Hebbal Lake, Mar 2006

Two early morning weekday visits!

Hebbal Lake is a largish natural lake of ~150+ acres in North Bangalore on National Highway No 7 (to Tumkur). The lake and its environs currently comes under the Karnataka Forest department. Recently, there has been talks on handing over the lake to a private hotel chain for maintenance.

Hebbal Lake is home to over 70 species of water birds including 40+ migrants. The enormously tall power towers (shown in the image above) that surround the lake, though an eye-sore, offers a great perch for the numerous resident and migrant raptors of the lake – harriers, kites and Peregrines. Though most Hebbal birds are common elsewhere in Bangalore this is by far the best place for photographing them.

Dubbed the ‘bird studio’ by many, every visit to Hebbal is rewarding and even a couple of hours can give frame-filling images of common yet shy birds like kingfishers, warblers, lapwings, prinias, sunbirds, flowerpeckers and many more! This trip report summarizes two quick trips I made to Hebbal recently – one in Feb and one in Mar 2006. As the lake is inside Bangalore city it is possible to make a quick ‘in & out’ visit even during a week day!

Cheers! –r@mki Mar 12, 2006 | Bangalore