My first birding trip - Hesaraghatta lake

This had to happen some time, and it did on today. Woke up at 5:30am and was ready go soon. Left my house by around 6:15 am, after the guy who had to pick me up got a little delayed. The traffic on the Tumkur road NH-4 highway isn’t all that good even that early in the morning. The road widening has begun in that part, converting that to a 6 lane highway. Took a turn towards Hesaraghatta main road, after Dasarahalli. The road after Hesaraghatta main road is very patchy, some stretch being really laid out well, and some very bad. The bad road along with asking directions to lake took us some time, after we missed the route for some distance. Finally reached the lake by 7:15am, and we thought we were really late.

Surprise, surprise. We weren’t too late, the mist had entirely covered the lake. We could hardly see if there was a lake. We could hardly see any person standing 10m far, forget spotting small birds! We took a stroll along the lake, and soon the mist started clearing up. Around the bushes on the edge of the lake, we spotted few birds. There were Robins, Bulbuls, Greater Coucals, purple sunbirds, and many more. Just building my birding vocabulary, so excuse me for not identifying many more i could spot. Could catch a good view of yellow-rumped sunbird.

There were plenty of Swifts, and Common Mynas. Also along the lake bed were many Little Egrets and Indian pond herons. We walked down the lake bed, and spotted many small field birds, and identifying them with my limited knowledge is a pain. My delight was in watching Black Drongo and Magpie Robin. There were many Brahminy kites. Unfortunate that i couldn’t take snaps. But here are few birds that i spotted.

Magpie Robin

Greater Coucal

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