Birding at Ranganathittu

Even at 11pm on Friday night we had not decided whether or not to go the next day. But somehow when the alarm rung, we both knew we were going - on a birding trip to Ranganathittu, a bird sanctuary near Mysore. And were just the two of us, owing to our late planning...

Anyways, we reached the place around 9-30 and started spotting the birds right as we entered, or rather on the way itself. Took a private boat with a guide so that we had ample time watching and shooting them, and it was worth it. The guide helped our Id-ing easier.

These were what we spotted, in the same order as spotting:
Scaly breasted Munia
Oriental Magpie Robin
Common golden backed Woodpecker
Tickell’s Flower pecker
Jungle Crow
Little Cormorant
Oriental white Ibis
Bats (I don’t know if I should include these mammals, but these do fly too, right?)
Little Egret
Darter
Large Egret
Large Cormorant
Marsh Harrier
Night Heron
Open billed Stork
River Tern
Brahminy Kite
Great Stone Plover
White breasted Water hen
Pied Wagtail
Red Whiskered Bulbul
Purple rumped Sunbird
Baya Weaver
Common Myna
Loten’s Sunbird
Asian Koel female

And on the way back,

Cattle Egret
Lesser Golden backed Woodpecker
Indian Roller
Indian Pond Heron
Rose ringed Parakeet
Spotted Dove

And finally
Painted Storks

To end the beautiful day, was saw a full rainbow so close, which appeared as if we could pass through it! Pics will be sorted and posted by Deep.

Birding at Binsar

Well, those were the days, we weren't doing birding so much, it's just that the avions used to attract very much, I am posting few of those early day photos of birds.

Rofous Backed Shrike

The best part of this was, there was no effort or very little effort was required to spot these lovely ones. Infact there were plenty of them visiting the place where we were staying. You just have sit and keep watching them :-)

Pied flycater shrike

Hoopoe
Infact Binsar also has a bird sanctury nearby. Unfortunately the season wasn't good when we went there. Next time I am hoping to make it up.

Babbler ??(Id needed)

Shikra

Spotted around home very frequently. Really liked their eyes and color tone on their front.

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Grey Heron

After a hectic weekend we thought to spend some time with Avions and headed towards a lake near Bidadi. Approach to lake is bit inconvenient; thanks to lot of sand mining activities near the lake but somehow we were able to manage it.

Well, as we approached the lake this one perched on a submerged tree top gathered our attention. It actually was on the same tree top for almost an hour givining us ample time to shoot. Figuring out the name of this one took a bit of effort, first we though it should be “Snake Bird” due to its long neck, but looking at other features thought this cannot be a snake bird! Then more google searches, lead us to “Grey Heron”. Our expert Chandu confirmed it later :-)

It was quitely waiting for prey! without bothering the world around.




It might have seen us approaching, it was a face off :-) I really liked the pattern on the neck.



It might have spotted something right down there!

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