Flocks at the lake

Puttenahalli Lake is looking truly gorgeous... 

Aerial view of Puttenahalli Lake, 22-Aug-2016 (Pic: Geetha Srikrishnan)

... not only to humans but to birds as well. Last Saturday, Madhurima, a resident of South City, who's been keeping a weekly bird census, spotted twenty Cormorants in all the three sizes. This is great news but the even better news is the presence of so many young ones. 

Indian Cormorants

Indian Cormorants (adult and juvenile)

Grey Heron (juvenile)

Night Heron (juvenile and adult)

Grey-headed Swamphen (earlier known as Purple Swamphen) (juvenile)
(Pics: Madhurima Das)

One month after launching our donation drive, we have raised Rs.3 Lakhs against our target of Rs.6 lakhs. We need to raise the remaining amount at the earliest so that we can wrap up the donation drive for the year and move on to making further improvements in the lake. 

Just as little drops of water make the ocean, our small steps over the past several years have given a new lease of life to the lake. Likewise, please donate whatever you can. Your contribution will help PNLIT nurture this precious bird haven. 

Donations may be made by cash, cheque, direct remittance or online through donation partners. For details on how to donate, please see here.

If you are making an online payment, please send a screen shot of the transaction and your contact details to enable us to send you the receipt. 

Cheques in the name of "PNLIT" or "Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust" may be sent to our registered office: 

PNLIT, Usha Rajagopalan,
B3, 502, South City, Arekere Mico Layout, Off Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560 076 

Donations are eligible for income tax exemption, u/s 80G of the Income Tax Act (50% deduction from taxable income) 

Bird watch update - Storks and Herons

We are delighted to see avian visitors returning to the lake after a year! Yesterday, heedless of the hot afternoon sun, we spotted a Painted Stork, Asian Openbill Stork and a Grey Heron together with a resident Egret, foraging for food. They were so close to each other that all four can be seen in one frame. 

Grey Heron, Asian Openbill, Egret, Painted Stork

Asian Openbill

Asian Openbill and Grey Heron

Painted Stork

Our other resident heron, the Purple Heron, kept close to the bulrushes near the wetland. We realized later that it was keeping an eye on its young one lurking in the bulrushes. We will photograph the juvenile when it decides that the outside world is not such a bad place!

Usha

Hope in many forms

The fire that raged through the lake on the 16th of March almost killed our spirit. By burning several of our trees, it had made a mockery of our effort to increase the green cover in the area. The sun's heat, rapidly evaporating the water in the lake, sapped our enthusiasm as well. Whatever little water was present was getting covered with the Salvinia Molesta. Our many efforts to mobilize skilled labour to remove the Salvinia were making no headway. Attempts to get more residents to strengthen our effort drew a blank as well and only our regular volunteers attended our recent assessment meeting. Despite all these, we couldn't throw up our hands in despair. Not yet at least. Not while our trees and shrubs are growing so well. Not while our resident birds are, well, still resident. 

We got our gardeners to water the plants every day buying a tanker load of water every three or four days (we still do not have a reliable water source at the lake) in the hope of reviving them and they did! The ground around the trees may be black and the few dried leaves cling obstinately to the branches but new leaves are sprouting!! Fresh, green and tiny but spelling hope and promise of a new beginning. 

Peepal sprouting new leaves 

Flame of the Forest sprouting new leaves

Two trees, the identity of which had puzzled us resolved the issue once and for all by flowering for the first time. The trumpet shaped yellow coloured flower tinged with honey brown is unmistakably Gmelina arborea (Shivani in Kannada, Gamhar in Hindi). The other is the Tabebuia rosea (Pink Trumpet Tree), and there are two of them growing tall in the corner near the encroachment, adjacent the main road from Brigade Millennium. 

Gmelina arborea (yellow flowers on tree) and Bougainvillea (pink flowers)  

Today morning, birder Srinivas called excitedly to say that while passing by he'd spotted a Painted Stork in the lake. What? Despite the little water and the salvinia? This had to be seen to be believed. We rushed to the lake and what do you know? There was indeed one big Painted Stork foraging for fish! Giving him/her stiff competition were a large sized Egret (Intermediate?) and a Grey Heron. 

Painted Stork foraging for fish

Three large birds - Painted Stork, Intermediate Egret, Grey Heron

The things that give us such great pleasure may seem trivial and small to others but may the lake continue to surprise and enthuse us all!

Usha