Birds in Breeding Plumage

This is Part 3 of our trip to Bandipur National Park. You can read Parts 1 and 2 here:

• Vacation with Strangers - Bandipur National Park
• Tigers and Leopards - Dream Sightings at Bandipur II
  

In Part 3, I am actually writing about the first day of our trip. Those who have read the other two reports or at least the title of the first report will know that we were traveling with T & S, our blog friends who we had never met before. On our way to Bandipur National Park, we planned to stop at Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary, which is a famous breeding ground for egrets, spoonbills, open bill storks, painted storks, river turns and many other birds . Our plan was to start at 5:00 AM and reach the sanctuary by 6:30-7:00 AM.

Thomas: 5:00 AM means 5:00 AM , 5:00 AM does not mean you wake up at 5:00 AM. 5:00AM means you are outside the door and ready to leave at 5:00 AM
Vam: I GET IT!! I will be at the door at 5:00 AM. Don't worry, I am not a morning person, but I wake up when it is necessary.
Thomas: Do you want me to give you a wake-up call? You know what...I will give you a wake up call at 4:00 AM just in case.
Vam: Relax Thomas....I will wake up.

This was our first time meeting Thomas and Shilpy and I did not want to start off on the wrong foot, so I set up two phone alarms 5 minutes apart and kept waking up every hour to check the time. Finally I fell asleep at 2:00 AM and woke up when the alarm rang. I showered and got ready and woke up Saru. It was already 4:30 AM and I still didn't get the wake up call from Thomas. I called him, just to reassure him that we were indeed going to be ready by 5:00 AM. The phone rang a few times before it was answered by a very sleepy voice.

Thomas: Hello
Vamsee: Hi Thomas...It is Vamsee. Don't worry we are almost ready!
Thomas: Oh Shit...Oh Shit...What time is it?
Vamsee: 4:30
Thomas: Oh Man....I was very restless last night and I woke up at 2:00 AM and could not go back to sleep.
Vamsee (with a very wide smile): Did YOU oversleep?

It was a little after 6:00 AM by the time we started. We were meeting for the first time, but the ice was broken with the hilarity of the situation and I was thoroughly enjoying the upper hand.

Vamsee: Thomas....When we said 5:00 AM, we meant leaving at 5:00 AM, not waking up at 5:00 AM.
Thomas: Oh God....You are going to write about this on her blog...Aren't you?. It was not my mistake. S takes one hour to pack and get ready.
S: Don't bring me in to this. You didn't wake up.
We had fun teasing each other and before we knew it, we were chatting like old friends. It was a nice drive along green fields. Gulmohar trees were in full bloom and were really beautiful. We took this picture much later in the trip.

We stopped at Barrista for some coffee and breakfast and were delayed a little bit more, so it was about 9:00 AM by the time we reached the bird sanctuary. The sun was high in the sky, not the best time for photography, but since we were there, we decided to take the boat ride anyway.The place was full of water birds- egrets, storks, pelicans etc. Since we were on a boat, we had the chance to take some really good closeup shots.

Cattle Egrets in Breeding Plumage

Egrets are so common, we normally don't give them a second look. During breeding season, they develop orange-brown feathers on their back, breast, crown and bill and their irises become red for a short period before mating. Here is the bird in many poses.

Intermediate Egrets in Breeding Plumage

As the name suggests, these egrets are intermediate in size, between The Great Egret and the Little or Cattle Egrets. They are mostly white in color with a thick yellow bill but breeding birds have a black bill with a green gape skin. This one kept taunting us with various poses, but finally opened up its feather for a decent (not great) picture. The sunlight was too harsh and the white color is overexposed, but this is the best we could get.

Painted Storks

(from Wikipedia)The adult is a large bird, mainly white with black flight feathers. The head is red, and the long downcurved bill is yellow. The tail and legs are pink, and there is dark barring on the breast.

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