Dandeli...the beings (except the Hornbills)

November 23, 2010

Dandeli is a great place for birds; small wonder then, that even after missing all the thrushes that are common there, like the Orange-headed Thrush, the Blue-capped Rock Thrush and so on, we still wound up with a bird count of well over a hundred!

Dandeli’s speciality is the Hornbills, and I’ll devote a separate post to the Malabar Pied Hornbills that we saw; but apart from that…..

We started at Attiveri, where, in the morning light, we got the

BLACK-HEADED IBIS:

ibis attiveri

There was an ORIENTAL DARTER that flew in, and landed amongst the CORMORANTS and was drying its wings: darter and corm 201110 attiveri Several STORKS flew across the waters: stork flying attiveri 201110 this SMALL BLUE KINGFISHER sat hunched up on the bund, waiting for fish: kf attiveri Deep in the valley, we spotted a SHIKRA: shikra We were excited about what this bird was, but when I went home, alas, it was not a lifer, but the COMMON HAWK CUCKOO: hwk cckoo 201110 another familiar friend was the SCALY-BREASTED MUNIA: s b munia 211110 then, of course, we spotted a lovely raptor, the GREY-HEADED FISHING EAGLE: fish eagle 201110 Our guide, Mahesh, went too close, and the bird flew rather far away, where two WOOLLY-NECKED STORKS were: fishing egl and storks 201110 a PURPLE HERON skimmed over the water with grace: purple heron 201110 I couldn't id this bird, Garima says it's the BAR-WINGED FLYCATCHER-SHRIKE and AMS feels it might be a Rock Thrush: bar-winged flycatcher-shrike 201110 Krishna spotted a PADDYFIELD PIPIT: paddy pipit 201110 The next morning's birding was full of mist and I got only silhouette shots, such as this one of a SPOTTED DOVE and PLUM-HEADED PARAKEETS: dove and p h parakeets Later, on the Kali river bridge, we saw several SCARLET MINIVETS: scarlet minivet male 211110 but an amazing and unexpected bonanza awaited us in the last hour of birding, right outside the Kulgi Camp gates; we saw an incredible number of birds, including this BROWN-CAPPED PYGMY WOODPECKER: pygmy wpkr 211110 as we headed back home, we stopped near a water body where we saw several SMALL MINIVETS: sml mnvt 211110 in the bamboo thickets, against the evening sky, we saw the silhouettes of the GREATER RACKET-TAILED DRONGO: rt drongo 211110 It was lovely to see (though they were against the light) the VERNAL HANGING PARROTS quite literally hanging about! vernal hanging parots I couldn't get any closer to the HILL MYNAHS: hill mynahs2111110 Other creatures included the FUNNEL-WEB SPIDER: wolf spider 201110 the GOLDEN DARTLET: golden dartlet 201110 the butterflies were also interesting; here's a DANAID EGGFLY: danaid eggfly 211110 a COMMON NAWAB which was a lifer for me: nawab 201110 A NIGGER: nigger We all enjoyed snapping this posing BLUE TIGER: blue tiger 211110 Another beautiful lifer for me was the GLAD-EYE BUSH BROWN ...a name that made a lot of sense! :) gladeye bush brown 211110 Everywhere, green GRASSHOPPERS hopped: grasshopper The only two mammals we got to photograph were the BLACK-FACED LANGUR: langur 211110 Here it is, feeding: And since I got a good shot of the MALABAR GIANT SQUIRREL at BR Hills, this time I'm posting a shot of it as it flicked itself off: half of squirrel 211110 Krishna also spotted this lovely fan-shaped MUSHROOM: mushroom this STRANGLER FIG has already started growing around the tree, and will, in the course of time, strangle it: strangler fig Even a TEAK LEAF from the plantations, looked beautiful as it lay fallen on the path: teak leaf I enjoyed seeing many types of spider webs; this one is the web of a TENT SPIDER: tent web Some beautiful, un id'd WILDFLOWERS delighted us: un id wildflower 211110 un id red flower 211110 I do know that this is a species of IPOMEAIA: ipomeaia sp 211110 And here are all of us, making the bird list!

I got this regular

SPIDER-WEB,

glistening with the morning dew:

spider web 201110

When one sees so much, how can one be disappointed?