Bonelli’s Eagle at a water-hole – Part 2






Continued from Part 1 of the story…
The Bonelli’s Eagle had settled down at the water-hole and seemed to be enjoying its place in the water.
From time to time, birds like House Crows (Corvus splendens) and Green Sandpipers (Tringa ochropus) would try to mob it to get it away from the water. After a few unsuccessful attempts, they too gave up. In a couple of instances, Green Sandpipers actually walked around nonchalantly in front of the Eagle.
Given that the Eagle was standing on one leg in water, it wouldn’t be able to get the momentum to fly and hunt. I guess the Sandpiper knew that too. The moment the other leg of the eagle came down, off went the Sandpiper (may have been a coincidence, but it goes well with the story :)).
A Blackbuck…a Green Sandpiper…what more can we expect? As we were thinking along these lines, in walked another visitor.
A Bengal Monitor (Varanus bengalensis)! It too didn’t seem to be in a great hurry, but nevertheless walked away without venturing into the water.
The entire episode took about 50 minutes. We were tempted to stay back for some more time, but were pulled away by an urge to leave the Eagle alone to enjoy a calm evening dip. Not to deny the fact that we had sighted an almost black coloured harrier nearby 🙂 It eventually turned out to be a juvenile Western Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus).
Desi Traveler
really good story line….and even better pictures..
chandu
The juvenile harrier was interesting and good drama at the waterhole
~Chandu