Being at the Puttenahalli Lake Bird Count

Going to the lake at least once every day, we are apt to overlook or take for granted, the birds at the lake. Those in the water may still get a glance but we often miss the ones flying overhead, hiding in the foliage or even sitting still on a branch. Participating in the Bangalore Bird Count on Sunday, 16th February changed all this - at least for a couple of hours! 

Our team consisted of Gopinath Subbarao, Harish Mahendrakar (the two experts), Indrajit Chatterjee (photographer), Vishnu and Siddharth, 9th std. students and me. We began the exercise at 7.15 a.m. by sighting the birds and counting their number which Gopinath and Siddharth noted separately. We were in agreement most of the time except for the number of Garganey Ducks and the identity of one particular bird. 

There were two flocks of Garganeys at different spots but a loud bang by a passing truck sent the flocks flying! They settled down soon enough but became one large crowd which we had to count again. The "stranger" birds flew constantly and were tantalizing. They were quite plump, seemed to wag their tails while on the ground and showed off a bright white rump in flight. Out came the bird guide book and we pored over the sandpipers and stints (it had to be one of them!). We were clueless and decided to shelve its identity for the present and finish counting the others.

Birds sang and chirped among the bushes but refused to show themselves and be counted. We guessed their identities but did not include them in our list. Some of the morning walkers stopped to ask what we were doing and why. Most of them left us alone convinced perhaps that we were a bunch of silly coots!

One round of the lake took more than an hour and a half. We returned to the Gazebo where Gopinath and Siddharth sat down to compare their notes and to tally the count. 

I had hoped that we'd spot at least 12 species but we had seen 26!! The number of individual birds were 140! All these in our lake? Incredible but true!

Returning home and a couple of hours later, Gopinath called to say that he'd identified the mysterious bird as a Green Sandpiper. Well, they are welcome of course but we'd hoped it would be a Temminck's Stint, a winter visitor and not seen at our lake so far. Perhaps next year we'll be able to see this fellow too at our lake!

Gopinath's list of birds can be seen here. Some of Indrajit's photos are below. 

Any day is bird counting day. See how many you spot! 

Usha

Green Sandpiper

Indian Pond Heron

Purple Heron

Red-wattled Lapwings

Spot-billed ducks, Eurasian (Common) Coot

White-browed Wagtail 

Do-it-Yourself Mega Science Carnival for 4-13 years

Merry Go Learn, on the occasion of its first anniversary, is organising Mega Science Carnival - an environment awareness initiative, in association with PNLIT, at Puttenahalli Lake. 

Students in the age group 4-13 years and their parents are cordially invited to this never before opportunity to: 

• Get their hands dirty with science- conduct magnetic races, make colorful light spinners, make slimy goo, play with vibrations to create amazing sounds and much more

• Embark on magnetic treasure hunt, participate in exciting games and win prizes

• Interact with other students and learn from one another.

Venue - Puttenahalli Lake, Opp. Brigade School, JP Nagar 7th Phase

Date - Sunday, 23rd February 2014

Time - 3 pm to 6 pm
Entry fee - Rs 10/-

For more information, see poster below or contact Merry Go Learn (Cell: 9900528293) 

Bangalore Bird Count today at Puttenahalli Lake

Our Puttenahalli Lake team consisted of Gopinath Subbarao, Harish Mahendrakar, Indrajit Chatterjee, Usha Rajagopalan and two Std. IX enthusiasts, Vishnu Sreenivas and Siddharth. Counting began at 7:15 a.m. and by 9:00 a.m. 26 species (about 140 nos. of birds) were observed. The species and numbers are given below, and posted in ebird.org: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/email?subID=S16977422 (login may be required). Hoping that both the figures will increase in the coming years!

26 species

6 Indian Spot-billed Duck
32 Garganey
2 Little Grebe
1 Little Cormorant
1 Oriental Darter
1 Purple Heron
3 Intermediate Egret
2 Cattle Egret
10 Indian Pond-Heron
11 Black Kite
1 Brahminy Kite

11 Purple Swamphen

7 Eurasian Coot

6 Red-wattled Lapwing
5 Green Sandpiper
2 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
1 Greater Coucal
1 Spotted Owlet
2 White-throated Kingfisher
4 Rose-ringed Parakeet
7 House Crow
10 Barn Swallow
1 Red-whiskered Bulbul
1 Ashy Prinia
4 Common Myna
2 White-browed Wagtail

Read a related post about Bird Counts here.

The Bangalore Bird Count and Bird Logs

Bird Count at Puttenahalli Lake

Mr Gopinath Subbarao is coordinating the Bangalore Bird Count for Puttenahalli Lake.  

 

Event details

16th Feb 2014 (Sunday)
7:00 a.m. onwards 

Assemble at the Gazebo at Puttenahalli Lake

Bring the following if possible, but not compulsory

- A small notebook and pencil or pen

- A cap 

- Camera or Binoculars or any other additional gadgets that you have and wish to carry with you during the spotting of birds.

 

Spot as many birds as possible and have a good time together for a good cause.

For more details and clarifications, please contact Gopinath 

(9845030726 / subbaraogopinath@gmail.com)
 

About the Bird Counts

16th February is the day of the Bangalore Bird Count (BBC) 2014. 

This is a synchronous bird-watch that covers all important birding sites in Bangalore, in an attempt to come up with an informally vetted list of birds seen around Bangalore on a single day. 

According to the organisers of BBC Praveen and Prashanth (email ids below), the locations that will be monitored on Feb 16 by confirmed teams include:  

Cubbon Park, Hoskote, Kaikondrahalli, Hebbal, Rampura-Kalkare, Nandi Hills, GKVK Campus, Madhure, Hesseraghatta, Hulimangala, Ramnagara, Shivanahalli, Jaipurdodi, Kanakapura, Savandurga, Yellamallappa Chetty, Bellandur, Muthanallur, Jakkur, IISc Campus, Anekal Area, Byramangala, Nelligudda, Valley School Area, Puttenahalli Lake.

BBC overlaps with two other pan-India events, the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) (Feb 14-17) and the Big Bird Day (BBD) (Feb 16). (Check the links for more info)

All these events will use eBird (ebird.org) as the platform for data entry and collation, and hence data sharing will be quite easy. So you can participate in one (the local event) and ensure you participate in all.

All the GBBC lists done from Bangalore on Feb 16 shall automatically be collected for BBC. All eBird lists from India made during those four days will be considered for GBBC  - hence, it will also include the BBC submissions.

If you would like participate in BBD from Bangalore, just inform the organisers of BBC by email after the birding session - they will consider your BBC list in eBird as a submission towards BBD under your name. Hence, when you participate in BBC, this means you can participate in BBD also by a simple confirmation email sent offline.

Praveen J:             paintedstork@gmail.com 

Prashanth MB:     prashanth.mb@gmail.com

Bird Logs

Abhijith Rao has created a log entry for Puttakere at the ebird website, where all birders can enter the data of the birds that they've spotted at the lake. 

To access the map: http://ebird.org/ebird/submit/map

"Puttenahalli Lake, Nataraja Layout, Arakere, Bangalore, Karnataka, India"

You'll see the BIRDING HOTSPOT icon floating over the lake, click on it

"Puttenhalli Lake (Puttakere)".

 

Once you've selected that and submitted the page, you'll be taken to the submissions page at this location - http://ebird.org/ebird/submit/effort?locID=L2583597.

 

Fill in the details of the birds you see and over time, this will form a great repository of data.

 

Go to these links to see how the data can be used - 

http://ebird.org/ebird/eBirdReports?cmd=Start

 

eBird itself is created by © Audubon and Cornell Lab of Ornithology. So all this data will be saved for some time to come.

******

Neralu - Bengaluru TREE Festival: 8-9 Feb 2014

Celebrate trees today, tomorrow, everyday!

For details and schedule, do check out: www.neralu.in

neralu.in

Bengaluru Tree Festival

Feb 8-9 2014, Bal Bhavan & Venkatappa Art Gallery, Cubbon Park

Get your children interested in Nature

Our lake is attracting more and more children from the neighbourhood to birding. 

Needless to say, it hones their observation and photography skill as well. Vishnu Sreenivas, one of the first children to get associated with PNLIT, started a group called PNLIT Birders on Facebook and he has got several of his friends to join it. One of them is Pramit, his 9th Std classmate. See his post on Facebook below. The boys visit the lake regularly with some others of their age, all of them passionate about birds! Get your children interested in Nature. Bring them to the lake. 

Pramit V Rao posted in PNLIT Birders Pramit V Rao 9:32pm Feb 4 Spotted Owlets At the Coconut Groove I found these of 19-Jan-2014. It was just luck that the owlets moved, making it able for me to stop them. Ill consider myself lucky to find then in the open, especially two! The tree that i found them is right next to a cement structure, very close to the footpath of the lake, just beyond the coconut groove fence. The Owlets are still there, not in the open where i found them, but in one of the trees in the vicinity. Its protected inside the branches of the coconut tree, but still visible with some good binoculars or a long telephoto lens. - at Puttenahalli Lake.

World Wetlands Day

February 2nd is World Wetlands Day.

Every year, this day marks the signing of the Ramsar Convention, an “intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources”, in 1971 at Ramsar, Iran.  

What is a wetland? A wetland is an area that holds water either permanently or seasonally. The Convention uses a broad definition of the types of wetlands covered in its mission, including lakes and rivers, swamps and marshes, wet grasslands and peatlands, oases, estuaries, deltas and tidal flats, near-shore marine areas, mangroves and coral reefs, and human-made sites such as fish ponds, rice paddies, reservoirs, and salt pans.

For India, the Convention on Wetlands came into force on Feb 1, 1982. Currently 26 sites in India (with a surface area of 689,131 hectares) are designated as Wetlands of International Importance, with 5 located in the south 
- Kolleru Lake, Andhra Pradesh
- Ashtamudi Wetland, Sasthamkotta Lake, Vembanad-Kol Wetland, Kerala 
- Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu.
(Source: The Annotated Ramsar List, Sep 2012)

2014 is the UN International Year of Family Farming – so the Ramsar Convention has chosen “Wetlands & Agriculture” as the World Wetlands Day theme for 2014. This comic strip suggests the way forward when wetlands come under threat.

Click the pic to enlarge

Free download courtesy: www.ramsar.org

In Bangalore, wetlands occupy about 5% of the city’s area. (Source: Conservation And Management Of Wetland Ecosystems In Karnataka, IISc paper).  If you would like to know more about wetlands, please visit the Ramsar Convention website here.

Returning to the lake

After a month long break, I went to the lake y/day. The water level had receded considerably and the periphery was looking dry reflecting the harshness of the summer sun. As I walk from South City side to meet my friends at the gazebo, I take mental notes:

'What? The alpinia has grown so much?! The thorn fencing near the picket gate needs repair. The dustbins are not cleared. Thank god, the precious Red Silk Cotton is reviving. Five new leaves....yay! Who's been burning stuff? Surely not the gardeners getting rid of the weeds this way? When will the composting unit come up? So many egrets! Ah, the Garganeys taking off and landing ... what a sight and so many of them .... Wait ... who are these two visitors? Never ever seen them at the lake or ... elsewhere! Definitely a stork. Which one? Blast, didn't bring my camera.' I call Nupur and catch her before she leaves home and request her to bring her camera. 

'These birds ... need to id them.' I call birder Deepa Mohan and describe them. Larger than the egret, perhaps as big as our Purple Heron. Greyish white with black wings and pink legs. The bigger one has a gap between the beak. Deepa says she'll check her books and call back. I spot OPR waiting and with occasional backward glances at the new birds I walk faster. He says birder Srinivas has sent an sms "I just passed by the lake. There's an Asian Openbill Stork there. First time I've seen an Openbill Stork there." Yes! Yes! and Yes!!

My heart is singing and I force myself to pay attention to the updates from OPR and Nupur. Yellappa, the fisherman is coming to discuss the periodic cleaning of the lake, outstanding success of Sapana's story telling session, a tanker of water (to water the plants) to be delivered tomorrow, plans to raise funds to maintain lake, etc...etc...etc...I recall the email updates from Arathi, Prasanna, Sapana, Sangita Agrawal .... Wow! 

Before I can slip in a word, we see birder Srinivas enter with his camera and a wide smile. Seems he saw the Asian Openbill Stork while passing by the lake in a bus. He got off at the next stop, took another bus, rushed home, grabbed his camera and zipped to the lake to take pix of the Asian Openbill Storks! Two minutes later, Deepa Mohan comes rushing. She's identified the bird from my description and wants to see them for herself. They tell us that these storks are not often seen in an urban setting. Later I learn from wikipedia that these storks forage in wetlands. Their beaks facilitate the breaking open of the hard shell of snails. 

The renewed excitement of the new species at our lake takes over from the nitty-gritty details of maintaining the lake and other chores. I return home with my heart singing again this time as much in praise of my friends at PNLIT as for the birds new and old  flocking to our lake. 

Asian Openbill Stork at Puttenahalli Lake, 28-Jan-2013

Pic: Pramit V Rao (a student of The Brigade School)

Pic: SK Srinivas

Pic: Nupur Jain

See more pics taken by Srinivas here, and by Nupur here.

See Deepa's video of the birds on Youtube here. and her blog post/pics here.

Today morning I was told that the newcomers were still chomping at the snails and the fish. If you are as lucky as we were, you'll see them at the lake too!

Usha

Nature Trail, Puttenahalli Lake, 25th Jan 2014

Ms Deepa Mohan, keen birder and columnist is leading a Nature Trail at Puttenahalli Lake on Saturday 25th Jan 2014. It will be a small group of about 15. Deepa is not just an expert on birds but also on trees, insects and what have you! If you'd like to join the trail, please contact Deepa and follow her guidelines as given below.

Message from: Deepa Mohan <mohandeepa@gmail.com>

Nature Trail

Date: Jan 25, 2014 Saturday

Time: 7am (one hour approx). Those who are a little late can easily catch up with the group, as we walk around the lake.

Wear: Comfortable shoes, dull-coloured clothes (birds are highly colour-sensitive), and caps and hats.

Everyone  can also wear a layer of warm clothing as it is nippy in the mornings these days.

Bring: Binoculars, if you have them, and cameras, if you wish to take pictures. 
Bird book for reference, if you have one.

Drinking  water and a snack,  for the children, which they can have at the pavilion after the trail. 

We  will start at the gazebo (pavilion) at the western end of the lake. We will walk around the lake, including the huts at one point. There are some dogs there, but they are not aggressive, and you need not fear them.

After the walk, at the gazebo, we will

have an informal discussion about what all of you have seen, and your thoughts.

***************

Directions:

On Google maps, https://maps.google.com/

you can click on 

Get Directions,

Type your address in "A", and in "B", type

Puttenahalli Lake

or the co-ordinates,

12.891528,77.585822

(For those coming from Bannerghatta Road: You can just follow "Main Road" all the way to the lake/parking area, according to the walking direction,  instead of the driving detour that Google maps suggests.)

Park near  the western end of the lake, just near the Brigade Millennium arch. I went on a recce trip yesterday and the cleared patch where we used to park, near the coconut grove,  is now designated as "private property". So please be careful about where you park.

****************

To know what you might see click on this link:

http://www.puttenahallilake.in/flora-and-fauna

Here's my account of another walk, which I conducted, which was organized by the PNLIT for Children's Day:

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/deepa-s-jottings/blog_posts/3571-puttenahalli-lake

If you would like to contribute to the maintenance of the lake, there will be someone from PNLIT (Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust) there, and a receipt will be given immediately. 

See you on Saturday, and let's enjoy the lake and what it has to offer!

Deepa Mohan

9980010366

The story of water, live at Puttenahalli Lake

The winter sun was out, and so were 56 kids along with their little siblings and parents. They all came to Puttenahalli Lake on this pleasant Saturday morning to listen to Gitanjali Sarangan (Geetu) and her team - Anagha, Sasha, Damroo, Akshat, Arun and Manasa (from Snehadhara Foundation) spin a yarn based on a story "Who Owns the Water?" by Deepa Balsavar. 

["Who Owns the Water? is one of the stories in the book Water Stories from Around the World, published by Tulika.]

Raj (from Music for Soul) came with his guitar and got everyone in the mood to swing and move. Geetu and team did warm up dances and singing with their musical instruments and the stage was all set to bring the story out.

After a brief real story about Puttenahalli Lake by Sapana, Geetu took the children and the adults along with her into a world of words, songs, enacting, jingles, screaming, jumping, moving, swirling, twirling, and what not. The adults loved Shantaram, Mahalakshmi and Chakarapani, while the children loved making noises of water, frogs, cows, boars, prinias and more!!

The message of the story was that the water of a lake belongs to everyone and not just one person.

Raj and Geetu

Sapana talks about Puttenahalli Lake

The interactive session kept the children busy 

PNLIT's OP Ramaswamy gave a vote of thanks to Snehadhara and everyone and asked if PNLIT should organize more of such sessions. Of course, everyone wanted more.

We sold PNLIT magnets, wristbands and keychains to the kids while the adults wondered why not have these events for adults too!

PNLIT goodies on sale

And we keep the PNLIT boat rowing and moving and hoping that more new faces will join us in these events to spread the idea of taking care of our neighbourhood and its resources.

Reported by Sapana Rawat, PNLIT volunteer
Pics by OP Ramaswamy, Nupur Jain

*******

Special thanks to Sapana for coordinating the event and to the Snehadhara team for conducting it.
More pictures and videos can be seen here and here.