If you follow my blog and read posts as they are published, you may be confused. Didn’t I just get back from Turkey and Mongolia? Yes, I did. However, I want to finish the story of my month-long trip to India last fall to visit my friend Linda before I share my latest adventures.
Linda is an American currently living in India because her husband is working there. During our month together, we made trips to Coorg and the Andaman Islands.
We also spent time at Linda’s home south of Bangalore. In many ways, that was the best part of the trip. It is a priviledge to stay with someone living in another country instead of visiting as a typical tourist. I loved walking in Linda’s neighborhood, meeting her friends (of all nationalities), and eating at her favorite restaurants.
We returned from the Andaman Islands on Wednesday evening, December 20. With only a few days to go, we wanted to visit all of the local lakes one more time. First was Huskur Kere on Thursday afternoon. It was interesting to see the differences in the bird life in the three weeks since my first visit there. Rosy Starling had been a life bird for me on November 27, just a single bird in Linda’s housing community. Now we estimated a hundred of them at Huskur Lake. There were also more Common Mynas than I had ever seen at one time, about fifty individuals.
We didn’t see anything unusual that afternoon, but I enjoyed the common birds. A quick check of eBird indicates that I’ve reported Spotted Dove 54 times, but I’m still not tired of them. I love the sweet face of the dove in the photo below.
Indians are very friendly and everyone wants to talk to Linda. These boys were interested in what we were doing and appeared to be fascinated by the photos of birds that Linda showed them.
I was pleased that I was finally able to get a photo of a Three-striped Palm Squirrel that afternoon. I had seen quite a few since my arrival in India, but they are quick and don’t usually hold still.
The path around Huskur Lake was multi-purpose – birding, running, walking your cows.
Mary, Linda’s maid, made a beaufiful rangoli for Christmas that greeted us outside Linda’s door each time we returned from an outing that week.
Linda and I had found 16 birds during the first week of my trip that were life birds for me, but it was getting difficult to find new species by the last week. I found my last life bird, a Booted Warbler, on Friday morning at Muthanallur Kere.
On Saturday morning we made our last visit to Saul Kere, perhaps the best birding location in the area south of Bangalore. Another previously skulky bird finally coorperated for a photo, an Ashy Prinia.
The most common wagtail in Linda’s area is White-browed Wagtail; we had close views of them at Saul Kere. I think they are sharp-looking birds even if they do hang out with trash (making me closely crop the photo below).
A highight that morning was watching kites, two Brahminy Kites, several Black Kites, and this gorgeous Black-winged Kite. It looks very similar to the White-tailed Kite of the Americas and for a few years they were considered to be one species.
Linda and I both enjoy all living creatures and we had fun photographing butterflies. After living in India for two years, they were all familiar to Linda, but most were new to me. One of my new favorites was the colorful black, white, orange, and yellow Common Jezebel. I also thought the Pea Blue and Dingy Bushbrown were beautiful in a more subtle way. Click on any of the photos in the gallery below for a larger view.
We enjoyed the lakes, but Linda had great birds right in her housing community, Nambiar Bellezea, where I took this portrait of a lovely female Pied Bushchat.
Below, a Large-billed Crow showing off in the neighborhood.
December 24 was my last day with Linda and we enjoyed one last visit to the lake behind her housing community. The Indian Spot-billed Ducks swam close to us that afternoon as if allowing me to say goodbye.
My trip was book-ended by Thanksgiving and Christmas. I had much to be grateful for as Christmas approached just as I had at Thanksgiving. It’s can’t be easy having a house guest for over a month, yet Linda had been a gracious and generous host. I am also grateful to Linda for going on her first real birding trips to Coorg and the Andaman Islands with me. I can’t imagine better gifts than those I had just received – friendship, travel, adventure, beautiful birds and wildlife.
Merry Christmas from the Benguluru airport Starbucks.
Birding for Life 