I managed to wake up 10 mins before 6am. I dont even have a mobile phone. I quickly called up my friend that I would reach Banashankari bus stop in 15 minutes and I managed that by getting into a sumo taxi which was heading towards the bus stop. We started by 6.15am to Yellamma Lake, a lake which has been in the news for hosting thousands of Northern Shovelers, the winter migrants to this part of the world. It took us about 90mins to reach that place which even included a pit stop for refueling ourselves with some Idly and coffee at one of the darshinis near KR Puram.
Location: Yellamma Lake, NH4, KR Puram, Bangalore
The lake looked very huge on Google Maps. After getting detailed directions from Chandrashekar Bandi who had first reported about the Northern Shovelers on BNGbirds, we reached the lake. The lake is just by the National Highway 4 but the birds didn’t seem to be near the road. So as per his directions, we went through the other side of the lake by passing through a small village. This time it was a lake on one side and uncultivated village fields on the other side which had reeds. We walked along the bund to the end point and there we saw the thousands of shovelers. It gives you such a high to so see so many of them there. There is human habitation all around the lake. Villagers were happily washing clothes and neither the shovelers nor the villagers seemed to have been bothered by each other.
Northern Shoveler – male in the front
We were watching them for a while trying to get a good view of them and also trying to see if there are any other species of birds there. It always seemed to us that we were seeing a lot of kites. Suddenly a Black Kite like creature came flying towards them and all shovelers took off at once. It was an amazing sighting to see all of them taking off at once. The pictures made me realise that it was the female Marsh and not the Black Kite. There were a few Spot-billed Ducks too flying across.
Going off
The female Marsh Harrier which chased away the shovelers
Spot-billed Ducks
Now that the shovelers had flown far away, we decided to explore the other side of the bund. We saw Yellow Wagtails in plenty on the bund. There were a couple of unidentified warblers, lots and lots of Zitting Cisticolas too. But there were a lot of “Sitting Shitticolas” too which was the reason why I was very scared about getting off the bund. While we were watching these small birds, a Male Marsh Harriers flew past us and our jaws dropped with an awe. The same Marsh Harrier then flew across to the other side of the lake. There were a lot of Barn Swallows too. Birding around the reeds yielded us some good sightings including the multiple sightings of the Marsh Harrier pair. After spending some time there, we headed back to the Shoveler point seeing them back at the same spot where we had seen them earlier. There were Common Coots, Common Sandpiper and a few other birds too. The splashing of the water by the coots is really a wonderful sighting.
Male Marsh Harrier
Female Marsh Harrier
Female Marsh Harrier
Northern Shoveler again
Marsh Harrier being chased by a kite
Northern Shoveler again
Common Sandpiper
Northern Shoveler again
Common Coot
Coot splash
Coot splash
Kite chasing a bird
Black-winged Stilts
Tawny pipit?
We decided to explore the other side of the lake too. As we were walking, we saw the Black-winged Stilts just taking off, Female Siberian Stonechat, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and a raptor soaring high up in the air which could have been the Indian Spotted Eagle.
Black-winged Stilts
Spot-billed Ducks
Green Sandpiper
Green Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Probably an Indian Spotted Eagle
Black-winged Stilts
Female Siberain Stonechat
While we were wrapping up the birding and heading back home, we saw hundred of Barn Swallows sitting on the wire just near the lake. It looked like as if they were at the Republic day parade. Many thanks to Deepa, Abhijit Menon-Sen and Garima Bhatia for all the IDing help.
Barn Swallows
