Signing off the Season

It was March. Migration season would be over soon. The winter migrants were on their last leg of their winter grounds. We decided to visit Anekal kere, a large lake in Bangalore, before signing off the season. The main target was a Slaty-breasted Rail that was being reported from the last several weeks. I had seen one before. But it is a nice looking bird and the chance to see one in ones “backyard”, I feel, should not be missed. But the trip provided much more than the Rail 🙂 .

I would say that the trip belonged to the Snipes. There were just so many around all busy in going about foraging in their typical style with their long beaks. Here are some of the visiting Snipes that we saw.

Then of course the resident Greater Painted Snipes did not want to be not seen. So they decided to fly in to the nearby area and forage around the reeds.

The Slaty-breasted Rail had not shown itself at its “usual” reed patch. But there were quite a few Baillon’s Crakes and Ruddy-breasted Crakes walking around in front of the reed patch along with some Little-ringed Plovers. After waiting for some time we decided to move and explore at areas of the lake.

A walk to another reed patch had us witnessing a rather vocal Clamorous Reed Warbler, “singing” away, possibly trying to find a mate. It was a sight to see. You can read about it in my dedicated post on it here.

Birds were plenty in other parts of the lake as well. There was a flock of Garganeys at the far end of the lake. The Jacanas, both the Bronze-winged Jacana and Pheasant-tailed Jacanas, were also moving around in the shallow parts. They were also starting to take on their breeding plumages.

Two types of Sandpipers also decided to show themselves.

The visiting warblers that we saw were the Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Sykes’s Warbler and the Booted Warbler. Then it was time for the Western Yellow Wagtails to show up. This time it was the race bheema.

We finally decided to walk to the patch where we had started to look for the Rail again. As we neared we heard another birder calling out that the Rail had come out. We ran to where he was standing and finally got to see the bird 🙂 .

What way to end the outing!

Video

Be sure to check out the short video of various clips that I took of the birds during the outing. You will get to see many of their typical behaviour.