Message posted in Bngbirds group

Puttenahalli Kere a nice bird habitat

Just felt like sharing this small write up I did on our visit to this truly

surprising lake right in the middle of our city.

It was nice to see how well the birds have adopted to living here when the
disturbance to them has been kept minimal.

Kudos again to all the people who worked to make this magic happen.

http://naturerambles.blogspot.com/2012/01/birding-in-urban-lake.html

nanda

PNLIT Stall at BM Jacaranda Fest

PNLIT's stall at Jacaranda Fest yesterday can be summarised as a successful exercise in spreading the message of conservation and more specially about Puttenahalli Lake.

At least 50 people visited the stall, looked around and left their email ids with a promise to vote and help get more votes for the next round of Spark the Rise. Some PNLIT cloth bags were sold. The highlight was the endorsement of PNLIT's efforts by a group of children who are now very keen to support PNLIT.

Purple Herons - After the tussle for the prey

The Purple Heron story is not over!

After the fight, it looks like they've decided to reconcile. These photos by Sujesh S. show the bigger bird enticing the younger one. Hopefully, we'll soon get to see their chicks and thus life will go on.

Fighting herons

The photo shows the Purple Heron with the frog (also in the last post) - fending off an adult bird. Their noisy fight alerted Srini and his photograph shows the anger and aggression not just in the bigger bird's ruffled feathers but in its eyes as well. 

The heron with the catch is almost an adult. We have been seeing it grow steadily bigger over the past four months and are proud :-) to see it grow into a survivor, a fighter! 

The photo reveals the harshness of surviving in nature. We are fortunate to be able to see this avian power play in our neighbourhood!

Classic Photos

Purple Heron with catch - Photo by S.K. Srinivas

White-cheeked Barbet - Photo by Sujesh S.

Mynahs fighting in mid-air - Photo by Sujesh S.

More of Srinivas's photographs here.

More of Sujesh's photographs here.

Veteran ornithologists visit Puttenahalli Lake

On 7th Jan 2012, Puttenahalli Lake had the honour of a visit by two very special people - Mrs and Mr Zafar Futehally!

Laeeq and Zafar Futehally are veteran ornithologists, related to the "Birdman of India" Salim Ali. Laeeq and her uncle Salim Ali co-authored a book Common Birds in 1967 which has since been reprinted several times and have run into many editions. Zafar is a passionate naturalist who was closely associated with the Bombay Natural History Society. In 1960 he started the Newsletter for Birdwatchers as a forum for birders to share their observations. 

Zafar had several questions to ask us. What is the source of the water in the lake? What is the depth in summer? How are we raising money to maintain the lake? And so on. Their passion for lake restoration and conversion to avian habitats was truly inspirational.

PNLIT wins popular vote on Spark the Rise (Dec 2011)

PNLIT is delighted to inform everyone that its project "PNLIT - Nurturing Puttenahalli Lake back to its pristine glory" has cleared the December round (Round 4) of Mahindra Spark the Rise as the most popular entry! See the results here.

We are now eligible for Rs 4 lakh though of course, we will have to submit documents to authenticate our work and make a presentation to the jury. We will also now get a direct entry into the finale (March-Apr 2012) where the stakes are very high indeed (three runners-up will get Rs 20 lakh and the most voted project will get the grand prize of Rs 40 lakh).

Our thanks to each one of you for your support. We rely on you to help us in the finale not only with your votes but also to get your family, friends and colleagues to vote as well.

PNLIT on Times Now "Amazing Indians" 7th/8th Jan 2012

Times Now, the national television channel, has a weekly programme called Amazing Indians presented by Mahindra Rise. We are given to understand that from among the projects submitted for Spark the Rise, Times Now may identify some for this Amazing Indians series.

We were pleasantly surprised when they chose PNLIT! This is certainly a great honour, more so because it was completely unexpected. The TV crew came to the lake some days ago when school children were at the lake. We are especially delighted that the children were also filmed for telecast. Their excitement at seeing the large number of birds in the lake was truly wonderful to watch!

Some people have already seen snippets of the programme featuring PNLIT that were aired on Times Now. The programme is scheduled to be aired on Saturday 7th Jan 2012, at 3:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and repeated on Sunday 8th Jan 2012, at 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. It can also be viewed live on the internet here.

For more information on the Amazing Indians series, please see here.