Vacation Fun near home-Exploring Nature.

Waking up in early in the morning was never my cup of joy and taking extra nap in afternoon was always my pleasure,declaring rest afternoon for me. Now not anymore, I make my self privilege and make mom and birder in me ever ready.

Khwaish taking snaps of Asian Koel.

Although a confession,khwaish is getting addictive for new hobby.With no choice in hand ,waiting for Sun to drop some mercury,we(I,khwaish and Samarth)set for our birding expedition in Silver Oaks trees near our apartment.Its been more than a month Khwaish vacations has started,initially she wanted to have late start of day,say by 10'o clock. Now birding in mind and her daily checklist ,she is all set by 7'o clock which i must say is early for holiday kid.During this birding session near my apartment,we have explored lot of newcomer in our list. In fact recognised few,but could not take a shot...taking shot is very difficult,not all bird happily pose to get click.


Initially wanted to write blog with three different stories but at the end of day due to time constraint submerged three stories in one blog post.

First story is of course watching lot of perching birds ,and specially surprise of red vented Bulbul and red rumped swallow from close distance.

Spotted dove Pair

Indian Robin

Plain Prinia

House Swallow

Green Bee Eater

Pied Bushchat

Red vented Bulbul

Red rumped Swallow

Second story is all about chasing Cattle egret and end up in melodious voice of Asian Koel and exploring bird from close, looking in its red Eye.



Cattle Egret searching for food

Asian Koel

Indian pond Heron

Last story is of sunny afternoon which turned into rainy evening, with extra special view of Shikra Kite which we initially thought out to Black shouldered kite juvenile.

Shikra Juvenile

 

Black Kite

  

Shikra Juvenile

 

Spotted Dove

 

These nature rounds are great experience for us to explore and enjoying Nature's at flying.

From egret following cattles,n we follow them to, all day singing of mynas around us,Flying kites in sunny afternoon to
parakkeet showing their colour(green)to jumping to shades of tree.
From coucal showing glance n hide inside tree to wagtail splasing water near poolside
MOMENTS are full of surprise,excitement and action,
ENJOYING.
 
Cheers Ashu

Birding At Andaman Islands

Its more than a month now I'm back from my decade anniversary celebrations from Water paradise-Andaman Islands ,still hangover is there.

 

Beautiful sunset at bay of Bengal

 

Firstly i would like to mentioned place is heavenly with lovely blue beaches and white sand, touch of breeze on beach side is soothing experience.
Although my Facebook is flooded with different tourist spots experience, there is one which need to be unfolded from long back.
I'm talking about my special experience of clicking different bird species at different locations.

To sum up whole birding experience....saw wood pigeon,kingfisher blue throated,kingfisher white collared,
scarlet minivet, red-breasted parakeet, serpent eagle, red whiskered bulbul and few more at locations.

Check out some of clicks-
Andaman islands is heaven for birding ,its just matter of chance to witness different colour!!
My greencraftingkid team had real fun with, specially my younger one...trying lot of combination with sand dry leaves, twigs,shells  playing towards breathing the nature. Khwaish had her own exploration...playing with tides, sand play and collecting boxful of shells as memories of Andaman.

The whole experience was superb with different activities sand play, beach walk, birding, sea walk and much more .

Cheers
Ashu

Birding at Muthanullar lake-Surprise!!

Back after weekend exploration of awesome birding experience and watching few birds first time.To start up,its long pending planned destination to birding spot known   as Muthunullar lake,not many people know this.I came to know about this location from ebird tool which is online tool for birders and surely useful.

We packed up our bag with some neccesary stuff for kids and water,and all set to said location through google map n here drive in hope
to have some new birds. From my place we reached place in 20minuates ,quite close one. Some shop close by have no clue about this big lake on google.
We were trapped in confusion on this note, but raising our spirit high and follow instinct 250metre from the location according to google,
followed the instruction and FINALLY....
According to review and google map pictures i was expecting
a big water pool, but to my disappointment it was all dried up. No thanks to change in climate global warming.

I think we reached the place before appropriate time, it was sunny day. We opened account watching blue throated kingfisher sitting on a cable as usual which
later landed near a cow. Although dried lake was little disappointment still I'm happy to see a new addition to my list-Hoopoe,that too a pair.
In addition to these two saw Indian roller,bushchat,large pied wagtail,lark,Parakeet and few more.....

So it was yet another enjoyable and exploring experience with whole family.

Cheers
Ashu

Sunday Birding

We are very excited and enthusiastic about new hobby nowadays and leaving no chance to catch new birds anytime. Coming after awesome weekend, Sunday was our birding day and of course  special thanks to my husband’s football craze .We started from our place at 6.30 in the morning and saw beautiful orange bright ball of Sun rising …Khwaish took some beautiful click of the same.

Sunrise pic by Khwaish

Our lucky charm KINGFISHER made start of our day,looking from high  ….I was on cloud nine.Actually whole idea of going for morning green visit was birding which is best time to catch different species.Next on our way was Indian roller (blue bird) ,my joy doubled.

Clicked so many new birds and discovered their names later…It was basically day ruled by bee-eater and Drongo.

 

Indian roller

Crested  Serpent Eagle

Black Drongo

There was secret mission to catch the owlet at particular location,we saw three owlet sitting near a tree last week…unluckily my camera lense was giving me trouble ,so miss opportunity to click it.And this weekend no signs of those rare owlet which can be seen inside the city limits.

Anyhow i m really happy to catch quite number of species….Kids had great time,specially Awhile clicking those birds.

List of birds-

Kingfisher, Indian roller, Drongo,Shirke,Lapwing,Bushchat,green bee eater,Wagtail ,Egret ,Kite, Flycatcher.

Catch more clicks on-
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.840654025972319.1073741837.254093634628364&type=1


Cheers
Ashu

Sunny Afternoon of Holiday-Birding continues.

With Mercury rising outside ,summer is reaching its peak,afternoon for holiday Kids at my home becoming really boring.So to beat the heat and utilise time ,we are spending time in our balcony window to witness some fast moves of KITES flying near our apartment.






Black kite displaying wings proudly.

 













I must like to mentioned ,we stay at excellent place which is very much close to nature and full of green views of Silver-oaks and Eucalyptus trees all around the place(I’m no tree expert ,its just during Munnar visit our guide told us ).One such afternoon me and my small birders team ganged up to catch glimpse of “The great huge Black Kites”(must be two feet when u see it flying with those big wings) , i think that kites were all around the places that day because of fire was set to clear dry twigs and leaves to clear that area(don’t know what was need??).I think whole flock was disturbed and came out of their habitat to move to some safe place.

I could click some best and near shots of Black kites….Thanks to DSLR and some editing tools. This area is full of Black Kites and in fact people who are staying in Bangalore can see these kites very much visible when going via some flyover specially the famous E-city flyover,Khwaish is always counting and pin pointing kites sitting on big Towers or flying all over and little one repeating it!!.I have seen Brahminy Kites couple of times while passing through wet area(lake or pond),I wish someday i will post my own clicked picture of same.

 Got diverted from main topic,we were amazed to see number of kites residing near our apartment….I’m sure it will be more than 20+,huge raptures circling all around the place in scorching heat every afternoon,must be in search of food.When it is their rest time,clicking time for us…flying ones are difficult to capture!!

 

I feel each experience in introducing us to details of species and exploring new ones at the same time.

 

Ashu

New Hobby of Greencraftingkid

Hello to friends and readers,must be thinking now flooded blogging chains…its nothing about time,its just about getting time.With Khwaish holidays and around ,little one catching sleeps,i m trying to catch blogging in between n get back on track to connect.

Well this time coming with surprise or can say discovery on blog!!Well green visit is topic or area close to my heart and give so much pleasure and self satisfaction,soothes soul and mind.The new addition which i m talking about is something which has caught my attention from so many days…i’ m talking about BIRDING.On my blog during my green visit i always been clicking picture of birds,in fact few years back we had awesome experience of witnessing NESTING.So birds is always special element of my blog.

Must be thinking how come over night explored my birding love??…My answer is this hobby has come long way holding my hands during all these years of green visit,its just after a particular click,i realise it!!.Birds been our companion during the nature walks…i remember during my Munnar visit i clicked lots of birds but encountered one beautiful colourful bird,i always has instinct that this is probably a Kingfisher…but was not sure.So in a journey to i explore details of bird i googled n landed into colorful vibrant world of birds.

   

Through a fellow blogger who has clicked more than 300+ birds I could find out name of the bird….White breasted Kingfisher BINGO!! ,not only this ,could name few clicks i made all these years.Discovery of new hobby,trying get details of birds and watching some new species.

Unknowingly i did not know my kids are also getting interested with me and making whole team of birder.Samarth is recognising parrot,calling each bird visible as pigeon….Khwaish enjoying taking some clicks with me,finding name of birds in newly ordered “The book of Indian Birds” by Dr.Salim Ali ,india’s birdman.

I along with kids are very much enjoying newly nurtured hobby and exploring new species with our each visit.Will share some more stories of our birding journey,keep enjoying.

Cheers

Ashu