Flamingos in Singara Chennai

I made a quick trip to Chennai aka Madras last month on the inaugural run of the double decker train between Chennai and Bangalore and here is what I found. On a dull morning, we saw several flamingos in the marshes of Pallikarnai. This is a first for me as I have not seen flamingos before in Madras.

Skywatch this Friday � Pelicans in flight

A spot billed pelican in flight at Kokkre Belur, a village near Bangalore, India where the birds have forged a relationship with the community that protects them every year. Another close up of the wings

Visit Skywatch this Friday for beautiful birds and skies.

Birding Diaries� A pied kingfisher looking for its dinner

Somewhere on the way between Tranquebar and Karaikal, late one evening, I found this pied kingfisher looking for dinner in some thorny bushes. The colours had anyways faded and hence, I chose to post it as a black and white version..I like the black and white better..what do you think ?

Travel Tuesday� Go bird watching- Black headed ibis

Drive barely a few kms out of Bangalore and sights like these are very familiar. Here is a flock of black headed ibis foraging for food in the paddy fields

Birding in Hebbal Lake, Bangalore watching pelicans

I was in Hebbal Lake in Bangalore, watching pelicans with some friends. I shot a couple of videos when we saw these beautiful birds in the waters. A friend explains the different kinds of pelicans while you watch them flying

Birding in Hebbal�Pelicans in flight

Pelicans in Hebbal Lake, Bangalore

Birding in Ganeshgudi�the many shades of blue

In Ganeshgudi, you see many shades of blue when you go birdwatching. The Tickell�s Blue and the white bellied flycatchers, the verditer , the monarch, the malabar whistling thrush, the asian fairy blue bird and the blue capped rock thrush show off their plumage as you gaze at them lovingly through your lens. Here are some birds that make you go blue in your face�

Asian Fairy Blue Bird above and the Blue capped rock thrush below


The verditer above and the malabar whistling thrush below


Tickell�s blue above and the white bellied flycatcher below

The monarch

Birding diaries - Crested serpent eagle in KMTR

I was driving through parts of Kalakadu Mudanthurai Wildlife Reserve in Tirunelveli last January. Located very close to my native village, Kallidaikurichi, this is one wildlife reserve that I would like to revisit again. We did not see much wildlife, but we managed to spot this crested serpent eagle there

And the eye of the eagle, although I wish that little green spot vanishes

The story of a crested serpent eagle and the indian roller in Kabini

Was rummaging through my hard disk this morning and I found myself looking at a trip I had made with my parents three years ago to Kabini. Found this photograph of the crested serpent eagle.

The indian roller and the black drongo would not let it perch quietly though and they chased the raptor away.

Ironically I made three trips to Kabini that year and now, I havent been there for three years..Note to self - Go in 2012.

Birding in Masinagudi

I was in Masinagudi a few days ago and went on a birding trip with Atul, the manager of Club Mahindra Zest property - Casa Deep Woods. My first visit to Casa was almost a decade ago, when it was not a Club Mahindra property .Incidentally it was my first ever trip to Masinagudi. It was sheer serendipity as we drove towards Mudhumalai forest after being told that we had no accommodation in Bandipur. The property was very new and Masinagudi was still very much not a tourist destination. I have visited Masinagudi several times, but this trip was sheer nostalgia.

And what a birding haven it turned out to be -the iora, the sunbird, the white eye, the warbler, the flycatchers, the thrushes - we sighted almost 50 species of birds in just one session and the best sightings were that of the pitta and the paradise flycatcher .While the pitta was hanging around for more than half an hour, walking around the dry stream , barely a few feet from me and at eye level, the paradise fly catchers were rather elusive. An entire family was high up in the leaves , right above us and we watched them fly with our binoculars.

The pitta chased the orange headed ground thrush that landed finally up in the branches of the trees.

My favourite of course was the poser tickell's blue flycatcher. For more birds and photographs, do see my album on my travel page on Facebook. For the entire story, please read here

The spotted owlet that wishes me good morning

I have been lazy most of last year, but this year,  I have been pushing myself to wake up and head out for walks in the morning. And the motivation is a spotted owlet that greets me with a scowl whenever I chance upon it on my early walks. The owlet and I are half asleep but we spend a few moments gazing at each other, it looks down at me and makes a face and I grin at it.

On my birthday however, I took a few photographs of the bird and I found out there were two of them , probably nesting in that little hollow of theirs. Only one posed for me, that too rather reluctantly, while the other flew away.

I decided not to disturb them again by taking pictures, but we still greet each other every morning .

I saw it today as well on my morning walk and it did come out and sun itself on the branch for a while before disappearing into its home

So where would you like to be this Monday ?

Looking for Flamingos  in Pulicat Lake maybe ? You can see the entire album of flamingos here on my Facebook 

Birding in Goa - Meet the state bird of Goa

As an amateur birder, I enjoy sighting variety of birds and listening to their calls . I do learn to id them, but sometimes just watching  their behaviour is enough to make me lose sense of time . I am no bird photographer nor am I am expert, but my travels have taken me to several birding destinations like this trip to South Goa, which is where I saw this beautiful bird.

Meet the state bird of Goa - the ruby throated bulbul - just loved this bird !See it again if you like..I took this picture in Bhagavan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary

Check out the red throat here.

Ive just signed up for Project 365 and one needs to post a picture a day - however I will alternate between posts and pictures..

Birding in Cochin

Ok..its the birding season and everyone has flown to exotic destinations to look for exotic birds. Well, I am an exception..not that I dont want to do birding, but my compass currently points towards home. However, during my recent trip to Cochin, I didnt do much birding, but we did spot a lot of water birds and a few woodland birds. The malabar whistling thrush was singing away, while I spotted the black headed oriole , pied wagtail, black drongos . I went looking for horn bills near Athirampally Falls, but I guess they flew away to avoid the crowds. Here are some pictures of some of the more common birds - a cormorant here, which the locals refer to as " neer kaka" or the " water crows", a pair of white breasted kingfishers, which had their breakfast while I had mine, a pond heron and a coucal which landed right in front of my room window.