Birding & Photography: January 2009

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Kites Preying on Pigeon

Over the weekend I spotted two black kites sitting together, I thought this to be "rare" occurrence and decided to take some snaps. On closer observation I noticed that the two black kites were having lunch - a blue rock pigeon - much to my excitement! Here are a couple of snaps:

Is this behavior normal? I don't know if the kites hunted down the pigeon or if the pigeon had died due to natural causes. However, a number of pigeons that used to perch on nearby ledges seem to have drastically come down after this event.

This behavior does seem to be normal - based on posts to this query on bngbirds. Similar behavior of kites preying on pigeons have been observed in near Bull Temple in Bangalore and in Jodhpur. Thanks to all who responded to this post on bngbirds.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

HSBC Bird Race 2009

I participated in an a bird race for the first time with Team Pittas comprising of Deepak Mallya, Rahul, Sandeep, Dr. Sriram and yours truly. For the uninitiated, a bird race is a contest wherein you identify as many species of birds as possible in a given time frame within a given area. Of course, the real goal is having fun spotting birds. (Yes, we didn't even win a consolation prize :))

I was real excited as it was the first time that I had set out of home with the explicit idea of spotting birds!! Deepak, Sandeep and I met on Saturday to discuss birding locations - University Campus, Byramangla, Valley School, and Bannerghatta National Park.

Yes, I did wake up at 4:30 A.M. in the morning to go birding. The first thing I spotted was the big dipper in the sky :) Sandeep picked all of us up and drove us to the university campus. We spotted around 15 species at the campus including the pea fowl (peacock).

On the way to Byramangla we spotted Drongos and Munias and stopped to take a few snaps. The farmers took serious offense that we were providing "more respect to the birds than to them"! I can understand where they are coming from - it doesn't pay to grow paddy any more!!

The highlight of birding at Byramangla was the elegant flight of the pelican. We also spotted the black ibis that is supposedly not so common in these areas. Sightings at Byramangala to the bird count to around 35.

We then headed to valley school - this place is awesome for birding. Spotting the paradise fly catcher made my day! By noon we had spotted close to 65 species.

Post 1 P.M. we were not successful in spotting too many birds as our strategy of visiting Bannerghatta didn't pay off as expected. Sandeep had a real bad time navigating the treacherous roads en route.

I must say that I was disappointed with my "bird pictures" - oh, they are avoid cameras like plague :) A slightly better picture was that of a dog and pup. Sandeep has much better pictures - you can visit:

http://howyoudoin.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/bangalore-bird-race-2009-report/

Apart from the bird race, it was really nice to meet folks with serious interest in birding and the amount of time and effort that they spend on it. Must appreciate HSBC for their thoughtfulness in honoring folks who have done a lot towards conservation and caring for birds.

One suggestion for the organizers would be to have penalties (lower scores) for teams who submit entries late - ensures fairness and discipline!!

Related Posts:
Bird Photography in Phoenix
Bird Photograhpy in Kumara Park Wes t
Bird Watching in Nanjangud
Birding in Hebbal Lake

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