Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, a treat for the bird watchers

Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary is a famous bird sanctuary and needs no introduction.  It’s famous for the migratory birds that come here in thousands every year. However, some birds do stay here throughout the year. 
After our visit to Kokkare Bellur, we headed for the highway and took a left turn to get to Srirangapatna. When you reach Srirangapatna(from Bangalore), you will cross two water bodies in succession. The exit to the second bridge gets you to a roundabout circle; take the first exit on your  right at this roundabout. Soon you will get to a rail crossing and soon after that you can find the gate to the sanctuary on your right.
There is ample space for parking your vehicle. However, try to get there early as it can attract huge number of people during weekends. The entry fee for adults is Rs. 50 and car parking fee is Rs. 30. The park remains open from 9 am to 6 pm.
While in the park, you can roam around without much perspiration because the park is well shaded with big trees. The park encloses a big water body. You can see the big birds perched on the trees and on stones inside the park. To get closer to the birds, there is also a boat ride that you can avail. These boats are paddled boats for the noise from engine boats may disturb the birds. There are two different types of boat rides; the common one costs Rs. 50 for each adult and the special one costs Rs. 1000. By opting for the special boat ride, you actually book the whole boat, and it takes you even deeper into the water body.
We took the common boat ride. According to the boatmen, on the special boat ride, you can see many more birds like Pied kingfisher and all. Maybe next time. 

The boarding point for boat ride.

Boats ferrying people deeper into the lake.

An open bill stork and the boat passing by.

We could see Pelican, Ibis, Spoon billed stork, Open Billed stork, Cormorant, Bats and a beautiful kind of Heron (don’t know the type). To our dismay, we couldn’t find Painted Storks. Well, it was the mistake on our part. Painted storks get to this place only after mid of February and leave by June. So maybe the best time to find both painted storks and pelicans is from Feb to March. We got to know this from the boatmen, too. So another visit to this sanctuary was already due. We have to come back soon.

Spoon bill stork

Cormorants and a heron

Eagle

Cormorant, after an unsuccessful dive.

Open bill stork, scratching and flying.

Open bill stork, about to land.

The elegant heron

Big cormorant

Bats, lots of bats.

Cormorants

Apart from the birds, you can find many squirrels on the trees. You can find different types of butterfly and insects all around the park. It’s a fantastic place to spend the weekend.

Beautiful blue tiger butterfly.

Common Tiger Butterfly

Blue pansy

A Ladybug

An attractive yellow leopard butterfly

Caterpillar, beautiful and lethal.

Jewel Spider, top view.

Jewel Spider, belly view. This amazing looking spider is actually very shy.

Rainbow Skink

The beautiful lake inside the park.

Benches by the lake.

A fallen tree.

The lake view.

The hanging bridge.

The lake and the tree.

Bench under the shade.

  It was around 2:30 pm that we took some fruit juice and ice cream for lunch and headed out for Bangalore.



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