Around Mandagadde, Shimoga and Bhadravathi

Last weekend we had been to these areas and we did birding for 3 mornings and an evening in and around Bhadravathi and Shimoga, it was a good outing and we were able to spot hornbills(Indian grey) ourselves for first time. And this time it was a more systematic birding trip after the NTP. Here’s a bit of detail about the spots.

a> Around Bhadravathi: Bhadravathi to Chennagiri road, offers lots of opportunities, with Bhadra canal running across you can find lot of irrigated stretches of paddy fields and arecanut plantations. During our initial days of birding, some 6 months ago, we had come here and we were fascinated spotting Asian Paradise fly catchers. Hence decided to come back here again, and the APF didn't disappoint us.

b>Around Shimoga: Shimoga to Theerthahalli road is another destination with lot of vegetation. Hornbills were found perched typically on roadside ficus trees. We had our stop at Sakrebyle Elephant camp and had a good time with birds. We did have a look at the upcoming JLR camp on the other side of the road, just in front of the elephant camp. The JLR camp area looks very promising. Unfortunately we couldn’t spend much time here.

c>Around Mandagadde: Inspite of visiting here during the off season, this didn't disappoint us. Of course there was not much of activity around the sanctuary area, but we crossed Mandagadde and stopped near a village called "Donigahalli". It is a small sanctuary surrounding a water body and not much space to walk around doing birding. However, from there we took a boat ride to another village "Muttinakoppa" and had a good birding outing there. The best time to visit this place is during the months of June to September/October during the nesting season.

This Yellow footed Green (?) Pigeon, let us watch it from under the tree it was perched on for a long time.

Here’s are some of the shots.

The Indian Grey Hornbills perched on a roadside ficus tree on the second day. There were 2 of them, no 3.... 4....5... and finally 6 of them on the same tree!!

The Brahminy Kite which posed for us for over 15 minutes
The Brown Shrike, which I initially mistook as White browed Bulbul :(
Common Iora
Black crowned night HeronIndian Pond Heron in non breeding plumage, these were in huge numbers

Black headed Oriole

Chestnut Headed Bee Eater
Black Drongo

Oriental Magpie Robin, female.... the ones here were much bolder when compared to the ones I've seen around Bangalore.

Here’s the list of birds... this time around we didn’t aim at numbers, rather we did justice to whatever little we saw and confidently identified.

Hornbill, Indian Grey
Hornbill Malabar Pied (We spotted a pair flying very close for a few seconds, but couldn’t capture them)
Egret, Cattle
Egret, Median
Egret, Little
Coucal, Greater
Ibis, Oriental White
Bulbul, Red Whiskered
Bulbul, Red vented
Myna, Jungle
Kingfisher, White throated
Kingfisher, Common
Wagtail, White browed
Bee eater, Little
Bee eater, Chestnut headed
Swift, House
Swallow, Wire tailed
Heron, Grey
Drongo, Black
Pigeon, Yellow-legged Green
Kite, Brahminy
Kite, Black
Crows, House, Jungle, Large-billed
Parakeet, Rose ringed
Pigeon, Blue rock
Dove, Spotted
Dove, brown
Bushchat, Pied
Indian Roller
Cormorant, Large
Cormorant, Little
Iora, Common
Oriole, Black headed
Shrike, Brown
Robin, Oriental Magpie
Fantail, Couldn't Id which one
Peafowl, Indian
Flycatcher, Asian Paradise
Lapwing, Red-wattled
Pond Heron, Indian
And heard Coppersmith Barbets and White cheeked Barbets
And this one we could not Id... It was perched quite far off, I felt the size was Bulbul+, we debated between Yellow Browed bulbul, White headed babbler, but feel it is neither now....
As per the experts, it is a Golden Oriole, female
And there were many more little birds and some big ones like eagles/harriers that we couldn’t Id, in spite of following the systematic process. May be we need some more time :). And I still don’t have a pair of binocs :(, but as the guru-ji says that’s not stopping us from birding :)