Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park – Patna, Bihar (Not a Bangalore blog)

Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park  is a zoo in Patna, Bihar. I tried to explore many of the birding places in and around Patna but no able to succeed more. Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park is one of the “good” birding place in Patna. With lot of trees around, this zoo provide some good bird sighting.

NOTE:  Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park – Monday close 🙂

Though I find the zoo not at all fit for the real wild animals like big cats. And most of the time people will see these big cats taking rest or sleeping. I am not going into the details of zoo animals, here please go ahead and enjoy some of the birding done in Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park.

Some of the good sighting will be black-hooded Oriole, Brown headed Barbet, Tiaga’s Flycatcher, Woodpeckers, lot of Treepie’s and Babbler’s.

Jungle Babbler (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

black drongo (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

black hooded oriole (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

black hooded oriole (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

brown-headed barbet (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

golden flameback woodpecker (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

golden flameback woodpecker (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

rufous treepie (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

taiga flycatcher (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

oriental magpie robin (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

Indian gray mongoose (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

white throated kingfisher (Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park)

 

HSBC Bird Race – 2014

Covering route – Hebbal Lake, Nandi Hills, Hoskote and then Valley School.

Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary

Trip ends with a beautiful sighting of Indian Jackal and Wild Boar.

Indian Jackal

Wild Boar

Grizzled giant squirrel

This is my trip report of Cauvery Wildlife or Cauvery River. Before reaching to the place, we got a very happening river. All sorts of action was around the river. A pond heron with a fish bigger than his mouth, a flying Lesser whistling duck, common coot with his full family, 2 brahminy kites on attack to the cooti-kid, a rat snake also with the attacking mood.  Here I will post some of the pictures around that lake, please don’t ask me which lake, what lake, these are not existing on map. Sometimes, fortune becomes experience. I wished I would be that lady who was cleaning clothes from 1 hr on that lake.

Tawny Eagle

European Bee-eater

Indian Roller

Pond Heron with its prey

Pond Heron after gulping the fish

Common Coot Juv

Waited for 10 min for his hunt, finally the prey under feet

The sad common coot family. Mother still feeding the child

Lesser Whistling Duck

Lesser Whistling Duck in flight

Common Moorhen Juv

Bronze winged Jacana

White breasted kingfisher in flight for hunt

Moving forward, it was an exciting view of Tawny eagle getting chased by kites. Even being a strong contender, I have always seen Eagle getting chased by kites, crows, drongos. Finally, we reached to the place which was our actual search place.  A group of more than 50-60 or may be 100 European bee-eaters enjoying the sunlight on our human-made wires. We were against the sunlight and hence, the color of the bird didn’t came out as prominent as it is. Obviously its all about watching and enjoying. photography also comes on level-2 for me.  These bee-eaters belongs to the list of strong migratory birds. And happy to see them around Bangalore. May be the observed dull color is because of long migration.

Brahminy Starling

Common Kite chasing Tawny Eagle

Indian grey heron

Black winged stilt

Large pied Wagtail

Jungle Owlet

Black hooded Oriole

Soon, we have seen some of our wished creatures like grizzled giant squirrel and jungle owlet. I also got a small view of Brown-fish owl. Only bird of my wish, which I was not able to see was Lesser Fish Eagle. I have still not seen this beauty in Karnataka.

A small report from Coorg

Here is a small report taken by Chandu. He went to Coorg, last week for birding. It was his first experience with my heavy camera. So, please excuse the quality of pictures.

I believe, everyone of us know about Coorg but just to add in it – It comes under  Western Ghats of southwestern Karnataka.  Kodagu also offers a wide variety of birds, roughly around 300 birds have been sighted and reported over the years.

Malabar Hornbill

White bellied flycatcher.

White bellied flycatcher.

Nilgiri flowerpecker

Racket tailed Drongo On for attack

Racket tailed Drongo

Racket tailed Drongo

Asian Fairy bluebird

Spotted deer (Male)

Spotted deer ( (Male)

Spotted deer (Female)

Spotted deer moving and shining in morning glory flowers

Morning charm with Spotted Deer

A group of spotted deer again

Asian Fairy bluebird

Malabar Barbet

Malabar Barbet

Rufous bellied eagle.

Irruppu falls which lies in Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary.

Peacock male taken in nagarhole N.P.

Malabar parakeet female.Very noisy parakeets.

Mangoose searching something on the other side of the road.

Orange minivet and plum headed parakeet female.

Martin dusky i think so.

Malabar giant squirrel.

Malabar giant squirrel.

 

Bidadi Lake – Winter kicked off

It was a delighted trip to Bidadi, Karnataka (near Bangalore). Enjoyed seeing river and whiskered terns and some of the migratory birds. Please help with some of the ID’s.

Barn swallow

white throated kingfisher

Tricoloured Munia

Whiskered Tern

Whiskered Tern

Whiskered Tern

Spotted Dove

Spot Billed Duck

Spot Billed Duck

Short Toed Snake Eagle

Shikra Male

Juv River Tern

Adult and Juv River Tern

River terns

little ringed plover

red wattled lapwing

red napped IBIS

Looked Richard Pipit to me, ID confirmation required

I am surprised why black patch at back – Pipit ID ?

purple-moorhen

Red Munia – Male

red napped IBIS’s

Pied Wagtail

Spot Billed Pelican

Painted Stork

Open-Bill Stork

Oriental Honey Buzzard

nest of streaked weaver – Loved the composition

Little Cormorant

Camouflaged Insect

Interested to know why black patch comes in migration – Pipit ?

Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

common sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

grey heron

pied bushchat-male

Pied Bushchat – Female

ashy crowned sparrow-lark

Bodh Gaya – Land of Enlightenment

Yes, this site is BangaloreCaptured, but then I thought to put each and everything which is useful, interesting and delighted. This is a report of the land of enlightenment – Bodh Gaya.   In 2002, Mahabodhi Temple, located in Bodh Gaya, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It is believed that 250 years after the Enlightenment of the Buddha, Emperor Asoka visited Bodh Gaya. He is considered to be the founder of the original Mahabodhi temple. It consisted of an elongated spire crowned by a miniature stupa and a chhatravali on a platform.

Please enjoy some of the pictures and share your comments.

Mahabodhi temple – under construction

A view of Buddha in Mahabodhi temple

The actual place of Buddha where he got his eternal education

Lotus display in Mahabodhi temple

Various place of enlightenment

Mayabodhi temple view from pipal tree

One more depiction of Buddha

The process of enlightenment

One more interpretation of Buddha

Budha display in Mahabodhi temple

Rock Pigeon outside the Mahabodhi temple

Budha Vietnami temple

Budha display in Vietnami temple

Gandhi message in Vietnami temple

Japanese Buddha Temple in Bodh Gaya

Japan temple in Rajgir

Japan temple in Rajgir

Bhadravati(Bhadravathi) – Semi western ghats charm

Very near to Malenadu(Rain Home), Bhadravati offers a good variety of birds and some of those endemic to western ghats. I stayed to my relative and have fun of having home food and excellent birding. Rain hinders up to do continuous birding but it was exciting. Enjoy some of the pictures.

How to go Bhadravati – Very easy, there are more than 10 train, which goes to Shimoga. One train start from Bangalore at 12 night and reach there at 4.30 morning (good for birders). Though I didn’t roamed around much, Bhadra Dam, Tiger Forest, 100 km around Jog falls, lot of famous lakes in Shimoga.

Where to stay – I don’t know. You can always go to my relative home :-).

30 km ahead, Chikmagalur will start and hence even bhadravati has some species of western ghat birds.

 

Little Heron – My first time view.

chestnut headed bee-eater, a western ghat beauty

Black-rumped Flameback Woodpecker

red whiskered bulbul – about to feed the child

Red Whiskered Bulbul Juv

lesser whisling ducks

My daughter Kriti and my relative

Crimson Backed Sunbird

Yellow Footed Pigeon

Purple Rumped Sunbird — Male

Purple Rumped Sunbird – Female

Scaly breasted Munia – at our relative home

Peafowl – There were a group of 10 peacockqPeafowl – There were a group of 10 peacock

Greater Coucal – a common village bird.

ID don’t know

Early Misty Morning – a pair of Indian Grey Hornbill

Wire Tailed Swallow

Common Woodshrike

Orange Minivet – Female. Completely contradict with her name. In birds as well, names are male dominant.

Orange Minivet

ID don’t know

Common Indian Toad

Don’t know the ID

Common Indian Toad

common caster pair enjoying the rain

baya weaver searching insects in dry grass

Baya Weaver male, collecting mud for his nest

Nandi Hills in the Monsoon’s

Nandi Hills in the Monsoon season is a treat to visit.
We drove there the previous weekend, and the weather made us feel like we were in Ooty.
The place is hardly an hour’s drive from Bangalore and definitely worth a visit over the weekend during this monsoon season.
You don’t have to spend a whole day there, may be 2 or 3 hrs, and you can be on your way back to Bangalore.
The place open for visitors in the morning at 6:00 AM and closes at 10:00 pm in the evening.
In case you reach earlier, you will be created with a queue. Not to worry, this lasts for hardly 10 mins, once the police checking is cleared you can reach the top of Nandi Hills in about 15 mins.
View of the traffic on your way to Nandi Hills.

Below are some pics from my visit.
There’s still lot more photos to share, but here the attempt is to give you a glimpse of what you can expect,if you visit during the monsoons.
Below there’s also a video after the photos.

Nandi Hills in the Monsoons

Below is a video of Nandi Hills during our visit.

Bannerghatta Zoo personnel kill a beautiful bird

Bird watchers know that all Flycatchers catch bees, wasps, dragonflies, butterflies and other insects as part of their diet. (Indeed, so do many other birds.)

So…you’d expect the personnel manning the Butterfly Park in the Bannerghatta Zoo area to know that as well. And, when they see a bird catching a butterfly, they would just catch it with a net and release it elsewhere, wouldn’t you?

You’d be…’dead’ wrong.

That’s the right word to use in the circumstances.

Srikant VK writes:

“The employers of the butterfly park saw the flycatcher catching some butterflies,the only crime this innocent little bird did was to fill its belly by eating butterflies. They cud have caught it through the bird net and released it but they immediately shot it with the Air gun. This was witnessed by friend and another student who is doing some studies on butterflies. They objected before the act but the zoo keepers did not bother to listen.

I feel that it is insane of zoo keepers to do this. Are they instructed to do so? It looks as if the gun is used for this purpose only. Can’t they think of any better alternative ? We need to stop this or we are going to lose many birds in that particular region. Can someone take this up with the respective authorities ?

He’s also sent a picture of the picture of the dead bird. This was taken by Ritesh Singh Siddharth, one of the two people who tried to protest the killing of the bird.

 

Would you like to know what a male Asian Paradise Flycatcher looks like? It’s one of the more spectacular birds we have:

When are our Forest Department personnel going to learn to respect wildlife, and when are they going to be held accountable for such wanton acts of cruelty?

Nandi Hills

After seeing photos of nandi hills from my frens album had made lot of plans to visit Nandi hills & finally we made it on one of the sundays (11/09/2011). 6 of us sat in Lohith’s car & we(vaibhav, ganesh,chandu,deepu, me & lohith) started our journey at 5.30 Am, At last point we took a opp route & we roamed some10-12 kms extra. Finally at 7.30 Am we reached the hill start point & we were feeling hungry already :P, So we thought of having some food we couldn’t get any break fast instead we had bread omelet. So finally we reached the top at 8.20 am.

We paid 80rs for car parking & we parked the car on the top next to Mayura hotel. Took out the gears & started our photo walk.

Got the below info from,http://www.karnataka.com/tourism/bangalore/nandi-hills.html

Nandi Hills is a famous picnic spot and tourist attraction, as well as a temple site. The Nandi hill is about 4851 ft. (1478 meters) above sea level. It is famous for the huge Nandi statue on top of the hill.  Because of its proximity to the Bangalore International Airport and the NH -7 Highway, this location with its rich greenery and natures paradise has become one of the hot spots for tourists & trekkers.

Nandi is the name of the bull that is the vehicle of Lord Shiva. There are actually two Nandi Temples here. One is in the village at the foot hills and the other is at the top of the hill.

The beautiful Nandi Hills, popularly known as Nandi Betta or Nandi Durga for the locals and the people of Karnataka. This hillock is situated about 60 km from Bangalore City, about 24 kms from Chickballapur town.

View from Nandi village !!

During the Chola region, Nandi Hills was known as Ananda Giri, Hill of Happiness.

A beautiful view from top of the hills !!

We started our shoot with this snake, Shield tailed snake. Ganesh was very happy after sighting this snake & he thought this was more than enough for him for the day….

Shield tailed snake

And then continued with few landscapes & some flowers etc…

Landscape view

Village view from top,

Village view from Top

I could get only 2-3 bird pics,,,,

Orange headed thrush

Dont know the ID

Fungus looked like a baby elephant

Bokeh

Mothers Love

Maruti on Maruti 800

Lonely watcher

Green snake

Butterfly

Looks like a small baby

Finally it ended with Monkey Smile !!!!

A big bye smile