I took a sudden decision to go and show my camera to Mr K U Varghese, whom I had met on the INW meet, and ask him for a final opinion on my dear departed MLC, and also meet Madhusmita, and do some birding as well, at Kukkerahalli Lake….

While Mr Varghese was inspecting the MLC, here are the birds that we saw….

The PAINTED STORKS were nesting in the island in the middle of the lake….the name suits them so well!

Here's a Painted Stork with a BLACK-HEADED IBIS: I just loved this "line-up" of ducks! Some of them were SPOT-BILLED DUCKS: There were also BRONZE-WINGED JACANAS, wading around: Up in the trees, there were WHITE-THROATED FANTAILS calling; when I tried to photograph one, of course, as usual, it showed me its fan-tail by mooning me.... I got a distant and fuzzy shot of a DARTER (SNAKE BIRD) flying across the lake: I liked the back light on this POND HERON: The winter visitors, the SPOT-BILLED PELICANS, were still around on the lake:

And after seeing the birds, as we left, I took this sunset shot for ....

A short session of birding, but really enjoyable…and on the way back home, the video being shown on the bus was that old Hindi hit, “Sholay”…it was nice to see the rocks and boulders of Ramnagara (that are locales for several scenes in the film) as we physically passed through the same area!

Madhu came back to Bangalore with Anush and me, and we went birding to Valley School on Sunday morning….then she took the bus back to Mysore.