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  



10 comments:

  1. Nice to be in the team
    Mahesh Digiclick

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great to see that you all managed these sightings -
    1. Cockoo Shrike
    2. Crow

    Did the group differentiate between
    a. Black Kite
    b. Black shouldered Kite?

    What was the "Large Billed Crow"?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks . I have made the correction.

    Yes, the color and size and marking differ in black kite and black shouldered kite.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great report!!!!
    Looking forward to many more!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just a fact report..:-) Thanks and look forward to your participation too..

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Mahesh,
    Are u sure u saw a Mountain Hawk Eagle and not a Changeable Hawk Eagle...they can be easily confused although Mountain hawk eagle is more heavily streaked and bulkier whereas a Changeable hawk eagle is more slender :)

    Joy

    ReplyDelete
  7. i did had element of doubt as you may be right it must be changeable hawk eagle. As it was smaller compared to the Crested Serpent Eagle.

    ReplyDelete
  8. hai mahesh this is mahesh, u gave me u r blog address but unfortunately it is opening can u re send the same link to mahesh@digiclick.co.in

    ReplyDelete
  9. all my pics which are taken in & around nisarga www.flickr.com/photos/81mahesh

    ReplyDelete