A bounty of beautiful things

I had a fabulous birding trip to Hoskote lake. Here's what I saw...

The weather was pleasant...

Here's a timelapse video of the cloudy sky...

Eurasian Coot...

Pied Bushchat female...

Pied Bushchat male...

Tricolored Munia...

Red-vented Bulbul...

It flew away showing a glimpse of its red vent...

Ashy Prinia...

A Crimson Rose butterfly was more a flutterby. It just refused to stay still. Here are a few shot I took with fast shutter speed...

The sky was stunning...

Here's another timelapse video of the cloudy sky...

Zitting Cisticola...



A Pied Kingfisher was trying to spot fish from its high perch...

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Here's the hover before the pied kingfisher dash into the water...




Purple-rumped Sunbird...

Cormorant...

A male Baya weaver comes across as an example of  an "ideal family man". He single-handedly constructs the intricate nests which most often get rejected by the female. I saw three nests on a tree out of which two were apparently rejected and abandoned...

The active nest had newborn chicks in it...

Here, I saw the male's role as a sole breadwinner. Every ten minutes it will fly in with an insect to feed the chicks...

It enters the nest through the opening...

And rushes out to find more food for the family...

After ten minutes, our family man arrives again with delicious food...

Here are a few close-ups of the male Baya Weaver...

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Colors of summer

Hoskote is presently awash with plenty of  colorful birds and butterflies. Here are some pictures I clicked on my Saturday morning birding trip...

The landscape and the beautiful sky...

A spot-billed pelican was getting ready to fly...

It takes off with a splash...

and another splash...

Female Baya weaver...

Ashy prinia...

I walked further and found few more really active spot-billed pelicans...

 Pied Bushchat...

Paddyfield pipit...

The Bulrush reed is still dispersing cottony fluff. It was bothersome as my clothes seemed to be pulling all the fluff...

But the Bengal weaver seemed to love the fluff...

A Tricolored Munia was also spotted in the reeds...

Red Avadavat aka Strawberry Finch...

I left the reed area and walked further...

Indian Silverbill...The other trees were also covered with fluff...

I walked to the grassland...

High up on a tree, a bird seemed to have caught something big...

I zoomed in to find a Paddyfield pipit with a dragonfly...

It looked quite overwhelmed by the big catch...

It flew down with the kill...

Juvenile Pied bushchat...

Indian Silverbill couple...

Pioneer butterfly...

You can weave many stories of romance, loneliness, jealousy etc. out of the Indian silverbill flocks...

Gray heron...

Plain tiger butterfly...

Some more Indian silverbills were spotted...

A juvenile White-browed wagtail...

Eurasian Coot...

Little Grebe...

An Ashy prinia was screaming its lungs out...

Many butterflies were spotted hovering around Bachelor's button flowers...

 Blue tiger butterfly...

 Common crow butterfly...

Junonia hierta, the Yellow pansy butterfly...

Painted lady butterfly...

Lemon Pansy butterfly...

Blue Pansy butterfly...

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