KHARGHAR-SIMPLY AWESOME

The final Sunday of this month was spent amidst nature again in the kharghar hills in Navi mumbai. The nature trail was organized by the BNHS navi mumbai group. Having Isaac sir and adesh to lead it was definitely a treat for all of us. I was quite excited about the trail as it was a new destination. The actual trail or the path rather was of 6km one way. It is a small hill called the chandbibi hills having a village settlement at the top. Though v had planned to trail along along the whole path v could not as most of the time was consumed by exciting and interesting birds, butterflies and plants all along the way. The first exciting thing was a barren tree loaded with birds. We saw couple of hoopoe, White throated kingfisher, long tailed shrike, red vented bulbul, black Drongo, laughing dove, pied myna, Indian robin on the same tree. I again had a plenty of first time stuff like the hoopoe bird, Datura metel plant, Sopobia plant, sesbania plant, mucuna flowers, many more butterflies too. Thanks to Isaac sir and adesh for the information given. Also thanks to adesh’s spotting scope which enabled us to see the birds very close. As v started climbing v saw plenty of frogs dead on the tar road, reasons only speculated. We also saw the Eurasian golden oriole being chased by the black Drongo twice. Moving on v came to a spot were there was a small but beautiful waterfall. The whole path seemed to look like v have come to lonavla and have been crossing those tunnels. The dusky creg martins were in good number were seen collecting nest material. I was mesmerized by this enchanting place and dying to go there again. The flora and fauna is pretty impressive. With the balsams ceasing away the color of yellow has taken over the purple. Its still beautiful.
It was altogether a very ‘DIFFERENT ‘ experience in terms of Adesh and in my terms
“AWESOME”
Please add in if I forgotten something. I wish we had vijaya aunty with us too.
I am also eager to click snaps of the people again.( esp vinay, divij, ria,). Wanna me take one???? It was fun. 1…2….3… click.
Bird list
1. Hoopoe
2. White breasted Kingfisher
3. Laughing dove
4. Indian Robin
5. Pied Myna
6. Common Myna
7. Long Tailed shrike
8. Small Green Bee Eater
9. Greater Coucal
10. Rock Pigeon
11. Spotted Dove
12. Black Kite
13. Oriental Honey Buzzard
14. Eurasian Golden Oriole
15. Black Drongo
16. Common Iora
17. Oriental Magpie Robin
18. Red Whiskered Bulbul
19. Red Vented Bulbul
20. White cheeked bulbul
21. Ashy Prinia
22. Plain Prinia
23. Common Tailorbird
24. Yellow eyed Babbler
25. Scaly breasted munia
26. Red munia male
27. Red munia Female
28. Dusky creg martin
29. Paradise flycatcher male

Butterfly List
1. Common grass yellow
2. 3 spotted grassyellow
3. Common Castor
4. Cupid
5. Plain tiger
6. Danaid Egg butterfly female
7. Skipper
8. Common wanderer
9. Hedge blue
10. Cerulean
11. Common gull
12. Common jazebelle
13. Great egg fly female
14. Yellow orange tip
15. White orange tip
16. Choclate pansy
17. Danaid egg fly male
18. Great egg fly male
19. Common crow
20. Gram blue
21. Peacock pansy
22. Common pschye
23. Syke
24. Common rose
25. Crimson rose
26. Striped tiger

Plant List
1. Datura metel ( Angel’s trumpet) Flowering . A herb with big white flowers.
2. Ipomea chinensis ( Morning glory)Flowering Creeper with purple flowers.
3. Alternanthera strictus Flowering . A herb with small flowers in clusters at the axils of the leaf.
4. Malachra capitata ( brazilian jute) Flowering. A herb with yellow flowers belonging to mallow family or bhindi family
5. Tridax procumbens ( Ek dandi )Flowering . A herb with pale yellow flowers of sunflower family
6. Sopobia delphinifolia Flowering . A herb with very reduced thin leaves and purple flowers with dark purple tinge inside the petals.
7. Celosia argentea ( Cock’s comb) Flowering. A herb with pink flowers.
8. Adiantum ( Maiden hair fern)
9. Ipomea sp. ( Red star glory) Flowering. A creeper with bright red flowers.
10. Sesbania bispinosa ( Ran shevri) Flowering. A big erect herb with yellow flowers with red dots on the back of the petals.
11. Crotolaria sp. Flowering. A herb with yellow flowers.
12. Crotolaria sp. Flowering.
13. Cyanotis cristata Flowering. A small herb with blue flowers. A monocot.
14. Commelina benghalensis. Flowering . A small herb with lots of bracts enclosing little blue flowers having 2 types of petals.
15. Mucuna pruriens ( Khaj khujli) Flowering . A annual climber, with dark purple flowers, sepals with silky and bristly hairs,
16. Trema orientalis Iron wood tree. Flowering. A tree with small white flowers on the axils of the leaves similar to the amla.
17. Urena lobata. Flowering. A small herb with small pink flowers belonging to mallow family.
18. Hibiscus lampas. Flowering . A erect herb with drooping yellow coloured flowers looking like a lamp post. A mallow member.
19. Cassia mimesoides . Flowering A herb with small narrow pinnate leaves having a shiny colour. Flowers yellow.
20. Teramnos labialis. Flowering. A herb with pink Flowers, fabaceae family member.
21. Heptis suavolens . ( American mint) Flowering. A herb with thick leaves having strong aroma. A member of the tulsi or Basil family or mint family. Flowers purple.

Misc list]
1. Fungoid frog ( dead)
2. Cricket frog( dead)
3. Blister beetles of various sizes in plenty
4. Spittle bug in plenty
5. Frog bug
6. Grass yellow butterfly’s caterpillar
7. burrowing frog ( dead)
8. Robberfly
9. Damselfly
10. Dragonfly
11. Garden lizard juvenile and adult
12. Painted grasshopper

MY FIRST TRIP TO URAN

Well I have heard a lot from my bird watcher friends like Adesh, Shashank, Sagar etc about Uran as being a paradise for bird watching. I did not get a opportunity to be there till then. My expectations were very high when I went there. Adesh, myself, Shashank and Gaurav all of us boarded the Uran bound bus and got down at last stop and began our walk. Well it was indeed a huge walk and the result was great. No regrets walking and no muscle strains too. The opportunity to watch so many birds so close is worth than walking a few miles.
The panoramic view enchanted me and I was spell bound. With many first time birds, nests, bird sightings in close proximity, wild flowers , butterflies and moths, dragonflies and damselflies the place came alive. I was very excited and did not what to see first what next. I had to roll my eyes my around on the ground for flowers and on the sky for birds. It was indeed great experience. As heard about the place it is heaven not only because it has such beautiful birds but because it also promises many wildflowers that again are not seen everywhere.
Few sparkling moments or features of the day
# Number of plants belonging to Fabaceae family ( touch me not family)
# Saw nest of plain Prinia with 4 eggs
# Saw Baya weaver bird male very close
# More than 50 species of wild flowers
# About 70 glossy ibis
# ducks, coots, shovller, etc
#Dragonfly eating away a damsel fly partner when the damselflies were mating
As far as I recollect these are those golden poins. I w am adding the list now.

Birds
Little cormorant
Little grebe
Grey heron
Cattle egret
Median egret
Little egret
Cinnamon bittern
Openbilled stork
Glossy ibis
Gadwall
Eurasian Marsh harrier
Indian white backed vulture
Red wattled lapwing
Golden plover
Little ringed plover
Common sandpiper
Ruff
Pallas’s gull
Gull billed tern
Little tern
Little brown dove
Alexandrine parakeet
House swift
Small blue kingfisher
White breasted kingfisher
Ashy crowned finch lark
Common myna
Pied myna
House crow
Common Iora
Red vented bulbul
Yellow eyed babbler ©
Ashy Prinia
Plain Prinia
Indian Great Reed warbler
Baya weaver
Red munia ( M and F)
There might be a lot of birds I might have left . Please adesh, Shashank do the addition and corrections if any.
Plants
Bombax ceiba
Pongamia pinnata
Cassia tora
Hibiscus lampas
Malachra capitata
Thespesia populnea
Acacia nilotica
Costus speciosus
lantana camara
Calotropis gigantia
Vitex nigundo
Momordica dioica
Gloriosa superba
Celosia argentea
Trichodesma indicum
Physalis minima
Impatiens balsaminae
Sesamum orientale
Nymphea pubescens
Smithia sensitiva
Hygrophila auriculata
Commelina benghalensis
Leucena leucocephala
24. Tephrosia species
25. Adansonia digitata
26. Corcorus sp.
Many more not identified . I wil definitely would like to go back to find the names with resource people and books.
Misc-
Common crow
Common rose
crimson rose
Peacock pansy
Grey pansy
Yellow pansy
Danaid egg fly
psyche
White orange tip
3 spott grass yellow
Blue tiger
Striped tiger
Plain tiger
Signature spider
Garden calotes
Dragon flies and damselflies of various colors