Finally I started off my new hobby-- Birding/Bird watching. Not long but very recently these flying colours started attracting me. It was the trip to "Maidenahalli Black Buck Sanctuary" when I got fascinated towards these Flying Beauties. Although it is a BlackBuck sanctuary, Maidenahalli surroundings houses many Avian species and it is where I first started pointing Birds (other than common ones) with birding tips from trip accompanies. Since from my Maidenahalli trip, this interest made me to keep my Head Up and watch out for these Winged singers. Also this same interest drived me in buying 10x50 Olympus Binocular and Salim Ali's " A Book of Indian Birds" Book.
As in the case of any hobby this Birding also needs strong interest but also demands much patience. More over I needed a intro on this activity and this is what I got on this weekend. All thanks to the Meeting ( also the meeting organiser ) that was scheduled for our group with an NGO. With this meeting scheduled, we thought of having Birding session before meeting. So 5 of us, me, meeting co-ordinator, our Birding instructor and couple of his friends planned to catch up at GKVK campus near Hebbal. I being the one who is far from meeting place was suppose to getup early and catch them up in time. So I got up and started to wards Campus at My Peak Dreaming time 5 30am.
I didn't know GKVK campus will be that good and that big. Being Agri university, campus is full of lush green tree canopy, agriculture fields, some practical setups, few concrete creatures and offcourse walkers. And more importantly campus had many of our flying friends. For other 4 it was usual but for me it was exciting as it is my first visit to campus and also birding. First I met birding instructor (friend) Guru in campus who was already busy with his "Enhanced Eyes (Binoculars)". Then we headed towards the place where others were supposed to come. On this way I got chance to inagurate my Binocular when we saw couple of Flower peckers. Although I couldn't see them with my Zero experience in using Binocular but then Guru gave me tips on using Binocular. As we continued with Heads up, Ears open and Wide eyes searching for birds, Guru showed me the group of White Ibis flying above. This time I was managed to see them with my Binoc's. In few steps further we found, sorry we met Guru's friend Sunil and adding him to our walking track we followed further. We continued by listening to Parakeets sound and watching Doves on the way and within few minutes we reached our meeting spot. The spot was a Big Banyan tree at some corner of campus. Here Guru's another friend Aparna joined us and continued our birding. Guru and Aparna were very good at Birding and duo helped us pointing many birds throughout our activity.To our/my excitement, in the same Banyan tree they could found many beauties like Greypit, Coppersmith, Greenpit etc and myself and sunil focused our binoculars towards these. And last but not the least Meeting co-ordinator Anupama entered the scene and all 5 further went on to start full fledged birding. From that banyan tree, we soon got out of road and entered into bushes and agri fields. Here on we/me started finding many birds. First we saw a common Raptor - Brahminy Kite flying far in the sky searching for its prey and then we saw Doves taking sun bath on Electric cables. With few steps ahead we saw surprisingly silent Bablers that too sitting lonely ( usually they will be in groups and they will be shouting ) and they were relaxing not bothered to our noise. When our binocular pointed at these Bablers, some one pointed us towards Flower Peckers playing in flowered bushes. At far end we got to see an hiding Indian Roller and a, Red Wattled Lawping searching its food. Because of our noise Lawping started flying and it was a nice thing to see in shady/cloudy morning. Later we had a break(fast) at a native Jamoon (nerale mara) tree. Tree was full of ripened Jamoons and we have enough of them along with the tip from Anupama " juice made from Jamoon seeds is very good for Diabetics". Next we entered farm of Snakegaurds and then to Drumstick farm and later towards exit. On this way we could find SunBird's, Prinia's, Muniya's. and lots of Butterflies.
With this we got out of our bushy and farm field track and headed towards the exit. Even our path towards exit was exciting with a muddy track taking through bushes and lots of Sandal wood trees. On this exit track we got sight of Indian Koel, Spotted Stark, etc and finally a couple of Red Rumped Swallow. These Swallows were sitting on cables and got a nice sight by moving close to them. And it was end to our Birding journey and headed to have our Breakfast. Over all it was a nice begining to my birding journey with enough tips and tweaks.
Before this also I used to do Birding but that was usual one what all guys do, that,s watching those " Makedup, Cosmetic, unwinged, bipedal, colourful stinking bablers ". That used to Excite and disturb but this is relaxing beside exciting.
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Happy
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