My World of Food and Travel

This was our 5 th visit to Hessarghatta grasslands, a name which has become almost synonymous for birds, especially raptors, in the Bangalore birding circle. Not a day passed by when we didn’t come across someone posting a picture of a raptor clicked in Hessarghatta, eliciting long ‘sigh out loud’ (SOL, eh?) from the husband and I. We had been particularly unlucky with the raptors on all our previous visits to the grassland . Every time we sight these birds, they invariably turn out to be black kites. Now, if I wanted to see black kites, I just had to step out of my home to find at least three of them circling overhead. Hence, the SOLs. As a matter of fact, this had almost become our private joke. Each time, we would be excited to see a group of raptors sitting on the ground from afar and drive out fast to click them. “Umm, sure they are not black kites this time?” I would venture doubtfully. But the bright-eyed husband would shoo away my suspicions. “No, every time we ...