Thanks to an interesting petition by ESG, this year all interested birders of Bangalore , backed by a High court order assembled to plan a winter bird survey at the lakes of Bangalore. I attended the meeting where new members were introduced to the methods of surveying for birds as well as assessing the lake status.
As a part of this, I was given the responsibility of collecting data from lakes off Sarjapur road. The dates I choose were 12 and 25 January. Unfortunately on 12th none registered for those dates. However, I know my friend Arun who was willing to join. Aishwarya whom I met accidentally during a casual walk at Kaikondrahalli showed interested. I roped in my another friend Jagadeesh so we finally formed a team and went around covering the lakes in the order - Haralur lake - Kasavanhalli lake- Saul Kere- Kaikondrahalli lake.
While I spare you from the lake status details, I will discuss about some interesting sightings during the census. At Haralur lake, my friend Krupakar joined us as he is familiar with the lake and we sighted a Asian brown flycatcher besides Krupakar helping us spot the spotted owlets at their regular spot in the layout abutting the lake. We also noticed how the Red-whiskered bulbuls were feeding on the nectar of the bottle brush tree . I didn't notice till then that bulbuls can feed on that tree. We also saw sunbirds feeding on them as well. We also observed a badam tree (Terminalia catapapa) with cocoons of the Tussar silk moth.
Can you spot the odd-looking chrysalis along with the badam fruits!
At Kasavanahalli lake, Arun's friend Hemant and Rajeshwari joined us. Aishwarya joined a little late and boy the place is full of pale-billed flowerpeckers, thanks to generous planting of Singapore/ Jamaican cherry trees! Interestingly besides those, we also saw lots of loranthus which were propagated by the flowerpeckers, reminding me of this story/association between the species.
We spent a lot of time watching a Common Kingfisher from very close. This guy was not bothered, perhaps got used to people and gave us ample time to observe and wonder at it's colors.
We also saw some mud dabber wasp busy collecting mud and making its house
You can see the yellow and black wasp sitting on the second mud house it made. It had 4 such nests. I knew hornets make such bug one's and potter wasp makes one slightly smaller. This one was amazing to watch. Not too far from it, we spotted this ichneumonid wasp which again inaturalist folks helped to id as Xanthopimpla sp.
I wanted to revisit the spot to observes more about the wasps on the tree. We managed to spot all 3 kingfishers and a river tern too turned up adding to surprises. Rajeshwari left after the Kasavanhalli survey.
We initially wanted to take a lunch break and regroup at 3, however, Jagdeesh need to head back soon so he suggested to continue to Saul kere and have a late lunch. What actually turned out was we had a quick snack in between survey and skipped lunch all together. I was glad that the team had so much enthusiasm and we continued on. At Saul kere where water was little and concentrated towards the north side, we spotted some ducks. Since none of us had a good zoom camera and with binoculars not helping much, we struggled to id the ducks.
Here am I surveying for ducks (pic courtesy- Jagadeesh)
We spotted some waders, but the police constable in charge didn't allow us to get any closer since she is afraid of us getting bitten by snakes. So we had to a block count and head back slightly disappointed at 3:15 PM.
We regrouped after a break at 4:20 PM and started Kaikondrahalli lake survey/census. We were treated to good views of roosting cattle egrets towards the end of the day thus ending the day in a good way. Overall it's a satisfying day with some surprises and glad to do this in the company of some enthusiastic folks. Heamnt and Aishwarya who came in late, stayed back despite of both skipping breakfast. Arun was with me for all 4 locations. Krupakar and Rajeshwari chipped-in for couple of locations. Jagdeesh had to skip the last one. I am looking forward to the other lakes to be surveyed.
As a part of this, I was given the responsibility of collecting data from lakes off Sarjapur road. The dates I choose were 12 and 25 January. Unfortunately on 12th none registered for those dates. However, I know my friend Arun who was willing to join. Aishwarya whom I met accidentally during a casual walk at Kaikondrahalli showed interested. I roped in my another friend Jagadeesh so we finally formed a team and went around covering the lakes in the order - Haralur lake - Kasavanhalli lake- Saul Kere- Kaikondrahalli lake.
While I spare you from the lake status details, I will discuss about some interesting sightings during the census. At Haralur lake, my friend Krupakar joined us as he is familiar with the lake and we sighted a Asian brown flycatcher besides Krupakar helping us spot the spotted owlets at their regular spot in the layout abutting the lake. We also noticed how the Red-whiskered bulbuls were feeding on the nectar of the bottle brush tree . I didn't notice till then that bulbuls can feed on that tree. We also saw sunbirds feeding on them as well. We also observed a badam tree (Terminalia catapapa) with cocoons of the Tussar silk moth.
Can you spot the odd-looking chrysalis along with the badam fruits!
At Kasavanahalli lake, Arun's friend Hemant and Rajeshwari joined us. Aishwarya joined a little late and boy the place is full of pale-billed flowerpeckers, thanks to generous planting of Singapore/ Jamaican cherry trees! Interestingly besides those, we also saw lots of loranthus which were propagated by the flowerpeckers, reminding me of this story/association between the species.
We spent a lot of time watching a Common Kingfisher from very close. This guy was not bothered, perhaps got used to people and gave us ample time to observe and wonder at it's colors.
We also saw some mud dabber wasp busy collecting mud and making its house
You can see the yellow and black wasp sitting on the second mud house it made. It had 4 such nests. I knew hornets make such bug one's and potter wasp makes one slightly smaller. This one was amazing to watch. Not too far from it, we spotted this ichneumonid wasp which again inaturalist folks helped to id as Xanthopimpla sp.
I wanted to revisit the spot to observes more about the wasps on the tree. We managed to spot all 3 kingfishers and a river tern too turned up adding to surprises. Rajeshwari left after the Kasavanhalli survey.
We initially wanted to take a lunch break and regroup at 3, however, Jagdeesh need to head back soon so he suggested to continue to Saul kere and have a late lunch. What actually turned out was we had a quick snack in between survey and skipped lunch all together. I was glad that the team had so much enthusiasm and we continued on. At Saul kere where water was little and concentrated towards the north side, we spotted some ducks. Since none of us had a good zoom camera and with binoculars not helping much, we struggled to id the ducks.
Here am I surveying for ducks (pic courtesy- Jagadeesh)
We spotted some waders, but the police constable in charge didn't allow us to get any closer since she is afraid of us getting bitten by snakes. So we had to a block count and head back slightly disappointed at 3:15 PM.
We regrouped after a break at 4:20 PM and started Kaikondrahalli lake survey/census. We were treated to good views of roosting cattle egrets towards the end of the day thus ending the day in a good way. Overall it's a satisfying day with some surprises and glad to do this in the company of some enthusiastic folks. Heamnt and Aishwarya who came in late, stayed back despite of both skipping breakfast. Arun was with me for all 4 locations. Krupakar and Rajeshwari chipped-in for couple of locations. Jagdeesh had to skip the last one. I am looking forward to the other lakes to be surveyed.
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