. White Orange Tip
28. Plain Tiger

After the group birding, we headed out to Jigani Tank for old time's sake :)

Place: Jigani Tank (Google Map Link: http://bit.ly/ 2Y6jL1)
Start Time: 12:35 PM
Date: 18th October, 2009
Weather: Sunny, with sparse tufts of cumulus

Here's the list.

1. Black-bellied Tern
2. Red wattled Lapwing
3. Coot
4. River Tern
5. Darter
6. Dabchick
7. Large Egret
8. Median Egret


Also link to Gowrishankar's photos


http://picasaweb.google.com/shankarsg77/BirdingShivanahalliOct09?authkey=Gv1sRgCKmdtsPqwd_PowE

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Third Sunday Outing-18th October 2009

Its nice to receive so many mails about the Sunday Outings.After taking into account all the suggestions it is decided that we shall revert back to our old timing of 6.00 am as the starting time. People coming from far off places will be hosted for Saturday night stay close to the birding area.More than 10-15 become a crowd so the group size will be limited to 15.However, still waiting for others to post their pictures.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Shivanahalli Trail

30 kms away from the city centre, the small hamlet Shivanahalli , is truly a great place for birdwatchers. A branch of Ramakrishna Mission, operates a village school , vocational training centre and a medical camp every Sunday.They are also compiling the list of birds seen regularly around their campus.The head of this branch Swami Vishnumayanandaji was kind enough to offer breakfast  to all the participants.


Today's trail had the maximum no. of people since we started these trails a year back.Nearly 35 had confirmed their participation and around 32 turned up. Senior and very experienced birders like Dr.M.B.Krishna,Naveen,Swamy ,Ullas took part in today's trail.So it was a great learning experience for people like me.When they are around its not only about birds, but you get to learn about butterflies,trees,insects etc. Thanks to Krishna's suggestion I created this blog so that the bird list for these trails can be compiled and shared around.As and when I get time, will upload all the bird list we have seen in the last one year during these trails.


Though usually we start sharp at around 7.00 am ,the large number of birders as well as the breakfast session in the morning delayed our trail by around one and half hours.So predictably we missed out spotting lot of birds. The group got divided into three and were in three different directions. I and few others followed Dr.Krishna and did our trail around the coffee plantation. The other two groups were around the rocky terrain outside the plantation area.


The list of birds seen today :


White Browed Wagtail
Red vented Bulbul
Coppersmith
Large Cuckooshrike
Small Green Bee eater
Spangled Drongo
Greenish Leaf Warbler
Loten's Sunbird
Purple Rumped Sunbird
White Breasted Kingfisher
Tickel's Blue Flycatcher
Asian Paradise Flycatcher
Tailor Bird
Collared Scops Owl
Common Myna
House Crow
Golden Fronted Leafbird
Short Toed Eagle
Little Cormorant


Also learnt a bit about
Spittle Bugs
Giant Wood Spider
Oxalis Plant
Tawny Coaster
Bush Brown
Emmigrants
Woodfordia Fruiticosa




Few of us also had the opportunity of seeing the fossil , birds,butterfly,insects and reptile collection of the mission. Swamiji also wanted the seniors to do the survey of the birds and other species found in the campus.


The second group spotted the following birds as compiled by Mahesh Chand:


Coppersmith
White Throated Kingfisher
Green Bee Eater
Crested Serpent Eagle
Red Whiskered Bulbul
Brahminy Kite
Black Kite
Black Shouldered Kite
Hen harrier
Mountain Hawk Eagle
Baya Weaver Bird
Greater Coucal
Purple Sunbird
Purple Rumped Sunbird
Pied Bushchat
Yellow Billed Babbler
Ashy Prinia
Plane Prinia
Grey Wagtail
Little Cormorant
Rose Ringed Parakeet
Black Drongo
Common Myna
House Crow
Large Billed Crow
Intermediate Egret
Spotted Dove
Laughing Dove


We also had three lovely siblings Sharadaprasad,Diwakar and Chitra, who had come all they way cycling .All in all it was a wonderful trail, apart from that only regret is that I could not meet all of them to thank as some of them had come from far off places. 


Here are the few photos taken during the trail


http://picasaweb.google.com/itnatureclub/ThirdSundayOuting18thOctober2009#


Links to photographs taken by Mahesh Sripathi ( mahesh@digiclick.co.in)
http://picasaweb.google.com/digiclickbsk/BirdWatch1