Walkthrough Leisure Valley
First chance to visit Leisure Valley, Chandigarh
By Aaryan Bhalla
Chandigarh is a well-planned beautiful city with different unique gardens, parks, and valleys. 8km’s long with physical fitness trails leisure valley is also one of them.
Le Corbusier himself designed the landscape scheme of this huge park. Trees with round canopies & emergent and evergreen foliage have been planted here which attracts birds which is great for me. 😀😃
Several different attractive species of flora and fauna are filled in it. I have visited Town park, Nirjhar Vatika, and now Leisure Valley too as per according to my restrictions, as we are unable to travel long distances in these difficult times, on 6th of June with my mom; I enjoyed our Sunday morning with these chirping birds.
This entire valley can be visited with multiple objectives. You can walk in the green areas, relax in quiet areas and also visit different attractions. This is the best-preserved part of Chandigarh. Apparently, I used it for birding.🐦
A total of 82 species have been recorded there till now. That's why I always wanted to visit it. It is a really good place for birding, there were so many birds that I lost count. Some of them are the masters of camouflage, and few are here common too. 😮
There was a huge numerous population of Brown-Headed and Coppersmith Barbets calling their mates with… kutroo kutroo and tuk-tuk call respectively.
In view of this, Chandigarh bird club’s monthly field trip has been converted into another home birding initiative due to covid. With this, I’m trying to attempt to get a record of summer migrants in the parks/Gardens of the city or in my backyard and will be able to develop a record of the species visiting particular areas of Chandigarh.
As It is also the best time of the year as summer migrants are here and monsoon is just round their corner. As they become more active for breeding and busy feeding their juveniles.
Coppersmith Barbet is known for its metronomic call that sounds similar to a coppersmith striking metal with a hammer. It is a resident bird in Chandigarh.
Our State Bird - Hornbill!!
Apart from being the State Bird of Chandigarh, it is common across the city these days, especially in areas where there are large and contiguous tracts of trees having emergent layers.
A bird call which I had never heard before. Long…screechy… call.
Saw these Indian Grey Hornbills. They are almost merging with the background on a Kassod tree. The wings make a whoosh... Whoosh…sound when in flight. They looked amazing spreading their wings when in flight.
Very sad 😢 to see a common Myna having a golden head might be got an electric shock in past years.
However, There were Thousands of Mynas, crows in fact Jungle Babblers, and it was great to see hundreds of hornbills here flying from one tree to another and Iimpatiently running for clicking them.😅😅 I don’t know why but I get too excited and eager.
Tree plantations along avenues, open spaces, and green belts around building complexes are enthralling features of the city.
A long stream flows through the valley which extends to Rose garden and Shanti Kunj Park. I observed a white-breasted Waterhen near the dump wagging its reddish tail, enjoying the wet green mulch grass.
Purple sunbirds dancing on flowers for the nectar content, Asian koel singing its morning songs, Jungle crows calling harshly in flocks, lapwing showing its distraction display, and Rose Ringed parakeets were all gathering on the bushes, trees, and ground.
There was no activity for a bit at the entrance, probably due to notice all people jogging and running on the footpath when we walked deeper there. We got more shots and memories. Hence, I was then very busy recording my observations.
Hornbills, Treepies, crows, and Barbets were fighting with each other for their territorial defense.
I was in the hope of woodpecker as we previously also got it in the Rose garden and finally, we got it here too. We reached such an end of the park where there was no disturbance at all we heard some scratching sounds from trees, and I got my shots for the Flameback.
It was a good finding. Now that I know where to look for them, I was surprised by how common they are in urban roadside trees.
They have always been in leisure valley... Traffic park and sometimes in the rose garden, And the golf club and lake reserved forest too. As we saw it for the first time, regarded it as the ‘bird of the day.’ This shows that Birds are everywhere and we don't need to travel long distances.
AT THE TIME WE THOUGHT THINGS WERE GETTING FINE AND WE COULD CONTINUE THE BIRDING AGAIN WITH ALL PRECAUTIONS. HOPE YOU GUYS ARE STAYING AT HOME AND TAKING CARE OF LOVED ONES AT THIS TIME! HOPE THIS WILL ALL BE OVER SOON!…
See the complete checklist of my visits. Click on the links given below.
I hope you all enjoyed it and I would love to hear about your views. Don’t forget to follow me on medium, share, comment, and clap.
Stay tuned for more updates… Stay home & stay safe!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! 😊🙏
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