Early morning on a Sunday

It was a rewarding experience to go for a bird watch walk on Sunday at VNIT campus with the bird lovers and members of Bombay Natural History Society. VNIT campus, housed inside a small natural forest where we spotted about 30 species of birds – some of them fairly uncommon in urban areas, is less than a KM away from our house.

With trees dating back to a century, bamboo clusters found naturally and a thicket of trees with what was (about 100 odd years ago) a rivulet perhaps had abundant wild life including big cats a hundred and fifty years back.

Today it is host to a variety of birds – some migratory, some resident, that feast on year long supply of food and live here. I hope it stays like this forever though what was a rivulet has now turned into a nullah full of sewage, it still has enough fish, crabs and snakes for birds and small wild life to survive.

it was a pity the digital SLR we ordered has not yet been delivered to us – Our current camera Nikon 5700 is too slow to focus when it comes to wild life photography. Hopefully on the next bird watch walk, scheduled for 3rd April we will have the D70 with a good fast lens.

For the interested, the list of bird we spotted in two hour walk include:

Common Grey Hornbill
Dusky Crag Martin
Common Swallow
House Swift
Magpie Robin- M & F
Indian Robin – M & F.
Purple Sunbird – M & F.
Red – Vented Bulbul.
White – Browed Bulbul.
Crimson – Breasted Barbet.
Indian Myna.
Pied Myna.
Brahminy Myna.
White – Browed Fantail Flycatcher.
Jungle Babbler.
Yellow – Eyed Babbler.
Rufous – Backed Shrike (Long – Tailed Shrike).
Red Turtle Dove.
Maratha Woodpecker.
White Wagtail.
Koel – M & F.
Rose – Ringed Parakeet.
Crow Pheasant.
Iora.
Shikra.
Black Drongo.
Tailor Bird.
Ashy Wren Warbler.
Jungle Crow.
Pariah Kite.