Common Tailor Bird - A backyard lifer

Despite being tiny, size does not matter. The tailor birds are one of the bold birds in our country. They gel well in urban environment. During the lockdown, they were the only ones who were visiting our backyard. However, due to their agility, it was quite difficult to capture them in detail. Whenever I find them steady, I grabbed them. Sometimes, I miss those moments due to delay even when they are steady fleetingly. One fine day, I could grab them again when the bird was steady perched on the cable. Perhaps, looking for reply from its partner. The call continued for nearly 15 minutes, before shifting location. In between, I had sufficient time to grab some images of this tiny bird to satisfy lock-down stagnation. Here are those pictures.

And a call of bird to conclude. Sorry for the obtrusive shake.

Check out my Bird Series blogs here : NKBirdSeries

Post lock-down birding at Amruthahalli Lake

23 June 2021

The 2nd wave of pandemic is slowly receding. The savage it created was disastrous. People are yet to come out of the horror the tiny micro-organism created from past 120 days. Now situation is slowly improving but for sure aggravate if people turn negligent. Let us not be irresponsible and pave way for further increase of disease. As of now the only universal solution is to get vaccinated ASAP. With India declaring free vaccines to all, let us make use of this opportunity to free the country from pandemic.

Meanwhile, the authorities have relaxed few restrictions as pandemic subsided. As part of relaxation, authorities have opened gates of lake from 5AM to 10AM. We can't visit during evening time for now. 

It has been a week since the lake gates have opened. Today I decided to have visit to lake and do some birding. It has been long time since I did birding and relaxed amidst the nature. Deviating from usual exercise routine, I steered towards the lake to get a glimpse of birds. Even though I could not spot any new ones, I was glad to meet the old birds and say hello to avian critters.

As I started my stroll, the first bird which I saw was black-drongo which are plenty in numbers nearby our area. They are tiny but aggressive. I have seen them plenty of times chasing mighty birds

What? Did I hear any sound from behind!

On top of it was the Spotted dove. It was repeatedly calling groo... grooo. The bird was also surprised by shutter sound of camera.

That click sound sounds familiar!

Let us enter lake. Looks like birds are not happy with lockdown relaxation. They seemed to be happily foraging on the periphery of lake from my distant view of apartment. Now they lack freedom due to human presence :-). As I entered lake, the coots & swamp-hens welcomed me by shying away. The lake is now lush with vegetation and the rains have exuded greenery throughout. The primary action of birds happens in thicket due west. Lets see whom we got here.

The rose ringed parakeet was basking in rare morning sun. The monsoon clouds are covering the Sun for most part of the day. Seemed to be too cold to sustain

One of them shared space with black-drongo

The yellow billed babblers too were jumping to find some food. I could not again get a decent glimpse thanks to their agility. Soon they flew to hideout after spotting humans.

The bold pied-bushchat was seen perched on the cable passing through thicket

Hey buddy! Seen you somewhere!

The mynas were engrossed in early morning group chat to define next set of action plans. Perhaps showing concern for increasing human activity :-). With unfolding of unlock process, they may be tensed about the ensuing reduction of their dominance.

The ashy-prinia is in ever singing mode. I captured them quite crisply this time. Its steady singing allowed me to grab some sharp pictures

Hey buddy! Glad to see you again!

Green bee-eaters joined the basking meet after some time.

Meanwhile someone was closely watching my activity. This enigmatic observer turned violent as I walked towards his line of sight. It was uncontrollably barking as I crossed his boundary. May be he was in hunting mode and wanted peace to carry his activity (or he thinks me as hunter?). I did not heed much to his chaos and moved on. The barking sound though continued till I walked far away.

Back to aquatic birds, the glossy ibis was having its share of morning food.

The coots were enjoying the swim in isolated swamps

This cormorant was drying its wing after busy swimming + breakfast session or was it getting ready for subsequent session?

Finally, the white throated kingfisher seem to be settled at peak of tree. Looks like it needed uninterrupted sunshine to dry its body without disturbance from humans.

The spotted dove was also spotted in same branch

Here is a short anthem from ashy prinia to conclude the birding ceremony :-)

Check out my Bird Series blogs here : NKBirdSeries

My Blogger Post

Rain Shaft - 1

The monsoon has just onset over the Indian Peninsula. The monsoon presents some of the fabulous scenes in coastal Karnataka and Malnad regions. The western ghats is painted with beauty and river bodies are brimming. The enthusiastically plunging waterfalls are testimony to the active monsoon season in the Western Ghats. With 3rd wave of COVID looming over the country, we may not see authorities lifting the restrictions sooner. Hence beholding those majestic scenes is still far-fetched dream. Keeping aside the distant/elusive dreams, there are other things which monsoon presents and people fail to see its beauty. They are none other than rain-shafts. These rain-shafts are popular among weather/nature enthusiasts however are not matter of excitement to many. The present impeccable beauty. The rain-shafts are  conspicuous especially when the sky contains wide contrast i.e. cloud cover with rain over isolated region and the rest under light. Apart from this situation, we do they see them while storm is approaching the region away from your position provided the contrast is visible. Here is my post on rain-shaft captured in apartment terrace. If the restrictions ease, hope to find them at varied locations this monsoon season. With moisture laden monsoon clouds surging the mainland, the coastal Karnataka would have plenty of such rain-shafts. Perhaps few lucky moments would enable to capture their drama & beauty.

Photographing rain shaft is not a difficult task at all. The light setup is already done by mother nature. One needs to click the scenes and adjust some contrast during post processing :-D. One more aspect to notice is that the camera should be underexposed. If not, the entire frame would be blown up due to over-exposure since the camera evaluates light based on entire region. I have not experimented with spot metering much on rain-shaft. Let me conduct few experiments and come up with optimal settings.

Note the serial number in blog title. Hope to grab more such events in future :-)

Enjoy more such rain-shafts here

Ray of Hope

The entire country is clouded by pandemic. At this time, the reduction of cases has triggered hope and reduced the fear in citizens. There is ubiquitous loss be it in lives, job, confidence. People locked inside house are desperately waiting to go out and get some sun & rain. Nature is best healer. With the Indian monsoon set in, I too want to venture out and get some glimpses of lavish nature. Its not a small world nowadays with pandemic in full swing. Even though we are connected virtually, moving physically outside home also is intimidating. Perhaps, we underestimated a lot on vastness of mother earth.

The country is clouded by pandemic. At this time, lessening pandemic grip and increased vaccination numbers are Ray of Hope like the sneaking evening Sun above the clouds. Hope the pandemic vanishes soon and normalcy restored as before. Alongside, lets not forget the valuable teachings of this pandemic.

Shri Bhoga Nandishwara Temple, Nandi Village near Nandi Hills

We visited the architectural marvel of ancient India when COVID was on downtrend. Here is a post from the visit. Wikipedia gives detailed explanation of the temple. Do read the wikipedia article completely before visiting the place so that you do not miss the important attractions in temple.

09 December 2020

I am quite astonished at the same time excited that we have plenty of places to visit within radius of 60kms from the Bangalore city. What we knew was only Lepakshi temple till date but surprisingly there is one more ancient marvel nearby Nandi Hills. Nandi Hills is well-known recreation spot for Bangaloreans. There is something beyond the Nandi Hills to explore nearby. One of them is the ancient Bhoga-Nandeeshwara temple situated nearby Nandi Hills. If you plan to visit Nandi Hills, do not skip this architectural marvel of ancient India.

The main temple is believed to be one of the oldest temple in India. Many emperors have modified/renovated/contributed to the development of temple. The primary deity is Bhoga-Nandishwara with huge Nandi facing the deity. We missed to notice Uma-Maheshwara shrine built during Vijayanagara regime. This structure has intricate ornate carvings which is majestic to behold. Two Devi temples are located behind the main shrine. A temple well also located nearby one of the Devi shrine.

The next attraction is Navaranga mantapa just outside the main shrine. This has kalyana mantapa and tulabhara mantapa. The carvings all over the area is outstanding similar to primary area of temple.

Crossing the mantapa is the Kalyani (stepped tank). This place is one of prominent tourist attraction here. Plenty of cinema scenes are shot here. The tank provides habitat for tortoises which are 6-7 in numbers. The aquatic creatures help in maintaining sanity of the tank.  A wide open area surrounds the Kalyani. The lamps are lit during festive days and the presence of wooden rails were testimony to that. It also looks like people light lamps (made of areca nut base) and float over the tank.

The temple has huge campus outside with a mini tank. There are plenty of area to relax after the exploration. The festive season drew considerably higher crowds to temple. Hence we refrained from exploring deeply due to prevailing pandemic. Overall this place is worth the 3-4hrs of time due to its impeccable architecture. Indians should be proud of such engineering splendour of ancient era.

Best time to visit

The temple can be visited throughout the year. If you wish to explore the temple, please avoid the Karthika month which falls during November-December time-frame. Our visit also was just after Karthika time which inhibited us to explore the temple extensively. The authorities construct temporary wooden walls to lit the temple during this auspicious month. It takes substantial time to explore the temple.

Food

We did not find good food options at Nandi village. There are many good eateries between Devanahalli-Bangalore stretch

How to visit

Google maps shows the appropriate route

Photography

Even though there are restrictions for photography, apparently nobody objects.

A detailed video to end the post