Birds at Pashan Lake, Pune, India

This is a report of a short birdwatching outing to the Pashan Lake near Pune, India.

Date: 1 Jan 1995 Place: Pashan lake , Pune , India
Time: 0800 - 1130 Weather : Cold in the first two hours [15-20 Degrees C]

List of Birds spotted ;

  1. House Crow
  2. Pond Heron
  3. Whitebreasted Kingfisher
  4. Coot
  5. Red-rumped swallow
  6. Openbilled Stork
  7. Spotbill
  8. Purple Sunbird
  9. Little Cormorant
  10. Indian Whiskered Tern
  11. Jungle Crow
  12. Cattle Egret
  13. Bonnelli's Eagle ( A lifer )
  14. Marsh Harrier
  15. Rufousbacked Shrike
  16. Redvented Bulbul
  17. Purple Moorhen
  18. Drongo
  19. Indian Pipit
  20. Small Blue Kingfisher
  21. Jungle Babbler
  22. Pheasant tailed Jacana
  23. Cotton Teal
  24. Pied Kingfisher
  25. Shoveller
  26. Large pied Wagtail
  27. Pied Bushchat ( male )
  28. Purple heron
  29. Ashy Wren warbler
  30. Redwattled Lapwing
  31. Magpie Robin
  32. Mahratta Woodpecker
Note: All English names are in accordance with the Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Salim Ali & Dillon Ripley.

The lake is not as rich as it was about five years ago, when seeing sixty species in a morning was easy. The main problems are siltation , proliferation of Ipomea weeds, dumping of chemical effuents(on a small scale) and eutrophication.

Highlight: was a visit to a live Bonelli's Eagle's nest, near Pashan Lake. The nest is situated on a hillside occupied by the military. Access is restricted, so the nest is quite undisturbed. It is on top of a tree on a hill slope. Climbing the hill makes it possible to come up level with the nest. This nest has been occupied for the past 13 years. When we took up position the nest was empty. About five minutes later we heard a call like the neighing of a horse and moments later a magnificent Bonneli's alighted on the nest. It dissapeared from view for a while and then came up and started staring in our direction. We froze and watched through our binoculars. The sight of the birds penetrating eyes was a bit scary. The birds eyes glistened in the sunlight occasionally, and was really thrilling. When we left an hour later, the bird did not take wing, although we made a lot of noise because of the dry twigs underneath. The nest is under observation by members of the WWF ( India ), Pune division.


Yogesh Wadadekar
Fri Nov 17 23:36:31 GMT+0500 1995
URL: http://www-int.stsci.edu/~yogesh/wildlife/pashan.shtml

Last modified on: Tue Apr 5 15:43:18 2005