Weekly blooms at Lalbagh

4th Feb 2024

T.argentea coming into bloom

T.argentea

Madhuca

Madhuca

Sapota

Sapota / Chikoo

Milletia

Milletia

It is the turn of the season where the trees are coming into bloom. If the Pink Tabebuias, Flame of the Forest, Milletia and Tipuana came into bloom by January, more were coming to bloom by the first week of Feb. This week it was the Madhuca emerging out into the pointed buds, and I stopped to picture some Sapota buds (Chikoo) to make a miniature comparison (Sapotaceae). The Milletia petals were now more than a week old and swirled at the tips, with fresh buds of the Tabebuia argentia coming into bloom. The Cannon ball tree too was blooming more profusely than the previous week. A fresh flush of Sterculia flowers were giving out their strong smell, while the rich scarlet red pods were still dangling like chandeliers from the previous bloom.

Sterculia foetida

Sterculia foetida

It was the birds that really ushered me into some of the trails and points even before I stopped to notice the blooms, or what they would invite on a not so cold winter morning. Well, with the blooms we are inching towards spring even though the nip in temperature can still be felt.

Leaf Warblers – a not so very active morning with the leaf warblers unlike the previous weeks. But once they did, there was quite a bit of activity. Greenish and the Bright Green Leaf Warblers with calls and a few glimpses as they flitter amongst the branches. For once I got a good view of the Western-crowned Leaf Warbler with the rather greenish sides and the nape stripe. The Hume’s with the two noted call had surprised us on last Saturday as myself, Ullas and Swamy were amongst a group of students. I heard the call of the Hume’s on both days, even though the views were barely a passing glimpse (4^th & 5^th  Feb).

Flycatchers – the Paradise male was in a low perch today and the two males hung around in their respective corners of the patch. The Monarch was’nt far away either, as it has been for the last two months. But what really caught my eye today was a calling Ultramarine Flycatcher, with the sides to the rest visible on a rather high perch but this individual was amongst a party of moving Leaf Warblers and White eyes. It was a glimpse before the entire party disappeared. Similar calls were heard last week too and somewhat distinct but the bird had’nt come into view.

Orioles – I did scribble a few lines on the rather soft calls of the Black-naped Oriole last month. Today a pair of birds started calling in a tango, and either one of the calls were soft or harsh, and leaving me a bit perplexed. However, I found myself watching the males of both the Golden and the Black-naped on the same branch as if they were threatening each other to hold onto the patch. It was a head thrust similar to the Parakeets or the Doves, and the tails were fanned out while the Black-naped showed a wide sub terminal band on the tail.  

Today morning (5^th), I found the Koels, the Barbets (WC) and the Common Mynas flocking on the Putranjiva which was fruiting with the clustered globules.

Sterculia foetida – flowers and pods

Canon ball tree

The silt pond has been quite shallow this season, either because the run off from Kanakanapalya inlet has been low or because the rains had shown a drastic dip? I could find egrets wading into the waters in the pond, which usually hang around on the edges.

silt pond

lalbagh: more january blooms

28th Jan 2024

a sunday morning’s visit to Lalbagh after Kishan was willing to drop in early; even though the flower show visitors would troop in, a morning’s session along the lake’s periphery dragged into a four hour walk (7:15-11:00) along the lake, the rock and finally into the jap garden and back to the west gate.

Milletia ovalifolia; appeared like drying Tabebuia avellaneade from a distance

Minivets – two birds perched on a tall denuded tree with rump feathers / rectrices showing a flush of orange and yellow; breast remained pale but were high up in the canopy before disappearing; race pallidus of the Small Minivet ?

Leaf warblers – mostly Greenish Leaf and a spurt of activity (7:10-7:20) which lasted a good 10-15 mins on a casurina and some dense trees; withered away to silence that almost lasted until 8:15, until the first spell of sunshine

Booted Eagles, Honey Buzzard - the former soared into good views and either was heckled by a crow or a kite, and to utter the squealing kli kli kli call, and the latter just drifted past for a brief glimpse

https://xeno-canto.org/864549

https://xeno-canto.org/864548

Flycatchers – I’ve been monitoring over 4 different patches spread beyond 1.5 km and the composition/features of the Paradise FC or the Monarch FC seem to be the same since the Dec 2nd sun outing. Either the male/female or the extent of their ribbon in case of the male, and the patches they’ve occupied repeatedly makes me believe that they are the same individuals occupying a patch, even though there are very options to mark them. The Monarch FC on the other hand was no transient as we’ve seen in the earlier years and clearly a case of occupying the patch through peak of winter.

Milletia ovalifolia

Umbrella tree

Tipuana tipu

Milletia ovalifolia, the umbrella tree, Tipuana tipu and other coming into bloom over the last two weeks. Earlier it was just the T.avellanedae, Silk Cotton and (early Jan). T.tipu may have bloomed somewhere in between the few, and had’nt noticed it until Harish spotted it.

Peafowl – saw a peahen gliding over the lake from the training centre to the island; signs of things to come?

Pond-herons – saw dry area foraging of Pond-herons at many places; near the lake, next to dustbins and the rock; Krishna tells me that his nephew has sighted one foraging in his yard

pond behind the rock dry & overgrown with vegetation; young Spathodea blooming; would it withstand flooding ?

Cordia sebastena

the few plots that were earmarked for a parking lot near the east gate, were shelved after protests. The lanes marked for the lot seemed to have been planted by avenue trees and three lanes now have blooming Cordia sebastena, Alstonia scholaris and yet to bloom, young Silk Cotton trees

Flame of the forest

Butea monosperma

a Ficus strangulating the already devoured trunk of the Butea

The Flame of the forest (Butea monosperma) seems to be synchronous with the ones blooming in the city’s outer periphery, but as one would guess, the blooms are far and few with just a few fallen flowers and one or two surviving in the tree. The carpet of fallen Butea leaves would have been littered with a sprinkling of orange if the blooms were anywhere close to a full bloom, but here one had to look around to find a flower. Going by the girth of the tree, I would stop to guess if this was a remnant from an erstwhile farmland or orchard, or was it planted here ?

Magpie robins – heard a curious call of the magpie robin; knowing its calling/mimicking repertoire, some of the notes can leave you pretty confused and here was one such that sounded like an Ashy Drongo, but was’nt to be.

Drooping, fruiiting Java fig

substrate littered densely with the figs

The RW Bulbuls seem to have kept up with their favorite patch in the entire garden righ now. The Java fig is fruiting in dense clusters and a thick bush, a clump that reaches all the way to the ground (a rarity here), offers cover and is situated right under the canopy for the birds to sally between bush and the tree.

awaiting a full bloom of the Silk cotton; budding right now

Pictionary: birding haunts

name the place

A collage of locations with prominent landmarks in and around B’lore and often frequented to watch birds. I happened to sketch, paint or scribble some of them over the last couple of years and sharing them here. Try naming the place. Some maybe very obvious since I’ve shared them on social media earlier. Some may not be obvious at all because of limited skills with the pencil or paint

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2nd sunday: ants, spiders and the birds (14th Jan 2024)

Praying mantis and the weaver ant – screen grab from Harish’s video

The route and trail we follow during the outings at Lalbagh can be very repetitive and could well be a boon for some people who join in late. Over the years we’ve even thought that it is makes sense to stack up the lists we compile to arrive at occurring frequencies since we follow the same route each time year after year. Last sunday though was a bit different and we had Ajay Narendra and Dinesh Rao who would be talking about the ants and the spiders, so much of the group hung around where we started and never really wandered too far away. As a result, it was almost an hour and half when Swamy tapped my shoulder and said – inna west gate kaanta idyo! We never really had budged from where we started.

Many young people had turned up and MBK would have a better count with his pictures 😉 Children gathered around to see the swarming ant colonies and a lurking spider while Prasad and Swamy took us in a direction not too far from the west gate.

It was a different outing in many ways, the usual Magpie Robins which herald the walk on the bamboo clump near the culvert or the Owlets at the java fig were not the ones to catch our sight. Instead, it was a party of Flycatchers and Leaf warblers which went on and on with their merry ways, well past the misty morning as most beginners had an exercise on training their binoculars on the flittering canopy birds. It was’nt easy for anybody who had’nt done it earlier and the other garden birds could be spotted too.

Flycatchers – both Paradise and Monarch along with G.Tits and Leaf warblers.

Leaf warblers – many Greenish and a few Bright Green, the Western crowned and lovely views of at least two Tickell’s Leaf Warblers made the morning. A possibility of seeing a large-billed and the others were debated but never confirmed.

A Coucal running around on the lawn, and peeking into a crevice was a sight and was’nt the usual tree-hopping Coucal for people to see as it would sulk away from moving people.

Kids who wanted to see the waterbirds walked upto the corner to the silt pond to see them lined up on the grill and the wall, as if they were models walking on the ramp and lined up one next to the other. The Stilt’s leg length could be compared to the Green SPs and so was the egret and the Painted Stork, all in a single line on the paved silt pond wall. An egret, a stork and the three Cormorant species in varying numbers had lined up too, all in a parade on the gril meant to hold rubbish from the storm water drain. A White-breasted Kingfisher was competing for a brilliant colors trophy as it was perched on a blooming Pink Tabebuia (avellanedae). A spotted owlet finally did’nt disappoint and caught Kishan’s eyes. I missed listening to the kli kli kli call of the Booted eagle, but the pale morph in the bright light was another confirmation of its continued presence well into the peak of winter.

The trees like the Bilimbi that was chopped down and the Salix tetrasperma which once adorned the silt pond and has now vanished made nothing but a feel of tombstones around the place. Harish and co finally chose the chain link fence to watch a combat between a preying weaver ant and a praying mantis and well past the usual time by which we wind up and head to the hotel.

It was’nt until later in the evening, when I chose to plot the effective area (a vague approximation from the trail) we watch, survey or scan for birds and other creatures during the walks. I chose the old route from the glass house, the new trail from the west gate fountain and the patch we had walked on the day, with the sizeable part of the lake we could cover each time. And, much to my surprise the area of the patch was nothing more than 30-35 acres across all three plots and a mere ~15% of the total 215 acres of Lalbagh. A higher proportion of the wetland would be covered though, due to better visibility either when we walk along the bund or rarely along the periphery.

Images below –an approx. plot of the effective area covered during the walks

glass house to bridge via Jap garden; old route pre-2020

west gate fountain to bridge and along bund – trail walked since the last couple of years

the walk held this month

A new year’s meal: January 1st 2024

Many who had the chance to gorge on a sumptuous meal on the eve of the new year may not have made it to the early morning walk at Lalbagh. Maybe they did, but for some reason I felt there were fewer than the other days.

The stroke of the new year may have had little to do with the birds, and they were up early in the morning as usual. Up in the heights, close to the crown of a dense tree, I chanced upon a Paradise Flycatcher making a meal out of what looked like the female of the Danaid Egg-Fly. The bird was beating it to the right and to the left, and, moreover, this is a bird with neither a big beak nor long legs to pin it down. In the majority of the situations, we come across the Paradise Flycatcher hawking small insects which only the FC would spot with its large eyes. Comparatively, if a human were to have their eyes proportionate to our body size, then we would be carrying heavy eyes rather than heavy hearts! The bird gulped it down entirely, and the wings with strong colours went in. We often see harriers dissect the wings of a grasshopper which display bright colours to ward off a predator, and this one didn’t, and all along had the white ribbons swaying below the branches.

Close by, on a wide branching Ficus was an Oriole (Golden), with a clearly visible white caterpillar and hammered it aside. The grub posed little problems to the large bird, unlike the Paradise and the Butterfly.

Not too far away was an Asian Brown Flycatcher and the birds swooped with a parabolic dive and lifted itself to a twig. Here too I could see an insect in the bird’s beak, but had little chance to see what it was except for the legs dangling out, and it was a fairly long one. The Asian Brown Flycatcher was flittering for close to 5 mins until it grabbed this meal and went silent without a move for many minutes after this one. Somehow gave me a chance to watch the plumage while the insect went down its throat.

Next in the line on the trail was a pair of Coucals, with one of them on the ground and had its wings motionless and looked as if it was injured. Right above it on a perch was another calling out with a hissing call which is best recorded than verbalized (cat-hisss, cat-hisss). I did manage to do it and found the Coucals on the rather cleaned up but spilt over litter. One of them ran on the ground and picked up an insect, and my luck had run out this time to see what it was eating. Another one ran and came quite close to me to twist its head in a funny arch to get a good sight of what looked like a motionless human. I had frozen, standing still, and did watch how the birds would react to the walkers. They seem to be not bothered since the people were on the path and not on the leaf litter. Perched close by was a White breasted Kingfisher, fairly away from any puddle, and it wasn’t surprising to see it there. I did see a grasshopper amidst the fallen leaves as I avoided plonking my foot on the leaf litter.

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Broken twigs and stems from regenerated vegetation didn’t make it easier with an already swollen toe, however, here I witness the frenzy of rich red Indian red bugs (Probergrothius sanguinolens) that thronged the sides of a Sterculia tree. Moreover, a lot of other malvales (Bombax and Ceiba trees) are found in the park which could be attracting them, even though the only Baobab in the park now a tree of the past.  Obviously one couldn’t walk through a teeming field of mating red bugs which can stay copulated for a long time (days perhaps) and in hundreds. So one would imagine how the bugs would survive an army of Mynas, or even the Red-breasted Flycatcher seen in another corner of the park, and other gleaners. Maybe the rich red colours serve the purpose to ward some of them off? However, a popular pest control web source mentioned the use of caging chickens to control the cotton strainers (Pyrrocoridae, Infonet-biovision.org).

In any case, there was no way I could see what the Red-breasted Flycatcher was feeding on, even though it was barely meters away from where I was standing, and saw it plunge to the ground and the litter, while taking cover to forage barely a few feet above the ground.

Some of the Mynas though walked through half a foot deep litter during the previous week. They would shove their heads into the litter as if to hear crawlies under the litter, raise their head, walk a few steps and repeat (or so did I think and may have been to just peep into the depths). For years, we’ve seen the Mynas walk with a swagger on the neatly swept lawns close to the Japanese garden, and made kids notice a walking-Myna, a hopping-Crow, a never-descending-Barbet, but had missed paying attention to any particular mode of foraging. At least one acrid was around for the Acridotheres tristis, as I carefully placed my feet to avoid the red bugs!

It was a little over a week ago, when I browsed through some papers authored by Katti and Price in 2003, to see what the Leaf Warblers were feeding on. They had draped plastic bags on branches in focal trees to analyse arthropod diversity. Amidst the wave of migrants I’ve spotted over the last fortnight, the morning on 1^st January was one of those where the birds offered a better glimpse of their meal 😀 Incidentally, the morning was clear and well lit than many of the gloomy mornings in December, and, with no particular relevance as to why I may have observed some of them in detail.

More forays into Lalbagh: a few more migrants

Following the brief visit after the 2^nd Sunday outing, I happened to visit Lalbagh on half a dozen occasions (14^th – 29^th Dec). It was mostly for a morning walk, but I had chosen some closed canopies, trees and clumps to get a better view of some of the migrants we would encounter during winter. Most of the regular visited spots were sampled with a stationary count of at least 10 mins and often followed by an extend of a min or two.

Flycatchers – It was quite fascinating to hear the shriek calls of the Asian Paradise male with the dangling white ribbons, and coming out as the most common flycatcher. I often saw it foraging at a height of ~40+ feet under rain tree canopies. The bird, either male or female, did swoop down to lower heights and at a mid-height of barely 15 feet or so under dense thickets, but never too low. The Black-naped Monarch was one other bird that stuck around the mid-heights wherever the Paradise foraged and in close proximity of Leaf-Warblers and Great Tits. It was a hunting party like scene which led to a spurt of activity many times, or would follow into long periods of silence with just the shriek of the Paradise FC and none other. The Asian Brown FC was another bird that was sighted around the tree canopies, but nowhere close to the hunting party like waves. It usually was a solitary bird, once again close to the crown of the tree or a touch lower and giving me a tough time to keep the neck stretched. The Red-breasted / Taiga just came out with a few glimpses in three different places and at low heights close to the ground as one would imagine. However, it was the Brown-breasted (Layarad’s) that sprung a surprise by sticking to the same set of perches for almost two weeks and later moving to an adjoining patch (I guess it was the same individual). A larger grab-from-the-perch bird in the form of an Ashy Drongo was seen on the perches and made me wonder if the BBFC had moved places while being shooed away from the larger bird. But sparing a thought on the size of grub each of them would follow made me feel if that wasn’t really the case. It anyway left me with no convincing answer as it hung to low perches ~ 5 feet perches. The customary non-flick of the tail was to be seen (as Krishna pointed out) and spent most of the time sallying in a desolated corner. The Verditer Flycatcher though was the most sporadic and came about in a couple of locations on the open-side of the canopy, however not too far away from a tree where we were seeing it 10 years ago !

Leaf and Reed Warblers  – The Leaf Warblers on the other hand were largely Greenish, without much (or none) of the P. nitidus being heard. It was probably too late into winter to hear a lurking P.magnirostris. The last few weeks have been cloudy and gloomy in the morning, and choosing an ideal site to see the light shadow interplay and still spot the warblers was quite a challenge. Sometime ago in BBMP parks I’ve come across the Tickell’s or what could have been the Greenish (Bright Green and a tinge underneath) foraging on low thickets or even trees with some clumps sticking to the lower part near the trunk. One would wonder why such a layer would go missing in a large heritage park, and the bushes reclining to the ground would be pruned. Kishan pointed out the Powder Puff tree clump where we spotted the RBFC on the 2^nd Sunday outing was pruned under the crown to an extent where the tree clump would resemble an arch with no overhangs. None of this was seen, as I still look out for a vantage point where I can see the wing bars and the colour of the mantle rather than the plumage underneath in the flittering waves of Leaf Warblers. The Blyth’s on the other hand was the only other Warbler that I noticed, and either the Booted / Syke’s (Iduna) were yet to be spotted on the trails walked during the last fortnight.

Spot-billed ducks – It has been a year since I compiled the duck congregations from Kishan’s counts and looked at the peaking of numbers by late winter (fieldknotes.blogspot.com; Cit Sci Conf 2023). Whatever makes me think that the Spot bills at the marsh are winter visitors, however the Marie and glucose biscuit pampered ducks are now no way shy of people an almost form a duck chain towards the shore while seeking titbits from walkers and an expected scream from the guard at the bridge to ward them away. From rather bleak no sightings of ducks at all 15 years ago in the marsh, to a whooping numbers of 25 odd pampered ducks was quite a sight. I was curious to note if the ducks were bill-dipping in the waters to feed and away from the biscuit laden shore, and, to notice if it was a case of opportunistic feeding during the winter forays into the marsh. However, whether it was bits of floating flour or submerged forage for the ducks as they would do during the rest of the day went unanswered.

Bulbuls, Robins and the Peepul tree – It isn’t just the Ducks, but also the Bulbuls that have come in hordes. A walk or list ten to fifteen years ago along the old 2^nd sun trail would make us come across just a bulbul or two. In fact, a pair on the Plumeria next to the Elephant apple tree had made me make a note. Now, on an early winter morning, I was witness to an explosion of Red-whiskers all around the big Peepul near the Jap garden. I witnessed a frenzy of Bulbuls flying all around and foraging on the tree, and many birds seem to stay put even later into the day. However, the abundance of the Bulbuls seem to be rather patchy across the garden and rather restricted to a few clumps. The Magpie Robin too joined the cacophony of the Bulbuls and the early morning calls were noticed to be quite varied compared to the repetitive swee, swee, call that follows by late mornings.

Booted Eagle – Another one of those birds which would make us raise eyebrows upon sighting it in Lalbagh. Even though one of the most common wintering Eagles, a bird or two seems to have been hanging around since the last many seasons. On one of the mornings, I saw both the light and dark morphs, separated by barely half an hour. One of the birds even uttered a klee –klee –klee call that I could record on the phone while diving onto a branch. I’ve come across a Booted Eagle dive onto a hapless wing-drying Cormorant and observed making a full meal out of the catch over an hour or so in Solapur (iNat/obs/65692084). Given the 55 packed formation of Great Corms I saw this morning (29^th), it is anybody’s guess as to what would keep a large Eagle going in winter in a depauperated urban setting. Perhaps an occasional Corm, a Pigeon, rats and so on. Kishan even marked a perch where it was seen on most mornings and predicted the soaring time 😉

Starlings, Wagtails, Orioles – The Starlings though have given me a miss and a paltry number of 4 Chestnut-tails is all that I saw during the fortnight. Perhaps they may become more common by spring and when the flower petals could be a lot more abundant and some of the Ficus could come into play. The Grey Wagtail popped out at just two places, either at the silt pond or under the bridge on paved surfaces, and no number of sprinklers dragged them to it. Another striking absence has been the Orioles on the 2^nd sun trail, and I queried if the change in trail from the glass house to the west gate were making us see fewer Orioles. Whatever the reason, I saw a pair here and there on denuded trees, and once a party of 3 females that sounded a lot different from the Golden Orioles. A call was recorded to see if it was the much mellower cry of the Black-naped.

Jungle Mynas – I’ve been seeing the Jungle Mynas in not more than two locations and crowding in small numbers around littered feed and nowhere else. The hyacinth in the marsh where they would take a dip is now absent, however it might be early days before they flock with and around the starling roosts by early spring. A peep into the counts put forth 15 years ago did suggest that their occurrence was rather low during in the Sep-Dec period (Monitoring prog, IBP post).

Lalbagh 2nd Sunday outing, Dec 2023

Lalbagh 2nd Sunday outing , Dec 2023

Fwded from Bangalore Wildlife, Telegram; first published on https://naturalhistory.in/2nd-sunday-outing-lalbagh-dec-2023/

It is not often that one gets to do a repeat visit, and today somehow most people were gung-ho to drop in after breakfast 😉 After all, the attention in the first session is spent on narrating and quite a few may miss our eyes even during the peak of winter. A sumptuous breakfast didn’t end things and much to our surprise we found Harish still chatting with a couple of kids and narrating the little wonders of nature, and braving intense hunger after a three-hour walk 😉

A walk into the least explored paths is often sought about, and about six-seven of us did that at 11 am today. The light quite often isn’t great to sight the canopy foragers since we would be seeing most birds against light by noon, and the lit sides of the trees would be visible earlier in the morning. However, the dark shades of some of the trees was just an ideal place to spot the Paradise FC with long tail streamers. Their calls were evident, and at least a couple called from the trees even by noon as they were foraging continuously.

It wasn’t just the Paradise FCs, but their close relatives the Monarchs (Black-naped) dropped in for some good views. The Leaf Warblers, even though not very vocal, were to be found all around. At least three to four in a patch where we watched with neck pointed skywards. The yellow belly of what looked like a Phylloscopus trochilloides caught my eye, and a P.t.virdinaus or a Bright green (Phylloscopus nitidus) are good candidates with such a plumage. Purabhi caught a faint glimpse of the wing bars, and we queried further about the possibility of a Tickell’s Leaf warbler. Ulhas later spotted one with an extended supercillium. It was anyway a patch that brings ups some surprises, particularly during spring and an FC earlier in the morning had played around the large gathering today to make up for the list (Red-breasted) with extended wash to the breast and the calls heard, while Dr. S. Subramanya saw the rump colour.

The Great Tits just like the ones in the morning still hung around, and later the waterbirds kept us busy. The rectangular heads of the Cormorant, the bumpy, elegant head, the supercillium and colours of the egrets, and other such. But the stars of the show were the Large Cormorants feeding in a flock, and the Grebes (I wonder if the high numbers had anything to do with winter) were also seen in a packed flock. They were really close as we hung around by noon, and the Grebes stole the show while feeding in formation. Or so it seemed.

The stroll went on to where we had started in the morning and into the patch by the Rose garden. A Terminalia catappa tree that had played home to a Drongo-Cuckoo last year was inspected and out came a drongo with white spotting and barring neither close to the tail but rather close to the vent. We wondered if we had stumbled upon another one at the same place, and Kishan gleefully pulled out his big book. It was too large for a D-Cuckoo, and looked like a juvenile, while Ulhas thought he had spotted the rictal spots. A furlong further took us to the heavy and rustling carpet of dry leaves near the Bombax/ Ceiba. It really was an awesome carpet, and the ones that could invite a Thrush or a Pitta. But their removal over the many years may have barred the nutrients from seeping into the soil (see MBK’s post last week; Bangalore Wildlife on Telegram).

Finally, we walked past the Podocarpus, the famous tree which Krishna had used as a dummy to create a Jurassic era, to tell kids about the trees which did not have large leaves in an ancient planet, and all coming from the old trail which we used to walk from the glass house before moving to the fountain on west gate.

We settled to unwind near the Jap garden, where a couple of Brousannetia (paper mulberry) have sprung up near the bamboo clumps. The Kites hovered at their favourite patch near the Mango tree-pencil cedar avenue where either the low perches or titbits from picnickers seem to be a magnet in an open patch where they swoop down gracefully. Some felt that the crowd was heavy for a Sunday afternoon, however I had no qualms and was rather happy that some young legs (Deepa) had repeatedly called for a repeat visit after breakfast 😀 It really is an effort for some to commute from one corner of the city and a three-hour ordeal wouldn’t have been enough to explore a large green space.

I was reminded of Purabhi’s report 10 years ago where she spotted hordes of Mynas (both Common and Jungle), on the leaf litter and where she had compared the managed and unmanaged areas. There was enough fodder for Kishan to keep continuing with his lists from the last 10 years, and a new one for Rahul to start with.

Swifts in a tower

For people not familiar with this seminal title – Swifts in a tower – is from the well known work by David Lack whose curiosity about the Swifts in the Oxford univ tower led to a series of rigorous and intensive observations, and finally the one that was made into an extremely readable book. The title coined here is a terrible attempt to draw the reader’s attention to the tower here in question, which is nothing but a mere coincidence to a highrise and one of the few species of birds that nests in such structures. In many ways it has been a seminal building, a govt commercial and office complex which was one of the first of its kind in Bangalore, and has been a jolly good landmark for more than three decades. In the 80s it was one of the most recognizable building on the skyline, even from the outskirts of the city when high rises were a rare sight.

Recently, I learnt that the Mahanagara Palike has passed a resolution, and formulated to replace the complex it with a twice-high building with more space, more facilities, more revenue etc! But what makes it find a place in a blog on natural history? Well the only species that comes to my mind has been the House Swift colony that stay-put here for a long time. The avenue avellanadaes (Tabebuia) around the building might still survive and I’m not sure if they will play host to wintering Wagtails, as seen a few years ago. Long ago there were shabby clumps in the vegetable market roof corners that probably belonged to the same birds, but the roofs and corners were gutted in a fire and may have ceased to exist since then. Swift activity has however been noticeable around the building.

A thought on getting a closer look at the Swifts did occur many times, but more so because of its inaccessibility, the one that had to be observed from a busy road or a parking lot kind of dampened such thoughts for long. Even if I was’nt able to walk up the floors to get a few glimpses of this colony, regular visits for two years came from three other places located within a distance of two or three kms from this building (T-block, Raagi Gudda, Yediur). Swifts were recorded in all the three places during most seasons of the year. A peak occurrence during monsoons may be speculated from a couple of places (Picture1). Balls of swifts may also have been more prominently sighted during the cloudy evenings, which are commonly sighted around the Jayanagar complex, IVRI building (Bellary road) on cloudy mornings even now.

Picture1: Occurrence of House Swifts during Monsoons (Jun-Sep); Winter (Oct-Jan) and Summer (Feb-May) for pooled samples (n=200, 186, 232) respectivley

Why should the proposed removal of a single highrise even draw one’s curiosity, when high rises themselves are on the rise? The Swifts are still found regularly, seasonally (?) in many places – the Public utility building, the Cauvery Bhavan complex, the IVRI building near Mekhri circle etc. Mind you, most of these are old buildings with protruding eaves and corners available for the swifts such as the one above. Swifts are regularly reported from places around Yelahanka, Vidyaranyapura, and many other places from the city (see species maps ebird.org), where highrises have come up. But long term observers have had their opinion on declining numbers of Swifts in the city and one would be curious to see how what buildings actually support colonies. Even as late as ten years ago, their declining numbers were noticeable, and may not have been due to the buildings alone but because of what might be happening to the insects high up in the air (Krishna MB, bngbirds msg#8543). The balls of Swifts that were maybe a lot more common had declined over the years.

A trend seen in UK, has been that of declining Swift numbers available from rigorous monitoring and many reasons are being attributed to the new design of the buildings that are swift proof (BTO). The trend here in Bangalore too has been that of the glazed-window buildings without eaves or ledges taking over from the old buildings that housed a lot of space for the swifts. It’s not just the highrises but even small buildings under (15-20m) were known to have Swift nests (bngbirds msg # 8543). I’m not suggesting that that swift numbers have drastically declined because of change in building design alone, and nor are we aware of comprehensive information on colonies that existed in the past, or their diet of which very little is known. Given the fact that number of highrises in the city’s outskirts have increased, colonies may have also dispersed. On the other hand, if the proposed building would look anything like the new sister building that’s come up (Picture 2), the swifts that beckoned this tower could be a thing of the past.

 

Picture 2: New & the old building. Notice the lack of eaves and corners that are usually absent in the newer designs and were quite common in the old govt buildings (Cauvery Bhavan, Jayanagar complex, IVRI, Public utility building). So it‘s anybody’s guess as to how the new building might look?!

 

Picture 3: A Swifts’ nest located at a height of 20 ft from the ground at the city’s outskirts.

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Content copyright: Prashanth M Badarinath, Creative Commons share-alike 3.0

Comparisons of seasonality: Pond-Heron & Little Cormorant

The Pond-Heron and the Little Cormorant that showed evidences of a decrease in their abundance or occurrence during the monsoons (Waterbirds in Lalbagh). Since these are colonial nesting birds whose heronries are fairly unknown in the Bangalore district limits, a comparison of occurrence and abundance across multiple sites was done using e-bird.org (see below).

Pond-Heron  (click image to enlarge)

 

Little Cormorant  (click image to enlarge)

The above charts are further pointers to what could be dispersion to other areas for nesting in the two species. Other species such as the Night-Herons and Purple Moorhens (which show monthly variation) are known to breed within the city and the district limits and hence not compared here.

Similarly, other colonial nesting birds such as the Little and Cattle Egrets show a decrease in either occurrence or abundance during the monsoons (refer ebird.org > Bangalore > Karnataka > India > Species).

Reference: Waterbirds in Lalbagh: seasoning the seasons 

Content © Prashanth M Badarinath, Nov 2014

Pond heron and Little Cormorant – cliparts (c) – Mahesh Iyer – en.wikipedia.org
Shared under Creative Commons share-alike CC 3.0

Waterbirds in Lalbagh: seasoning the seasons

Waterbirds in Lalbagh: seasoning the seasons

Prashanth, Kishan and Srinivasa

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Sections:

In brief

Introduction

Sourcing reports

Observations

Are these seasonal changes, dispersion due to nesting, or just sporadic movements?

Acknowledgements

References

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In brief

Lalbagh is visited every month for informal outings by birdwatchers which gives them a chance to record the bird diversity during each time of the month.  Here, we present the seasonal and regular presence of waterbirds in the Lalbagh tanks that resulted from an activity during the outings. About eight species were sighted on all months of the year, and another species were present seasonally. The absence or the fluctuations in numbers of certain species coincided with their known breeding seasons. Abundance of waterbirds did not exceed 150 individuals from all the twelve monthly visits.

Introduction: In what is fairly a customary practice, unwinding after a morning’s birdwatching session usually happens by the bridge at Lalbagh. Not as a matter of preference of sorts, but more so because of their visibility even after the sun is up, the waterbirds are met at the fag end of the session, while the ones that hop around on trees and bushes are met much earlier in the morning. Cormorants, the Rails and the Herons are sure to be met with, and the popular Pelicans are met now and then depending on the seasons. In a sheer challenge to what the seasons offer to the waterbirds (migratory and wintering season), the wintering congregations or sightings have been hard to come by during the last eight years. The place unfortunately has also been bereft of a diverse assemblage of birds occurring either over a short or long span of time. Many reasons could be driving it (blogpost, Sep 2013;   Swamy NR, 1990) but if we did stop down to observe the more commonly occurring birds, what do they have to tell us? In what appeared like a seasonal arrival of the Pelicans at Lalbagh, the peaking of their flocks was also to be seen at other location is the city (blogpost, Nov 2013). So,

Do we attribute the sudden disappearance of a species or a flock to disturbances alone in Lalbagh, or is it the turn of the season that drives their absence? In spite of the harsh conditions that are brought upon due to landscaping, disturbance, water level regulation etc is there a seasonal pattern to their occurrence?

Are such seasonal changes only relevant to what are called migratory species and not so for the resident species?

While trying to summarize the reports of one full year’s visit to Lalbagh, this blog post provides the waterbird counts, their monthly (and seasonal presence) at the tank and possible movements that may be driven by breeding or fluctuations in water level.

Sourcing reports: Waterbirds have been documented from the main tank as well as the adjoining marsh. Species and their total counts were obtained on each visit totaling to twelve monthly visits. The main water tank offers good visibility and is covered from multiple points along the periphery in a short span of time (less than half an hour). Most reports come from the second sunday outings that are held between 7:30-9:30 am and three other reports for missing months, were also from the mid-week of the month, and, from the same time of the day.  The same set of observers (Kishan SB, Prashanth MB, TS Srinivasa et al) have reported on eleven months out of  the twelve months. The result was from a pre-planned activity, and, not an accumulation of sporadic reports that may lead to bias in terms of missing certain pockets in the tank area while surveying. Most reports were posted on bngbirds@yahoogroups.com (Kishan SB, Archives bngbirds).

Table1: Monthly occurrence and abundance of each species (click on the image to enlarge)

Fig 1a (top-right) & 1b (bottom-right): Total waterbird count and species count from monthly observations

The total waterbird count is observed to have peaked during the months of September, when flocks of Great Cormorants and Pelicans have been recorded.

Species count on the other hand shows fluctuations with peaking during winter and a decrease during summer. At least ten waterbird species have been observed during the entire cycle, except in the month of March.

 

Fig 2a (top) & 2b (below): Species counts showing fluctuations during the early monsoon (decrease) and late monsoon period (increase). Click on the image to enlarge.

Pre-monsoon and Setting-in monsoon (fig 2a): The abundance of a few waterbird species such as Purple Moorhen, Pond-Heron and Little Cormorant show decrease in abundance during this period.  This period coincides with the known and observed breeding periods of Purple Moorhen (May, also observed in Lalbagh), Pond-Heron and Little Cormorants (Monsoons, June- September).

Late-monsoon and early-winter (fig2b): The Large Cormorants and Spot-billed Pelicans have been observed in bigger flocks as the monsoon advanced. The occurrence of Night-Herons is seasonal and they have not occurred during the entire year.

Are these seasonal changes, dispersion due to nesting, or just sporadic movements?

It is also important to note that while the percentage change in many of the species count is more than fifty percent of their recorded numbers, these flocks have been occurring at very low numbers (maximum 80 individuals of any species). Detectability of certain cryptic species that might feed around reeds and emergent vegetation (Pond-Heron and Purple Moorhen) also need to be considered.

However, from other sites in the surrounding area (Yediur), the following seasonal occurrence or dispersion due to probable nesting activity are consistent with these observations:

Pond-Herons– A common species seen during the entire year, was absent during the June-September months in Yediur when fortnightly visits spanned an entire year (Prashanth, # 14359). Breeding records of Pond-Herons have been extremely rare in Bangalore district (Krishna MB, in Joseph George et al, 1994) and the birds may be expected to move during the breeding season.

Purple-Moorhens – even though breeding has been observed in Lalbagh, only a few pairs were seen breeding and the marsh was observed to be dry by summer. Breeding conditions due to depleting water level may not have been suitable during that period and may have led to dispersion.

Little Cormorants – Breeding records of yet another extremely common species is rare or unknown in Bangalore limits (persobs).

Night-Herons – These birds are known to breed in the city limits but absence during the early winter period has been noticed in Yediur, a site not far away from Lalbagh (Prashanth, # 14359, 11914, 12200, IBP). See Fig 4 below

Pelicans and Great Cormorants – Both these species were known to be extremely rare in the 80s and early 90s (Joseph George et al, 1994) , but are now known to occur through the year in many wetlands in the city. As with the Pelicans do their numbers increase with the intensification of the monsoons? While information on Pelican occurrence is available from multiple sites and is consistent with the pattern observed here (Prashanth, #26001, blogpost, Nov 2013) , the same is yet to be documented / observed in case of the Great Cormorants. The increase in Great Cormorant abundance during september could well be a result of the presence of just one sporadically moving flock unless there is further evidence of increased numbers during these months.

Timing of the survey during the entire survey period has been consistent, but possible movements from roosts in the tank to the other feeding grounds may be possible in case of a few species. However, recorded absence during consecutive months and gradual reduction in numbers leading to the breeding season has been observed here.

Total waterbird count

From an entire cycle of observations, the largest congregation of all waterbird species put together has been about 150 during the month of september. Given the niches present in Lalbagh tank, , the waterbird counts have been depleted in comparison to the ones that may have been present before the tanks was dredged and the marsh separated in 2006.

From what are drastic changes observed over the last twenty years, that may have resulted due to large scale urbanization, change in land use from a predominantly paddy growing area, and change in designs of the tanks,  to the current situation, the difference in waterbird counts appear similar as well. The total waterbird count spanning each visit did not exceed 150 birds, in comparison to flocks of Garganey and Spot-bills that totalled to flocks numbering 600-800 a couple of years ago (Krishna MB et al, 1994). Such changes are not limited to this location alone but many wintering waterfowl sites across Bangalore district.

Drying marsh and low water level in the main tank

Unconfirmed reports have also pointed to the diversion of storm water from the catchments in Jayanagar due to repair work that may have led to depleted water source. Yet another unconfirmed report hints at treatment of storm water and subsequent transportation in water tankers. Low rainfall during the later periods of monsoon in 2013 may also have affected the dry marsh.

Whatever be the reason, the conditions in the marsh seem to have been unfavourable to Coots, Moorhens and other wading birds such as Herons. The absence of the Coots and Common Moorhens can also be noticed from the summer and later period (table1). Painted Storks that are more adapted to feeding in shallow waters (bill-clapping) was unrecorded during the last eight or more years in Lalbagh, and have been seen since the month of June 2014 (Fig 3). Trees on the island may also favour roosting.

Fig 3 (left): Google earth image showing the main tank and the marsh on either sides of the bridge. Rails are predominantly seen in the marsh while Painted Storks have been seen feeding on the shallower edges in the main tank since June.

Status of waterbirds in Lalbagh

Since this set of observations span just one seasonal cycle, a concurrent and continuous cycle of observations with similar evidences of movements may confirm possible dispersion due to nesting. Invariably, this set of information collected as a result of monitoring activity on monthly bird watching outings still serves as a ready reckoner that has been absent for a while.

Limitations: The rainfall during the months of Sep-Oct 2014 have been in excess of normal rainfall and conditions in the wetland are bound to change during winter and summer. Alongside the counting of waterbirds, during the entire seasonal cycle, the garden birds have also been documented for each birdwatching session on all the months. Due to variations associated with detectability (that species may go undetected even when present), unless the same locations were monitored each time under strict definitions for surveys, it would be hard to present a similar status of the garden birds unlike the one for waterbirds. Also the path walked during each outing may deviate a wee bit and time spent at each point would vary drastically. In any case, the entire sample of birds recorded during each outing will be posted in suitable forums (bngbirds, e-bird, Indiabiodiversityportal).

Acknowledgements: This compilation has been solely possible due to the efforts of Kishan SB who was able to survey during most of the months. TS Srinivasa was grateful in helping Kishan while observing on a few outings. Anvitha Rao shared the report from November and she along with Purabhi Deshpande also helped Kishan to collect information on a few outings. The missing counts for April was sourced from Mike Prince’s report on ebird.org (subID=S17940080)

Bird clip arts (Little Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Painted stork, Black-crowned Night Heron) were sourced from en.wikipedia.org from the following author Mahesh Iyer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mahesh_Iyer. All the above charts and images with clip arts are shared under – Creative Commons Share-alike 3.0 –    Purple Moorhen clip art was sourced from –commons.wikimedia.org– shared under the public domain.

References:

Archives: bngbirds@yahoogroups.com. Nos following # indicate message numbers

Kishan SB #26110; # 26393; # 26888; # 27088; # 27258; # 27336; Prashanth MB # 14359; , # 14359; # 11914; # 12200; #26001.

Joseph George, 1994. Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Bangalore.Birdwatcher’s Field Club of Bangalore.

Krishna MB and Madhav Gadgil, 1993. Impact of boating on the birds of Lalbagh tank. A report submitted to the Department of Ecology and Environment, Government of Karnataka, by the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Swamy, NR. (1990). Deteriorating Lalbagh. Newsletter for birdwatchers, NLBW 30(3+4):12

Text and content Copyright- Prashanth M Badarinath, Nov 2014. Shared under Creative Commons Share-alike CC 3.0