Transit time birding near Mulbagal

08 April 2023,

Joyed after visiting the World's only Garuda temple near Koladevi, we were heading back to Mulbagal to visit Narasimha Swamy temple. The town of Mulbagal and surroundings contains ancient temples and sacred places which I will write soon. On the way to mulbagal, we chose a different route which landed us to this beautiful lake. I thought of exploring it briefly.

Initially I did not take out my camera but soon I dragged it to my hand. First look gave me the commoner red vented bulbul with beautiful background. This bird is omnipresent in India and can be spotted in backyard as well!

Few moments later, this guy popped up. It has been long time since I saw Eurasian moorhen. The bird was closer by which enabled me to shoot clearly. Later the bird noticed me and flew to distant place.

Biggest surprise was the pied kingfisher hovering over the sky just before hunting its meal. I took few action pics but couldn't grab entire series especially the dive. It's hovering resembles the large kites and feels like bird is tiny kite. It has been singing from long time but I couldn't recognize its voice early on. Perhaps I could have pictured it on perch. Once catching its meal, bird moved to inaccessible part of lake. It's captivating to watch this tiny hunter flapping it's wings in mid air, locking its target and diving towards the pond for its meal

I have been trying to get the pied kingfisher in frame clearly but its difficult to spot them in urban areas. You need to travel to rural areas to spot them!

The silence of bucolic world draws you to stay away from city mayhem. The Kolar district is regarded as arid region which uses to face severe water shortage in earlier days. There are not many waterbodies in district, I guess has no rivers. The only water survival mantra here is the lakes spread throughout the district. They are designed to sustain the water shortage during summer. Thanks to copious rains from past 3 years, the water bodies are healthily flowing even in peak summer and avian world is thriving. The long term plans of designers of such areas is paying off even now.

From maps, this lake is named as Mudiyanuru lake. The lake current storage is healthy despite the scorching summer. The recent pre-monsoon rains have also brought up fresh grass shoots. These regions received torrential rains during pre-monsoon recently. Even though the lake seems dirty due to twigs and leaves, they are pure than well maintained city ones. Please do not trash such pristine water bodies.

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