I really do not like to miss a single day of a nature trail at the weekend…and so it was that we were able to go out on both Saturday and Sunday! On Saturday, the group was relatively small….Hrishikesh, Rama (that’s Raama, actually :D ), Vaibhav, Vara and I. We’d thought of the Bannerghatta zoo area again, but since none of us had a time-bound return plan, I changed the venue to the quarry area, beyond the various residential layouts…a venue where I do not go (or take people) often.

The road was quite terrible in some parts, and only less terrible in others! But Hrishikesh drove the car gamely. However, we stopped at one point and decided we’d walk the rest (the road comes to an end at the tiny hamlet of Javaragowdanahalli….and if you can say that name three times fast you can come with me next time!)…and we found that just beyond our parking point, the stream that normally runs, obediently, beside the road and under it, had overflowed over the causeway!

It was a lovely time because, and in spite of, the heavy mist that hung around the hills till past 9am. In spite of, as we wanted to see a lot of birds, and it just wasn’t possible, when w could hardly see for a few yards ahead of us! and because of, as the mist made for some really lovely images…

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The highlight of the day was being able to watch the feeding behaviour of a pair of

HOOPOES

However, here are some of the birds we did manage to see! One of the very first birds to be seen was an unusual sighting of this GREY FRANCOLIN: Usually, francolins are intensely wary and shy birds, and scurry away into the undergrowth as fast as they can. I think it was two things...the mist, and our being in a car at some distance...that made this bird less alert, and it stayed long enough on top of that wall for us to get some shots! Getting any colour into the shots was a challenge...for the first couple of hours, we were doing only "grey birding"...every bird looked grey in the mist, even this colourful PURPLE SUNBIRD: As the mist began to lift, we began to see more than grey, for example the red that makes this bird the RED-VENTED BULBUL: This SPOTTED DOVE sat snug in a mango tree: Some of the great birding happened on our way back, in the empty land, of one of the upcoming residential layouts....wonder what will happen to the birds when the people ultimately move in! Here's a PADDYFIELD PIPIT: and, later, in yet another mango tree, a BLACK DRONGO: Near the stream, this PIED WAGTAIL strutted around, looking for food: Of course, it was not only birds that I like to see...here's a lovely CRIMSON ROSE on a wildflower: and the beautiful flower of the BADMINTON BALL TREE:

Let me wind up again with the lovely (I don’t want to call it “common” as it is NOT, any more!) Hoopoe:

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