When Jaysingh Morey from Mumbai requested my company to Nandi Hills, I was also able to invite Kiran Kashyap and Gayatri Rao along.

We left a little late and the sun was already up while we were at the base of the hill:

But as we climbed up, the clouds and the mist caught up:

The Nursery area looked like this:

The Pavilion:

The reservoir:

Undaunted, we walked around in the nursery, looking for birds Here's my salute to the place where I've seen some of the most beautiful birds in Bangalore: The flowers were blooming, but we couldn't see too many birds.. in fact we couldn't see much, though this TICKELL'S BLUE FLYCATCHER did oblige: However, even in the mist, the NILGIRI WOOD PIGEONS were visible: The ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER looked extra beautiful in the mist! my friends delightedly followed the tail-flaunting fellow! Here is my post about the beautiful bird. We found some Warblers in the hedge...it started like this, then we had a glimpse, and then we saw the bird! Taking pity on us, they finally did make short appearances in the open: We were very happy to get the BLUE-CAPPED ROCK THRUSH bathing (so were the Puff-throated Babblers and the Tawny-bellied Babblers, but passerby scared them off before we could photograph them.) A brief flurry of excitement about whether we'd got the Pied Thrush until we realized it was the Blue-capped Rock Thrush female. The Tickell's Blue showed himself again: (sorry, I just cannot resist his beauty!..He reminds me of the Eastern Bluebird I see in the US!) Nehru was lost in the mist in front of his Nilaya: The liana in front of Nehru Nilaya is so beautiful! I liked this abstract at the reservoir: I turned this picture sideways to get the eye of the tree! I also got a necklace of diamonds: Visitors were finding out that "rock-steady" may not really be so: The mist finally cleared and we got our view from the top: I found these tiny wildflowers growing on the rocks: There were a lot of visitors by now, so not wishing to add to the crowd, we left. On the way back, we found a Black Kite trying to pick up a Rat Snake, and stopped to photograph it. The bird, which had dropped the snake, had not come back, but it did appear to be a bird kill and not a road kill. The bird list was short but very satisfying: Babbler, Jungle Babbler, Puff-throated Babbler, Tawny-bellied Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, White-cheeked Bee-eater, Green Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Laughing Dove, Spotted Flowerpecker, Pale-billed Flycatcher, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Black-naped Monarch Flycatcher, Tickell's Blue Flycatcher, Red-breasted Kite, Black Kite, Brahminy Myna, Common Myna, Jungle Honey-buzzard, Oriental Pigeon, Blue Rock Pigeon, Nilgiri Wood Pipit, Olive-backed Robin, Indian Robin, Oriental Magpie Roller, Indian Sparrow, House Sunbird, Purple-rumped Tailorbird, Common Thrush, Blue Rock Thrush, Blue-capped Rock Thrush, Orange-headed Un id Raptor Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, White-browed Warbler, Booted Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Tickell's Leaf White-eye, Oriental

More photos on my FB album,

click here

and my eBird checklist..

click here

Thank you to the trio of avid birders!