Bangalore Bird Race 2013

Having signed myself up for the Bangalore Bird Race, which was set to take place on the 20th of January 2013, I prepared by reading about the birds of Bangalore and bought new binoculars after the old ones got lost. Bangalore Bird Race is a day-long event where birders from all over Bangalore travel within a 50 km radius of the city in order to see who can see the most number of bird species. This year, seven of the thirty-six teams participating decided to go birding together, and my team, Team Ibis, was one of them. This was our plan:
1) Madiwala Lake- Look out for Bluethroats and Spot-billed Pelicans
2) Bannerghatta National Park- Check for Grey-headed Canary Flycatchers and Larks
3) ThippaGondanahalli Lake- Look for Asian Openbills and others
4) Ramanagaram- Look for Long-billed Vultures, and Peregrine Falcons

All the teams met at Bannerghatta Road at around 5:15 in the morning. Since the sun wasn't still up, so we had to drop the plan to bird at Madiwala Lake. We proceeded on to Bannerghatta National Park. We were in the parking area near the pond when we started. Birds were numerous. We saw Pied Bushchat, Red-wattled Lapwing, White-breasted Kingfisher, Red Avadavat, and Rose-ringed Parakeet amongst others. As we proceeded into the scrubland, towards a Flame-of-the-Forest tree, we saw a huge flock of Rosy Starlings and three Eurasian Hoopoes. The Flame-of-the-Forest tree was a 'bird magnet'. We then proceeded  to the main Bannerghatta Zoo area to look for flycatchers. We saw a Black-naped Oriole inside the zoo, and saw a male Asian Paradise Flycatcher flitting from a post to a fence and back over and over again. Then we went to what Deepa Mohan, one of the birders along with us called 'Flycatcher Avenue'. I spotted a well-hidden Verditer Flycatcher and our team saw an Asian Brown Flyatcher and a White-browed Bulbul in the foliage. A single tree provided Tickell's Blue-flycatcher and Black-hooded, Black-naped, and Eurasian Golden Orioles. We then stopped for breakfast at a dosa camp. After that, we drove down to Thippagondanahalli Lake, popularly known as TG Halli Lake, where we observed Little Ringed Plover, a huge colony of Indian Shags and a lot of Asian Openbills. We tried for the difficult Small Pratincole near a few rocks near the lake, but we were unsuccessful. We drove to Ramanagaram and, with great difficulty, we located a juvenile Long-billed Vulture on a small ledge. We saw some people just climbing up the rock face for fun and we tried to stop them, but they did not heed our warning. We hoped nothing would happen to the juvenile vulture, as the Long-billed Vulture is a critically endangered species, and very rare. We had hoped to also see Peregrine Falcons and Indian Eagle-Owls, both resident in the area, but these weren't sighted. I had an exam the next day, so we couldn't make it to the awards ceremony, but my teammates told me that we finished 4th, 5th or 6th, with 112 species. Truly a tiring but rewarding day.
(Bangalore Bird Race on Jan 20, 2013)