Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata

Wednesday 7th of March 2018 and you have to buy a ticket to get in to the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden commonly known as the Shibpur Botanical Garden in the afternoon. I only know of the place thanks to this excellent web page “Chirp Chirp! Top Birdwatching Places In Kolkata” Highly recommended if you have plans to come to Calcutta for some bird watching. So check it out.

I got out of the taxi and as soon as I approached the gate I was pointed in the direction of a ticket office. 100 Rupees for the entrance and 20 Rupees per camera. Well, I can tell you now, I never declared my action pack hanging in my belt with my Canon PowerShot G7X.

And I made one mistake leaving Bangkok, I took out my flash from my back pack. I will not find any use for it during the safaris. But, well, here I am in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden and I would really love to have had the flash with me. Now I had several birds in the bushes at the ticket office, a Rufous-treepie, a House Crow and some other birds.

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
It was not like they had forgotten to give directions

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Ticket office

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
My ticket

House Crow, Corvus splendens

House Crow, Corvus splendens
House Crow

Asian Koel, Eudynamys scolopaceus, นกกาเหว่า

Asian Koel, Eudynamys scolopaceus, นกกาเหว่า
Female Asian Koel / นกกาเหว่า

Asian Koel, Eudynamys scolopaceus, นกกาเหว่า
Female Asian Koel / นกกาเหว่า

Asian Koel, Eudynamys scolopaceus, นกกาเหว่า
Female Asian Koel / นกกาเหว่า

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Map - Click HERE for full size map

To open map in new window click HERE

I gave my ticket to the guard and I went inside. There was a guy asking if I wanted to go around with a golf cart. They were booked right now so I had to walk. But I decided to have a go later on. What an excellent way to go around checking out the huge botanical garden I was a little disappointed as I would really have liked to take a tour in the golf cart before walking around. Just to get a feeling of the place.

Well, I had a big bottle of water in my back pocket and I started to walk towards West on the Wight's Avenue and I run in the beautiful female Asian Koel eating berries in a tree after 50 meters. What a good start of the birding adventure!

I continue along the Wight's Avenue crossing the bridge and the walk path is just next to the Lerham Lake. The lake is full of Bronze-wined Jacanas and Moorhens, but they are of course too scared so I cannot get any pictures. I continue and I spot 2 Cattle Egrets and just as I stop to watch them one of them are catching a snake.

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Crossing the first bridge

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Moorhen in Lerham Lake

Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis
Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis
Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis
Cattle Egret
We can see a wee bit yellow/orange on top of the head
Changing to breeding plumage

Black Drongo , Dicrurus macrocercus
Black Drongo

Well, I think you understand that seeing the Cattle Egret and the snake was nothing I had wished for. From now on I was more than hesitant of going out in the “shrubbery” I had an close encounter with the snake in Chiang Mai, more than I have ever asked for. I continued along the walk path and I spotted a Black Drongo in a tree next to the walk path. Of course, I got excited and I threw myself out in the “shrubbery” having forgotten everything about snakes.

Light condition was not any good so no good pictures of the Black Drongo . There was another small bird in the tree that I never got any pictures of. Anyway, I continued along the Whight's Avenue and I came to a Y. Turning left or right?

Left was Barandis Avenue and I turned right coming to Palmyra Avenue where I turn left passing a bathroom and a bridge. The bridge is crossing the Sadir Lake.

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Passing the rest room

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Looking left from the bridge

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Looking right from the bridge and there is a Pond Heron

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Crossing the bridge looking back - Now the rest room is on the left hand side on the other side of the bridge


I'm omn the bridge looking at a couple of Moorhens in the Sadir Lake, a beautiful bird, but so scared. We remember how I chased them on Cyprus trying to get pictures. They were not easy to get and the pictures turned out to be nothing but crap.

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna
Moorhen

Common Moorhen, Gallinula chloropus, Rörhöna
Moorhen

I was there looking at them trying to get pictures when I heard a very strange sound from the tree just East of the bridge, opposite from the rest room. I went back to check it out. A very strange sound, made me think about the Tui on New Zealand.

Never mind the snakes, I threw myself in to the bushes and after a lot of looking around I found the bird. A bird that I had never seen before and the bird was in a position so it was almost impossible to get a good view, and even less so to get a good picture.

Tui - Tiritiri Matangi Island - 25 October 2017


Tui - Tiritiri Matangi Island - 25 October 2017

I tried to make a recording on my phone, well, better than nothing. But I decided to buy a recorder when I'm coming back home. Back at the hotel I found out that it is a Common Hill Myna. And below you have my not very good recording so you can hear what it sounds like.

Listen to the Common Hill Myna
Own recording

Common Hill Myna, Gracula religiosa

Greater Cuocal, Centropus sinensis

Greater Cuocal, Centropus sinensis
Greater Cuocal

The Common Hill Myna took off and landed in the tree at the rest room. I followed the bird and I was almost stepping on a Greater Cuocal and I could finally get a “frame filling” picture of the Greater Cuocal. Same in Thailand, seems like whenever we look for birds around the rest rooms there is a lot.

Here was so many birds and I spent more than na hour here. I realised that I will never make the whole park in one day. I spotted Lineated Barbets and Jungle Babblers and there was a beautiful male Asian Koel in the tree above the restroom. A wee bit to far away for a good picture, but I gave it a go.

I spotted a Woodpecker but when I had my camera ready it was already too far away. So hard to see what it was but I would not be surprised to learn that this is a Black-rumped Flameback

Jungle Babbler, Turdoides striata

Jungle Babbler, Turdoides striata
Jungle Babbler

Jungle Babbler, Turdoides striata
Jungle Babbler

Asian Koel, Eudynamys scolopaceus, นกกาเหว่า
Male Asian Koel / นกกาเหว่า

Asian Koel, Eudynamys scolopaceus, นกกาเหว่า
Male Asian Koel / นกกาเหว่า -

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Black-rumped Flameback
I would not be surprised to learn that this is a Black-rumped Flameback

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Black-rumped Flameback
I would not be surprised to learn that this is a Black-rumped Flameback

Common Hill Myna, Gracula religiosa
I get one more chance with the Common Hill Myna

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Squirrel or Chipmunk?

Jungle Babbler, Turdoides striata
Jungle Babbler

I had already spent one hour at the restroom area and I had to leave, I will for sure not be able to cover the whole of the botanical garden today. I will come back, but I want to explore as much as possible so I know where to go when I'm back from my tiger safari. I ran in to a squirrel, or if it is a Chipmunk, I don't know. But they are very small and as in Thailand right now, they are chasing each other around. Looks to be in a playful mode so I suspect it is baby making time.

One more Jungle Babbler on the bridge, but now I really don't have any more time. I dashed of leaving the excellent restroom area behind walking towards the Hooghly River. Turning left just after the bridge leaving the restroom area and you're on the Falooncris Avenue and this path leads down to the Hooghly River. Walking through a forest and when I look closer I see a lot of people (couples) sitting behind the trees talking and some of them are having a picnic. Romantic picnic? I don't know, but I asked one of the couples if they had seen any snakes.
- Here is no snakes
- Yes, here are, I said
- NO NO

I showed them the picture of the Cattle Egret with the snake wrapped around the bill.
- OH! That’s an insect
- AN INSECT!!?? That was a strange insect

We walked together for a while talking about the beautiful park, well, it is not beautiful as it looks very dirty with all the leafs laying around. But it is natural and good for the forest with all the dead leafs laying around nourishing the soil for the next generation flora.

But it is a beautiful park in the sense of bird life and nature, no man made beauty as we see in Singapore. And honestly, I prefer this park.

Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden

(Hindi:आचार्य जगदिश चंद्र बसु भारतीय वानस्पतिक उद्यान) (previously known as Indian Botanic Garden) commonly known as the Shibpur Botanical Garden. (Just say Botanical Garden to the taxi driver) The botanical garden is situated in Shibpur, Howrah near Kolkata. They are commonly known as the Calcutta Botanical Garden, and previously as the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. The gardens exhibit a wide variety of rare plants and a total collection of over 12,000 specimens spread over 109 hectares. It is under Botanical Survey of India (BSI) of Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

History
The gardens were founded in 1786 by Colonel Robert Kyd, an army officer of the British East India Company, primarily for the purpose of identifying new plants of commercial value, such as teak, and growing spices for trade.

Joseph Dalton Hooker says of this Botanical Garden that "Amongst its greatest triumphs may be considered the introduction of the tea-plant from China ... the establishment of the tea-trade in the Himalaya and Assam is almost entirely the work of the superintendents of the gardens of Calcutta and Seharunpore (Saharanpur)."

A major change in policy, however, was introduced by the botanist William Roxburgh after he became superintendent of the garden in 1793. Roxburgh brought in plants from all over India and developed an extensive herbarium. This collection of dried plant specimens eventually became the Central National Herbarium of the Botanical Survey of India, which comprises 2,500,000 items. During the early years of the garden Joseph Dalton Hooker writes:

... contributed more useful and ornamental tropical plants to the public and private gardens of the world than any other establishment before or since. ... I here allude to the great Indian herbarium, chiefly formed by the staff of the Botanic Gardens under the direction of Dr. Wallich, and distributed in 1829 to the principal museums of Europe.

Over the years attractive display gardens for the public have been developed and many kinds of plants have been cultivated for scientific observation. During the 1970s the garden initiated a program to introduce improved food plants and other varieties of economic benefit to the people of India.

The Garden was designated the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden on June 25, 2009 in honour of Jagadish Chandra Bose, the Bengali polymath, and natural scientist.

Yet another Smiley on www.aladdin.st This garden is a No Plastic Zone.

OK, this garden is plastic free, sorry, but I have to laugh, there is not as much garbage as I had expected, and way less than in any park in Thailand. But plastic free?

Attractions
The best-known landmark of the garden is The Great Banyan, an enormous banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) that is reckoned to be the largest tree in the world, at more than 330 metres in circumference. It partially inspired the novel Hothouse by Brian Aldiss. The gardens are also famous for their enormous collections of orchids, bamboos, palms, and plants of the screw pine genus (Pandanus).

Animals seen inside the Botanic Garden include the Jackal (Canis aureus), Indian mongoose and the Indian Fox (Vulpes bengalensis). A large numbers of varieties snakes also found in the garden.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Coming down to the river and I discover a fence between the river and the park

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Leaving the river behind walking along the Roystonea Avenue towards the Kyd monument

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
So no snakes in the park - Info sign at the Kyd monument

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Bronze-winged Jacana
Bronze-winged Jacana in Janardan Lake

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Dragonfly at Janardan Lake

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Dragonfly at Janardan Lake

I reach the Kyd monument and here I ran in to a big sign telling me about all the snakes they had in the park. No more walking in the shrubbery for me. I see two Bronze-winged Jacana in the Janardan Lake. But they are too far away for any good pictures. I spot a dragonfly sitting on a wire just above me and that's the last pictures, I hear a Stork-billed Kingfisher and I go to check it out.

I see a Stork-billed Kingfisher taking off and I'm yet again out in the shrubbery and I end up on an old bridge. I can see the Stork-billed Kingfisher hiding in a tree and I try to take a picture. The Kingfisher flies away and I go to the Banyan Avenue to try to find him again. I walk along the path when the Kingfisher comes and land in a tree just above me. Very hard to see the bird and I cannot get any pictures.

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
On the old bridge

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
The pond between the bridge and the Kyd Monument

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Stork-billed Kingfisher
Can you see the Stork-billed Kingfisher?

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Stork-billed Kingfisher
Can you see the Stork-billed Kingfisher?

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Stork-billed Kingfisher
I leave the bridge to go look for the Kingfisher

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Stork-billed Kingfisher
I found the Stork-billed Kingfisher in a tree on Banyan Avenue

Rose-ringed Parakeet, Psittacula krameri, Ring-necked Parakeet

Rose-ringed Parakeet, Psittacula krameri, Ring-necked Parakeet
Rose-ringed Parakeet / Ring-necked Parakeet

Rose-ringed Parakeet, Psittacula krameri, Ring-necked Parakeet
Rose-ringed Parakeet / Ring-necked Parakeet

Rose-ringed Parakeet, Psittacula krameri, Ring-necked Parakeet
Rose-ringed Parakeet / Ring-necked Parakeet

Rose-ringed Parakeet, Psittacula krameri, Ring-necked Parakeet
Rose-ringed Parakeet / Ring-necked Parakeet

I leave the Banyan Avenue walking back towards the bridge. Now I see the golf cart coming to look for me and I wave but the driver don't see me. So, well, I will most likely have to walk back to the gate. I see the Stork-billed again and this time the bird land in a tree at the pond.

I go there and the bird take off, the last I see of the Stork-billed Kingfisher. I'm back at the Kyd Monument and I spot a Rose-ringed Parakeet couple and it looks like they are feeding each other. I'm really hungry and thirsty, I would really have loved to stay behind. I still had hopes for the golf cart man to come look for me.

Then we could have go to buy water and snacks before exploring the rest of the park. But, well, I had given up the hopes of seeing him again so I started to walk along the Kids Avenue passing the Shadir Lake. I try the Bronze-winged Jacana again. I see a White-throated Kingfisher far away.

I see another White-throated Kingfisher at the end of the Lerham Lake, and there is also several Cattle Egrets, I was happy, I had found the way back to the gate and I could soon buy water.

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Kid's Avenue
Kid's Avenue

Bronze-winged Jacana, Metopidius indicus, นกพริก
I give the Bronze-winged Jacana a second chance

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Shadir Lake, and we see the bridge at the restroom area across the lake

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Moorhen
Another beautiful Moorhen

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Cattle Egret
Cattle Egret in the Lerham Lake

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Lerham Lake
Lerham Lake

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Cattle Egret
Cattle Egrets in the Lerham Lake

I was so happy to see the gate when I turned left when I had reached the end of the Lerham Lake. Soon, yes, soon I will drink water and eat snacks, darn, I'm hungry and thirsty. But wait! Wat is that? There was some kind of water leak in a concrete tub, or whatever it was.

Like the bird bath on Doi Inthanon in Thailand. It was hot and birds were cooling down in the water. Of course, by the time I had fired up my action pack, the Canon PowerShot G7X to make a video the birds were gone. Well, I will try to sneak up on them next time here at Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata - Bird bath
Bird bath

Oriental Magpie Robin, Copsychus saularis, นกกางเขนบ้าน
Female Oriental Magpie Robin at the bird bath

Oriental Magpie Robin, Copsychus saularis, นกกางเขนบ้าน
Female Oriental Magpie Robin at the bird bath

House Crow, Corvus splendens
House Crow at the bird bath

Birding/ Bird watching in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden, Kolkata
Time to leave

I had have a gorgeous time in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanical Garden and a visit is highly recommended. I will be back! Anyway, they will come to pick me up at 7 thirty tomorrow and we're off to see if we can find any tigers in Sundarbans.

Click HERE to find out how that works out.



General election in Sweden September 2018. Sweden is already beyond rescue and this is most likely the last free election in Sweden. They are already changing the “Free speech” laws in Sweden. Censorship and it only show how desperate they are to keep the population in the dark, as by now they have (must have) realised how they have destroyed what might have once been the best country in the world.

State media blasting 24/7 on how well Sweden is doing when it is obvious for everyone how health care, education system, police, judicial system and the welfare state have collapsed.

Where it is now allowed to be married to children, rape is a normal thing that the Police don’t even investigate thanks to the world’s first feminist government. What a sad joke this country have turned in to.


English subtitles available - Click on settings


English subtitles available - Click on settings




       
                  
OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.
Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas

Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!

Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!

Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra

Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!

คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!

E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Flag of Skåne / Skånska flaggan Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.


                                       

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