Nandi hills..a re-visit

Nandi Hills, closer to Bengaluru is crowded like hell, I repeat crowded like hell, especially on weekends and holidays but the fact remains that it is one of the better birding hotspots in and around Bengaluru amidst the same maddening crowd... sounds dizzy but true!

Every time, I've been there, I keep on adding one or the other new species to my list seen there and the list is increasing every time, such is the bounty of varied birds that you can find atop Nandi hills.

Also, I should point out, other than birds and a leisure spot, there is plenty to see and watch, be it the flowers or the horizon scape or the landscapes that bowl you over or the rich forest feel that you get nowhere else closer to home, truly a paradise in itself.

The place was filled with trash, dizzying amount of vehicles and people, numerous stalls selling food items and unlawful activities happening but over a period of time things have been controlled and the now the place looks better and organized (no where I'm mentioning it is the best... but it is far better than what it was earlier).

Below are a couple of images from there other than the obvious bird images I would have gotten from there, a change for once.

Also, listing out all the birds that I have seen at Nandi Hills for reference.

Sit back and enjoy :)

Cumulative of all my visits, here is the list...
Indian Scimitair Babbler
Puff-throated Babbler
Tawny-bellied Babbler
White-cheeked Barbet
Tailor Bird
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Oriental Honey Buzzard
Grey-bellied Cuckoo
Ashy Drongo
Black Drongo
Black Eagle
Indian Spotted Eagle
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Asian Paradise Flycatcher
Red-breasted Flycatcher
Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
Ultramarine Flycatcher
Verditer Flycatcher
Common Iora
Common Kestrel
Nilgiri Wood Pigeon
Olive-backed Pipit
Indian Pitta
Indian Blue Robin
Crested Seprent Eagle
Shikra
Red Spurfowl
Blue-capped Rock Thrush
Malabar Whistling Thrush
Orange Headed Thrush
Pied Thrush
Grey Wagtail
Greenish Leaf Warbler
Oriental White-Eye

Summarizing 2013

As I had wished for in the last post of 2012 here, I did travel a lot in 2013 and importantly to newer places making new friends and discovering a lot on offer. Let me summarize it monthly on how the year unfolded...


January: A quick visit to Ooty (the queen of hills) for some birding around the area with buddies, was a very fast one indeed and the only group outing for the year! Blowed away by the endemics seen but disappointed by the way the Ooty hills are being razed down!

February: A new vehicle adds to the stable replacing the old. With that, a weekend getaway visit to Kolli hills, a discreet place with some amazing hairpin bends to counter and for the first time the married person in our group came along with his wife! A nice outing but sad to see the litter all around Kolli hills.

March - April: Almost dry months with not much of traveling except some birding trails in and around Bengaluru to Nandi hills and other places.

May: 5 years of blogging and a reason to celebrate. Been a fantastic journey so far. Invited some wonderful bloggers to guest blog for me. Honored to have hosted them here.

June: Attended the lone bloggers meet for the year, missed attending many others!
Plans and arrangements for Valley of Flowers were all done and had to be shelved due to the devastating floods that shook Uttarakhand. Disappointed!
Attended a 'frog' workshop at Bisle Ghats conducted under the guidance of frog expert Dr. K.V. Gururaja, courtesy buddy Avinash Kannammanavar.

July-August: Monsoon mania at Agumbe at Gowri's place (much awaited).
Certified as a volunteer from the KEDB in association with JLR after attending their two part week long course at Bandipur. Learnt many a new thing in the week spent and made some new friends.

September: A first time trip towards Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (Bheemeshwari).
A week long spiritual drive along with family covering BR hills, Coimbatore, Guruvayoor, Janardhana, Varkala, Kanyakumari, Totadri (Nanguneri), Rameswaram, Madurai and back home spanning 2000kms. Loved the drive all the way!

October: Dasara festivities and multiple sojourns towards Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary covering Bheemeshwari and Galibore regions. Catching up with travel freak Amith Kumar triggered off mutual interests to an all time high.
Visited Ganeshgudi for the first time in the year along with a vociferous group, had a blast throughout. Sadly, only one visit to our favorite jaunt in the year.

November was a busy month
Nandi hills and Maidenahalli for birding along with Amith and other people.
One weekend in and around Mulki (near Udupi) for some wonderful coastal birding.
The last week entirely in Andamans, yes a much awaited and longed for destination visit along with Kesava. Maiden dive under water was the key highlight for a non-swimmer.

December: A weekend visit to Kole wetlands and Chavakkad beach (in Kerala) for some more coastal birding and a day outing to Makalidurga and Nandi hills yet again!

New places were visited this year and many new contacts and friends made, blogging has been slow, as you see the Gujarat Diaries is yet to finish, that means the content of 2013 is completely pending!

As the calendar year changes to 2014, I hope to visit newer destinations, indulge in more adventure activities, travel a lot more and well travel and keep traveling :)

Before I close, didn't participate in many contests due to lack of time and creative mind, and pleased to be recognized amongst several giant bloggers (see the badges at the end of the page).

As always, the audience of this blog has been a great source of encouragement and support, wish to offer much more in content of this beautiful world and take you along on virtual journeys.

Do drop a note if you have time, encourages me all the more :)

FIVE years

5 years of blogging
A journey that began this week 5 years ago, a journey into the unseen virtual world, a journey of tales and tribunals, a journey to showcase the hidden splendors of the nature, journeys of joy and fun, journey of togetherness, journey of friends, journey of bonding, friendship and togetherness.

The saga of Huchchara Santhe is now at the step of completing ‘five’ years (let me clarify, this journey is only the virtual ‘web’ journey) and believe me, it’s been a fantastic ride all along.

5 years ago, a little known, shy, outspoken introvert decides to pen down his tales, his experiences, and his travels with his friends, egged upon by a like-minded friend, not aware what the virtual world has in store and thus came into existence in the virtual world, ‘Huchchara Santhe’.

A different name, something unique, something crazy… well, its all that we have done, been doing and will do ahead as well, I have received quite a few curious glances and expressions whenever I utter the name of my blog.

Blogging opened up new avenues, new dimensions, new thoughts and ideas came in and the articles started building up and after a slow beginning, the blog started having people follow and some would wait for an update! Humbled!

From only travel articles, new genre crept in with more photo blogs coming and now the blog caters to travel tales, treks, photography, wildlife, nature topics and much more.

With around 1.5 lac page views and about 100+ followers/readers on the blog and Facebook, the blog has tremendously grown much to our surprise and the ‘mouth of word’ reference has been a powerful way in this.

Heartfelt thanks to my boys, the close-knit group without whom probably I would have had no tales to even think of writing upon. Indiblogger.in has been a godsend site with a strong community of bloggers from different genre’s uniting together as a family. Networking sites are an important tool in reaching out to people and they have brought plenty of readers too.

Also, a great set of people who blog, who have fantastic blog to their credit, who have critiqued, appreciated, commented on my blog also have helped it grow tremendously.

A big ‘high-five’ to all of you and hope the support and encouragement continues. Thanks!


On this special occasion, I take privilege in hosting guest blogs of some of the best bloggers whom I’ve been following and who all have a different way of conveying their story to their audience.

Watch out folks!!!

Thanks and Keep Visiting :)

Butterflies Part V

Related posts here.

Some more of the gorgeous butterflies that we see regularly but hardly aware of. For a common person, all the butterflies look alike and are the same!

This is a small attempt to educate and encourage people more towards "buttering" (slang word for butterfly watching).


Plain Tiger butterfly
Danaus chrysippus, known as the Plain Tiger or African Monarch, is a common butterfly which is widespread in Asia and Africa. It is a medium-sized with a wingspan of about 7–8 cm, non-edible butterfly, which is mimicked by multiple species. The range of the Plain Tiger extends from Africa and southern Europe, eastwards via Sri Lanka, India, and Myanmar to China, Java and Sulawesi. It is a very common species.

Common Grass Yellow butterfly
The Large Grass Yellow or Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecabe) is a small pierid butterfly species found in Asia or Africa. They are found flying close to the ground and are found in open grass and scrub habitats. It is simply known as "the grass yellow" in parts of its range.

Great Eggfly butterfly
The Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina) is a species of nymphalid butterfly. It is a black-bodied butterfly with a wingspan of about 70–85 mm. It is found in Madagascar in the west, through to South and Southeast Asia, South Pacific islands, and occurs in parts of Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. It is a fairly common butterfly found in lightly wooded country, deciduous forests, thick and moist scrub and the greener parts of human habitation.

Peacock Pansy butterfly
The Peacock Pansy (Junonia almana) is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South Asia. It exists in two distinct adult forms, which differ chiefly in the patterns on the underside of the wings. The adult butterfly has a wingspan of 54–62 mm. It is found in India and South East Asia, and eastwards to China and Japan.

Wait for more fascinating ones :)
I refer http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/ and Wikipedia for information about the butterflies.

A Bloggers journey…

Well, I started this blog way back in 2008 and the primary intention was to ‘share’ my experiences, knowledge and showcase my journeys to the readers and to help them plan many such endeavors.

I’m a traveler at heart and still enjoy traveling at the knock of an opportunity. The blog kicked off with some of my travel articles from the past that I wrote based on my memory and what I could recollect. After few busy months, there appeared to be a jetlag when I was in a trance and sure of what to write (well, this happens to everybody), but in an effort to sustain the enthusiasm, I was waiting for any weekend travel opportunities just to write an article, such was the craze.

Before I could even realize, a couple of years had passed by and the blog was been fed regularly with my articles and quite a few people had taken a liking to it and were asking for more. All along, I used to use my compact digital camera wherever I used to go but dedicated time went into photography only when I lay my hands on the Dslr camera.

Slowly and steadily, all travels now had an element of photography in them and that helped me explore a lot of new places and as time lapsed by, my interest in nature in general and wildlife in particular grew leaps and bounds and that is now very relevant to the articles I blog about, showcasing the splendor of nature and travel tales together.

All along, I really appreciate and acknowledge the support shown from the readers, visitors and it always feels good when someone somewhere recognizes you by your blog and wishes you the best.

As I look forward, I intend to continue showcasing the beautiful nature to my readers maybe with more travel articles and also probably exploring new destinations and publishing all information that I can get so as to help people in their planning.

You can write to me at santosh.badri@gmail.com or connect with me on facebook.

This is a post written to be eligible to feature on Prismma.

Recap 2012, Welcome 2013

I traveled a fair bit in 2012 and to many new places and to some familiar jaunts. Overall, the year has been very productive and eventful :)

A long pending visit to Thattekad finally happened and was a very productive trip along with Amit.

Nature and Bird watching trails done covering many lakes on the peripheries of Bangalore – Bannerghatta, Hulimangala, Kaggalipura, Gulakamale, Madiwala, Hesaraghatta and Markonahally lakes with the UGS group (Usual gang of suspects as Deepa Mohan calls it) and others.

Much awaited and long overdue moment of owning a bullet transpired – a proud owner of a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350cc bike – time for the biker in me to evolve!

Owning a bike and no rides…!

So happened bike rides to Bandipura, Ramanagara, Jalamangala (the only ‘trek’ of 2012) with Guru and a solo ride of about 1000+ kms to Ganeshgudi (Dandeli) and back.

Team outings were scarce and had a good time with the group at Ganeshgudi in March. No more team events, hope for more team outings in 2013!

Attended couple of Indiblogger meets in Bangalore and had a good time and met lot of new people. Took part in lot of contests this year and was rewarded with vouchers and hampers for the same. Being in the top 10 and winning a Samsung phone was another highlight, courtesy Cinthol’s new campaign propagating alive is awesome.

Went with the family on a pilgrimage to the holy temple town of Badrinath in the Himalayas and that was another memorable outing.

Went around Bengaluru city to capture the old-time towers that were the boundaries of the city, the Kempegowda towers that are now almost bang in the centre – how big have we grown!!!

A weekend spent at one of our favored destinations - BR hills.

Took time out to volunteer for wildlife conservation and took part in activities at Gopalaswamy betta and Melagiris forest ranges and the Turahalli habba.

Interest in macro photography and also reptiles/amphibians took me to Goa and Coorg (Honey valley estate). Wish more people visit Goa for its wilderness rather than the beaches and wine!

Visited Hampi and Daroji (for the Sloth bears) with a new team and was a fun trip all along.

Prashanth, a college mate working in Dubai – met him after 10 long years (connected back through Facebook) and him having similar interests helped matters the more.

November was a quiet month with only a drive to Ganeshgudi happening with KKT, who again is being introduced to wildlife and photography by self.

The highlight trip of the year – maiden solo trip for a fortnight to Gujarat happened in December and was very enjoyable and eventful, had a lifetime experience there and traveling solo has its pros and cons. Heartfelt thanks to Falguna Shah (from Ahmedabad) for helping me out on this and many others whom I met through the course of the trip.


The blog has evolved more over the year and has gained me more friends, more audience, more followers and has gained more popularity. Sincere thanks to all who take out time and come here to read this, I hope to live up to the expectations!

Watch out – much more to come!

2013 looks promising and I hope it brings with it more travel, new locations, new people and overall more growth as an individual :)

Butterflies Part IV

Part I here
Part II here
Part III here

Let's have a look at some more of the beautiful winged jewels with those intricate patterns and designs and that flutter and soar with all pride and glamor in front of you :)


Malabar Banded Peacock butterfly
The Malabar Banded Peacock (Papilio buddha) is a species of swallowtail found in the Western Ghats of India. The wing expanse is 107–155 mm making it a large butterfly. This probably is one of most beautiful specimens I have seen till date.

Common Sailer butterfly
(Neptis hylas), sometimes known as the Common Sailer, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It has a characteristic stiff gliding flight achieved by short and shallow wingbeats.

Blue Mormon butterfly
The Blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor) is a large swallowtail butterfly and endemic to India and Sri Lanka. In India it is restricted to the Western Ghats, Southern India and the East coast. It is often seen even in the gardens and sometimes in the middle of busy traffic in large cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. The butterfly is most common in heavy rainfall areas, such as evergreen forests. Commonly found in deciduous forests and wooded urban areas, primarily due to the cultivation of its host plants, i.e. the Citrus species.

White-bar Bushbrown butterfly
The White-bar Bushbrown (Mycalesis anaxias) is a species of satyrid butterfly found in South and Southeast Asia with a wingspan of 51–60 mm.

I refer http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/ and Wikipedia for information about the butterflies.

Jalamangala (Narayanagiri hill)

(the first view... the spot on the top is the temple and the tree)

 

Mid hot April and myself and guru decided to go on a short hike to Jalamangala, near the town of Ramanagara close to Bengaluru. I got pointers to this location from Aravind’s blog post on the same (http://aravindgj.blogspot.in/2011/04/jalamangala.html). I presume this is also known as the Narayanagiri hill.

Directions: At the Ramanagara town signal take the right turn, a little ahead take the left at the Y junction. 20kms from here and you will reach Jalamangala village.

As you near the village, take the broad road toward the left and proceed for a km or so and park your vehicle at the base of the big tamarind tree. A clear trail leads you all the way to the top as we realized later. This is the easiest and best way to reach the top.

Else, at the fork, turn right and reach the village. You can park at any of the houses here and ask for directions to the cliff. This path is tricky and you may have to find out ways yourself and it takes a longer time too.

I and guru rode on my bullet first to Ramanagara to have a peek at the vultures. After some scouting, finally we saw a lone individual at a far distance away, noticeable was the absence of any activity on the cliff. Boards indicating ‘Vulture Sanctuary’ have been put up near the tar road (Latest update: the area is declared as a protected area for conservation of the very few Long billed Vultures left). After a good one hour we moved towards Jalamangala. As I had read, it hardly takes less than an hour for the ascent, so we took it easy and moved without any hurry.

As we approached the village, we could see the cliff far away and made the mistake of going to the village instead of taking a left turn to the base. The villagers suggested I leave the bike near their house (it would be safe from mischief makers) and walk from behind the village to ascend the cliff. I nodded as I thought it to be a good idea and there would be no worry about my bike but we realized the hard part very soon. The villager guided us saying – “As you traverse behind the village, you see a lake and a small temple, take the path next to it and keep climbing to reach the top”. All seemed well till we reached the lake and took the path next to it going upwards. We soon reached a hill top only to realize there was a bigger one to our right with dense growth in between. We somehow made our way to the top of that hillock to find nothing there and we could see another bigger hillock now behind us and with not suitable path direction seen. The sun was now all bright and fury and was pretty harsh and we had exhausted our water supply too. It was becoming increasingly difficult and the hear getting unbearable. After pondering what to do and resting for some time, we finally made up our minds to figure out the way to the top however long it may take!

Taking a narrow path and crawling amidst the dense growth we joined a fairly used track going uphill only to realize that was the actual well marked path to the top from the other side of the hill closer to the main road (as I have indicated above). Relieved, we started climbing again now following the arrow marks (thanks to the person who has taken the effort to paint the arrow marks everywhere) leading to the top, Traversing to the top on the fairly notified path in pretty much easy and you get to pass through the edge of the cliff at one point (lucking iron rails are there for support) and steps carved out in the rocks. Finally we reached the top to see the similar sight of a temple and a tree that was the lone identifier of this place I had seen about. There were a few people inside the temple complex drunk and playing cards, in all probability they had camped overnight, prepared a non veg meal, drunk and were gambling. Felt very bad seeing the sight but a lone Egyptian Vulture soaring nearby lifted my spirits as we sat and rested for some time. The sun was right on top now and we had run out of water and were feeling the heat now. We could see lot of small dry ponds around and remains of fort walls (not sure though). The tree on the top was excellent providing good shade to relax under. The view from the top was good and you could see as far as you want being a sunny dry day.

We then descended following the marked route and traced back the route to the village. Back there, I literally gulped some 4-5 bowls of water but still was feeling very thirsty and hot. Hot weather, hungry stomachs and tired bodies are not a good combination on any day J We asked a villager about the activities on top of the hill and he replied – “Yes, they do go as it’s a cool place, its quite common”. I felt like bulldozing him right there but kept quite not to create a ruckus there. The journey back home was uneventful and was a good ride on the bullet.

Tips: Carry food and water, do not litter the place.

Use your instincts if you can’t find the way, simple rule being you need to climb and so figure out how!

Ride safe! Be safe!

A Spooked tale... SoakNoMore

SoakNoMore

The day I got an email stating registrations are open for the SoakNoMore Surf Excel Matic Indimeet in Bengaluru. I was waiting for this for long and without a second thought I registered myself to attend the event. I was skeptical about attending but nevertheless didn’t want to miss the opportunity to be part of such a huge gathering.

Excitement was the order of the day and nightfall arrived rapidly as if saying ‘enough of your excitement, let’s end the day’! My mind was still occupied with the thoughts of SoakNoMore Indimeet. I was amazed to see so many people with me seated in a corner trying to hide from the MC and the camera flash lights… the person seated in front of me turned around and I could see a monstrous hideous face staring at me! Shivering, I forced myself away to see a green, creepy, slimy thing making its way towards me from the side. The shivering increased and now sweating profusely, I stood up and waved to the MC, all that I could see was a bug like thing with long antennae and spiny skin coming towards me! All that I could hear were them yelling “SkNmr” at me…! I shrieked at the top of my voice and woke up alarmed with a noise! Panting heavily, I was relieved when I realized it was a dream… a scary one!

Next night, the same events recurred and the monstrous, hideous things coming towards me yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” and I capsized in the place where I was seated. I shouted at the top of my voice till a hand fell on my shoulder – I turned around gripping in fear only to realize it was my mom inquiring about me. Pretending a bad dream, I went back to sleep.

Days were moving faster and the nightmares were recurring more often and I could see all sorts of creatures yelling at me and I was losing sleep everyday. I still remember that afternoon at office, after a heavy lunch and with ‘want-of-sleep’ eyes, I just dozed off while sitting in my workplace.

I sensed some movement through the corner of my eyes; I turned slowly in that direction to see a slimy, horrific creature peeping out from my back! As our eyes met, “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” was the only thing it yelled at me as if in protest. I gave it a whack to dislodge it from my shoulder and send it hurtling far away. Relieved just for a second, I saw another one peeping from my trouser pocket and yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” at me! I punched it hard till if fell of my trousers and squashed it under my boots. With a tired evil grin, I looked around in disgust to see a huge, filthy, spiky creature on the collar of my colleague seated beside me yelling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” at me! Feeling dizzy, I woke up and with a loud shriek gave a hard slap with my book on to his neck. Taken aback by violent shaking, I opened my eyes to see quizzical faces around me asking ‘What was the reason for that hard slap’! Somehow, I survived that day!

The d-day arrived; I finally took part in the SoakNoMore Surf Excel Matic Indimeet in Bengaluru. Had a good time interacting with lot of bloggers, playing games and talking about our writing! I saw lot of large posters of the SoakNoMore and the new product on it. The representative from Surf spoke in length about the new product of Surf Excel Matic where in you need not soak the clothes prior to washing with the use of the new detergent powder. I rode back home satisfied and happy to have been part of the meet with my gift hamper.

A slight movement on my arms woke me and I just spanked on it thinking to be a mosquito. Continuous movements kept me disturbed and finally made me open my sore, sleepy eyes. With my eyeballs popping out in horror, the creature was crawling up on me. I looked in disgust to see multiples of them on my legs, knees, bed, my jacket hung on the door, the dump of clothes kept aside for washing, my bag on the table, on the window and door curtains, literally everywhere in the room! I could hear all of them mumbling “SkNmr”, “SkNmr” and advancing menacingly towards me. Holding my head, I was about to yell at the top of my voice but I sensed a pat on my back. Surprised, I turned to find the MC telling me “SoakNoMore – no more soaking before washing”. It stuck me that all these days what I was hearing to was the same – “SkNmr – SoakNoMore”. I turned around to find no creepies or crawlies around and everything looked normal as always. Then, I realized what were those creatures trying to tell me all these days from the time I registered for the event – “No more soaking”. I laughed hysterically as my eyes fell on the new box of SurfExcel Matic with Vibarting Molecules sitting in the corner. Murmuring SoakNoMore, I went to sleep – a happy and relieved man!

This article has been written for the contest 'Soak No More' on IndiBlogger.

Bannerghatta National Park

The wilderness closer to Bengaluru, the crowded place on weekends and holidays, the place the kids need to be taken, the place to picnic for the families, yet everybody undermines the importance of this place and snubs it as a “zoo” only.

(A new day, a new hope...)

The Bannerghatta Biological Park where most of the visitors visit is part of the larger Bannerghatta National Park ­that hosts a lot of wildlife in it and is also an important elephant corridor in the region.

 

We (I) generally visit the park area avoiding the zoo and the safari rides and roam around the other places rich in birdlife and usually devoid of crowds. I’m happy to have visited the right places with the right people like Deepa, Amit, Kannan’s, Sanjeev, Vaibhav and many others where every time I got to learn and see something new.

I’m copying below what Deepa had to mention about the spots around BBP for interesting things and in particular the birdlife, but before a few things of what to do and what not to…

1. Enjoy what you see, and observe first. There is a lot to be learnt rather than photographic documentation only. Do not rush to take photographs.
2. For documentation purpose, do make a list of what you’ve seen with the dates and add notes and sketches if possible.
3. Try not to disturb the animals or creatures or as little as possible in case of insects or smaller beings. Wear dull colored clothes and avoid drastic or sudden movements.
4. Avoid litter in any form. If you can, please volunteer to clean the place.
5. If the forest department or JLR staff warn you about wild elephants in the area, heed to their warning; often wild elephants try to mingle with the camp elephants.

And now listed are some areas where you find bountiful of life forms, be it birds, insects, mammals, butterflies and many more…

1. Come out of the Bannerghatta bus terminus, facing the windmill and Hill View restaurant, come down the stairs, and go left, take the path to the immediate left of the terminus wall. This will take you to the public parking lot (where you will always see a Rufous-tailed Lark couple!). Go into the area behind the car park (to the east) and you will find a large quarry pond, a citrus orchard, and further, a large banyan tree. A lot of birds will reward your efforts!

2. Go down from the main gate of the Zoo towards the Herbivore Safari Park gate. The Zoo wall will be on your right. This avenue is named ‘Flycatcher Avenue’ by Deepa Mohan and rightly so as you see lot of flycatchers in this lane (Tickells’ blue, Asian Paradise, Brown breasted, Fantail, Asian Brown, etc…)

3. Further ahead is the pond named as Kingfisher pond by Deepa Mohan. Rightly so, you get to see the White breasted, Common blue and the Pied Kingfishers here. Walk around the pond and look across the fence area too, you may sight some herbivores too.

4. The quarry pond next to the butterfly park (go up the bund) and you may see some Pied Kingfishers and Waders. Beyond this is a No entry area – Don’t trespass.

5. The butterfly park is a host to many colorful wonderful butterflies.

6. Outside of the park area, the road towards Ragihalli, Shivanahalli are also good.

Please do not venture into the forests thinking you are the bravest around and risk your life as it happened recently! It's an important elephant corridor area and they don't like intruders in their domain.

Be Safe and let them live Safe!

Deepa Mohan blogs at

http://deponti.livejournal.com,
http://deponti.wordpress.com

Bangalore bloggers will SoakNoMore

Bangalore Indiblogger meet - #SoakNoMore

Anyone on Indiblogger eagerly waits for an Indimeet at their location. Such is the craze that people travel from different places just to take part and meet up with fellow bloggers and it was no exception this time. There were a few bloggers coming in from Chennai / Hyderabad exclusively for this meet :)

Leo, The Fool, Sibi, Gyanban, Harsha, Tina were all there and also met Pooja, Naba, Thousef, Ghanchakkar, Farida, Suresh and others. This was my first Indimeet and I had no inkling of what to expect, I only expected to meet lot of people! Venue was the Capitol hotel on Rajbhavan Road, Bengaluru. Date and Time - 1:30-5pm on 4th August 2012.

(Master of Ceremonies - Zombie (Anoop))

Anoop (or Zombie) was the MC for the evening supported by Renie, Vineet, Nandita, Karthik, and the many others and he had a list of events planned for the afternoon. Indiblogger meet and no prizes, it can’t be that way – believe me! DVD players, bean bags, gift hampers were the surprise gifts in store for the afternoon.

(the elusive Renie Ravin on Indiblogger)

Introductory sessions with some questions (winners got the goodie’s) of all the bloggers took off very well with interesting lines and comments from different people and some heart felt emotions too. The Indiblogger team had some wonderful games up their sleeves for the evening like lagori, ball in the basket, anagrams and the luckiest winners were the anagram winners with all the participants of Team Orange winning a DVD player! Lots of people got to carry home Bean bags and 6 months supply of Surf Excel and gift hampers too that had conditioners, deodorants and similar stuff.

After an entertaining and energy sapping phase, high tea was served with lots of cakes, sandwiches, and rolls topped up with tea / coffee. After the energizing break was the time for promotion of their Surf Excel (with vibrating molecules) brand by their brand manager who put up a presentation and questions and gave away goodies too.

A final note of thanks by Zombie and the end of the event and an Indiblogger Purple T-shirt and a gift hamper from Surf Excel to bring curtains down on an entertaining afternoon. Zillion thanks to the entire Indiblogger team and Surf Excel for putting up a splendid event and hope the next meet is round the corner :)

All Photo credits to Harsha Chitta who blogs at Curious Dino Photography here

An afternoon with the bloggers

Since I steeped in to the blogging community, I have had no chance to neither meet any blogger nor attend any blogger meets and the meet this time was an informal one just between the members of our group The Bengaluru Bloggers’ Bistro created for the IBL. Well, the event was just an excuse to meet up and I’m glad I did it. Got to meet interesting people who are all experts in their own domain and the exchange of thoughts and ideas was a fair deal, more importantly got to know a lot of new people personally.

Attendees:

Leo: http://artofleo.wordpress.com/

Gyanban: http://www.gyanban.com/

The Fool: http://luciferhouseinc.blogspot.in/

Harsha Chittar: http://curiousdino.blogspot.in/

Sibichen: http://sibi-cyberdiary.blogspot.in/

Tina Basu http://twinklingtinacooks.blogspot.in/

and myself…

Venue: NGV Club, National Games Village, Bangalore

1^st July 2012, 02-05pm hosted by Sibichen Mathew

Lots of information gained, exchanged and in a way you can say ‘a little enlightenment’ and its great to know how people are still passionate about their passion and hope their passion remains as it is.

Got a lot of gyan from the master Gyanban (well, he got this nickname from his workplace) on what he writes, how he writes and well almost everything. Harsha was curious to meet The Fool and we got an insight on how the ‘devil’s workshop’ runs; he’s a multi-tasker. Instantly all of us were pretty envious of Harsha’s job (he watches movies day in and out) and as he rightly said, boredom sets in once you are doing the same job repeatedly. An unknown fact about passionate poet Leo was that he started writing at the age of 9 (well, he’s gifted) and he says ‘I’ll die if I stop writing’; how many of us can have that kind of a passion! Tina, again is a multi-tasker fiddling with cooking, 55 fiction , short stories and anything that interests her. Sibichen, was the only government employee among the group who shared info about his work and his work on fiction, reviews, stories and stuff he writes about.

Some people write only because they want to write, no to please anyone or to meet anybody’s expectations. You write because you want to write and that’s when your creativity, your thoughts, your feelings, your ideas take a shape of a story, a photo, a fiction in the way you want, the way it should be…!

Happy Blogging!

Adios!

Hesaraghatta Grassland - PostcardsII

Sign this online petition and help save one of the last remaining grasslands in and around Bangalore.

http://www.change.org/petitions/principal-secretary-ms-building-ambedkar-vidhi-bangalore-stop-the-development-of-a-theme-park-on-the-grassland-near-hesaraghatta#

Wonder how long can the sight be as below...!

A home away from home for the migrants who never fail to turn up in spite of the deteriorating environmental conditions... to delight us and scores of wildlife lovers!

and not to forget the common birds who pose for us like this with all elegance and grace!

Where will they go, what will they do, how will they survive ?

Will I ever see them again :( Will the grassland survive to host all of the wonderful migrant specimens again next year? Will it remain as one of the very few grasslands around Bangalore despite urbanization?

All questions and no answers!?!

Hesaraghatta Grassland - Some PostcardsI

Hesaraghatta grasslands in Bangalore are always a treat during the winter months specifically as its famous for the visiting raptors from all across the world and from the north too. Kestrels, Harriers, Falcons, Chats, Pipits, Larks and it also supports a whole variety of resident species too.

Presenting some of my takes from the wonderful place.

Unfortunately, the lone surviving grassland in the near vicinity of bangalore is in threat of losing its identity and birds as the government has other ideas for its beautification and promoting it as a tourist spot.

I would request you to lend your support against this by signing this petition here -

http://www.change.org/petitions/principal-secretary-ms-building-ambedkar-vidhi-bangalore-stop-the-development-of-a-theme-park-on-the-grassland-near-hesaraghatta#

Nature trails around Bengaluru - Gulakamale lake

ORANGE was the flavor of the day and all of us were orange happy and so were the birds who flocked the orange tree that made it a orange spot for people like us. Nature is so colorful and so is Butea Monosperma with its bright orange flowers attracting hordes of birds and butterflies to offer its nectar, yes here I'm referring to the 'Flame of the Forest' tree also known as the 'Palash tree' ('Muttuga' or 'Muttulu' in Kannada).

As we took a detour to Gulakamale via Bannerghatta road avoiding the NICE road due to the traffic pile up, this tree shining orange with the rays of the rising sun falling on it caught our attention a long distance away and we just could not get away from the hot spot and all the activity happening there.

A brief description of the tree as cited by our Guru-G 'Karthikeyan Srinivasan' on his blog:
"This tree when in bloom is indeed a sight to behold, particularly so when the forest around it is dry and most trees bereft of leaves. The Flame of the Forest too, like many other trees that share the habitat sheds most of its leaves before putting forth the bright, yet pleasing, orange flowers arranged that are placed in clusters on its branches. The flowers are visited by a host of organisms – birds and butterflies. An early morning birding session in the vicinity of this tree during its flowering season is rarely disappointing. It can be propagated from seeds."
Karthik's blog here - http://www.wildwanderer.com/journal/ Do visit and you will definitely thank me for it :)

Common Myna, Jungle Myna, Rosy Starling, Chestnut tailed Starling, Tailor bird, Tawny Bellied Babbler, Rose ringed Parakeet, Loten's Sunbird, Purple Sunbird in hordes kept visiting and flying out of the tree in groups and batches. The commotion of birds was so audible that all our ooh's and aah's could not be heard at all.

When the tree is in full bloom, you don't get to see any leaves (very few left) and it's a rush of orange everywhere as you admire it's beauty and appearance. Once the flowers fall off, the barren branches become more visible till the greens start appearing again. Till the flowering season, the tree is full of dark green leaves and the cycle continues into the next season.

As per Wikipedia, this plant kills mosquitoes - "The Mosquitoes are attracted by the smell and color of the flower. They lay eggs in the liquid within the flower but that eggs will never hatch. The Mosquitoes that touches the fluid can never escape from it".

After an extended stopover at the tree, we moved reluctantly ahead to the Gulakamale lake as the morning sun was still in his elements glowing everything that came in his contact. Here again the sun's rays bore a wonderful reflection on the waters and that
presented a lovely sight to us.

We were a pretty big group this time around and all of us were interested in something or the other either be an insect, larvae, butterfly, twig, tree, bird, bee or an silhouette, everyone including the kids were busy either observing or photographing it.

As the others moved ahead, a decent sized bird caught my attention on a tree nearby and on further slithering investigation revealed it to be the Common Hawk Cuckoo sitting high in the canopy and calling out meticulously.

As we went around the lake, up into the rocks and down by the bushes and near to the water yet far away on the road, the sightings increased by the minute and there were quite a few 'good catches' for the day.

(picture courtesy: Deepa Mohan)

After all the savoring our minds and hearts had done, the stomachs were banging and howling for some attention and they were pleased when presented with an assortment of multi cuisine 'brefus' (yes, breakfast as DM calls it) containing Idli's, sandwiches, bread-butter, cakes and biscuits.

Yellow browed Bulbul, Blue faced Malkoha, River Tern, Oriental Honey buzzards were found around the lake area in multiples. From the lake after the osum brefus, we visited a small stream close by that has a temple too called the Gulakamale falls but no such falls existed there.

The place was serene, somewhere deep in a remote location but unclean and a mess with bottles and plastics around, sad state of affairs as with the other spots near Bangalore. Still birdlife was quite good in the area with sightings of the Flameback woodpecker, Babblers, Blue bearded bee eaters, Black shouldered Kite, Kestrel and host of other birds all around us.

On our way back after the mind boggling sessions and still orangish in our minds, we took the same route back and stopped near the orange tree to get more feel of the orange tree. Even as now the sun was almost on our heads, the activity though waned down was still on and it seemed though it would continue to be till dusk or till all the flowers withered away.


An osum Orange day with an osum gang being osum company :)