Pittas and Snakes

Decided to do a quick birding session in Valley school this morning. The plans were made friday but confirmed yesterday night. Since I stay in Talaghattapura I need not travel long distances to find a very good birding location, Valley school is about 4KM from my house. So I can decide in the morning and go for a quick birding session.

Especially after seeing Pitta last week and after reading Dr. Krishna's mail in bngbirds regarding Pitta's getting ready for their return migration I decided to try my luck today and see if there were more than 1 Pitta there.

I started at around 5:45 from my house. First sighting was a Juvenile Shikra right next to the road. Before I arrived at the valley school I saw family of Grey Francolins crossing the road. There were 2 adults and 1 juvenile in the family. Got down at valley school entered the details in entry registry and started birding. Very close to the entrance I saw 4 Green Bee Eaters sitting on a wire and doing some slick acrobatics in air catching their early morning breakfast. It was amazing to see their moves in mid air.

I headed towards the fig tree hoping to see some birds around. There I saw a little commotion where lot of birds were crying away. On close inspection I saw a Spotted Owlet. Probably all the birds there did not like the Owls presence there. I waited for some more time there to check if any other birds fly in. I saw one big bird fly and sit on one of the trees close by. Again as luck would have it was Blue-Beared Bee Eater again. So 2 weeks in a row I was seeing this bird. But this time around he sat on a far away tree and all I could manage was a very bad photograph as you can see below. It had Bumble Bee in its mouth. Again very lucky to see this bird atleast.

Blue-Beared Bee Eater

Went ahead to check if there was any activity near the abandoned house, found few swifts flying around. Couple of weeks back had not seen any activity. This time they seem to be coming back to their nests. After that followed the trail inside.

All of a sudden I saw a green colored bird coming out and sitting on a far off branch. Soon realized it to be a Pitta. There he was sitting and enjoying the early morning sun. He spent some time there on the open branch and flew inside the bushes. After that wanted to visit the Orange headed thrush area and on my way I saw one bird flying from my left side and sitting on a tree. It waited there for a while and flew into the bushes.

Indian Pitta

After that saw couple of fantails and Magpie robin in their courting ritual. Then all of sudden heard Pitta calls all around. I could hear from at least 3 different sides. After sometime saw couple of Pittas chasing each other. It was a different feeling to see so many Pitta's on a single day.

And then I heard a commotion somewhere close by. At first I thought It should be deer's around. But when I went close and saw it was couple of snakes in territorial fight or trying to woo the female. We have been wanting to see snakes in the wild for a long time. We rarely had any luck.  But this time it was two snakes and in a fight:-) It was amazing to see them keep raising together, twisting, crawling and hissing.

Rat Snake?

I also saw White Rumped Shama, Tawny Bellied Babblers, Puff-Throated Babblers too. Also crows chasing what looked like a mottle owl.

Puff Throated Babbler

It was almost 8:45 and my time was up. I decided to head back. On the way back saw warbler very close the bike I had parked and while driving back I saw Brown shrike too.

Blyth's Reed Warbler

Brown Shrike

Greater Coucal

List of birds seen during the day. The same has been uploaded in e-bird too. And the link for the same is mentioned below.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18097294

1	Gray Francolin
2	Indian Peafowl
3	Oriental Honey-buzzard
4	Shikra
5	Black Kite
6	Red-wattled Lapwing
7	Laughing Dove
8	Asian Koel
9	Spotted Owlet
10	Blue-bearded Bee-eater
11	Green Bee-eater
12	White-cheeked Barbet
13	Coppersmith Barbet
14	White-naped Woodpecker
15	Rose-ringed Parakeet
16	Indian Pitta
17	Brown Shrike
18	Black Drongo
19	White-browed Fantail
20	House Crow
21	Cinereous Tit
22	Red-vented Bulbul
23	Red-whiskered Bulbul
24	White-browed Bulbul
25	Common Tailorbird
26	Ashy Prinia
27	Tawny-bellied Babbler
28	Puff-throated Babbler
29	Indian Robin
30	Oriental Magpie-Robin
31	White-rumped Shama
32	Tickell's Blue-Flycatcher
33	Pied Bushchat
34	Jungle Myna
35	Common Myna
36	Brahminy Starling
37	Pale-billed Flowerpecker
38	Purple-rumped Sunbird
39	Purple Sunbird

Photographing Red Rumped Swallow and Purple Sunbird

Couple of weeks back Raghu and myself decided to go for a birding walk. This time we decided to take the route which we had not explored before. We took the Kanakpura road and took a left which goes to TK falls. En route we stopped at a place where we saw couple of Red Rumped Swallows very close to the road.

They were collecting mud from the small water pool which was formed on the road. It was interesting to watch the number of times they came back and forth to collect the mud. They would take a small break and resume the activity again. We spent our entire morning watching these birds which a very good experience in itself.

This was the first time seeing this bird up close and needless to say that these are the best photographs I have taken of this bird.

Meanwhile we saw Oriental Honey Buzzard fly across. I was kind of lucky since my camera was almost able to latch onto the focus. I haven't taken a better photograph than this of any bird in flight except may be Kestrel and Pied kingfisher when they were hovering :-)

And then came photographing Purple Sunbirds. We could see these birds in good numbers where we were photographing the swallows. At last I was able to manage few decent photographs of Purple Sunbird(Male). One of the birds which I find extremely difficult to meter because of its color.

Interesting sightings in Valley School

Visited valley school again this weekend. Started from home at around 6. After reaching the school I saw couple of Indian Grey Hornbills. I heard Jungle fowl, woodpecker and Bulbuls all morning.

After a short walk saw a white naped woodpecker flew away to a nearby tree. I went ahead on hearing it call and while I was waiting there, couple of people joined me, Thomas and Kumar. They were friends of Ajit. We had very good birding day together.

The first interesting sighting of the morning was the Blue Beareded Bea-Eater. It flew and sat near a tree very close to us. We got a very good view of it. It was my first time seeing this bird at a close distance. It was amazing experience. I could not get a good photograph since the light was not that good. But just sighting of this bird was an amazing experience. Birding couldn't have started in any better way.

Blue-Bearded Bee-Eater

We went ahead to check the nearby fig tree which was fruiting last time and we had seen lot of birds in that tree including black hooded oriole. This time there was not much activity there. All we could see were Myna's and Barbets. After walking ahead we saw Blue Faced Malkoha, Sunbirds and Barbets. Another Fig tree was fruiting where we could see lot of Barbets, Myna's, Crows and also couple of Tickell's blue flycatcher.

We went near the abonded house to check if there were any swifts. But the woodpecker call invited us to check them. We saw couple of Juvenile White naped woodpeckers along with one adult White Naped woodpecker.

Yellow Billed Babbler

White Naped Woodpecker

We went to the Bamboo area where we had seen Shama couple of weeks back. But this time around there was no Shama. We did see Puff Throated Babbler, White Throated Fantail flycatcher as well as Magpie Robins. We saw courtship of Magpie Robins too.

White Throated Fantail flycatcher

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Another interesting sighting was an adult spotted dear. He was majestic with big antlers. He came towards us running and after sighting us he ran away. After about a minute we saw 3 dogs following its trail. It was disturbing to see feral dogs trying to hunt a deer. I hope this deer was safe. He had 1 minute head start anyways.

Then we went to an area where we had seen orange headed thrush last couple of weeks back. There we saw White Rumped Shama. It was good to see this fellow in 2 consecutive visits. I had not seem Shama in my last visits to valley school.

Then we saw one of the rapotor flying and sitting on one of the trees close by. We went ahead to check the bird but could not see him. But that led us to another interesting sighting and this time it was Indian Pitta. We just could not believe our luck. Sighting a Pitta when it was least expected. This fellow was in no hurry and he kept foraging on the ground. And flew away after a while. My second sighting of this fellow. My only sighting was in Dandeli.

Indian Pitta

Since it was already 9:30 we decided to head back.

An eventful day came to an end. Thanks to Thomas and Kumar for their wonderful company.

List of birds seen during the day.

1. Common Myna
2. Jungle Myna
3. Common Crow
4. Jungle Crow
5. Red Vented Bulbul
6. Red Whiskered Bublbul
7. White Browed Bulbul
8. Rose Ringed Parakeet
9. Asian Koel
10. Greater Coucal
11. India Grey Hornbill
12. Coppersmith Barbet
13. White Cheeked Barbet
14. Yellow Billed Babbler
15. Puff Throated Babbler
16. Tawny Bellied Babbler
17. White Naped Woodpecker
18. White Throated Kingfisher
19. Ashy Prinia
20. Blue Faced Malkoha
21. Shikra
22. Black Kite
23. Green Bea-Eater
24. Blue Beared Bea-Eater
25. White Rumped Shama
26. Indian Pitta
27. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
28. White Throated Fantail Flycatcher
29. Asian Brown Flycatcher
30. Jerdon's Lark
31. Pied Bushchat
32. Grey Francolin
33. Grey Junglefowl (call)
34. Indian Robin
35. Brahminy Kite
36. Common Iora
37. Oriental White-Eye

Revisiting Shivanahalli

After a very long time got some time to do some birding. The actual plan was to join the Third Sunday Trail to Shivanahalli led by Geetanjali but had to cancel that at the last moment last sunday. But our good friend Ajit had joined them and had published the report. It was interesting to read about few of the species like orange headed thrush seen during the trail.

So I planned to visit either Ragihalli or Shivanahalli. I had been to the Shivanhalli ashram few times till now but never visited Ragihalli till now. I had no idea about any walking trail in that area and for the same reason I sent an email to Deepa from the bngbirds group for directions. She was kind enough to give very detailed instructions for the same.

The plan was for atleast 2 of us to go for the walk but had to change the plan since my friend had to work on a saturday. So I decided to go ahead with my plan and visit Shivanahalli and I would prefer visiting Ragihalli with friends rather than going alone. I got permission to walk around the ashram from swamiji at Ramakrishna Ashram.

On Sunday morning started at around 6AM. Took the nice road from Kanakpura road and was lucky to see couple of spotted owls flying across the road. Crossed the busy Bannerghatta road and took the right towards shivanahalli. One change observed, there is no Ramakrishna Ashram board near the intersection. Before I took right I got the directions confirmed by near-by villager.

On the way saw Rufuous Treepie, Doves, Iora's and Bulbuls. It was a very pleasant drive with very less traffic. Reached the ashram around 7 and started walking around. I saw Blue capped rock thrush male flying around and then came a group of tawny bellied babblers. Could hear lot of calls from Purple and Purple Rumped sunbirds. It's good to reach the place early but bird activity could be seen through out the day.

And then came the surprise calls. I looked around to find the source of the call and then saw 3 beautiful Schimittar Babblers. Their calls are unique where the call by male are immediately followed by a single note from female, a very syncronised duet. Thanks to Ulhas from bngbirds group who had mentioned about this unique calls during one of the walks. I was fortunate to spot these 3 individuals singing along.

Schimmitar Babbler

As I walked along I was able to spot few more birds. The White cheeked barbets were busy and I could hear Tickell's blue singing throughout the day. There were White Eyes, Iora's and bulbuls every where. Saw few fantails chasing each other. Saw Blue rock thrush female and male again. There were few puff throated babblers too.

Blue Capped Rock Thrush

Puff Throated Babbler

White Cheeked Barbet

There is an area where I usually saw these flycatchers and this time it was no different. I saw Asian brown, Tickells and Asian paradise flycatchers there again. But I also saw another flycatcher which was a first time for me and that was Red Breasted flycatcher.

Red Breasted Flycatcher

Common Iora

Came back to the water well area and saw a big bird fly across and sit on one of the huge trees. When I got a clear view I could see one of the cutest owls one could ever see, the Mottled Owl. A lone bird sitting with few crows around bothering him. I was very happy to see this bird and for the first time too. Our Raghu from our group is the only lucky one who could see this chap regularly in lalbagh:-) and this time I got lucky.

Mottled Owl

Mottled Owl

After a while saw couple of Oriental Honey Buzzards swooping down and settling somewhere up in the trees. On my return saw a lone gold fronted leaf bird.

Oriental Honey Buzzard

It was already 10:30. I decided to head back home after a very eventful morning. Shivanahalli is a place to visit to get refreshed. And having it so close to our homes is a blessing for us. Thanks to Vishnumayananda Swamji.

By mistake the vibration control on my camera was turned off and I realized it only while returning hence we see some of the images are blurred :-(

List of bird seen during the day. The same has been updated in ebirds portal.

1	Black-shouldered Kite
2	Oriental Honey-buzzard
3	Brahminy Kite
4	Spotted Dove
5	Laughing Dove
6	Asian Koel
7	Greater Coucal
8	Mottled Wood-Owl
9	White-throated Kingfisher
10	Green Bee-eater
11	Indian Roller
12	White-cheeked Barbet
13	Coppersmith Barbet
14	Rose-ringed Parakeet
15	Common Iora
16	Black Drongo
17	Ashy Drongo
18	White-bellied Drongo
19	White-browed Fantail
20	Asian Paradise-Flycatcher
21	Rufous Treepie
22	Red-vented Bulbul
23	Red-whiskered Bulbul
24	Common Tailorbird
25	Ashy Prinia
26	Oriental White-eye
27	Tawny-bellied Babbler
28	Indian Scimitar-Babbler
29	Puff-throated Babbler
30	Yellow-billed Babbler
31	Asian Brown Flycatcher
32	Indian Robin
33	Oriental Magpie-Robin
34	Tickell's Blue-Flycatcher
35	Red-breasted Flycatcher
36	Blue-capped Rock-Thrush
37	Pied Bushchat
38	Golden-fronted Leafbird
39	Purple-rumped Sunbird
40	Purple Sunbird