Around Hampi, Kamalapur and Daroji

After more than four months from the trip to Hampi, here comes a post on it along with some pictures. Apologies to those who we kept waiting for this long....

The 3 day trip in the end of December was an amazing one, with a pretty decent list of birds, for us beginners. What was satisfying was that this time I religiously maintained notes during all the three days while birding. As always, we spent more time with the nature than with the monuments and ruins :) There were birds almost everywhere - in and around the ruins, on the road sides, Kamalapur, the JLR property (we didn’t stay there but visited there and went on the nature walk with them), the road next to the canal, leading to Daroji....

This White throated Kingfisher in one of the ruins site let us go very very near to it - up to almost 8-10 feet! Every time I see it, I am awed by the beautiful, vibrant colors it is made of!

Rose ringed Parakeets were in huge number

So were Plum headed Parakeets; watched a huge group for a long time.

Saw the Pied Kingfisher for the first time. It’s amazing to watch it fishing. It eyes on its prey in water at almost 20-30 feet above the surface of water and stops mid air at the same point by continuously flapping its wings. And at a suitable point in time, sometimes after about half a minute of staying at the same point in mid-air, it dives down straight into the water - as if it fell off losing gravity. And in the next moment, comes out flying, if lucky, with a fish in its beak! We were lucky to witness the whole drama many times during those three days.

Spotted Owlets were pretty common too, mostly near the ruins, staring straight back at us!

Yellow Wattled lapwings were in groups on the stream side

So were these tiny Ashy Crowned Sparrow Larks
This Green Bee Eater gave a pretty close access for a long time

So did this Rufous Tailed Lark (Please correct if we're wrong in Id)
This Little Cormorant also stayed still for a long time

Some of the other birds we managed to click....

The cattle Egrets who had a meeting by the stream side
Yellow Wagtail

White Wagtail

Common Sandpiper

Rufous Backed Shrike

A Common Kingfisher (has not been so common at least to us!)

This Pallid Harrier (Juvenile)? gave us a short glimpse before it flew off

Brahminy Starling

Blue Rock Thrush ?
Here's the complete list of birds we managed to note:

Hampi - Around the monuments and ruins

Kingfisher, White throated

Sparrow, House

Bulbul, Red vented

Egret, Cattle

Wagtail, White Browed

Wagtail, Yellow

Parakeet, Rose Ringed

Dove, Laughing

Hornbill, Grey

Bee Eater, Green

Parakeet, Plum headed

Hoopoe, Common

Owlet, Spotted

Robin, Indian

Barbet, Coppersmith

Cormorant, Little

Egret, Large

Sparrow-Lark, Ashy Crowned

Cormorant, Little

Tern, River

Shikra

Kingfisher, Pied

Around JLR, Kamalapur and way to Daroji

Common Pochard

Sparrow-Lark, Ashy Crowned

Cormorant, Great

Tern, River

Kingfisher, Pied

Lapwing, Red Wattled

Sandpiper, Common

Kingfisher, Small Blue

Starling, Brahminy

Francolin, Grey

Sunbird, Loten’s

Coucal, Greater

A Warbler, making very loud, shrill calls.. Could not id it

Shikra

Wagtail, White

Lapwing, Yellow wattled

Koel, Asian

Swallow, Wire tailed

Bushchat, Pied

Weaver, Baya

Pallid Harrier

As always, please do correct us if we've wrongly Id'ed some bird.

Cheers,

Sumana & Deepak.