Feathered Bipeds & Me.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
12/4/2004 : Birding at Hebbal Lake
12/4/2004:Saturday and later.
I was playing host to delhibirder Dr Sudhir Oswal, who was in town for the much spoken-about cardiological conference. I suggested we pay a visit to Hebbal lake, probably the only good birding spot within bangalore city limits.
We planed to meet there at 7am. For company, i invited Kousik+Sumana, Suresh, Clement & Atanu+Shukla. The first four agreed to tag along.
Myself & Suresh reached first, & then Clement. We slowly proceeded towards the north side. Enroute, Myself & Clement got great views of a white-throated kingfisher lit by the first sunrays of the day. While we were shooting the kingfisher, Kousik & Sumana joined us. They were rather unfortunate to have missed the Kingfisher.
Based upon's Clements reports on the peregrine at Hebbal, I was keen to see it & probably shoot it also. We proceeded to his favorite perch on the penultimate power pylon. My quick feet took me there ahead of the rest. There he was, sitting & probably enjoying the view of the sunrise. We spent quite a bit of time in that area, breaking into two groups, myself Suresh & Clement in one group and Kousik & Sumana in the other.
While Suresh ventured on his own for a while, myself & Clement got a cuckoo, probably a bit larger than Common Hawk Cuckoo, up close, but partly obscured by foliage. Though we couldnt ID it at that instant, we kept clicking before it flew and sat on the fence. As i struggled to get a line-of-sight view, it got wary & flew away, robbing Clement of a good opportunity. He must have cursed me like hell ;-)
While I slowly walked back towards the entrance, i saw Dr Sudhir, who got delayed thanks to an absent driver. We introduced ourselves & I took him to the falcon-spot, but it wasnt there.
Taking my leave, i proceeded to the park entrance. We could spot a hide on the otherside, facing a sparsely leaved shrub in the water. Two small blue kingfishers were perched there with fishes, and a telephoto lens poked out of the hide towards them. We guessed that it would be Ganesh.
Myself, Clement, Suresh, Kousik, Sumana, "disturbed" Ganesh by walking past his hide, to get to the other bank of the lake. That route was the least fruitful. Slowly Ganesh's patience ran out (he was sitting there since 6am and had shot two rolls already) and slowly packed up his stuff. After a chat with him for some time, Clement, Kousik,Sumana left.
Myself & Suresh decided to wait a bit, and try to shoot the small blue. My thighs got cramped, squatting on the ground in wait. I checked out a small tree 50 ft away, saw the KF there, went pretty close, but a millisecond before i was about to click, he flew and sat on the old shrub, right "into the mouth" of Suresh, but obscured by twigs. I scampered back, but in vain. We waited for a bit more time, and then went back to the cuckoo-spot, hoping to help Suresh get a shot of it.
There i saw another UID cuckoo among the reeds, back lit, and reminding me of a brahminy kite, by the palish head & front-side. We had no luck in shooting either cuckoo.
We parted our ways with a plan to target the small blue kingfisher the next day morning, but i dropped out due to cricketing plans. Suresh visited on sunday, and got some good shots. Wish i had been there.
Later, the cuckoo that Myself & clement shot was identified as Eurasian Cuckoo.
Yippee, a good species to my collection!.
I was playing host to delhibirder Dr Sudhir Oswal, who was in town for the much spoken-about cardiological conference. I suggested we pay a visit to Hebbal lake, probably the only good birding spot within bangalore city limits.
We planed to meet there at 7am. For company, i invited Kousik+Sumana, Suresh, Clement & Atanu+Shukla. The first four agreed to tag along.
Myself & Suresh reached first, & then Clement. We slowly proceeded towards the north side. Enroute, Myself & Clement got great views of a white-throated kingfisher lit by the first sunrays of the day. While we were shooting the kingfisher, Kousik & Sumana joined us. They were rather unfortunate to have missed the Kingfisher.
Based upon's Clements reports on the peregrine at Hebbal, I was keen to see it & probably shoot it also. We proceeded to his favorite perch on the penultimate power pylon. My quick feet took me there ahead of the rest. There he was, sitting & probably enjoying the view of the sunrise. We spent quite a bit of time in that area, breaking into two groups, myself Suresh & Clement in one group and Kousik & Sumana in the other.
While Suresh ventured on his own for a while, myself & Clement got a cuckoo, probably a bit larger than Common Hawk Cuckoo, up close, but partly obscured by foliage. Though we couldnt ID it at that instant, we kept clicking before it flew and sat on the fence. As i struggled to get a line-of-sight view, it got wary & flew away, robbing Clement of a good opportunity. He must have cursed me like hell ;-)
While I slowly walked back towards the entrance, i saw Dr Sudhir, who got delayed thanks to an absent driver. We introduced ourselves & I took him to the falcon-spot, but it wasnt there.
Taking my leave, i proceeded to the park entrance. We could spot a hide on the otherside, facing a sparsely leaved shrub in the water. Two small blue kingfishers were perched there with fishes, and a telephoto lens poked out of the hide towards them. We guessed that it would be Ganesh.
Myself, Clement, Suresh, Kousik, Sumana, "disturbed" Ganesh by walking past his hide, to get to the other bank of the lake. That route was the least fruitful. Slowly Ganesh's patience ran out (he was sitting there since 6am and had shot two rolls already) and slowly packed up his stuff. After a chat with him for some time, Clement, Kousik,Sumana left.
Myself & Suresh decided to wait a bit, and try to shoot the small blue. My thighs got cramped, squatting on the ground in wait. I checked out a small tree 50 ft away, saw the KF there, went pretty close, but a millisecond before i was about to click, he flew and sat on the old shrub, right "into the mouth" of Suresh, but obscured by twigs. I scampered back, but in vain. We waited for a bit more time, and then went back to the cuckoo-spot, hoping to help Suresh get a shot of it.
There i saw another UID cuckoo among the reeds, back lit, and reminding me of a brahminy kite, by the palish head & front-side. We had no luck in shooting either cuckoo.
We parted our ways with a plan to target the small blue kingfisher the next day morning, but i dropped out due to cricketing plans. Suresh visited on sunday, and got some good shots. Wish i had been there.
Later, the cuckoo that Myself & clement shot was identified as Eurasian Cuckoo.
Yippee, a good species to my collection!.
posted by Job K Joseph, 1:42 AM