Email to the bngbirds egroup:

Hi everyone,

For the past few weeks, I’ve been going to Jaipurdoddi pretty regularly, and since it’s a beautiful place, I decided I’d join the 3rd Sunday outing this month.

Some of us met quite early in the morning, and after what I call MCS (Mandatory Chai Stop!)

to get some caffeine into our systems, and introduce ourselves to each other, we proceeded to Jaipurdoddi village. On the way, a Black-winged Kite being mobbed (as usual!) by crows, flew across the road, and it was our “boni” sighting of a raptor.

Deepak had asked us to walk along from Balaji Tea Shop (now displayed on Google Maps!) towards the Reserve Forest,and that’s what we did.

I quickly realized that many people were as familiar with the place, if not more, than I was. So the group straggled out a bit, initially. Watching the Sunbirds and Flowerpeckers in the grey cloudy morning was a bit daunting, but we hoped for better things. A couple of Red-rumped Swallows on the wire

had the Binoculars happy, and the Bazookas ruing the lack of light.

What brought us together again? The fact that this seemed to be “Pose For You” day for the birds of Jaipurdoddi!

After the sharp sighting of a Golden-fronted Leafbird in the trees, we were delighted when it came right out on a branch, and sat there preening,in the open. Out came the lenses and the binocs, and all of us watched the bird for a while.

We walked through the village (where many of the farmers had already left for the morning's work) and down the road through the fields. The lake itself was so scenic, and looking at several plants (some that I knew about, and plenty which I didn't) kept me occupied. But the birding pace picked up with the appearance of two Oriental Honey Buzzards, flying right overhead. Robins, some Asian Palm Swifts and a Rufous Treepie kept us from walking too fast. As we all stood near the watchtower, we saw a Scaly-breasted Munia making multiple with the long reeds with which their nests are usually built. To our surprise, the Munia went, each time, into the partially open window of the watchtower itself....nice to think of a house within a house! A group of Munias and Silverbills kept the majority of the group clicking away, while some of us spotted a beautiful Hoverfly on the tiny Evolvulus flowers, and decided to document that. A Hoopoe showed up very briefly, as did a Yellow-crowned Woodpecker. Of the many woodpeckers I have seen here in the fields (Yellow-crowned,Streak-throated, Brown-headed Pygmy, and the Black-rumped Flameback) this was the only one which showed itself that day. However, a magnificient Honey Buzzard came and landed on a tree not far off, Sriram and his daughter Keertanatrained their scope on it. We were able to see both Long-tailed and Bay-backed Shrikes ...the latter actually flying to a bush closer to us, and posing for a while!There were other birds, too...further off,but sitting and posing! As we walked back to the village, I mentioned that we'd heard so many peafowl calls, but hadn't been able to see one. And wham! I spotted a beautiful male, in full breeding plumage (that heavy, incredible tail!), walking around on the roof tiles of a house adjacent to the fields! We looked at the iridiscent plumage, and realized, from the strutting of the bird, why the expression "proud as a peacock" must have originated. Many of these peafowl, like their cousins in the outskirts of Delhi, seem very comfortable with human beings. But just then, there was a tiny surprise package. Hardly a few feetfrom us, a little Purple Sunbird, in eclipse plumage, darted amongst the Hibiscus flowers on the wall of the garden, and completely "eclipsed" the peacock! We looked and observed how the bird pierced the base of the flowers for a shortcut to the nectar. A few more birds, such as a Jerdon's Bushlark and an Oriental White-eye, gave us nice "darshans", as we finished the walk, looking at several butterflies, too. Our group went back to Ragihalli to eat at Manjunath and Suguna's eatery (which I call Ragihalli Fine Dining), and a few of us decided to visit Harohalli kere as well, and returned home tired but happy. I've put up my photos (not only birds..I generally document things that interest me) here </a.> here (Of course, individual bird-lists might vary.)

Let me close with the enviable view that the owners of this window had…