Pocharam on a lovely sunday morning

This Sunday Navin, Sasi, Akanksha and I went down to the Pocharam Dam Reservoir for a spot of birding after a bit of an hiatus. The going in to Medak and from then on up to the dam was fairly good except for a foot-deep crack just after Jeedimetla which almost swallowed our vehicle up. But, luckily things did not come a cropper due to that and we proceeded onwards after a quick check.

This is our first visit to Pocharam dam after the heavy rains that the state has been blessed with and we were welcomed by the sight of water everywhere as soon as we entered the access path in to the lake. We had to back-track and head on to the tank bund as a result. We also got an opportunity to walk on the actual dam surface where the water was upto the brim and almost overflowing at some points. It certainly was a surreal experience for all of us!

The birding itself was quite pleasant as we right away got lucky with some Indian silverbills and Ashy-crowned sparrow larks. The rest of the morning was spent photographing species like the little-ringed plover, red munia, plum-headed parakeet and blue rock thrush. Most of these, we were seeing and photographing for the first time in our fledgling photography careers.

So, without much further ado, here are some of my pics from the trip.



Pocharam Dam is around 120 kms from Hyderabad is do-able in about 2 hours early in the morning. The return journey, however, takes longer depending on the traffic conditions all the way from Jeedimetla in to Bala Nagar. I would also recommend hotel Chandra Bhavan for a nice hot cup of tea or south Indian breakfast in Medak.

Cheers!