Ragihalli - A lifer and a bee "attack"!

Back-to-back birding on both days last weekend! After the amazing visit to BM Betta, Vineet and I were totally inspired to do another trip on Sunday. We decided to check out the Bannerghatta area towards Ragihalli. Ragihalli is a small village about 8km from the Bannerghatta-Anekal road.

There are a lot of birding spots on the road to Ragihalli. The first one is a huge empty plot of land that comes very soon after you make the right turn from the Bannerghatta-Anekal road. We spotted a couple of lapwings there which looked somewhat smaller and unusual. Looking through the binoculars gave us a huge lifer. Yellow-wattled lapwings!



Yellow-wattled lapwings don't have the black throat and breast that is present in red-wattled lapwings. Of course, they have yellow wattles and are marginally smaller. I think the pair that we saw had a nest somewhere on that patch. They were relentlessly mobbing crows and kites that were flying overhead and were returning to the same place.



This was lark-land. All around us, larks were calling, running, flying and catching their morning meals. We identified Indian Bush Lark, Singing Bush Lark and Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark. A black kite chased a black-winged kite for a short distance. A Jungle Bush Quail made the briefest of appearances before disappearing into the undergrowth. A pair of red-wattled lapwings were bounding from one place to another screaming their characteristic "Did you do it?".

Proceeding from this place, we came across a crested serpent eagle soaring. A little ahead, the road comes onto a cliff and we thought this would be a promising place to get some raptor action. We got off the bike and walked towards the cliff. Suddenly, we saw a huge swarm of bees flying towards us. We ran back to the bike at full speed hoping for the best. Very luckily, the bees took another route and flew away from us. An attack by a swarm of bees in the middle of nowhere was the last thing on my mind for a beautiful Sunday morning.

Ragihalli lake was very dry compared to a couple of weeks back. A pair of frogs was busy with its mating "song and dance". Pond herons, Paddyfield pipits and White-browed wagtails were everywhere.



This has truly been a weekend of lifers! And great birding even in summer.

Links:
Complete list of birds
Photographs from trip

Driving directions:
Drive towards Bannerghatta. At the Bannerghatta "circle", instead of driving straight towards the Bio-park, continue on the road towards Jigani-Anekal. Around 3km from the circle, there's a board on the right-side of the road which indicates the road to Ramakrishna mission, Shivanahalli. Take a right turn onto that road and follow it. You'll come across 2 forest department check-posts. At one point, the road forks; take the right fork. At Ragihalli, ask the locals for the lake. The lake is not visible from the main road and the turn is pretty nondescript. Happy birding!

Banthi Maari Betta - Of landscapes, raptors and lifers...

A rocky region is hardly the place to be this summer. Luckily for Vineet and me, the weather gods were merciful enough to provide lots of rain last week. And, we set off for Banthi Maari Betta (aka BM Betta) off Kanakpura road at 5AM on Saturday.

Where is BM Betta? Within a couple of kilometres of crossing Kanakpura, there is a small tank called Narayanakere on the right side of the road. Immediately after the tank (pretty much a bund of the tank), take a right and drive on and on. Around 8km ahead, a small village with a bus stop and you need to take a right here. Beyond this are a couple of villages and the villagers would guide you to your destination.

Kanakpura road is a fantastic road for birding. Our drive to BM Betta was filled with multiple stopovers. Birds in breeding plumages - Little Egrets, Cattle Egrets and that most notable of all makeovers, the humble Pond Heron - were a treat to watch. A Hoopoe was fetching food back to its nest. Flocks of White-rumped Munias and Indian Silverbills were flying from one bush to another. A Jungle Bushquail (lifer for me) made a brief appearance in the open. A closer look and we almost fell backwards when 4 of them took off in a loud whrrrrr that almost made the heart stop! At another place, we were greeted by a huge flock (around 20) of Large Grey Babblers (another lifer) raising a huge alarm even though we were a good 100m away!



BM Betta was a totally different world. The landscape is awesome as the area is surrounded by rocky hills, very green for this time of the year. A little trek up and the first sighting there - a Black Eagle (first time near Bangalore) gliding above us. It was soon joined by another one (possibly its mate). They were flying slowly, perching for a short time before flying off again.



As we were enjoying this amazing sight, we were greeted by another pair of raptors. In our excitement, we were struggling to identify them when, thankfully, Vineet found his cool and asked me to observe the tail closely. Egyptian vultures! A huge huge lifer as I've never seen vultures of any kind. They landed near the temple and we got a good view of them for a short while before they flew away.



The hill was very noisy with cicadas and crickets (I guess) making a din. We spotted a Crested Serpent Eagle (CSE), a few Oriental Honey Buzzards (OHBs) and Rufous treepies. A shikra was closely following a black eagle in the air. An agama made a go for a noisy insect.



On the way back, we stopped at one of the villages when we saw a CSE being mobbed by mynahs. We stopped and walked through the fields. The vultures made another appearance, this time flying very low. A pair of White-naped Woodpeckers were going after a coconut trunk. Surprisingly, they were at the same place on the same tree for more than 15 minutes. Not sure if they found a large hole filled with insects or were making a nest. We followed an OHB from perch to perch as it was being mobbed by mynahs.



Fantastic trip, on the whole!

Links:
Complete list of birds
Photographs from trip

Airtel Service - Happy, yet...

I spent my December vacation at home...sweet home - Hyderabad. It was great fun, until my cellphone suddenly refused to boot one day. Debugging the problem showed that the SIM card had somehow got "corrupted".

Next step - I landed up at an Airtel Customer Care center. Within 5 minutes, I was in front of a support executive with pleasant manners. I explained my problem (and was waiting for accusations to be hurled at me for mishandlng my phone). Surprise - nothing of that sort happened. He took my number down, called up the "stock-keeper" (I was on roaming) and within 10 minutes, I was out of the service center. I had a smile on my face while I walked out.

However, things were not what they seemed to be. Our friendly executive didn't do the core job right. He somehow got me an incompatible SIM card. My phone wouldn't work.

So, another trip to the service center. Again, I was in front on a service executive in 5 minutes. Again, no qustions asked. He made a few calls to ascertain the change he was going to make. Within 10 minutes, I walked out with a new SIM card.

And it worked this time!

The whole experience left a good impression on me. No haggling. No charges. Just a no-questions-asked service. The only thoughts that lingered were: Are soft skills more important in a service set-up compared to the actual job? Would you pay a higher price if the service executive treated you well?

As I leave 2008...

366 days gone by (well...almost)! Time for Top 10 events, Top 10 movies, Top 10 sporting events, even Top 10 turkeys...

Personally, the year has been nothing short of eventful.
- Had to curse myself for being dead right in my predictions (about things I wouldn't talk here...would take too long to read).
- Took up (and sustained) photography and birdwatching as my hobbies.
- Traveled a ton. From the US to Europe, from India's east coast to the west, from hill stations to beaches, from business to tourism to family gatherings.
- Social networking a revelation, though I am still grappling with maintaining the momentum. Catch me on Facebook, Orkut, LinkedIn, Twitter and Flickr.

Events outside my influence which left an imprint (in no particular order):
- The "stormy" evening of 11/26. The saga left me wondering about the definitions of independence, security, safety and life.
- A recession that was long in the coming. Lehmann Brothers RIP...Jobs lost in the hundreds of thousands...At least, we now get gas cheaper.
- Corporate blunders, again anticipated, from Detroit. Another anticipated one, though closer to home and heart. Satyam planning to acquire Maytas for a ridiculous amount to strengthen its infrastructure vertical. Enough said!
- A resurgent India, in sports at least. While we must be proud of MSD and his boys and Abhinav Bindra among a host of other players, 2 questions come to my mind. Firstly, is our national passion benefiting from degrading standards in other cricketing teams? Secondly, when will Michael Phelps become a source of inspiration for our sporting committees?
- Where's the good news? Chandrayaan. Truly inspiring, given the image we have of Government organizations in India. I hope we'd not forgotten this so quickly and had made this a flagship story to improve our country.
- Barrack Obama.

And, of course, jargon that went out of fashion (Palinisms anyone) and those that would be used on us indiscriminately for sometime to come (non-state actors for one).

Simple problem - different magnitude

I have 5 apples. If I gave you 1 of them everyday, in how many days would I run out of apples?

Sounds kiddish?

Ok, another one - The Earth has 1.4 billion hectares of primary forest. Every year, we lose 6 million hectares. How long would it take to lose the entire forest area?

The first problem is simple because it is easily measurable and tangible in some sense. Most of us know what apples are and how 5 of them together look. But 200 years seems long enough. Or is it?

Think about it...

Two sides of business development

Case 1: My new mobile phone came with a free holiday offer. Since we'd never been to this place and it was off season, we took up the offer. Very soon we landed up at our destination - part of a chain of time-share holiday resorts.

The register showed few other rooms occupied; so, I asked the receptionist if he could show me around the different kinds of rooms they had. "Sorry sir - all other rooms are occupied" came the reply. All my reasoning (see the register, we are contemplating taking membership, etc.) was countered with polite defiance. Finally, hunger got the better of me and I took the keys to our room.

Case 2: On the same trip, sightseeing landed us at an erstwhile palace converted to a hotel. The staff had strict instructions from management to keep sightseers at bay. They hinted that we should have dinner at the hotel. We decided to stay back (partly because our own resort food was mediocre). After dinner, the waiter said that he would be glad to show us around the place. Half an hour later, we had seen all the rooms, learnt a great deal about the history of the place and planned our next visit there!

In case 1, the hotel staff had all to gain. Giving a free package is an excellent way to market your resort(s). You've got captive audience, possibly more willing to listen to your marketing message. And it was squandered completely. Case 2 shows the inherent culture in the place - everyone in the organization chain knows the benefits of bringing in new customers. And they know how to maintain a premium brand!

PS: In case 1, during checkout, there was the routine question - "Would you want to join our membership program?" - followed by an explanation of the benefits. I had two choices - to tell them that I wasn't even shown the rooms, blah, blah blah or to say "Sorry, not interested". I chose the latter.