The Mottled Wood Owls of Turahalli have disappeared too. A friend told me how he had seen a stone in the tree hole. Almost everybody who visit Turahalli regularly, have seen these owls. When we stand at an open place for a long time watching these sleeping birds, it certainly makes the kids around curious. Pelting stones into a nest is one of those “curious” attempts I suspect. I don’t know if they are ever going to make a comeback.

Anyway, back to birdwatching. Since it had rained there yesterday too, the ground was wet. Shikras, Ashy Drongos, a tree filled with Coppersmith Barbets, Eurasian Golden Oriole, White-browed Bulbul, Jerdon’s Bushlark, Grey Francolins calling, all at the beginning of the trail got us excited. We had just continued walking along the trail after stopping for a small bite of refreshments when a friend alerted about the Eurasian Eagle-Owl just taking off. It was very very close to us but he had realised that it. Unbelievable camouflaged. It took off and perched on a Eucalyptus tree. We hid ourselves and watched them happily. But still it kept an eye on us. It moved to a rock close by, posed for a while and then went and hid itself in a Palm tree.

One of the hidden agendas of visiting Turahalli is to sight these birds. Wish fulfilled .. ah. We walked further to the other side of the hill and again we sighted another of the Eurasian Eagle-Owls and this time it was close too. There was a lot of activity. An Asian Paradise Flycatcher(male) with its long rufous tail was found hopping around. A Female Black-headed Cuckooshrike was hopping around the same area too. We went a little off the trail to sight the dancing White-throated Fantail, Blue-faced Malkoha, Male Black-headed Cuckooshrike, Oriental White-eyes, Black-naped Oriole and a brief sighting of a courting Common Ioras. We had to head back early to take part in the protest against Tree felling in Lalbagh. We walked back along the foothills. There weren’t many birds there , but the Brown Shrike was a real surprise. Didn’t know that these migratory birds stayed that long. Anyway, the last bird sighting was of the two Black-rumped Flamebacks at the entrance. I had sighted them at the same place last time too.

The protest was good. About 250-300 people turned up and walked from Lalbagh West Gate to Nanda Road shouting slogans against illegal tree felling for the Metro project. I think for the protest to be really effective, we need more people joining in. A couple of us who were at the protest, treated oursleves for an yummazing lunch at Kamat Buglerock.