Last Saturday was a great day; Veena wanted several of her friends to come along for a birding trip, so we all went to Bannerghatta … was also here for the weekend, and the LJ part of the crowd was , , IALL, and me....

The NTP group consisted of Anush, Mohanvee, Jyothi (who is taking the NTP next weekend) and me….

What better way to start a morning than the song of a lark? Here’s the INDIAN BUSHLARK, which was singing sweetly on the wire outside the JLR Restaurant:

Some of the SEED PODS were so beautiful to look at! Yumm...some of the JACKFRUIT trees near the Herbivore Safari Area were fruiting.... I spotted this ROCK AGAMA on the....er...rocks! And of course, the common yet lovely BLUE TIGER: To give an idea of the variety of bird sightings one can get, here goes...let's start with the ORIENTAL WHITE-EYE, this one is feasting on the red figs.... I was lucky to spot this BOOTED EAGLE soaring along with the common BLACK KITES in the sky...thank you for confirming the id, AMS of Delhi, and Kiran Srivastava of Mumbai! I liked this shot of the CHESTNUT-TAILED STARLING taking off from the tree: And as if to encourage the first-time birders, this COMMON HAWK-CUCKOO (called the "brain fever bird" because its call is supposed to sound like "brain-feeever! brain-feever!") came and sat not too far away: Here's a WHITE-CHEEKED BARBET, which I call a Greedy Fig! This ASIAN BROWN FLYCATCHER gave a kind of text-book pose! And let's not forget our old friend, the TICKELL'S BLUE FLYCATCHER.... I saw the SCIMITAR BABBLER for the first time: We loved the orange flashes of the SMALL MINIVETS: These RED-RUMPED SWALLOWS swooped around, hawking for insects, and then decided to perch and pose for us... We also saw the ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER and the WHITE-THROATED FANTAIL FLYCATCHER, but couldn't get good photos of them. It was, truly, flycatcher day at Bannerghatta that day! This PLAIN PRINIA also put in an appearance, as if to say that the world didn't only belong to the flashy flycatchers, "plain" birds ruled, too! The macaques were fun to watch, as usual; I call this "Bride, Grooming, and Baby"! Actually, that was two females and a baby...but I must fit the picture to my puns!

I finally took a couple of shots of the flash-of-electric-blue-as-it-flies WHITE-BREASTED KINGFISHER, sitting and calling atop a bamboo shoot:

And lastly, here is the group who went that day (except <LJ user=”anushsh” who dropped out of breakfast plans)….we all went to Brahmins’ Coffee Bar, and sat in the Kannade Katte, and had a wonderful time, soaking in all the luminaries of our land! We picked up KM on the way there and he enjoyed the idli-vada as much as those who went to this world-famous-in-Basavanagudi spot for the first time…!

Oh, the image is too large so the entire right-hand-side contingent, including the two Mohans, have been cut off…to see the photo, click here

I am off to Bannerghatta (this time, the Elephant Corridor beyond the large quarry)…so my Ragihalli (last Sunday) post will have to wait a little…sorry…too many domestic chores have resulted in a gol (that’s backlog!)….