Ganeshgudi in March

Well, we never need an invitation or a reason to visit the JLR Old Magazine House camp at Ganeshgudi, all that we need is just an excuse. That came in the form of Parshuram, caretaker there calling me on a casual note and he mentioned about the Indian Pitta that was all over the place.

That’s it!

I didn’t need any further excuses; conveyed the same to my team and luckily all of them agreed as it was just for a day’s stay leaving home the Friday night and returning back on Monday morning. Another reason was that, we had never been there in March and this was a good time to explore the bird life in March.

Prior to this, our visits to this place has been in July, Sep, Oct, Nov, Jan and now Mar thus completing 6 months in a year when we have been here. Hope I add another 3 months to the list this year :)

We took the train route this time again booking tickets on the Rani Chennamma express to Londa from where Ganeshgudi is about 20 odd kms. Nag, as usual acting notorious nowadays booked his own tickets by bus and chose to travel alone. As the train stopped mid way, a beautiful sunrise greeted us along with the wishes of the commonly seen birds. Notably this time, the train was late and we missed the connecting bus to Ganeshgudi and were late in reaching the camp and finally had our breakfast late! Being March, we expected the weather to be harsh but were surprised by the cool weather early in the day and moderate weather throughout the day. Sumeet Moghe, an NTPian (http://www.learninggeneralist.com/) was there a day before us and had gone to Goa for the Zuari River birding cruise.

From here on, normal schedule of the team was in place; eat, drink and sleep happily and my schedule was to sit in the open porch with my cameras by the side and served with regular cups of tea. In between all of us went for a couple of walks during the day and also in the night to sight anything if possible. When you look up from the place where there is hardly any pollution or noise, you get to see a lovely wonderful sky with stars all over shining bright in competition; you can just keep gazing over it for hours together!

Birding or Bird watching wise, we were treated by the Indian Pitta show for the entire period we were there and also by the Emerald doves and the Blue capped Rock Thrush. Personally, I have always been a fan of the colorful Indian Pitta (also known as Navranga) having those vibrant bright colors and those musical song notes and I was more than happy only to shoot this one the whole day. The Emerald doves were much more willing this time and came in multiples to see us and we were treated to a bonus sighting of 3 individuals together at once. The Blue capped Rock Thrush was another show stopper when I caught him unawares on the ground and I had to kneel and crawl and he obliged till my back started aching badly and I had to move around that made him fly.

Now, the photos will start and they will they what a gala of a time we had there and note this may run into a couple of posts :)

Bird checklist:-

Indian Pitta

Emerald Dove

Malabar Whistling Thrush

Malabar Parakeet

Chestnut Tailed Starling

Blyth’s Starling

Puff Throated Babbler

Dark Fronted Babbler

White Rumped Shama

Malabar Whistling Thrush

Malabar Trogon

Vernal Hanging Parrot

Rose Ringed Parakeet

Green Bee Eater

Chestnut headed Bee Eater

Brown Cheeked Fulvetta

White bellied Blue Flycatcher

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher

Asian brown Flycatcher

Black Naped Monarch Flycatcher

Verditter Flycatcher

Blue capped Rock Thrush

Orange Headed Thrush

Black headed Munia

Golden Fronted Leafbird

Purple rumped Sunbird

Crimson backed Sunbird

Malabar Grey Hornbill

Malabar Pied Hornbill

Velvet fronted Nuthatch

Black Drongo

Racquet tailed Drongo

Orange Minivet

Yellow browd Bulbul

Red Whiskered Bulbul

Red Vented Bulbul

Great Tit

Common Iora

Black lored Yellow Tit

Blyth’s Reed Warbler

Nilgiri Flowerpecker

Greater Flameback Woodpecker

Heart spotted Woodpecker

Common Kingfisher

White breasted Kingfisher

Crested Goshawk

And, as we were just about to leave, we came across this little Green Vine Snake wobbly making its way across, he was very mild and let us click him in patience!

Wait for the loads of photo posts :)

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#

Haddinakallu betta and Melukote temples

Haddinakallu betta (Eagle hill when translated directly to English)

From Markonahalli dam, we moved ahead to visit this place just located after Yediyur town that we avoided taking the bypass.

Route: 4kms after Yediyur, you will reach a village Tirumalapura. Immediately after this village, take the turn to the right (boards indicative of this place is put up on the main road), you will reach Byrasandra village and from there you can’t miss the track to the foothills of the cliff.

The temple at the village was not any big structure, temples dedicated to Lord Rama and Hanuman and lots of pilgrims from nearby villages visit here regularly (it seems by the development activity around). We just took a look and proceeded in the direction of the cliff. Except Dhiraj’s blog (http://teamgsquare.blogspot.in/2010/07/places-to-visit-around-bangalore-part-5.html), there was no other source of information about this place. Two things struck us as we approached closer to the base of the cliff – there were lots of raptors seen around (raptors are birds of prey) and we could see lot of sacrificed hen feathers strewn all around.

Yes, we realized that it was a place for animal sacrifice (mostly hens being butchered and taken away right in front of us) and that explained the presence of many birds of prey near that cliff. They got protective shelter in the cliffs and meals in the form of leftovers by the people who came there. But, what surprised me was animal/bird sacrifices to Lord Hanuman… never have I seen anything as such before? Just as we looked around, an Shikra perched close to us and up in the sky we saw the Egyptian vultures hovering near the edge of the cliff and also another of the raptor perched on a tree branch on top of the cliff. It was out of reach of my binoculars and camera and the only option we had was to climb up and go and see for ourselves what the bird that perched was?

Crazy it may sound, but fueled not to miss the opportunity I started climbing briskly loaded with two of my cameras on my shoulders and Nag and Guru following closely behind with the binoculars and some water to quench our thirst. The sun was blowing hot and climbing a bare hillock on an uneven inclined path was not easy. We had to reach the top with the hope that the bird would not fly away and also before any other group of people ascended the cliff and lest the bird fly away! Panting and gasping for breath, we reached the top only to find the bird not on the branch that we had seen; in fact we could not identify which branch it had perched on! A few steps ahead and there I found it perched in the shade and I was quick enough to sign others to view the beauty. It was the beautiful Peregrine Falcon, an avid hunter and has the tag of the being the fastest flyer in the animal kingdom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Falcon).

My first sighting of the elusive raptor and we sure will remember this for long. It just gave us a few seconds before it took off and we could not trace it there after. Happy for the sighting and disappointed of not getting a good shot of it, we moved ahead towards the edge of the cliff where a sort of temple is there. In fact we could not find any shrine inside the temple complex but a lone pillar stands with carving of Lord Hanuman on it and true to its name as soon as few other visitors ringed the bells tied over there, a horde of monkeys descended near the pillar from nowhere to feast on the coconuts and bananas offered.

The view from the top was good but the heat was getting to us. With the lone water bottle frisked away by the monkeys, we were all left high and dry under the hot sun. A lone Egyptian vulture soared next to the cliff which we were intently waiting for and it kept soaring and soaring and showed no signs of perching anywhere near the cliff. All of our tiredness was forgotten till the vulture was around and after a good fifteen minutes of soaring; he vanished from where he came! Alas, again we could not find out where he went. We wandered around the cliffs sneaking in all corners and all pathways available to try and see if we could find any of the vultures around but to no luck. After wandering around like lost souls, we came back down the cliff and towards our next destination Melukote.

Melukote (or Melkote)

Route: From Yediyur town, you need to travel up to Nelligere and then take a left towards Nagamangala and again a right towards Melkote temple (the best option would be to enquire the directions before proceeding).

Melukote had been on my wish list since long and I was more than happy to visit the place. For the first time visitors, reaching the place without having sufficient knowledge would be a little confusing as we found out. There are 2 temples here (the main temple at the base and another atop a hill).

Something about Melukote (from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melukote)

“Melukote in Pandavapura taluk of Mandya district, Karnataka, in southern India, is one of the sacred places in Karnataka. The place is also known as Thirunarayanapuram. It is built on rocky hills, known as Yadugiri, Yaadavagiri and Yadushailadweepa, overlooking the Cauvery valley. Melukote is about 51 km (32 miles) from Mysore and 133 km (83 mi) from Bangalore. Melukote is the location of the Cheluvanarayana Swamy Temple, with a collection of crowns and jewels which are brought to the temple for the annual celebration. On the top of the hill is the temple of Yoganarasimha. Melukote is home to the Academy of Sanskrit Research, which has collected thousands of manuscripts.”

We first drove straight to the temple atop the hill only to find it closed, we had reached at a wrong time and the temple would open only by 5pm! Then we came down to visit the main temple shrine after visiting the sacred temple pond and passing through the small by-lanes of the village and looking at the ancient old buildings, I felt as being in a village centuries old. The old style buildings have some good feel about them that you stop and exclaim Wow! We took a quick darshan of the lord Cheluvanarayana Swamy and then halted for some rest, time to explore the Galaxy S2 phone of Guru, eh!

Time was running out and we had to reach Ramanagara to get a glimpse of the vultures around and had about 80kms to cover in an hour and add to that the busy Mysore-Bangalore highway would be choked with traffic returning home to Bangalore. Odds stacked upon us, we quickly moved from Melukote to reach the highway bypassing Pandavapura on the way. As expected, the traffic rush wash high and I had to slow down many a times owing to the slow moving vehicles and to give way to the super speeders! Unluckily it was almost dark as we reached Ramanagara and still I took them to the place as they had never been seen it before. Alas! We were late by about thirty minutes as the sun had already set and the few rays were diminishing very rapidly. From there on, it was a slow and steady drive back home negotiating the mad traffic and driving at leisure reaching home by 8pm.

What a day and what a drive! 335kms drive in a day and got to see a lot of good places never seen before :)

Thanks to Dhiraj (http://teamgsquare.blogspot.com) and my buddies Guru and Nag; 

Raja-we missed your colorful company.

Route outlay: Bangalore-Nelamangala-Kunigal-Markonahalli dam-Yediyur-Haddinakal betta-Nelligere-Nagamangala-Melkote-Mandya-Ramanagara-Bangalore.

Food: No food or water available near Markonhalli dam or Haddinakal betta. Melukote is self sufficient being a touristy place.


Other Info: Markonahalli dam suited for a family getaway, Haddinakallu betta for those interested in climbing and Melukote for all the pious people :)

Nature trails around Bengaluru

As I'm lagging behind with many of my posts and with hardly any time to sit on them, I'm clubbing few of my outings of bird watching and nature trails in and around Bengaluru into one single post. Most of these were with the UGS (Usual Gang of Suspects) as Deepa Mohan aptly calls it!

Well, winter mornings are not the time to be sleeping at home and we made the most of it wandering to any place that was interesting around. Wonderful sessions and lip smacking 'assortment of breakfast' from many homes to keep up our energies and unending humorous discussions are the main ingredients of the UGS nature trails and walks every time.

Valley School area (Rishi Valley School):

Me, Amit and his friend Srinivas went on this trail around the campus, probably one of my longest trails in and around the campus. We traversed on the road next to the gate and then took the track into the campus at the far end and then wandered off on some trail only to get lost for a good hour or so and finally managed to trace our way back into civilization. Well, getting lost had its advantages as we got to see the Verditer flycatcher, Fantail flycatcher antics and lots of Sunbirds on that route and a whole lot of elephant dung in many places. Buzzards, Wire tailed Swallow, Verditer were first time sightings for me in this place. Amit and Srinivas were first timers here and enjoyed the off trail and birding activity.

Route: On Kanakapura road, 100 mtrs after the NICE junction, take the right turn towards Rishi Valley school.

Tips: Don't wander alone, go at least in pairs, don't wander off the track - the forest behind the school campus connects to the Bannerghatta forest and finding you would be difficult. Carry water and snacks as nothing is available around.

Bird watching highlights:

Buzzards

Oriental white eye

Verditer flycatcher

Tickell's blue flycatcher

Purple sunbird

Purple rumped sunbird

Crimson backed sunbird

Common Iora

Fantail flycatcher

Tailor bird

Great tit

Eurasian golden oriole

White cheeked barbet

Coppersmith barbet

Wire tailed swallow

White breasted Kingfisher

Ashy prinia

Drongo

Rose ringed parakeet

Red wattled lapwing

Jungle babbler

Spotted dove

Eurasian collared dove ...

Hulimangala trail:
Wander along the Bannerghatta road towards Anekal and you get to many trails mostly near the villages around that are wonderful birding spots and Hulimangala is one such place so near to us, yet so far away :)

Deepa Mohan, the mastermind behind all these walks, coordinated with many of us and present in the group this time were 2 elderly ladies - elder only by age and not by enthusiasm. Hulimangala is a beautiful hamlet with those beautiful tall majestic trees and a lovely water body and a perfect place for birding and buttering.

Checklist (thanks to Sudhir naik for compiling this super fast):

Little Cormorant 
Little Egret 
Grey Heron 
Purple Heron 
Eastern Cattle Egret 
Indian Pond-Heron 
Oriental Honey-Buzzard 
Black-shouldered Kite 
Black Kite 
Brahminy Kite 
Shikra 
White-eyed Buzzard 
Common Kestrel 
Indian Peafowl 
Purple Swamphen 
Red-wattled Lapwing 
Common Greenshank 
Wood Sandpiper 
Blue Rock Pigeon 
Spotted Dove 
Rose-ringed Parakeet 
Asian Koel 
Greater Coucal 
Mottled Wood-Owl 
Spotted Owlet 
House Swift 
Common Kingfisher 
White-throated Kingfisher 
Lesser Pied Kingfisher 
Indian Roller 
White-cheeked Barbet 
Coppersmith Barbet 
Barn Swallow 
Red-rumped Swallow 
White-browed Wagtail 
Paddyfield Pipit 

Red-whiskered Bulbul 
Common Iora 
Brown Shrike
Oriental Magpie-Robin 
Pied Bushchat 
Plain Prinia 
Blyth's Reed-Warbler 
Booted Warbler
Asian Brown Flycatcher 
Purple-rumped Sunbird 
Scaly-breasted Munia 
Common Myna 
Jungle Myna 
Indian Golden Oriole 
Black Drongo 
Ashy Drongo 
House Crow 
Indian Jungle Crow

As we had to rush back, we had to skip the mandatory brefus and what a osum outing this was :)

Kaggalipura trail (Fred's place):
Just on the periphery of the Bannerghatta park, we went on another trail near Kaggalipura and precisely behind the small property owned by Fred Pais and his wife Claire who are a delightful couple to be with. Me, DM, the Managolis and Kannand's were in attendance with their kids on this trail. Usually a person from the estate comes and guides us around the hillocks and dense foliage, but as nobody were available, we made it on our own not venturing too far away from the estate, lest we get lost in the Bannerghatta forests.

The sunrise was fantastic, birding was excellent, breakfast osum and finally all of them ganged upon to target me and my bachelorhood, gosh! somehow escaped unscathed :)

(can you spot the bird?)

Bird checklist (as I can recall now):
Oriental honey buzzard
Blue bearded bee eater
Small minivet
Oriental bush lark
Golden fronted leafbird
Shikra
Common Kestrel
Asian Koel
Purple rumped sunbird
Eurasian collared dove
Spotted dove
Red whiskered bulbul
Red vented bulbul
Barn swallow

Useful links:
Bangalore birding blog - http://www.bangalorebirding.blogspot.in/
Deepa Mohan's FB albums - https://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=587058877

A year ends and a year begins...

31st December 2011
I'm not a party animal and I do not follow any 'dancing into the new year' stuff. Being a weekend, I wanted to end the year doing what I love to do the most, off I went on a nature and bird watching trail along with Deepa, Vaibhav and the super spotter Deepu to Bannerghatta National Park.

We don't enter the park premises nor go to the 'safari joy crowded tamasha rides', rather we move around the park, near the pond, quarry, behind the parking lot, behind jlr campus and we get to see good amount of birds in their natural habitats here. Also mammals from the Herbivore safari area are visible on the fringes as do wild elephants sometimes that come in search of partners (domesticated elephants).

Overcast conditions was not very helpful, but still we saw more than 40 species of birds that day and sighting the Pied, Common and WB Kingfishers all in one place excited me no end.

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01 January 2012
Similar thoughts as previous day and being a Sunday, I wanted to start off the year birding and off I went straight from the bed to my backyard, Madiwala lake armed with my binocs and my cameras.

An eventful session and an wonderful start to 2012...
I have nothing much to write and will let the pictures do the talking... Enjoy :)

  

Syntheri Rocks (Dandeli) (Part II)

Well, the 2nd part is finally here after appearing as a guest post on My Yatra Diary, blog by Arti from Mumbai. I selected this article for her when she asked for an guest post on any topic of my choice.

Here is the link -> http://myyatradiary.com/2012/01/syntheri-rocks-at-dandeli-western-ghats.html

or here -> Syntheri Rocks guest post

If you are an traveler and love visiting temples and heritage spots, please go through her blog she has some brilliantly composed detailed stuff over there and you can have a virtual tour of every other pilgrimage center she has visited. I thank Arti for the gesture and giving me another chance to guest post on her famous blog. Thanks :)
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Me to Raja - What shall we do tom when Nag and Guru come, any plans?
Raja - As said earlier, either Kavala caves or Syntheri rocks
Me - Y not jungle safari at Dandeli
Raja - Check
Parshu(staff at JLR) - Sir, safari cost, 850/- head, not advised
Me- Kavala?
Parshu - Sir, total 8hrs reqd, need to leave at 4am to travel 40 odd kms and then trek, if needed will arrange vehicle.
Raja - Syntheri?
Parshu - Sir, 30kms away, ok ok place, should visit early before crowd comes in, will arrange jeep for that too, economical too.
Raja - Ok, will decide after boys come tom.
Next day
Me - Boys, plans as such, let us know your choices...
Nag - Kavala or Syntheri...
Guru & Raja - anything fine
Me - Safari? Boys - Not interested
Raja, Nag, Guru - Syntheri , Syntheri - at least 1 place shall visit...
Me - hmmm hmmm (still thinking of safari)...sigh!
Boys - Kavala is too tiresome, lets check out Syntheri this time.
Me - hmmm hmmm...
Boys - Parshu, ask him only!
Me - (finally) Ok, as per boys wishes, Syntheri it is!
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A monolithic single granite stone with a height of 300ft with the river Kaneri flowing at its base. It’s a huge, massive limestone rock formed due to volcanic eruptions some zillion (how many is your wild guess!) years ago. It is named after an English lady called Ms. Cinthera who is believed to have discovered this place in the 20^th century. A flight of 200 odd steps downwards leads you to the base where the river flows and you get to see a giant rock formation from the bottom. There are numerous caves within and its not accessible hitherto you have special permission from the department to study and explore which is very unlikely.

It’s tall, wide and mesmerizing to say the least, wonder how they were created! Added to this there are numerous and numerous bee hives here and flocks of pigeons and smaller birds reside in the deep holes of the caves unseen to us. Being a tourist centre has its own disadvantages and as Syntheri Rocks is located close to the temple town of Ulavi, hordes of people visit this place on their way to and fro from Ulavi and when the annual fest (or jathre as we call it) happens at Ulavi, this place literally becomes a picnicker’s paradise with people and vehicles everywhere messing it up completely, sad but true is the case, as with other tourist spots.

But, the forest department is doing its bit in maintaining this place by putting up warning signboards and posting guards to not allow people getting into the river as the flow is heavy and with strong currents pose a threat.

The entrance to the area is from the main road with a nominal entry fees charged and the smaller vehicles are let into up to the designated parking area from where you need to climb down the steps to reach the base. The distance from the entry to the parking lot is easily more than a km and its midst of bamboo plantations, some old, some new and here is where you get the forest feel. Wish entry of vehicles is completely banned inside so that people walk from the entrance leaving their polluting vehicles outside which may deter in few people not visiting due to the walking…

The steps are big and nicely placed and railings on each side do not allow you to wander. Along the side, small concrete towers are erected and on each tower you get to see different kinds of sample rocks cemented with useful information provided on each of them as to what are they and what they constitute of – a true geologist’s paradise. But sad to see the sorry state of affairs of the towers – some of them missing, some with moss growth and some defaced. I would love to see some more boards depicting the importance of this place and providing more information to the visitors. Still, the place exudes a charm that’s successful in hordes of people visiting here and this place is similar to Yana and Kavala caves.

We were quite pleased to have visited this place that often went unvisited on our multiple trips to areas around Dandeli, thanks to the boys :)

Location: Dandeli-Ulavi highway

Distance: 30 odd kms from Dandeli,

Transport: Local jeeps on hire/sharing are the best bet.

Food: None.

Time: 9am to 6pm if I’m not wrong (forgot to confirm this)!