Shikra

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

ಕನ್ನದದಲ್ಲಿ : ಬಿಜ್ಜು

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!

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ : ಬೂದು ಬಕ

Green Bee Eater

It was a sad sunday evening. I was in no mood to do any thing and just stepped out of home. These wonderful ones were just sitting infront of my house on an electric wire and were inviting me to shoot!
Sum was already behind me to shoot these little ones, which are found so often near our house, but are very active. This time I took out the camera and headed on to terrace to capture them. To my suprise, they held on and I was able to capture some wondeful moments.
These birds are usally spotted in pairs or three as well. During this shoot out I had a wonderful chance to capture all the three together and naming them as "3 muskteeers". But, thanks to my camera, that image is only in my memories now :-). While capturing these, one of them simply dived off to grab an insect/bee. It was a wonderful scene that I had witnessed.

Indian Robins

Indian Robins, i must say are the first avions that invoked serious interest in bird watching in me. They made a nest on our terrace last year and hatched 3 little babies, the development of which we followed regularly, being careful not to disturb them. They did come back to the same nest, revamping a bit, this year too!

And then the female spends the rainiy nights on our window grill. I wonder how well it predicts that it's gonna rain in the night. And once it even entered our room and struggled out, but still I'm glad she continues to spend rainiy nights at the same window.

All these articles can be found here.

I just love them for their friendly nature and tolerance towards us even in close proximity!

Waiting for them to come back to the nest again next year...

White throated Kingfisher

These kingfishers often visit our neighborhood, mostly alone and sit on the electric wire for a couple of minutes, turning this side and that and fly showing off its beautiful blue hue.
Later on a birding visit around the neighborhood, we discovered that the birdie had made home around a small pond a furlong from home. The water body, though very small was the reason for the frequent shows of the kingfishers around home.
Recently spotted this again, but this time on the ground in the vacant plot next to home. As I had read in K.P.Poornachandra Tejaswi's MinchuLLI, the kingfisher, though it was sitting on the ground, probably hunting some small reptile, did not seem to be able to walk on the ground. Once its job was done, it just flew off to a low wall right there, and sat there for quite a while. It infact scared away a little squirrel too!
(March - July 2010, Around Home)