Last couple of weeks have been very happy days of my life. We were blessed with a son. Took almost 10 days off from office to be close with him. Time just flew by when I was with him. He kept us busy the whole time. It will be a difficult 5 days this week staying away from him. And the pace at which the kids grow you dont want to miss a moment:-)
My mother wanted to visit her village since we had time. So we decided to spare one day to visit the place. On saturday we visited my mothers village which is called Yeradammanahalli(Y.D Halli). It comes under Sandur Taluk, Bellary District. It's a remote with very few buses plying to this village. But thankfully they dont have any issues with power but only with the water supply. There are couple of ponds and one well. Few years back govt has helped them with a water pipeline which is not that bad.
People here are very heavily dependent on monsoons for crops and iron ore mines for their jobs. Since the banning of illegal mining in the region, people have started paying more attention to the crops this year. The whole area looks very good which was helped with a very good monsoons this time around. The major crop here are Maze and Ground nut.
Everyone went ahead in the car towards the village, I decided to get down couple kms before we reached the village. This would give me some precious morning time to enjoy my my first bird walk in the area. I had my Nikon gear to shoot some good photos.
My first sighting of the day was these yellow billed babbler on the road making noise. There were lot of babblers. There were bulbuls and Purple Rumped sunbirds every where. I did not see a single specimen of Purple sunbird in the area. Also only Red Vented bulbuls were seen but not the Red Whiskered ones.
Saw few Ashy Crowned Sparrow Larks feeding on the road. The Prinias kept calling from the fields. The first migratory bird seen was the common stone chat. There were 3 female and 1 male in the group. They were enjoying some morning meal in the fields. They did not hand around for long.
I decided to visit one of the very old ponds which was our swimming pool in my childhood days. Thanks to the rains it was almost full. I could see a single pair of Little Grebe trying to fish and a lone White Throated kingfisher waiting for its prey. It was almost 9 and I decided to head for breakfast.
After breakfast me and my cousin decided to have another small walk and this time in our fields to see the crop and if possible some birding:-) The crop is amazing this year, the maze looks good. In the fields we spotted few Drongos, Common Iora's and a lone White Browed Bulbul. We also saw a lone White Eyed Buzzard making rounds.
Another winter migrant which we saw that day was an Asian Brown Flycatcher. We saw a lonely bird flying near the tamarind trees catching some insects. Rounded of the day with a good photograph of a female Robin.
I heard there was a road kill of an adult bear just the day before we visited the place. The accident had took place about 10kms from this village. It was very sad news to hear. Heard that the forest department officals visited the accident site and burned the remains of the bear.
The villagers here sight wild bears and and wild boars regularly. And these boars are a constant threat to the crops here.
List of Birds seen.
1. Yellow Billed Babbler
2. Large Grey Babbler
3. Grey Francolin
4. Purple Rumped Sunbird
5. Indian Robin
6. Pied Bushchat
7. Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark
8. Rufous Tailed Lark
9. Common Stonechat
10. Ashy Prinia
11. Plain Prinia
12. Black Drongo
13. White Throated Kingfisher
14. Little Grebe
15. House Sparrow
16. Red Vented Bulbul
17. White Browed Bulbul
18. Common Iora
19. Asian Brown Flycatcher
20. Green Bea-Eater
21. Laughing Dove
22. Collared Dove
23. White Eyed Buzzard
24. Indian Roller
25. unide'd swallow
My mother wanted to visit her village since we had time. So we decided to spare one day to visit the place. On saturday we visited my mothers village which is called Yeradammanahalli(Y.D Halli). It comes under Sandur Taluk, Bellary District. It's a remote with very few buses plying to this village. But thankfully they dont have any issues with power but only with the water supply. There are couple of ponds and one well. Few years back govt has helped them with a water pipeline which is not that bad.
People here are very heavily dependent on monsoons for crops and iron ore mines for their jobs. Since the banning of illegal mining in the region, people have started paying more attention to the crops this year. The whole area looks very good which was helped with a very good monsoons this time around. The major crop here are Maze and Ground nut.
Everyone went ahead in the car towards the village, I decided to get down couple kms before we reached the village. This would give me some precious morning time to enjoy my my first bird walk in the area. I had my Nikon gear to shoot some good photos.
My first sighting of the day was these yellow billed babbler on the road making noise. There were lot of babblers. There were bulbuls and Purple Rumped sunbirds every where. I did not see a single specimen of Purple sunbird in the area. Also only Red Vented bulbuls were seen but not the Red Whiskered ones.
 |
| Yellow Billed Babbler |
 |
| Green Bea Eater |
 |
| Common Stonechat |
 |
| Rufuous Tailed Lark |
 |
| Plain Prinia |
 |
| Common Iora |
I decided to visit one of the very old ponds which was our swimming pool in my childhood days. Thanks to the rains it was almost full. I could see a single pair of Little Grebe trying to fish and a lone White Throated kingfisher waiting for its prey. It was almost 9 and I decided to head for breakfast.
 |
| Little Grebe(Male) |
 |
| Little Grebe(Female) |
 |
| White Throated Kingfisher |
After breakfast me and my cousin decided to have another small walk and this time in our fields to see the crop and if possible some birding:-) The crop is amazing this year, the maze looks good. In the fields we spotted few Drongos, Common Iora's and a lone White Browed Bulbul. We also saw a lone White Eyed Buzzard making rounds.
 |
| White Browed Bulbul |
 |
| Purple Rumped Sunbird |
 |
| White Eyed Buzzard |
 |
| Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark |
Another winter migrant which we saw that day was an Asian Brown Flycatcher. We saw a lonely bird flying near the tamarind trees catching some insects. Rounded of the day with a good photograph of a female Robin.
 |
| Collared Dove |
 |
| Laughing Dove |
 |
| Asian Brown Flycatcher |
 |
| Indian Robin(Female) |
 |
| Red Vented Bulbul |
The villagers here sight wild bears and and wild boars regularly. And these boars are a constant threat to the crops here.
List of Birds seen.
1. Yellow Billed Babbler
2. Large Grey Babbler
3. Grey Francolin
4. Purple Rumped Sunbird
5. Indian Robin
6. Pied Bushchat
7. Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark
8. Rufous Tailed Lark
9. Common Stonechat
10. Ashy Prinia
11. Plain Prinia
12. Black Drongo
13. White Throated Kingfisher
14. Little Grebe
15. House Sparrow
16. Red Vented Bulbul
17. White Browed Bulbul
18. Common Iora
19. Asian Brown Flycatcher
20. Green Bea-Eater
21. Laughing Dove
22. Collared Dove
23. White Eyed Buzzard
24. Indian Roller
25. unide'd swallow
