deponti

We often speak of "shedding light on the subject"...the coming of light is also associated with acquiring knowledge and dispelling ignorance. "tamasO mA jyOtirgamaya" is part of our daily prayers.

Here's the light arriving, on the sheet rock on the Ragihalli Road, in the Bannerghatta Forest area:




I experimented with shooting into the sunlight, instead of the recommended "shoot at an angle"...and am happy with the results.


( more of light from the sun )

It was shivakumar_l who showed me how he uses backlight....how, when one is using light, can that be a.....real de-light?

Insomnia seems to have become a permanent friend...but I had a great day yesterday (early morning birding, some torcher, afternoon play and a lovely time with friends) and I am looking forward to my trip to

Maidanahalli

in a few hours with

Garima

and others from the BULBs (Bangalore Urban Lady-Birders...we have co-opted some male members, such as

Rajneesh Suvarna ,

though!)


I am sitting in the dark with just one goose-necked lamp...and was musing about light and darkness. That darkness is associated with evil both in terms of the lack of colour (making it black) and lack of light. The dispelling of darkness often signifies the dispelling of gloom, despair, and anything not good.

On my way up the stairs in our apartment complex, I found that someone was celebrating a festival unknown to me (probably it was also the Tamizh festival of kArthigai, I don't know...), they had set up this little shrine outside their home with lights to dispel the darkness:





It was rather unusual to have the puja display outside the home rather than inside it...but it made a warm, appealing picture!

And then, of course, my asakiyume picture...in this one, the light is fading and yet the gathering darkness seems no portent of evil, but rather, the peace and rest that come after happiness and work well accomplished:





Sunset on a daily basis is echoed, in my mind, with the fall season, where the days draw in, there's a sense of things ripened and replete...."season of mists and fruitfulness", as Keats puts it. To some people, of course, the lesser amount of light is depressing...but to me, being a person who loves the rains and the monsoon, it's not of any negative connotation.

"and leaves the world to darkness and to me", writes the poet Thomas Grey...and the peace of that statement is tinged with melancholy, and the name of the poem is "The Elegy"!

It perhaps takes someone in a tropical country, who bears the harsh sun, to appreciate lack of light, and the dimness and coolness that accompany it.

To me, the fall, the Sisir Ritu, and the evening, are wonderful times.

My trusty (and not yet rusty)

Canon 20D

with the

300mm lens

is charged up, ready and waiting. So, too, are my

10X42 Kestrel Meade binoculars

(alas, no longer available!)

of course, my

MLC2

and....

I am off to Bannerghatta by the first available bus tomorrow, to do my first lot of birding back home.....tralalalalala.

I want to forget the pain of the incredibly difficult treatment I have started for an abcess in my root canal, which means that the root canal is going to be re-done for the, yes, I am not kidding, FOURTH time. (My username on blogger is "molarbear"...that's why.)

The last three days have been very bad. Maintaining an establishment in India in absentia is VERY tough, particularly if one does not have obliging relatives. Fix-this and Repair-that and That's-not-working and This-went-awry chores have engulfed me in a tidal wave of trying to organize everything through a fog of lack of sleep and severe jet lag. So...my answer to it all is..get away from it all, for a little while!

Have been trying out the macro function on the 300mm lens lately....

Here's one shot, taken today morning at Valley School, where I went with the most enthusiastic group of people who just took the JLRNTP in March....

Whoops, forgot the id's. This is the TAWNY COSTER:




Another, taken at the Bannerghatta zoo area yesterday, with Garima,Gayathri,Jainy,Suma and Uma: it's the GRAM BLUE:




The third, also yesterday, it's the CRIMSON ROSE:





Butterflies make good subjects for macro experimentation!

Today we went as an all-woman group to the Bannerghatta area beyond the large quarry, and later to the Zoo area...and the sightings were amazing, including an Egyptian Vulture, a Short-Toed Snake Eagle, a rufous male Paradise Flycatcher, White-Browed Fantail Flycatcher, the Tickell's Blue, a Blue-Capped Rock Thrush and so on and on and on.....

But there is some problem with my Gmail, and I am not able to upload pictures to my Photobucket...will have to sort it out...

I went, as usual, to meet all the people who took the NTP....this time, there has been a full contingent (the accomodation at the Bannerghatta property of JLR is 8 X 2, and 17 people had registered, which meant that three of the young women have had to share one tent!

I realized that I knew several members beforehand, but it was nice to meet others for the first time, too!

The group was a very nice one, including a mother-daughter duo, and another young couple who had brought their delightful five-year-old, Arohi, along with them. Arohi and I had a great time swinging on the suspended tyre in the campus, and trailing around the place while the others were getting edified!



Here's the very intelligent, articulate little girl (sorry, young female person):




( more about the NTP Nature Trail )


Well, here's most of the NTP group as they came up the forest trail, with Karthik in their midst; they are so earnest about learning as much as they can, that weekend!




I do hope they enjoyed the program as much as I enjoyed meeting all of them (though I really had to chase up some of them to get their email ids and details!) and I hope they will be active members of the egroup, too!

Update: the minute I left, the group apparently sighted the Eurasian Eagle Owls, the only debate being whether there were two or three of them...*&^% Owls!! this is the first time I have gone on the Nature Trail with the NTP and not seen them!

I suddenly decided to take Madhusmita, a friend whom I met on the JLRNTP egroup, and who has become quite close, to the Bannerghatta Zoo area this morning.....

Here's a very expensive fruit from a very valuable tree....





Those are cashew nuts.....

Here's more info about them, at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew

Aren't they beautiful, as well as being tasty? There are quite a few trees, here and there, near the tourist area....

Though the birds kept us occupied, our mission (Ramesh, Geetanjai, Anush and I...all NTP members) was to try and identify a village to develop homestays in, and to try and develop bird trails and train some of the village youth to act as bird guides, giving them both revenue and a reason to protect the birds and the environment. We have been somewhat successful...

But so many beautiful scenes took my eye....

The stream that runs through the area we visited makes patterns of light and shadow as it runs tinkling over the rocks:



( more sights )

Here's one man, whom we found building a mud structure in the village. He was skilled at his work, and very dignified indeed:



We are hoping to make headway with our work in the area, but meanwhile, the trips are very enjoyable, too!

Off to the Bannerghatta Zoo area tomorrow with Madhusmita (NTP)....what will the day be like?..I wonder (the first line of a very famous song from the Sound of Music!)

Off to sleep now...g'night folks, haven't caught up with my friends' lists, either...!

Every time I visit the Bannerghatta Forest area (as distinct from the Bannerghatta Zoo/Butterfly Park area), I see so many birds; last time the raptor sighting that had me in raptors raptures was the Marsh Harrier; this time it was this beautiful SHORT-TOED SNAKE EAGLE soaring overhead:




( see the birds.... )


Several COMMON IORAS came and sat on the trees of the mango orchard....



Several WHITE-BROWED FANTAIL FLYCATCHERS, an ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER, and some TICKELL'S BLUE FLYCATCHER played hide and seek with us in the mango orchard, but I could not get a photograph!

Other stuff in the next post....

I watched a song on an old Tamizh movie, where (of course) the hero snaps his fingers at the heroine....

And yesterday, I was teaching my young friend how to do a "gun" with one's fingers. (You have to keep your left index finger and thumb at right angles, pointing at the target; hook your right index finer on to that angle at the thumb; and then click your middle finger and thumb...this is assuming you are right-handed.)

Snapping one's fingers...could be a way of keeping time, and rhythm. As one enjoys music, sometimes, the clicking of one's fingers is quite automatic!

Often, though, it's an imperative, imperious gesture...the click of the fingers with which a customer in a restaurant summons a waiter (though it is considered rather rude now)...the way someone on the road gets the attention of a total stranger...

Sometimes you don't want to call someone by name, and click your fingers at them, hoping they will hear that and respond, and you don't have to use the name in a public space....

And of course, there is the disdainful, scornful snap of the fingers..."I don't care a snap of the fingers for someone" is quite a literal statement! Or one just says, "I don't care *this* for him!" and snaps one's fingers.


In many societies, it is polite to click one's fingers before one's mouth as one yawns, not just put them in front of the yawning mouth. Someone once told me that this drives away evil spirits which might enter through the open mouth..perhaps insects too?

It is quite a feat for a child to be able to produce a proper "clicking" noise from its soft little fingers...I remember wanting to do so for quite a long time before being able to! Now, of course, I can click my fingers on both hands...

And I remember that lovely word game which needed the participants to name various designated things....it would begin, I remember, with all of us keeping time by clicking our fingers, and reciting,

"Catharese
If you please
Name some
Names of...."

And this would be followed by what had to be named (Eg, Flowers, or countries....) and keeping to time, each player would have to think of the next name, or be "out"!

Does the snap of the finger also breakthe sound barrier, the way the lash of a whip does? Why don't wet fingers snap well? Why does only the middle finger produce a proper sound?

And that brings me to the other use I know for clicking one's fingers...that's when I think, "Eureka! That's the answer!" and I click my fingers spontaneously, it's the equivalent of the bulb lighting up over my head! Or, when I am trying hard to remember something and I suddenly succeed...CLICK go my fingers immediately!

Alas, to my questions above, I can't do the "eureka" click!


Here's a Lambani tribesman in Bannerghatta, whom we met on Saturday. He is now settled in the Bannerghatta area, in a small settlement of about 18 houses, but the Forest Department is asking them all to vacate the forest area.... he was busy building a wooden structure, and I was impressed with his skills...and the dignity in his face....

While at Ragihalli, I took a picture of what I thought was a dancer in the clouds, trailing a glorious train of light...




mohanvee said that it reminded him of a spectre; but even that, I would say, is a beneficient spectre, one that lives in the light of the sky, and blesses us from above.

What does the picture look like to YOU?

As we were returning from Bannerghatta, my NTP friend Ramesh called me up and asked me if I would like to go to Ragihalli on Sunday morning...would I not! However, the Saturday gang could not make it, and so it was only Anush,Neelu and I who accompanied Ramesh to both Ragihalli sheet rock, and the Ragihalli village pond, not to mention piping-hot idlis at the Ragihalli centre-of-the-village eatery....!

Two of my favourite images from the trip are...this beautiful little PURPLE-RUMPED SUNBIRD landing to sip nectar from the SILK-COTTON flower:




and the RUFOUS TREEPIE in its habitat on the sheet rock of Ragihalli:




( lots more under the cut )

A beautiful finale was provided by the sighting of a pair of WHITE-BREASTED KINGFISHERs in their nest in the bank of the roadside....the female flew away immediately, but the male remained there for a while. Then he too, went and sat in a tree nearby:




As we were watching the kingfishers, Ramesh and I suddenly spotted a huge raptor landing in the ground behind the bank, but we could not identify it before it dropped out of sight.

But we made our way home, very happy with the lovely birds that we had seen and enjoyed!

Last Saturday was a great day; Veena wanted several of her friends to come along for a birding trip, so we all went to Bannerghatta ...itsalouwelylife was also here for the weekend, and the LJ part of the crowd was anushsh, mohanvee, IALL, and me....

The NTP group consisted of Anush, Mohanvee, Jyothi (who is taking the NTP next weekend) and me....

What better way to start a morning than the song of a lark? Here's the INDIAN BUSHLARK, which was singing sweetly on the wire outside the JLR Restaurant:



( You can click here several pictures of plants, a reptile, a butterfly, and birds.... )

I finally took a couple of shots of the flash-of-electric-blue-as-it-flies WHITE-BREASTED KINGFISHER, sitting and calling atop a bamboo shoot:





And lastly, here is the group who went that day (except anushsh</a>

Oh, the image is too large so the entire right-hand-side contingent, including the two Mohans, have been cut off...to see the photo, click
here

I am off to Bannerghatta (this time, the Elephant Corridor beyond the large quarry)...so my Ragihalli (last Sunday) post will have to wait a little...sorry...too many domestic chores have resulted in a gol (that's backlog!)....

It was a "heritage" experience....


http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/show_entry/906


Actually, since my MLC is not yet repaired, this photo was taken by D C Manohar, and the image is a large one....only half of it fits here.

To see the entire photograph, click here

Another lovely morning at Ragihalli on Sunday followed this lovely Saturday....

We detest plastic, through and through....



And beware, you could be prosecuid!

Of course we went to Bannerghatta again today....there were 9 of us...thank, you, Veena, for bringing along Deepak,Jyoti, Manohar, and Puneeth....and we were the LJ gang... anushsh, itsalouwelylife,mohanvee, and I....

And of course the only mammals were the macaques....but they are endlessly entertaining and wonderful.

Here's a little one very curious to discover the world, even as his mother kept trying to hide him from us, and actually ducked her head hoping that it would make him do likewise....but he was TOO interested in what was before him!





We had some amazing sightings, and I actually think I got awful but documentation shots of the SCIMITAR BABBLER, COMMON BUZZARD,CHESTNUT-TAILED STARLING, not to mention the usual TICKELL'S BLUE FYLCATCHER, the WHITE-THROATED FANTAIL FLYCATCHER, the ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER..it was flycatcher day!


I'm off to Ragihalli tomorrow...so will post a lot of pics over this week!

Meanwhile...no monkey business, you lot!

Last Saturday I couldn't find anyone with a car for birding, so anushsh and I got into Bus no. 365 once again, and of course, both the birding and light were lovely...

We started off with several RED-RUMPED SWALLOWS which were sitting on the wire, preparatory to swooping and hawking in the air. Here's one, singing its sweet morning song:




( lots of other things to see )

The "catch" of the day, however, was this LITTLE CORMORANT, lit from behind by the glorious morning sunshine, which was trying to tell me (in real fisherman, I-am-telling-the-gospel-truth fashion) how large the fish was, the "one that got away"! :)



"It was THATTTT large!"

Being just a half-an-hour's bus ride away from my front gate, Bannerghatta is a lovely area to visit in the morning!

I am an active proponent of WBC...that is,Walk, Bus,Cycle...and avoid the car! Here's an email I wrote today to the Bangalore Bikers' (as in Bicyclers') Club:

This morning, Nikhil called me up and said that a lady who was my namesake also wanted what I call a "workhorse" (as opposed to "sport") cycle, and could she talk to me? I said yes, and she came over home. She wants a cycle to do her daily chores on, which is much the same purpose that I cycle for. I showed her my LRT ( TI Ladybird, with uncool basket and rear-view mirror....no fancy bells and whistles.) She rode it around a little. She too, like me, seems to enjoy cycling!

I am fairly sure she's going to be getting herself a cycle..and I rejoice at the thought of another woman choosing to cycle over driving her car.

I want to share certain inputs that she gave me:

She is a little intimidated by what she calls the "high end" cycle and seemed to be comfortable with me and my LRT mainly because it is such "common-or-garden" variety of bicycle... the usage and the cycle both being non-cool, non-glamourous, and very utiliatirian. I told her that I ride wearing either trousers or salwar kameez. She also felt a little discomfort with "special cycling clothes".

So I think that when you guys go out to meet people, if I can just come along and tell people that I cycle regularly without necessarily having a glamour quotient attached to it, who knows, maybe more women who feel that they cannnot afford high-end bicycles, will also take to the activity as a regular way of getting about!

The best thing was that she is introducing her daughter to birdwatching as well, so we sat for a couple of hours talking about birds, too! I have asked her to join the birdwatching egroup, too.

So thank you,nikhile , for putting her in touch with me. She left saying that she felt both comfortable and encouraged about buying a cycle...that's a very hopeful sign!

Sorry, this post and the previous one have very large pics...I had changed the size of the pics to be uploaded earlier and forgot to reset it! I totally refuse to delete all the pics and re-do the whole job, so please...put up with this post!


We were looking up at a COPPERSMITH BARBET on the branch of a rain tree, when I realized that she was actually going into her nest! So I caught her as she peeped out of her home..






( Here's the rest of this riveting tale )


But the barbet couple were too smart to fall for this ploy, and the female stayed put inside her nest, and the male on the branch above, until the koel finally gave up and flew away (she did a thorough job of searching up and down for the nest, not realizing that the hole was facing downwards.) Even then, the male didn't come down, but the female flew quickly off, as if fearing that the koel might be somewhere around and would quickly come to the nest.

We were utterfly fascinated by this whole scenario, and left, talking about what we had seen....if we have a few trees around us, we might not require soap operas on television at all!

****

Pictures from now on will return to regular size folks, sorry for overwhelming you! Instead of a television soap opera, you got the Barbet-Koel drama on what amounts to a cinema screen....!

A suddenly-hatched plan with Vijay Hegde meant that we took the bus early on Saturday morning to Bannerghatta...and just wandering around the area near the Butterfly Park, and the water body nearby was pretty productive! Vijay saw, for the very first time, the male white ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER. I couldn't get a photograph, but just seeing his satisfaction was like seeing it myself for the very first time!

I tried out the photography tips that Mahesh had given in Bannerghatta, and I like this image of the backlit RAIN TREE FLOWERS;




Alas, my other images are rather erratic in quality, but I will be using the bad ones as well for documentation. Birds don't wait for you to get a better focus or lesser shake!

This beautiful ROSE-RINGED PARAKEET walked up and down as if she owned the tree!



( more birds and other stuff from Bannerghatta )


What I enjoyed very much was the sight of these two BONNET MACAQUES who had settled themsleves on one of the fence posts and were sunbathing in a style that would have done credit to them on the beaches of Capri or St Tropez!





Just look at the luxurious expression on that monkey face....ah, that's the life!




Next up, a gripping tale of domesticity,attack, protection, home and fear...as played out on a branch of a Bannerghatta tree! All non-birders will also enjoy this three-actor drama...!