Birds spotted at Yelahanka Lake, Nov 2012

12th Nov 2012

Dr S. Subramanya

Recently, Yelahanka Lake was developed by BBMP. For once, instead of dredging the lake into an uniform depth, the lake-bed was scrapped to have a gradual slope towards the main bund. Thanks to the recent cyclonic storms in the Bay, the lake is 3/4th full with about waist deep water near the bund. Although the water is near clear, there is still some sewage mixed-up in it (mainly due to the inflow from the Puttenahalli Lake in the upstream). The overall effect of this is quite evident in the diversity of birds it supports. The lake looks like a hemi-marsh with about 1/3 of the waterspread area covered with emergent vegetation (see the first image & don't miss the clearness of water).

Here is the list of bird species seen at Yelahanka Lake this morning at 8.00-9.00am:

Egrets & Herons:

1. Pond heron

2. Cattle Egret

3. Little Egret

4. Median Egret

5. Large Egret

6. Grey Heron

7. Purple Heron

Darters and Cormorants:

8. Oriental Darter

9. Little Cormorant

10. Large Cormorant

Birds of Prey:

11. Black Kite

12. Brahminy Kite

13. Marsh Harrier*

Grebes and Ducks:

14. Little Grebe

15. Garganey*

16. Lesser Whistling-duck (50+)

17. Shoveller*

18. Spot-billed Duck

Sandpiper and Plovers:

19. Common Sandpiper*

20. Wood Sandpiper*

21. Green sandpiper*

22. Black-winged Stilt*

23. Red-wattled Lapwing

Rails:

24. Common Coot

25. White-breasted Waterhen

26. Purple Gellinule

Warblers & Pipits:

27. Zitting Cisticola

28. Ashy Prinia

29. Blyth’s Reed warbler*

30. Paddy-field Pipit

Kingfishers:

31. Common Kingfisher

32. Pied Kingfisher

33. White-throated Kingfisher

*= Migratory species

The second image shows part of the Lesser Whistling-duck flock and single individuals of Coot and the migratory Garganey.