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TRANSCRIPT
Copyright Colin Manville 2015
Bangalore, Cauvery River, Banaghatta India June 2013
This is a very brief report of a few opportunities to bird watch during a business trip to Bangalore.
Inevitably the timing of the trip was poor from a birding perspective being long after the migration
period. Having said that the weather was good as was the birding. On my previous visits to
Bangalore I had stayed near the old airport, now the HAL airport, which was convenient for the
office. However the quality of the Royal Orchid hotel had diminished now the airport had moved to
a new site north of the city. The faded grandeur could have been endured but for the fact that the
local birdwatching had tanked as well as most of the decent habitat. Much
of the local habitat is now built upon and the local lake (tank) polluted to
the extent that it is unsuitable for birdlife (or any sort of life). Therefore I
decided to move my custom to the new Marriott Hotel on the eastern side
of Bangalore at Whitefield. On the downside it is a much longer commute to
the office, but It turned out to be a cracking good hotel with some excellent
local habitat. What on earth did we do before Google satellite maps? In
terms of equipment, I took my Leica 8x40 Ultravids and a Cannon 7D with a
100 – 400 zoom for record shots. As a field guide I prefer “Birds of the
Indian Subcontinent” by Krys Kazmierczak and Van Perlo.
I have included a list of the species seen at Annex A and a table of GPS coordinates at Annex B but to
add colour and give a feel for what this area is like, there follows a few paragraphs of my ramblings
with some pictures.
I flew out of London on the Friday night giving me Saturday and Sunday to bird if I could stay awake.
The flight lands in the middle of the night, so after daybreak and a light breakfast I headed off out to
the local green area. There was clearly public access with footpaths criss-crossing the land which was
open with thorny brush and occasional trees. A eucalyptus tree plantation screened the site from
the Tesco campus (yes Tesco!) I did not expect any lifers in this area as I have been to India
(particulary Bangalore) on numerous
occasions. The area had a very healthy
population of birds and a family of Pale-
billed Flowerpeckers gave themselves up to
the camera without too much effort, the
fledglings having particularly yellow bills. Purple-
rumped Sunbirds were abundant and an Ashy Prinia
added its song to the mix. A flyover party of Little Bee-
Eaters flew over alerting me with their calls. The trees
held Large-billed Crow, Asian Koel and Common Hawk-
Cuckoo amongst other common species. All in all a fantastic spot and a good start to the day, but all
too soon the heat took its toll and I returned to the hotel for a rest and lunch.
Copyright Colin Manville 2015
The views from the hotel encompassed two local water bodies, one of which had some avian
activity. So about 3pm after studying google maps I set off for Nallurahalli Lake. It didn’t take long to
get there walking through the area I visited in the morning joining 2nd Main Road and then left on
Nallurahalli Road. Looking at the satellite image it should be possible to walk to the lake avoiding
roads. The lake can be viewed fro the road and a track around the eastern side but it was densely
vegitated arouund the edges. It held at least 60 Little Grebe, 3 types of Cormorant and Egret. But the
best by far were the Kites. Black, Black-eared and Brahminy all picking items from the surface of the
lake near my vantage point on the road. Stunning views and worth the walk. On the walk back to the
hotel I added Yellow-billed Babbler and commmon Tailorbird to the day list.
On my previous visit to Bangalore in February I hooked up with Bopanna Pattada a local birder and
guide. As it had been a good day out on that occasion I took the opportunity to organise a trip with
him to Cauvery River and surrounding district. He had provided a target list of 13 species, 9 of which
would be lifers. So it was on Sunday that Bopanna picked me up at 05:40, a bit later than scheduled
and we headed southwest to Hegganuru after a detour to pick up a photographer enroute.
At 07:00 we reached our first stop Harohalli Kere. Typical of the region the lake was a swampy affair
covered with water lilies and reed fringed. It was nice to get out of the 4x4 but nothing of note
presented itself. 30 minutes down the road at Horalagallu a weedy field produced 2 Yellow-eyed
Babbler a flock of Yellow-billed Babbler. At a nearby cultivated spot with a reedy ditch, nesting Baya
Weaver along with Scaly-breasted Munia, Grey Francolin and a pair of Great Tit. These are
sometimes referred to as Grey Tit in India, and it is easy to see why – it is like looking at a Great Tit in
an old black and white photograph! We were then treated to the spectacle of an Oriental Honey
Buzzard being mobbed by a family of White-bellied Drongo.
Copyright Colin Manville 2015
An hour down the road at Alahalli the cultivated fields produced a flock one of my “wanted” birds
(which was not on the list) namely a Large Grey
Babbler. Duly photographed moved on to
Heligehalli where we turned to a track passing
through weedy scrub which produced a surprise
bird in the form of Barred Buttonquail. It crossed
the track in front of the vehicle and fortunately I
managed to bang off a poor record shot through
the windscreen as we were stopping otherwise it
may have eluded identification. The Buttonquail
immediately wandered into the scrub at the side of
the road never to be seen again. Pressing on to the cultivated fields Indian Roller and Bay backed
Shrike presented themselves along with a bunch of Bushlark all of which were identified as Jerdon’s
which is cool
as that is a
lifer. The call
helps a lot
even with
truly excellent
views.
We were very
close to the
Cauvery River
now which
was signalled
by a change in
habitat to
scrub and low
forest. We
entered the forest at Bennegodlu and quickly came across a pair of Pied Cuckoo which set the pulse
racing. Moving carefully through the forest, Bopanna pointed
out the object of this particular stop, the Streak-throated
Woodpecker. We found a female which we managed to
photograph along with a Jungle Owlet (which were both on the
list) amongst the more common species including Brown-
capped Pygmy Woodpecker and Black-rumped Flamebacks. A
welcome party of Small Minivet moved noisily through the
forest. Moving back to the road and the open area we came
across a pair of Crested Treeswifts hawking low over the fields.
These proved really difficult to photograph as they flew in their
fast and erratic way. We eventually reached the river at 11:30,
it was 28c and cloudy with the occasional light shower. We
moved down river slightly to an area of lower disturbance.
Whilst we lunched there we racked up a decent list of birds including Black-headed Oriole, Common
Copyright Colin Manville 2015
Hawk Cuckoo, Asian Openbill, and Indian Grey hornbill were the highlights. After our sandwich lunch
we pushed on to a site further along the river where we
had flyover Short-toed and Indian Spotted Eagles along
with Marsh Harrier and a noisy Stork-billed Kingfisher
flew down and then back up river. The star bird of this
area is the Lesser Fish Eagle and we had not connected
with one. Time was moving on, so with our last throw of
the dice we headed back past the entrance point and
beyond a small village to an open area alongside a small
tributary to the river. There we found Wire-tailed
Swallow, Crested Treeswift and 3 Lesser Fish Eagle
soaring overhead. They stayed for about 10 minutes
before disappearing over to the river, probably to the
area we had just left! It was a good end to our time at
the river but I had work to do, so we started the long trip
back to Bangalore. We had a brief stop at the Baya
Weaver colony on the way back for a few pictures in a
different light. Pressing on, we came to an abrupt halt at
Harohalli Kere. It was teeming with birds, could this
really be the same place we visited this morning? With the light behind us we could pick out both
Jacana, Waterhen, Red-naped Ibis, Lesser Whistling Duck, Herons and Egrets, . However by far the
best was the Yellow Bittern which exploded out of the reeds below our vantage point and flew to
the far side of the Kere. I managed a pair of truly awful record shots – sufficient to confirm our
identification, which was handy as it was another lifer! And so ended our day out. On the return
journey I did some mental analysis. Of the list provided by Bopanna of 13 birds (9 lifers) we saw just
6 including 3 lifers, mind you I did score a further 9 lifers making 12 in all. I really enjoyed the day but
I am not sure that it lived up to the promises.
I managed to create some space in my working schedule to visit Banaghatta. I probably would have
birded the zoo but the “Hill Station” Temple seemed a much better idea. This geological feature is a
barren area of rock surrounded by a scrubby area with trails leading to Banaghatta National Park
forest. The car dropped me off at
07:00 and I made the ascent to
the temple from the parking area
below immediately spotting a
pair of Rufus-tailed Lark flitting
about on the barren rocks. I had
great views of 4 of these
delightful birds until a beggar
came across to plead his case
irretrievably flushing the birds. I
was not pleased, in fact I was
incandescent and not disposed
to handing out money to a man
who had just flushed a life tick.
Copyright Colin Manville 2015
There were plenty of other species on display with Grey-breasted Prinia, Plain Prinia and Pied
Bushchat amongst them. Lured into the open forest by singing Jerdon’s Bushlark I encountered a
Hoopoe, two Rufus Treepie, Spot breasted Babbler, Thick-billed Flowerpecker and Small Minivet
amongst the many species on display.
Whilst wandering about I passed many signs in local script – this sort of thing pictured. It will not
come as a surprise to know that I cannot read the
text! In my return journey to the temple I discovered
that the reverse of at least one of the signs was in
English. Essentially is said “danger – do not walk here
due to elephants”. Now, my local work colleagues
often spoke with fear of the possibility of elephant
attacks and it was my time to be concerned. My new
understanding of the signs certainly hastened my
departure from the park. [This is not a danger to be
taken lightly as a British birdwatcher lost his life in
India to an elephant attack at roughly the same as I
was there. Unfortunately the gentlemen in question
had a very similar name to myself causing some concern amongst my colleagues at home.]
It was still relatively early so I had my driver take me to the western side of the park to an area
known to be good for Fantail. I dipped but spoke to a local landowner who was a birder. He said that
this particular area was indeed very good but only early in the morning. The coordinates are
included at Annex B. It should be noted that the “road” to get to the Fantail site is very poor and my
driver needed to be encouraged to drive it.
I did note a few common species of bird in this area, but the best item noted was a Mongoose!
Colin Manville
Copyright Colin Manville 2015
Annex B, Lat/Longs
North West
Whitefield open space 012: 58.360 077:43.757
Nallurahalli Kere 012: 58.470 077:44.041
Harohalli Kere 012:40.807 077:28.227
Horalgallu 012:26.033 077:24.530
Alahalli 012:22.184 077:24.646
Heligehalli site 1 012:20.681 077:24.836
Heligehalli site 2 012:20.542 077:25.144
Bennegodlu 012:18.400 077:25.743
Cauvery River 012.17.453 077:25.403
CR tributary open space 012:17.766 077:26.482
Banaghatta Hill station Temple 012:48.800 077:34.503
Fantail Site, Banaghatta Road 012:48.533 077:33.845