The

Campus Bird Count (CBC)

is part of the

Great Backyard Bird Count

where on any of 4 days this year (12,13,14,15 Feb 2016), bird counts could be conducted at various educational institutions. When I was invited by Vidhya Sundar and Selvarajan Rajeshwaran, to conduct the bird count at IIM-Bangalore, I accepted with alacrity, as birders have not had access to this campus for many years now.

We had an enthusiastic group from IIMB, as well, on both days:

Saturday:

Sunday:

I clicked this “group selfie” at a traffic mirror on Sunday!

Here are some birds I clicked (I concentrated more on the walk and the people!)

(Golden Oriole)

(Asian Koel) (Spotted Owlet) (White-cheeked Barbet) As well as the birds, we enjoyed the plants, ( Pithraj tree ) the butterflies, (Common Mormon female) (Common Jay) (Chestnut-streaked Sailer) (Common Jezebel on Zinnia) the flowers (Torch Ginger) (Zinnia) (Sunflower) Cricket was being played on Sunday: We got a lot of information about the various plants and trees from the horticultural experts: (B Subbanna, Administrative Officer, Myanna, Rajeshwaran, doctoral student, and our contact person.) For the most part, though, we were "Little Johnny Head-In-Air"....it's called Pain In The Neck birding! We were treated to pythonic breakfasts on both days: Saturday: Sunday: Here are the people who helped serve the meal (Mr Epy is on the left) Dr G Shainesh (with Mrs Leena Shainesh, and his son Aditya, 3rd, 4th and 5th from left, front row, in the group photo above) is the Dean of Administration. He was not only supportive, but was with us from beginning to end on both days, pointing out interesting things. I wish we had such hands-on admin in all our initiatives! I found Leena very observant and knowledgeable. The butterfly list: Blue, Gram Blue, Pea Blue, Zebra Brown, Common Bush Brown, Common Evening Cerulean, Common Coster, Tawny Crow, Common Cupid, Oriental Plains Emigrant, Common Jay, Common Jay, Tailed Jezebel, Common Leopard, Common Mormon, Common Pansy, Chocolate Pansy, Lemon Psyche Red-eye, Giant Rose, Common Rose, Crimson Sailer, Common Sailer, Chestnut-streaked Tiger, Blue Tiger, Glassy Tiger, Plain Wanderer, Common

Let me close with my favourite close-up from IIMB, another “bird”…the Bird of Paradise!