Hesaraghatta Birding

 

Hessarghatta at 6:30am December

It was more than a month i had been to birding after my Sundarbans tour, Two spots Nandi hills & Hesarghatta was on the list & finally decided on Hesarghatta, left home around 5:30am, fog all around & chilling breeze… ahhh!! fresh air after a longtime 🙂 . A drive of 30kms from home made us reach within 40mins with a stop for hot tea break on the way. Sun was not fully up & visibility was 10 feet..

Sunshine started slowly around 7:30am also the chirping of  birds &  at first we saw the small birds on the wet floors of this grassland

Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark

Oriental Skylark

The best time to reach here is 7:00am or 3:45pm , Car pooling is advised , never leave your car alone & walk around when there is not much of light. We saw around 5 cars of birdwatchers & photographers , SUV’s are better option but a hatchback can also be taken here.

 

Common Stonechat-Male

Pied Bushchat – Male

Pied Bushchat – Female

The lifer of day was the Common Kestrel – Female which was leisurely basking & preening in early warm sun like a woman combing her hair gracefully 😉  .

Common Kestrel – Female

Posed us for a longtime & nearly ate up half of our memory cards & flew to a new perch in search of food, cant believe it missed to catch a big grasshopper 🙂 .

We drove further to other parts of this place in search of birds, Hesarghatta is approx 360 acres comprising of grassland, lake , dry land & trees.

Black Drongo – Immature

Rosy Starling

Indian Roller

Bay Backed Shrike

Long Tailed Shrike

Rufous Tailed Shrike

Pariah Kite

Would love to visit again but definitely during noon till evening as the light would be on betterside for photography & who knows if lucky spot slender loris 😉 till then ciaooooo…