Lake birds of Hyderabad

I have been planning to post this for a while. We have been doing birding trips to the nearby lakes of Hyderabad over the last few months this season and I thought I will release a compilation. The lakes include Ameenpur lake, Manjeera water tank, Osman Sagar and Gandipet.


Hyderabad has a distinct population of lake birds which includes both migratory and resident. The migratory birds can be seen in winter till around March. This year the highlight was to see the greater flamingos flock to Hyderabad.








...and we were lucky to see so many of them before they flew back





The other common migratory birds are the Bar headed geese which migrates from Leh as I am made to understand.






We also saw Glossy Ibis, Brown headed gulls this season.

Among the resident birds near the lake shores most common are Grey Herons,Pond Herons, Eurasian Spoonbills, Egrets, Wood sandpipers,  plovers, cormorants, black winged stilts,  Kingfishers, Little stint, River Terns,




























 ....purple swamp hens and bronze winged Jacanas.


There are a lot of land birds near the lakes like the white browed wagtail, ashy crowned sparrow lark, blue rock thrush, Red Avadavat, Indian Robin, Black Headed Munia, Red rumped swallow, Baya Weavers, plain prinias and babblers...



























...and the obvious red wattled lapwing warning everybody else of our presence.




Though the rains so far has been very little and I sincerely hope it rains now so that we can see a thriving agriculture and an equally thriving bird population across the numerous lakes in and around Hyderabad next season.

Birds of Himachal Pradesh

We came back from a vacation to Manali and Shimla. It was a family vacation so just did some part time birding :) Some shots from there....

Most of the birding in Manali was around Apple orchards. A common Hoopoe greeted me in the morning


followed by the streaked laughing thrush calling for attention... their wings spread on each call.





Other birds seen were the common stone chat, Ashy Drongo, Asian Paradise flycatcher and off course the Himalayan bulbul, which is one of the most photogenic birds for me.









In the area near Nagar we saw Rock bunting. Yellow billed blue magpie is also common at these heights




Near the beas river saw the yellow wagtail and on the way to Rohtang we could catch a fleeting glance of the Himalayan Griffon




On the way to Shimla we were lucky to spot the brown fronted woodpecker



At  Mahindra resort, Kandaghat (near Shimla) where we stayed I was delighted to see the open area, fruiting trees and the birds. Slaty headed parakeet, Blue capped rock thrush, great barbet, Black bulbul, Red billed blue Magpie, Rosefinch and jungle babblers.














While we enjoyed the beauty of the Himalayas and our first ski training...I definitely need to do an exclusive birding trip in Himachal Pradesh sometime in the near future.