As I have been saying from couple of posts, the tele-lens has lost auto focus and birding has become herculean task with manual focus. The cloud blended sky is supporting much with good light. Unless you have supportive DSLR with faithful reproduction of images at higher ISOs, this weather is not suitable to snap avian creatures. While we have bright sunshine post 9AM for couple of hours, this timeframe is not suitable due to office work. Hence the birding seems to get bleaker everyday except when luck shines during evening hours occasionally.
Meanwhile Monsoon has taken complete backseat and deficit has crossed -35% for this year. With only 45 days left, there is no hope for this season. Time to look for next year monsoon trend. It is time to prepare for possible water crisis stemming in summer next year. We have plenty of clouds over Bangalore but not resulting in any sort of precipitation. Even coast has massive bands parked off Arabian sea but not making into inland due to lack of wind push. Whatever may be the reason, climate change is conspicuous now. It is also worst monsoon year coast has seen in decade.
Lets begin our bird story.
Finally I caught some good shots of coots Enjoying evening weather. They generally take dip whenever I see but unable to capture since it needs either higher ISO or wide aperture. I am happy to capture in still position for now :-)
The Ashy-prinia is my everyday guest. I can find them throughout the lake and easy to capture despite tiny size.
The black drongo was attentive as usual gawking at horizon. I don't know what are they up to. On most occasions, I see them endlessly staring at something
The grey headed swamphen was watching my movements for any threat
The spot billed ducks usually enjoy this part of swamp and seen with family. Sometimes soft light makes it easy to capture them during evening.
The white cheeked barbet was calling kooproo atop bland tree. Not a great shot but enough to write a blog post.
Few days later, we had thunderstorm activity over south of city. Unfortunately, north of city was just a spectator while south city was soaked by monsoon rains. The other lamenting part is north of city also did not see much rains this monsoon season. It was all south which was in action. Few rainbow and storm pictures to conclude
Check out my Bird Series blogs here : NKBirdSeries
Bangalore city is witnessing sharp showers during evening hours but are not predictable. This phenomenon is occurring from past one week around 4PM to 8PM time-frame. Even though the showers are fleeting, their impact is enough to soak us completely.
The plan was to visit the Rachenhalli lake today since it is long due. It has been nearly 4 months since we visited this expansive and well-maintained lake. Today we wanted to visit both for purpose of kids play and birding. The dark clouds threatened to dampen our plans. Fortunately they moved South-West clearing our way to move on with journey.
Initially we saw feeble presence of people at the entrance of lake which made us realise that kids can play easily. Alas! it was only when we neared kids play area we realised that the play area is closed due to pandemic. Disappointment galore and kids were also annoyed. We later visited the lake view point to recall past memories. Pelicans were smoothly wading (apparently) over the lake but I had dropped camera at scooter itself. Disappointment doubled. We exited the primary entrance in a short while.
Later we headed towards back-gate and the caretaker there assured that play area is open. By the time we entered the lake, the pelican was wading over the lake just nearby the boundary. It was easy shot which elated my happiness. Despite the low light, the proximity helped me to take clear shots. Fortunately, the wading pelican too stopped for a while to have snap. Not sure if it was confused by my presence or was trying to trace the sound of shutter. Here are pictures for you
What was that?
Hey buddy! Are you shooting? Let me halt for a while. You can take as many you want.
Are you done buddy? I need to get on with my journey to find better dinner.
Hope you are satisfied! Let me move on. Bye buddy!
After satisfied with photo shoot, the passing showers started pouring over the lake region. Fortunately we had umbrella to cover kids. The rains stopped instantly which allowed us to further walk towards the play area. Some rain shafts mid way. With monsoon slowing down drastically, rain shafts are easier to find
The play area was wet and slushy owing to the fresh rainfall. A little while later, rains started pouring but now we were safe inside the visitor resting area. The rains poured for 5 mins before halting. The play area was completely damp but sun had come out. We walked for few more meters and on return the play area was dry. Children played for a while and I shot this Little Grebe.
On the way back, the lake gate was locked and caretaker suggested us to take alternate gate. We walked till the fish shop and exited via nearby gate.
Check out my Bird Series blogs here : NKBirdSeries
Yet another unwinding weekend. Call it fortunate or destiny, initial plan was to visit T G halli dam but ended up with Markonahalli dam near Yediyur. So how did it happen? It was uninviting for sure. My morning intuition steered me to Markonahalli dam than TG halli dam. Later I realized why it was :-). Read through..
Yet another Saturday afternoon we geared up to visit Thippagondanahalli Dam (TG halli dam) situated near Magadi which is man made reservoir supplying drinking water supply to Bangalore. So what is man made reservoir? It means the water is sourced from rainwater stream and pooled in a larger area. This is what my understanding is. Anyways dams are constructed by humans but in this case, reservoir is not built across natural stream like river. Even I am not sure how the water is sourced to this dam. This dam once abandoned due to lack of rain(?) is being rejuvenated again to quench the thirst of endlessly growing Bangalore city. Especially, West Bangalore is assumed to benefit more from this project.
We started as usual with taxing mid-day city traffic especially at Nagashetti Halli flyover, goruguntepalya junction and the subsequent signal. Its quite exhaustive to cross this junction due to jostling two-wheeler and lethargic trucks. We lost almost 40min before crossing the Toll gate. The rest of journey was smoother one. The maps showed us a longer route but the one with lesser traffic. We realised the suggestion of google maps when we reached Magadi road. The Magadi road is getting complete makeover but not yet complete. This would increase commute time for sure. The half baked road was emanating huge cloud of dust at few places. Some places, the dip was horrible. These places horrify me since the car is prone to punctures. Hence map suggested us to take a comfortable route which can be achieved with lesser pain. Perhaps, after the work is culminated, we can drive to Udupi via this road till Kunigal which can bypass couple of toll gates :-D. After few kms of drive along Magadi road with varying quality, we reached the TG halli dam jurisdiction. We had instant shock when the security at the entrance outright said that entry is prohibited. We were utterly disappointed :-(. Without wasting time, we decided to drive towards Markonahalli dam.
It was 3:10PM and there was ample time. But the internet warned that the dam would close by 5:30PM. We steered back to Magadi road towards Kunigal. Barring few stretches, the road was relatively smooth and completed. The road through magadi town though needed full make over. It took 40 mins to cover 25kms. This road is definitely not worth driving at night currently.
The drive past was Kunigal was completely rejoicing. Lesser traffic, smooth roads and no interceptors :-D. We reached markonahalli dam within 50mins. Except the last 1km village road, it was aeroplane drive. The last one km is interior road which has plenty of potholes to negotiate. We reached the place at 4:15PM and ready to explore.
My last visit (read here) was around June month when only tiny swamps were visible from the Dam sight. This time the dam was filled completely or nearing completion mark. For sure, this was exciting visit thanks to copious monsoon rains over catchment areas. However, the massive cloud cover was absent this time. The bright Sun allowed us to smoothly explore the dam area. The mellowing evening light provided ideal studio setup for photography.
As already mentioned in my previous blog post, the dam is constructed under guidance of Sir M vishweshwarayya using siphoning technique. No manual intervention is needed when dam fills up. Whenever water reaches threshold, the mechanism engineered to open the dam gates automatically to push excess water downstream. The water source of dam is Shimsha river and to some extent Hemavathi river also(?). It looks like the dam also has manual mechanism of opening gates for emergencies or power generation. I overheard from local guys which I am not sure.
It is possible to walk over the dam for nearly one kilometre. Authorities have build a nice concrete walking tracking over the Dam. The walking track is well maintained and provides expansive views of the reservoir. Street lights are installed throughout the walking track which means the dam area is illuminated at night? Not sure for what purpose since the dam is closed by 5:30PM. Perhaps a state run guest house is located near the dam area.
It is possible to explore the dam in detail. Visitors are allowed in batches to avoid COVID transmission and perhaps due to reduce load on dam structure (looks impractical, just a guess). The dam caretaker charges Rs.20 unofficially to view complete dam with brief explanation. There is no token issued for the fee paid. Looks like, its his source of additional income :-).
The dam also hosts a short pier but was locked during our visit. The pier path is bit riskier one and hence authorities would have closed them. Also the water level was quite high which means gravity pull also may be high. Overall the pier apparently seems to be closed mainly due to safety reasons
The water is primarily used for irrigation purpose. The area covered with farm lands is testimony for that. A channel also runs down the dam which is visible from dam promenade. The dam water is also used for drinking water purpose looks like. Apart from this as I mentioned earlier, small scale power generation is may be one more purpose. The authorities have also provided few fishing contracts. We saw coracles over the dam for this purpose. Not sure if everyone is allowed to fish or only experienced locals.
After exploring dam sight, I took few timelapse videos. Remember, videography is not allowed. I took some to document my visit with family. Caretaker reproached my videography session near core Dam area. Hence I took only where no objection was raised.
It is possible to reach the shore of dam but it is not officially allowed. Threat of drowning and crocodiles prompted officials to raise a plaque to warn the visitors. Even though it is not possible to reach the water body nearby dam, the places en-route to dam where farmlands are located allow you to visit the shore. But it is officially not allowed, so be cautious if you are planning for adventure!
We started back to Bangalore with lot of satisfaction. On the way back, the famished soul wanted a tummy treat. Swathi was the nearest in Yediyur. As usual Swathi was crowded hence we avoided this overrated restaurant. The stomach was rumbling hard. Upon exploration along highway, we tried VEGETAREA and the taste was equally good. The price is bit high which even Swathi has. We had butter Masala Dose and Gobi Manchurian which was yummy. The Masala tea was exceptional which is worth to taste here.
Plenty of mobile snack shops are present nearby dam sight since it is well-known rural get-away. Being closer to Mangalore-Bangalore National Highway, there are quite good number of food joints along the highway namely Mayura, Swathi, Vegetarea, pakashaala, Halli mane.
Post the snack break, we continued our journey to Bangalore. Unlike the last visit to Nelligudde kere, the return journey was smooth. We hardly faced any city traffic mess this time. Hence it was not tiring drive through the city.
