K B Srinivas: Birding at Hulimaavu and Begur Lake

Another weekend and another birding destination planned and visited.

This time around I was confused to decide which lake to visit. After waking up at 5:30AM I decided to visit Hulimaavu lake first and then visit Begur Lake.

This was my first visit to Hulimaavu lake. By mistake I took a different route and ended up at the backside of the lake. But still it had a good access to the lake bed. It is a little secluded place where in you have to be a little careful while visiting this lake alone in the morning. I always stayed close to my bike just to be ready in case.

There was lot of activity near the lake bed. Munias, Purple Moorehen, White Breasted Waterhen, Swallows... It was rather a good place to visit but a little difficult to photograph any water birds.

At around 8:00 AM I decided to check out the Begur lake again. I was hoping to see more Sandpipers there.

I saw that the water level at the Begur lake has gone down a lot. Probably because of rain, heat and people using water for their crops and using it for water tanks. I hope BBMP fences this lake soon and stop people from using the water without permission. Also this time around I did not see any Pelicans. Storks are still there though. Saw couple of Sandpipers but could not get good photographs. Lot of Baya weavers still around trying to build their nests.

Below are the list of birds seen during the trip.

1. Red Rumped Swallow
2. Common Swift
3. Wire Tailed Swift
4. Scaly Breasted Munia
5. Silver Bill
6. Red Munia
7. Black Headed Munia
8. Common Coot
9. Purple Moorehen
10. White Breasted Waterhen
11. Indian Bushlark
12. Pippit
13. White Throated Kingfisher
14. Pied Kingfisher
15. Little Egret
16. Great Egret
17. Cattle Egret
18. Pond Heron
19. Purple Heron
20. Grey Heron
21. Painted Stork
22. Sandpiper
24. Asian Koel
25. Black Kite
26. Brahminy Kite