Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

I will not name the lake (not that my blog post is going to be trending on Twitter or something, but I still do not want to attract attention to this beauty) - but this one's a a large water body, with an adjacent bush-strewn meadow, providing residence to a stunning variety of water birds and bush birds. 

Today, went with S, D and A;  armed with two pairs of binoculars (one of which (Nikon) was termed HD for its clarity and the other, an Olympus- was termed SD), to witness this : 

Water birds: Pelican, Spoonbill (first time I've seen), Black winged Stilt, Spot billed duck, Purple moorhen, Common moorhen, Eurasian Coot, Bronze winged Jacana, Cormorant, Pond heron, Painted stork, Grey heron. 

Bush/marsh birds: Eastern yellow wagtail, Pied bushcat, Bay backed shrike (the best watch of the day!), a brown UFO grazing in the grass which could be a lark or a pippit, Kingfisher, Spotted dove, Streaked weaver (with many nests dangling from a bush over the banks of the lake), Bee Eater, Brahimini kite, Regular Brown kite.     

That's a good 22 species, spotted over the duration of 2 hours. Quite a visual haul! 

(excluding the pigeon which I scorn for the menace it creates especially in my utility area outside the bathroom, against which I have created massive and elaborate fortifications in my balcony and utility area)

# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 10:11 PM