Entry tags:

birding, digiscoping, hyderabad, peacock pond

Peacock Pond
Such a long month. Not much time to take walks outdoors, much less take photographs. For the last couple of weeks a Hawk-cuckoo's been singing its insistent, unceasing song. I envy the way it keeps calling like that- with a clarity and sense of purpose that I really seem to lack these days. 

Today afternoon though I decided to take a break and go to HCU. The Don came along for a while and then had to leave. We walked up to Peacock Pond in HCU campus which adjoins Buffalo Pond - the one I'd posted about earlier. The rains have filled up the pond and the banks were covered with tall grass and reeds. Saw a lot of Marsh Buckwheat growing among the grasses. The nearby rock had a couple of juvenile River Terns with an adult that was calling and flying around nearby. Here's a picture of cormorants and a Night Grey Heron that wanted to rest on one leg for some reason:



White-breasted Waterhens were calling from the reeds and as I was walking along I disturbed a Purple Heron that took off and sat on a dead tree some distance away. The path at the periphery of the pond disappeared after a while and soon I found myself squelching through mud in a manner that was pleasing but detrimental to my jeans. Digiscoping yielded mostly sorry results (as you can see above)  but there were many birds around. Saw a pair of Hoopoes fly past, a solitary Bronzewinged Jacana, a preening Pond Heron and a Pied Crested Cuckoo. I'd posted about Silverbills reusing Weaver bird nests earlier and this time, I caught a couple of them red-handed.

Saw Bee-eaters, Ashy Prinias, a Spotbill Duck and heard many White browed Bulbuls and peafowl around the lake. I wanted to linger but thought it might rain. The walk back was pleasant too, many Ioras calling from the trees and Plum headed Parakeets on the lamp posts.