Cranium Bolts: March 2017

More birds from Hesaraghatta

The Blue-tailed bee-eaters from my last blog post inspired me to visit Hesaraghatta lake again. This time I wanted to see the Blue-tailed bee-eaters catching bees. I managed to see Green Bee-eaters instead and some new birds in the bargain.

Here's a photo tour...

I couldn't believe my luck when a couple of Green Bee-eaters flew in with their catch. Before swallowing prey, a bee-eater removes stings and breaks the exoskeleton of the prey by repeatedly thrashing it on the perch...

Next bird was the Hoopoe, notable for its distinctive "crown" of feathers...

The hoopoe has two basic requirements of its habitat: bare or lightly vegetated ground on which to forage and vertical surfaces with cavities (such as trees, cliffs or even walls, nestboxes, haystacks, and abandoned burrows in which to nest. These requirements are provided in the ecosystem at the dried up lake bed of Hesaraghatta lake...

The hoopoe unfurls its crest like a fan when it is excited...

Here's the spectacular unfurling of the hoopoe's crest...

A herd of goats made their way through the lake bed...

I was happy to see the hyper-active kid...

The goatherd and her flock were returning home after a day of grazing...

Just as I was calling it a day, an Indian Roller showed off its stunning colours...

So this fabulous evening came to a close with an amazing sunset...

Here's my previous post >> Birds at Hesaraghatta lake

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Birds at Hesaraghatta lake

My quest for birds took me to Hesaraghatta lake, last Sunday morning.

Here's a photo tour...

I reached Hesaraghatta lake at sunrise...

Oriental White Eye were the first birds I saw. They have such attractive eyes...

Hesaraghatta lake is a man made reservoir created in the year 1894. The lake started drying up since 1925. The 1000 acres lake bed has turned into a grassland which is home to a wide variety of beautiful birds...

The little Oriental Skylarks were busy in the grassland...

I sat on the ground to merge with the little skylark's perspective...

Their perspective was really fascinating with sparkling sunlight that turns the dew drops on grass into jewels...

The bay-backed shrike has a characteristic upright "shrike" attitude perched on a bush, from which it sallies after lizards, large insects, small birds and rodents. Prey may be impaled upon a sharp point, such as a thorn. Thus secured they can be ripped with the strong hooked bill...

Most of the trees had thorns that aid the little birds in impaling their prey...

The Black Drongo is aggressive towards much larger birds of prey that invades its territory. Smaller birds often nest in the well-guarded vicinity of a nesting black drongo...

Here's one more shot of the Black Drongo...

Spotted Dove...

Pied bush chat was loaded with nest making materials...

Here's one more shot of the Pied bush chat...

Weaver birds' nest, didn't see the occupant, though...

Rufous-backed shrike...

The blue-tailed bee-eater is strongly migratory, seen seasonally in much of peninsular India...

The blue-tailed bee-eater predominantly eats insects, especially bees, wasps and hornets, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch...

Here's one more shot of the blue-tailed bee-eater...

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Birds at Jakkur lake

Last weekend, I visited Jakkur lake, Bangalore for the first time and what a great location it turned out to be.

Here are some birds I captured in the second golden hour of the day...

A brief stop on the way at Sahakar Nagar introduced me to a smart little fella. I was drawn by the sweet whistling call titiweesi... titiweesi... coming from a tree. It took me sometime to spot the little fella who turned out to be Cinereous tit. It allowed me just two clicks before vanishing...