Birding in My Backyard

When my parents were contemplating the idea of travelling to North India for 2 weeks, I opted to work from home during that period so that I could keep an eye on things there.

While I was not working I was hoping to experiment with my newly purchased camera. After the initial bit of resting I was ready to explore. Having attended NTP and actively followed the posting by the group, my knowledge about birds was slightly better. Its been a week since I arrived and this my account of what I noticed.

The first day when I managed to get up early I was greeted by the cries/calls of woodpeckers. Though at that time I didn’t know the call, I followed the direction it cam from and was glad to find 2 pairs of Common Golden Backed Woodpecker

After I chased them for a while, I gave up and was walking back when I found a Rufos-Backed Shrike sitting close by

At a distance I noticed some jungle Myna

The evening had some more surprises stored for me. As I walked around the property,

calling continuously was an Indian Rufos Babbler.

As I went closer I also caught sight of spotted dove

During the week in between my calls I managed to catch a glimpse of the following among the flowers and fruit trees

While I spotted a lot of birds, I was at loss when I had to identify them. I had left my field guide back in Bangalore, and from experience know that my sketches weren’t of any use in some cases. Luckily mom had a copy of Feathered Jewels of Coorg by Dr. S.V Narashiman and this proved handy in most situations

While I am extremely excited about all this, I can’t help but wonder why I took so long to uncover the beautiful of the place I grew up in

More Pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/aishwarya.belliappa/MyBackyard#

List of Birds so far

House Crow

Jungle Crow

Red Cheeked Bulbul

Red Vent Bulbul

White Breasted Kingfisher

Jungle Myna

Indian Rufos Babbler

Rofus Backed Shrike

Large Egret

Twany Eagle

Large Pied Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

Purple Sunbird

Black-Lored Yellow Tit

Great Tit

Pied Bush Chat

Indian Robin

Oriental Magpie Robin

Greenish Leaf Warbler

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Jerdon's Chloropsis

Black Drongo

Common Swallow

Common Golden Backed Woodpecker

Brown Headed Barbet

White Cheeked Barbet

Greater Coucal

Spotted Dove

Plum Headed Parakeet

Blue-winged Parakeet

Indian Pond Heron

Hanging Parrot

Velvet Throated Nuthatch

Eurasian Blackbird

Ashy Woodswallow

Chestnut Tailed Starling

Scarlet Minivet

Scimitar-Babbler

Scaly Thrush

Loten's Sunbird

Pale Billed Flowerpecker

Fleeting Glimpses of New York

This was going to be my first trip out side of Asia and I was excited. Since the whole thing got finalized in the last minute I didn’t have much time to do research on places to see and had absolutely, no idea what I was going to do once I got to New York except seeing Statue of Liberty.

A colleague and long time friend of mine (Tylsley) offered to take me around and I was glad that I was seen the city with someone I knew.

Let me start off with the area where my office is. It is in the Heart of Time Squares. I was apprehensive about how I would find it and when I walked on to 7th Avenue 45th Street, amongst all the signage there it was the orange (Thomson Reuters Color). All I had to do was walk under it and I found the office. To know that my company is among the ones on Time Square make me feel proud

As for the evening there was no fixed plan I was going to take it as it came. By the time I finished work and wound up it was about 7 and so Tylsley suggested we started with the areas around office.

The first places that we walked by was Radio City, NBC Studios and Rockfeller Building (a tall building with a little history). A stop for peace and serenity at the St. Patrick Church; the walk then took us through Diamond District, Trump building, Tiffiny’s diamond store, Plaza Hotel and Central Park. We then took the a subway to Broadway, peeked in to the WTC site, walk by St Paul Church, past city hall, that bought us to Brooklyn Bridge. The walk on the Brooklyn Bridge was beautiful. It was amazing the see the city whiz past was we walked by enjoying the view. By then I was tired and since it was late I headed back for some sleep.

The next free evening I had I wanted to see Statue of Liberty, at least from a distance. The plan was to take the Stain Island Ferry. But before the ferry, Tylsley took me to the Pier 17. The place gave us a awesome view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the waterway. We spent great deal of time walking around and getting pictures. And then we walked to the ferry. This is a free ferry that gave a great view of Manhattan and New Jersey city line. The ferry took 10 mins and went right past the Statue. The view is breath taking and cameras clicked non stop.

Then we walked to Wall Street, I could not leave New York without seeing the Big Bull. So the path took us there and then to the Stock Exchange and Trinity Church. After that Tylsley had a surprise planned. We walked past the WTC, New Jersey Station and then a Shopping Mall and we were at a Dock. From this place we could see New Jersey and since it was not crowded it had a calming feel to it. Since it was late, that had to be the last place I visited in NY for site seeing.

The good thing about going with Tylsley was that he told me lot of the town. He was open to answering stupid questions about the lifestyles and habits. He knew the place for the best cheese cakes (Juniors, wish I ate more of that), the place that had awesome Mexican Food, the little Italian place. The Other thing was that he knew these small tucked away places that gave the best view of the city line. If it hadn’t been for him I think I would have covered about 10% of what I did.