Email to the bngbirds egroup:

Though the weather has heated up, our enthusiasm for birding still remains warm enough that 16 of us went to Valley School.

We had only seven members for the MCS;

many others met us directly at the School

We went down to the dry pond, and then also visited the dry (the operative word these days!) stream. However...the Valley never disappoints us, if we look for the residents like these: Purple Sunbird on Jacaranda Coppersmith Barbet rather than for visitors, who've probably all gone back to more pleasant climes by now. Many kinds of Flycatchers (Asian Paradise, Tickell's Blue,and the White-browed Fantail) delighted us, as did this Koel lady: So did the raptors we observed, wheeling high up in the sky...and sometimes sitting with other birds, like this Black-winged Kite with a Large Cuckoo-shrike. We did seem to start with a lot of Pain-In-The-Neck birding, as Ioras, White-eyes, and other tiny beauties showed that they were, truly, top-of-the-trees! But soon enough, we got Magpie Robins and Barbets that serenaded us from "lower down" in the boughs, and we walked happily along, disappointing the usual accompaniments...the dogs that always follow birders in the hope of snacks...and the occasional unwary bird on the ground! As far as birding is concerned, having fuzzy eyes due to eye-drops is not a great thing at all! Neither is it good for bird photography, because one aims and clicks more in hope and perseverance than in real ability...and one cannot even see for sure whether the shot is in focus or not. But frankly, even being able to discern the birds was good enough for me, and I enjoyed the morning as much as the keen-eyed Kites and Buzzards soaring overhead..or my sharp-eyed friends! Several flowering and fruiting trees, Combretum ovalifolium Terminalia bellirica: Sterculia colorata: Even common trees are so majestic when allowed to grow freely, like this Peepal: butterflies like the Zebra Blue (sorry to include disgusting pics but this is also a reality of life...an ex-rat) and insects like the Solitary Hunter Wasp, also gave us a lot of Good Stuff to observe and remark upon. I'm trying to get names for the many flowers and seeds that I do not know.

Even the algae and the marks of the leaves in the bottom of the water trough were very artistic:

The sun quickly got too hot for comfort, and by 10am, many of us belonged to the Reddy commuity…Reddy to go and have breakfast, that is! Alas, Adigas was jam-packed because of the combination of weekend and school holidays, and some of us came to Woody’s in J P Nagar while others, having shared some delicious snacks, proceeded home directly.

I’ve put up my i-drop shots on my FB album; to see them,

click here

and Soham has put up the eBird list, to see it,

click here

Cheers, and hoping everyone had a great weekend, too…