Friday, January 28, 2011

Birding around Chitradurga Fort, Vani Vilasa Saagara, Shanti Saagara

Chitradurga was a pit stop for us during our journey to Hampi. Fort and a few other places offered us a great opportunity for birding as well and we had a superb start at Vanivilas Sagar (or Marikanive). We began by spotting a few Egyptian Vultures.

About Places
Vaani Vilasa Saagara(Mari Kanive): Around 20 Kms from Hiriyur, on NH4 highway. Vaani Vilasa Saagara is a reservoir built during Mysore Maharaja’s period. We reached here at around 10 and had a few sightings, I am sure if we could have managed a bit early, we could have had a great day. Nevertheless, Egyptian vultures made the day for us.
Laughing doves were in huge numbers and they were laughing quite a bit at us!
Chitradurga Fort: Fort offers a lot of opportunity for birding, but unfortunately we took a guide with us, who was more of a nuisance and kept on reminding us not to look at the Spotted Owlet as it was considered a bad omen. Anyway, Sum and I kept ignoring him and were gazing at the Owlet in awe, when he was explaining about the history of the fort! Fort definitely needs another few visits dedicated to birding.
Shanti Saagara (SuleKere): Around 35 Kms from Davanagere, second largest lake in Asia, didn’t offer us much except on our way to the lake.
Silhoutte of a Black Ibis - Couldn't take a good shot due to the unfriendly light.

Bird List
Kite, Black
Myna, Common
Bushchat, Pied
Egret, Cattle
Egret, Little
Pond Heron, Indian
Parakeet, Rose Ringed
Hoopoe, Common
Dove, Eurasian Collared
Kingfisher, White Throated
Bee eater, Green
Drongo, Black
Egret, Median
Swift, House
Dove, Laughing
Bulbul, Red Vented (there was not a single Red Whiskered Bulbul in the entire trip!)
Swallow
Vulture, Egyptian
Kite, Black Shouldered
Wagtail, White Browed
Treepie
Robin, Indian
Babbler, Jungle
Dove, Spotted
Sunbird, Loten’s
Owlet, Spotted

A short-toed Snake Eagle. Thanks Prashanth for helping us to id this.

3 comments:

  1. That's short and sweet trip report. The last one is a Short Toed Snake Eagle.

    Regards,
    Prashanth

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Prashanth.
    Deep in fact Id'ed it right, but i was a little skeptical about it :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I never thought it is a bird watchers paradise as well....liked it...

    ReplyDelete

Any more interesting stuff on these birds? Any corrections in Ids? Please do drop in your valuable inputs...