Nandi Hills

We had a great trip up to Nandi Hills, about 80 km north of Bangalore.

We first stopped at Sankey Tank in the north part of Bangalore.

Gowda says it's about 2 km to walk around Sankey Tank on the path.

The sun was just beginning to give some good light.

 It's so beautiful!

 I thought this was a Whistling Duck, but it's not.  What kind is it?

 There are no Mallards here in Bangalore so what is this duck?

 There are also no Muscovy Ducks in my bird book, but here is one!

I love this shot of these geese, very pristine, clear and pretty.


Next we went to Hebbal Kere (or lake).  
It was a lovely park with lots of birds.

A lovely Lotus flower

 This is a female Asian Koel.  This is the first time for seeing the female.
She's quite a large bird and very interesting looking.

This is a 'White-breasted Waterhen'.  When she walks, her tail goes up and down and you can see the rusty color of her under-tail feathers when the tail is up.  Cool.

 This is an 'Ashy Prinia'. Such a cute little bird.

I love how he holds his tail up in the air.  That is one of the main distinguishing features.

 Ashy Prinia - it's a new bird for me, and such a small and beautiful bird.

 Jerome is enjoying the gardens.

 'Spot-billed Duck' in flight.

The Bougainvillea grows plentifully here in the warm and usually humid conditions.


Next we are on to Nandi Hills, the main goal of our day.

The first thing that we saw when we arrived was these 2 monkeys on one of the cars in the parking lot.

I guess they can be dangerous.  One growled at me.

One of the park workers warned me to watch my backpack as sometimes they try to grab the bags and open them to get any food inside.

You also have to roll the windows of the car up, or else you'll have little visitors inside!

We had to take our shoes off in order to enter the gates to the Temple grounds.

This is the temple door that we visited inside the park.

It is very old and interesting.

These monkeys are sleeping in each others arms!

They kept the park clean and it was all quite well tended.

Some places the flowers were in pots.

 This is a rock garden, even the bird shapes are covered with rocks.

Beautiful greenery

 The flowers and the archways were lovely.

Purple-rumped Sunbird, male.

Ashy Drongo.

 This is our great find of the day.  Though it isn't very clear, this is an Asian Paradise Flycatcher.

I love the extra long tail feathers.  These can grow much longer than they are now.
His wings and tail feathers flash really red in the sunshine when he flies.  It's great to see.

 This little monkey was sure enjoying the run along the fence.

 He's sucking on his toes, just like a little baby.

 I'm sure they left this cardboard roll out for the monkeys to play on.  They had such fun and it was great to watch them play. They were just like little children.

Gorgeous flowers all over.

What is this bird?

Grey Wagtail

Monkeys were absolutely everywhere!

 What kind of butterfly is this?

This guy was so chillin'!  Just sitting back and picking the bugs off himself!

 Elder Wigg and I totally loved the area, but especially we liked just being outside in the lovely sunshine, walking around and seeing some of The Lord's great creations.

This is the backyard gardens of the Hotel.

This monkey also loves the view!

I don't know what bird this is yet, do you?

 Jerome looks good, doesn't he?  He's like a hiker with my backpack!

 Spectacular countryside

These people were just joking around and taking pictures while her husband was doing a shoot of some of the monkeys up by the roadside.

Very beautiful, but smoggy.

Now don't step backwards as it's a long way down.  I can't believe I was that close to the edge.

Though most of my pictures are very hazy, this shot seems quite clear.  It was a wonderful view of the surrounding countryside.

It looks like he's walking off the edge of the cliff!  But he's not.

This picture is fantastic! Isn't it?
This is a juvenile Tawny Eagle, in flight!  Amazing.

The trip was worthwhile even if we only saw this one bird!

This is the hill that we went up to get to the park that they call 'Nandi Hills'.
There were so many switchbacks going up and down, like 40, I think.  
Once again, I am thankful for Gowda's good driving and the Lord's protection!