Though I had planned to go on the Bird Watchers’ Field Club 4th Sunday outing to Sarjapura, several friends persuaded me to go to the Zoo area instead (which is, anyway, a great favourite with me!)…so off we went in the cool, cloudy, misty morning.

ALL of my photos are on the Facebook album,

here

…but here are some of the things we sighted, and I captured.

After meeting up (the usual starting point is Shoppers’ Stop, on Bannerghatta Road), we had our mandatory chai stop at the Bannerghatta Police Station (not AT…near!) and when we started our trail, the very first bird to greet us was this

SCALY-BREASTED MUNIA

To begin with, here's the spotting list: Babbler, Scimitar (heard) Babbler, Yellow-billed Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, White-cheeked Bee-eater, Small Green Bulbul, Red-vented Bulbul, Red-whiskered Bushchat, Pied Bushlark, Jerdon's Buzzard, Oriental Honey Coot, Common Cormorant, Little Coucal, Greater Crow, House Crow, Jungle Cuckoo-shrike, Large Dove, Laughing Dove, Spotted Flowerpecker, Tickell's Grebe, Little Heron, Pond Iora, Common Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Small Blue Kingfisher, White-breasted Kite, Black Kite, Brahminy Koel, Asian Lapwing, Red-wattled Leafbird, Blue-winged Minivet, Small Mynah, Common Parakeet, Rose-ringed Pigeon, Blue Rock Pipit, Paddyfield Prinia, Ashy Robin, Indian Sunbird, Purple-rumped Sunbird,Purple Swallow, Red-rumped Tailorbird, Common Tit, Great Treepie, Rufous Mammals Dinosaurs! (all made of cement, alas!) Macaques, Bonnet Mongoose, Common Elephant, Indian Zebra (glimpsed through the gates of the Zoo!) Reptiles/Amphibians Agama, Peninsular Rock Bullfrog, Indian Crocodile Frogs, assorted Toads, Assorted Butterflies/insects Blue, Pea Blue, Grass Cerulean, Common Coromandel Marsh Dart Damselfly Damselflies, un id'd Grasshoppers, assorted Millipedes Psyche, Common Skippers, un id'd Snails, assorted Spider, Giant Wood Spider, Orb, assorted Wanderer. Common Yellow, Three-spot Grass The NTP members were: Chandu Gopal Radha and myself; The other friends were: Apoorva Chantu Deepu Sanjeev Vaibhav Chandu took a lot of trouble to come...he lives quite a distance away! Alas, we were not allowed to go on the path towards the Butterfly Park, so we walked along the Hill View restuarant perimeter, and it was nice to see the mark of an elephant's presence: You can see the human foot for size reference! The monsoon has brought out the GIANT WOOD SPIDERS all over the paths, and here's one variety, the Nephila maculata enjoying Sunday breakfast. Another variety, Nephila kuhli also looked beautiful with its black body and orange-red legs! Apoorva, Sanjeev's daughter, is very sharp-eyed, and spotted this "jigsaw" of MILLIPEDES in the ditch. A little later, it was lovely to see two camp elephant calves, walking around, grazing, under the watchful eyes of their mahout: Even when we wound up the outing and went for breakfast (our usual venue now is Upahara Banashree, near the NICE Road junction), we found a lot of interesting things just outside the restaurant, such as an almost-part-of-the-landscape Rock Agama, and these lovely MUSHOOMS Dr Sanjeev told us that these are called "art mushrooms" as very often, artists paint them and give them to visitors, in the UK! In the grass nearby, we spotted these two mating Damselflies, COROMANDEL MARSH DARTS: When we dropped off Radha at her apartment complex, the road was strewn with flowers from the AKASHA MALLIGE (Indian Cork) trees.... We returned home after a very pleasant morning, with memories of this pavilion in the Zoo area: