Birding trip to Mysore

Mysuru (Previously Mysore) has lot more to offer apart from it's palaces and heritage sites, this time of the year we visited Mysuru dedicated for bird watching. Starting from November migratory birds arrive in and around river banks of cauvery and many lakes of Mysuru. We started with Ranganathittu. Every time I visit this bird sanctuary I have always spotted different species of birds, this time we spotted Grey herons and red wattled lapwing which was my first sighting in Ranganathittu. Apart from these we spotted Black Headed Ibis, Cormorants, spoonbills and spot billed pelicans in large numbers. We also spotted Snake bird, White Spotted Fantail Flycatcher, Night Heron and White-browed Wagtail.

Eurasian spoonbill and Black headed Ibis at Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

Black-crowned Night Heron, Ranganathittu

Great Cormorant drying up its wings after a dip in the water

Snake Bird or Darter

Eurasian spoonbill

Grey Heron

Red-wattled lapwing

Snake Bird with White-browed wagtail

Snake Bird probably communicating with the Great Cormorant, this lasted for few minutes and was interesting to watch

Spot-billed pelican, close up of its colorful bill

Next day morning we headed to Karanji kere (Lake). To my surprise this was a very decent and beautiful place. The path around the lake is about 2km walk, so we hired battery operated bicycles. There are birds like sarus crane which is the tallest flying bird in the world kept in captive and next to it is a large cage with peacocks, pheasants and one can walk inside the cage which was a better experience rather than watching them in cage. I personally don't like animals and birds kept in captive. There is boating available as well.

Riding further away from the crowd on the other end of the lake it was calm and tranquil and we got to see lot of birds. We spotted both migratory and resident birds including Cormorants, Black Headed Ibis, Egrets, Purple Sunbird, Eurasian Coot bird, Spot-billed Duck, White-breasted Waterhen, Red-wattled lapwing, and various species of herons including Grey Heron, Night Heron and Pond Heron.

Grey Heron in flight, the largest among the Herons at Karanji Lake

Eurasian coot bird

Pond Heron

Purple Sunbird just about 8-10 cm, what caught my eye was its dashing color

White-breasted waterhen in the wetlands of Karanji Lake

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