Archivos de diario de marzo 2020

03 de marzo de 2020

Birding & Butterflying observations along with my son Kushal (13 yrs) on 01/03/2020 at Sinhagad Valley Pune Maharashtra India

The beginning of this year 2020 was very good for me and my Butterfly group. We got 3 new species in 3 continuous Sundays in the month of January and the last week was named a Hatrick which was a successful one. But the next month ie February was a bit slow with very fewer observations done by me as I had to stay home every Sunday mainly due to my son's examination which had to commence in Feb itself. Kushal is studying in 8th class and he is 13 years old. His last exam finished on Saturday 29.02.2020. on the same night as I came back from work I decided to take him along with me for Birding and Butterflying the next day ie Sunday. And he too was ready to join me. So we decided to visit Sinhagad valley which is located at the base of Sinhagad Fort Pune.
Let me tell you that Kushal is interested in Butterflies and he observes them on day to day basis while coming back from school. He has started to identify the species of Butterflies which he is learning from the book "Butterflies of Western Ghats (India)" written by Naturalists Dr. Milind Bhakare and Mr. Hemant Ogale.

So on Sunday, we left early morning around 6: 30 am and reached the base of the fort by 7:30 am. we immediately had a heavy breakfast and started for our observations.

We reached the Birding spot around 8 am. plenty of birders were already there since early morning. My friend Suhas Ghule was also present at the spot along with his team for Birding. I was happy to see him after a very long time.

As you all are aware that the birds arrive at the stream to either quench their thirst or take a morning dip. But there was not much Birding activity due to the Shikra which spoiled the entire show. And the Birding photographers had to leave early. But the Butterfly activity was in full swing at the stream. The Common Sailor was the first to arrive. There were 2 and suddenly we saw 4 sailors and within a few minutes, there were dozens of them either basking or pudding. By an hour the whole patch of the stream was covered by Butterflies only. It was a treasure for our eyes to see such a beautiful activity. It was exactly 10 am when Suhas asked me about the status of Common Nawab and I said that it should arrive by 11 am, so he said that let's go and have breakfast. But as I and my son Kushal had already had our breakfast as soon as we arrived at Sinhagad Paytha so I requested him to carry on. In the meanwhile, I discussed with Kushal regarding visiting the farms as we can get to see some more activity there. And we headed towards the farms. There were very fewer numbers of Butterflies on the lantana plant. Kushal spotted a reddish colour Butterfly flying near the lantana plant and we ran towards it and we're lucky to get the Stripped Tiger butterfly nectaring on the lantana. As the weather was getting hotter so we decided to go back to the stream itself. On our way, we got to see the Grass Demon Butterfly basking on a dry leaf. It was busy cleaning its proboscis with its legs. We took a few photos and left the spot. on the way, I was observing the cow dung lying on the ground. During my last visit along with our Butterfly group members, we had spotted the Common Nawab sapping on the cow dung so I thought that I might be able to see it once again, but it was not in that area. In the meantime, Suhas was back at the stream and he called me and informed that he most probably saw the Nawab so myself and Kushal reached the spot immediately. And yes the common Nawab had arrived exactly by 11 am. Kushal was more desperate to see it but he couldn't take photos as the Nawab was quicker this time and not waiting at the stream for a long time. So he got a bit upset ☹.
But I was happy to see that Kushal had managed to identify a few Butterfly species on his own.
List of butterflies seen at Sinhagad Valley Pune on 01.03.2020

  1. Common Sailor
  2. Plain tiger
  3. Blue tiger
  4. Striped Tiger
  5. Zebra Blue
  6. Pea blue
  7. Tailless line blue
  8. Forget me not
  9. Common Cerulean
  10. Lemon Pansy
  11. Chocolate pansy
  12. Grey pansy
  13. Blue Pansy
  14. Common Three-ring
  15. Common Five ring
  16. Common grass yellow
  17. Spotless grass yellow
  18. Grass Demon
  19. Common Baron
  20. Common Jezebel
  21. Common Nawab
  22. Common Mormon
  23. Lime swallowtail
  24. Danaid Eggfly
  25. Common Crow
  26. Vidhayan Bob
  27. Guava blue
  28. Common Pierrot
  29. Common Leopard
  30. Painted Lady
  31. Dark grass blue
  32. Common Castor
  33. Psyche
  34. Lemon Emigrant

List of Birds seen at Sinhagad valley on 01.03.2020

  1. Indian Robin
  2. Oriental Magpie Robin
  3. House Sparrow
  4. House Crow
  5. Jungle Crow
  6. Yellow-Throated Sparrow
  7. Copper Smit barbet
  8. Indian Paradise Flycatcher
  9. Indian White-eye
  10. Long Tailed Shrike
  11. Brahminy starling
  12. Tree pipit
  13. Red-vented bulbul
  14. Red-whiskered bulbul
  15. Laughing Dove
  16. Spotted Dove
  17. Shikra
  18. Crested serpent eagle
  19. Black-naped Monarch
  20. Red-breasted Flycatcher
  21. Flame backed Woodpecker
  22. Indian Pond Heron
  23. Plum-headed parakeet
  24. Black kite
  25. Great Tit
  26. Pied bush chat
  27. Asian koel
  28. Common Myna
  29. Jungle Myna
  30. Jungle Babbler
  31. Green Bee Eater
  32. Purple Sunbird
  33. Greater Coucal
  34. Rock Pigeon
  35. White-cheeked Barbet
  36. Black Drongo
  37. Yellow Wagtail

There are few water holes in the stream and they are filled with lots of tiny toads. All the toads were busy swallowing the Butterflies who were arriving at the stream for mud pudding.
We spotted a Crab which was preying on the toads and other insects.
A Garden Lizard (juvenile) was seen nearby a farm waiting for a prey. And a Robber fly basking.

As it was Kushal's first field visit, he was completely exhausted due to the scorching heat so we decided to end our observations and go back home. On the way back he said to me that "Father, the hobby you have chosen is the best"

We had a great time.

Publicado el marzo 3, 2020 06:14 TARDE por pavandamoor pavandamoor | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario