K B Srinivas: Returning to Valley School for Birding

One of my favorite birding destinations is the Valley School area in Bangalore. Since I'm no way associated with the school I'm not allowed inside but this does never stopped me from visiting this area. Its an amazing place for birding. Just walking along side the school fence you will be able to spot so many birds.

The other reason why I go toValley school is, its not too far from my house. Since I stay in J.P Nagar it does not take much time for me to reach this place. My two favorite destinations are Valley School and Lalbagh in Bangalore. Even if you dont get much photography opportunity with birds in Lalbagh I still love the place:-)

The actual plan for the weekend was to visit Hoskote lake but since few of my friends were not available the plan was changed and only myself and Srinivas Dhulipala decided to visit Valley school again. We met at 6:10AM on saturday morning. Stopped for a quick morning tea near Konankunte cross and dashed in our bikes towards the Valley School.

As usual we started the birding by first signing the visitor register. The watchmen greet with a big smile, I know him from my last trips. Our first spotting was a Oriental White Eye and our next was a Tickell's Flowerpecker. Srini spent good time with that bird hoping to get a good flight shot.

On our way we spotted quite a few Barbets(both coppersmith and White Cheeked), White Eyes, Minivets and Bulbuls. Our first interesting spotting was Flamebacked Woodpecker. We saw 2 of them but could not get any good photographs. We were thrilled with their spottings. Personally for me, its just a third woodpecker sighting in the wild. So I was pretty excited with the sighting.

We also saw quited a few Warblers but could identify only Blyths reed warbler and Tickells leaf warbler. Also saw quite a few Swifts, Prinias and Tawny Bellied Babblers. Infact we saw Tawny babblers in a group of dozen atleast twice.

We were treated with sightings of Grey Breasted Prinia, Puff Throated babbler and Tickells Blue Flycatcher. There was another flycatcher which we saw but could not identify it. It was flying frequently in the air trying to catch something in the air and it was returning to the same spot.

Iora's, Orioles and White Browed Fantails were also seen. Saw a lone jungle fowl running around.

Most of the bushes and undergrowth around the school area is burnt. I'm not sure if it was done intentionally or if there was any accident recently there. We saw few logs which were still under fire. We saw few empty fire cracker boxes and lot of beer bottles around. Its really sad to see people indulging in these things near a good forest area.

On our way back we heard a loud call and on closer inspection it turned out to be a Streak-Throated Woodpecker(I hope the ID is correct). And another raptor was seen perching at a distance. Have got a record shot which should help me in getting the ID of the bird.

All in all returned from the trip very happy.

Below is the birds seen during the trip.

1. Purple Sunbird
2. Purple Rumped Sunbird
3. White Cheeked Barbet
4. Coppersmith Barbet
5. Common Iora
6. Golden Oriole
7. Ashy Prinia
8. Grey Breasted Prinia
9. Plain Prinia
10. Red Vented Bulbul
11. Red Whiskered Bulbul
12. White Browed Bulbul
13. Grey Drongo
14. Yellow Billed Babbler
15. Tawny Billed Babbler
16. Puff Throated Babbler
17. Indian Robin
18. Pied Bushchat
19. Tickell's Flowerpecker
20. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
21. Another flycather(un'ided)
22. Small Minivet
23. Hoopoe
24. House Swift
25. Jerdon's Bushlark
26. Red Wattled Lapwing
27. Black Headed CukooShrike
28. Black Kite
29. Brahminy Kite
30. Buzzard
31. Oriental White Eye
32. Jungle Myna
33. Jungle Crow
34. Tickell's Leaf Warbler
35. Blyth's Reed Warbler
36. Oriental Magpie Robin
37. White Browed Fantail
38. Jungle Fowl
39. Green Bea Eater
40. Common Tailorbird
41. Grey/Great Tit
42. Grey Francolin(Calls heard)
43. Flameback Woodpecker
44. Streak-Throated Woodpecker