Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, revisited for Painted Storks

The last time when we visited Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary was on 30th December last year (2012). That time we saw plenty of pelicans,spoon bills,open bills and herons. But we did not find any painted stork.

 When we asked the sanctuary officials about the painted stork they informed us that painted stork start coming in, after January 15 every year. Ankur was fast to act on this piece of info. He decided that we will have a quick visit to this bird sanctuary on our way back from Kerala. This served three purposes - first it was on the way of our planned route from Kochi to Bangalore, second - a good time to see painted stork and third - save fuel.

 The park is opened from 9 AM to 6 PM everyday. For more details regarding the tickets,boating and all you can see the previous post here. The costs have not changed.

 We got inside the park at 4:15 PM and then headed for the boat ride.Since it was a Friday, the weekend rush was not there.
Imagine our excitement when we saw trees all covered with painted storks!

painted stork

A bunch of painted storks on a tree

painted stork and spoon bill

painted stork

  The boat took us near the birds........there were so many painted storks,many building their nests on tree tops,some diving for fishes. Last time the same trees were full of pelicans. Now they are full with painted storks... The pelicans must have gone back with their chicks leaving the trees for the painted storks to breed. A very few pelicans were still there,maybe the late arrivals.

pelican

pelican in flight

pelican after a catch

pelican in flight

 Apart from the painted storks and pelicans,there were herons,open bills,spoon bills,cormorants,kingfishers and bats.We also saw river terns, something we did not see last time.

river tern

snake bird with  a painted stork in the background

egret

open bill stork

spoon bill stork

heron

waggie

kingfisher

 And here are some crocs enjoying the sun.

croc

croc

 After the boat ride we thought of walking for some 30 mins just to get rid of the cranks that we got as a result of such a looong drive.

wasp hive

tickell's blue flycatcher

barbet

red whiskered bulbul

zitting cristicola

cuckoo

entrance gate 

 We got some small colourful birds returning to their nests just as we were getting back to our home. 



search keywords: ranganathittu bird sanctuary, bird, painted stork, pelican, stork, heron, february, 2013