| Great inter-racial photograph |
[May. 9th, 2008|08:48 am] |
The photographs on India Nature Watch are a source of wonder, solace, interest, information-- and sometimes amusement.
Here's a "black and white" photograph with a witty caption...
http://www.indianaturewatch.net/displayimage.php?id=47550
What I like is the fact that someone had this thought when he took the photograph!
Off to Bannerghatta, where the next batch of the JLRNTP-1 is starting today...I do like meeting people who take the course (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mohanvee is going to be one of them) and I hope to get in a little birding, too.
Meanwhile, here's one small flower from the raceme of the Queen's Flower:
The scientific name for the tree is LAGERSTROEMIA SPECIOSA....to me, that takes all the beauty and wonder and fun out of that tree...I know that scientific names are necessary, but...I would love to admire a Queen's Flower, but I don't think a LAGERSTROEMIA SPECIOSA would enthuse me too much. So a rose by another name might NOT smell as sweet!
Here's more info about the tree . You would think they would put up a colour photograph (or a colour painting) of such a beautiful flower, wouldn't you? Oh no, they put in a black-and-white sketch, which brings me back to the black-and-white photograph above.... |
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| Mendicants..... |
[May. 5th, 2008|11:26 pm] |
Here's a picture I like against all the rules.
The rules are:
1. Don't have a tree in the middle of the photograph.
2. Do not have a distracting element (like the gate-post) at one side of the photograph.
...and some others, too.
But...
I love that tree, and the steady stride those sadhus (religious mendicants) are keeping up, the casual curiosity of one, and the open road that lies beyond the gate of the JLR property; the gate and the wall stand for what is enclosed,known, secure; the road stands for what is open, unknown, a mystery... and those mendicants, with no worldly possessions, are off on that road...a road, hopefully, to the discovery of the universe within themselves.
On the way back, we also saw several Buddhists monks travelling. But these are Jain monks, I think, or Hindu ones...I don't know.
Bandipur...always something to intrigue one, and make one think.
I do wish *I* could shed my worldly possessions and stride off towards the forests like these monks are doing....!
Here's the cropped photo; no gate, only the tree, the monks, and the song of the open road:
This may not be a "distracting" photograph, but to me the unworldliness of the road and the monks lacks a counterpoint.
That's the difference between the content of a photograph and its artistic composition! |
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| Bandipur flora |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|03:26 pm] |
Two of the flowers on the Bandipur JLR campus:
I wanted to use the backlight on that lovely creeper and its flower; they are trained to grow around the cottages.
and this one below is the Pongaemia tree (HongE in Kannada), which is a common avenue tree in Bangalore, also; biodiesel is supposed to be extracted from this tree.
It is just about at the end of its flowering cycle now; a few weeks ago, the roads were carpeted with these flowers! |
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| Gold, Mammals and others at Bandipur.... |
[Apr. 30th, 2008|01:09 pm] |
First, the gold that I struck in Bandipur. Gold comes in many forms in the forest. Here's a GOLDEN DRAGONFLY:
And then there was the gold shower of the INDIAN LABURNUM, with its cascades of petals everywhere:
And of course, the gold of the sunset as we finished the evening safari, shot (with some difficulty) through the foliage:
Then come
( the mammals )
Had a wonderful time, saying hello to Bomma, Loki, Basavanna, Ganesh, and others, too....if only I had not had my wallet picked on the way to Bandipur, things would have been perfect...but..these things happen! |
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| Birds at Bandipur..... |
[Apr. 29th, 2008|02:06 pm] |
Well, since That Mammal is still grimly determined that I will never see its visage (or even a twitch of its tail), let me share all the other wonderful sights of Bandipur.... Here are some of the birds (all pretty common, no Darwinian discoveries here!) that I saw.
Very common at this time of the year is the BLACK-RUMPED FLAMEBACK WOODPECKER (Dinopium benghalense...dunno why it's called "Din-OPIUM"!!), which can be seen flying about, and boring the tree-trunks (you can see a small piece falling to the ground from its work, if you look carefully!)
Also fairly easy to sight were the CRESTED SERPENT EAGLEs; this one was sitting not too far away for a brief while:
( more...if you like... )
We did see several other birds, but these were the photographs I got! As always, the mammal sightings were great too, but that's going to be another post.... |
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| What an Orrible Lot You Are |
[Apr. 28th, 2008|03:22 pm] |
I go with a heart full of hope (and greed, yes...everyone ELSE has seen the SIT)...to Bandipur, and of course, how many SIT's do I see (remember, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) chirdeepshetty saw 5 once)...how many? Think of a number, subtract it from itself, and that will be the answer....
Focus doesn't help. Nothing ever helps.
But what DOESN'T help at all is helpful phone calls every now and then, full of suppressed (and not-too suppressed) glee, asking, "Saw any tigers?" "What happened?" "Seen anything?" and so on...Amogh meeting me at 4.30pm and saying, "Well, I might as well go home now, there are going to be no more tiger sightings now that you are here", swiftly-hidden smiles from all and sundari...I have taken to grunting now instead of replying! :)
I may not be the only one never to have seen an SIT (er, that's south Indian Tiger, if anyone has not yet known of My Quest), but I am certainly the funniest one. Even Swarna Venkat, who had never seen one, came over last week, and sighted one...
Oh well. But everything ELSE in Bandipur is ALWAYS awesome. And speaking of grunting..... here's a lovely conversation I saw happening between two WILD BOAR:
"Hist! hist! You heard the latest? It seems Piggy and Porky were....."
"Hmmm...wait...sniff-sniff-sniff...."
"You STINK!! you rotten PIG!!!!Just stay AWAY from me!"
"Hmm...this solitude is WILDly BOARing....."
and to end this post on a beautiful note (there will be more posts about the other birds and mammals, never fear!)...here's another portrait:
More to follow, but off now to take care of other stuff....! |
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| Coincidence.... |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|10:10 pm] |
When I was in St Louis, I would, once in a while, buy the New York Times newspaper and bring it home. Once, when I did this, and was reading it, I came across an article on migrant birds being possible carriers of the Avian flu...and there was a picture of BAR-HEADED GEESE which was credited to M.Niranjan , who was not mentioned by name in the article.
I mailed Niri (I met him through the JLRNTP) at once, and it was very nice when he came home with Deepak to collect the newspaper.
The coincidence?
When a few of us had gone to Devarayanadurga, the TV Channel, "Kasturi", had taped an interview with some of us (anirudhc, mamtanaidu, and Seshadri) and asked me to say what we were doing in the place, and to request for a hit Kannada song. Of course I requested a song from "Mungaru Male"!
And last Saturday, when I was sitting near my front gate, idly photographing the Brahminy Kite and wondering when I would get back in my flat, being locked out...Niri phoned and told me that he had just switched on the TV, and I was on the air with my friends, asking for the song! "Quick, quick, switch on the TV!" he said. I told him that I was giving our security guards some company for a while!
How funny that when one person has something to do with the media, the other person spots it, and it works in reverse, too!
Don't miss this entry on Niri's blog!
Here's a BLUE-TAILED DRAGONFLY at Namada Chilume, Devarayanadurga:
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| Off to Bandipur, tiger, tiger, can you burn a little brighter? |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|08:07 pm] |
Here's my favourite shot from Bandipur ....
Bandipur has always been one of my favourite areas...and what once used to be "Prakruthi" restaurant has now morphed into the Bandipur property of JLR . Almost every room there has a beautifully painted wildlife mural .
Well, since I can do a bit of "swalpa adjust maadi" with itsalouwelylife and her UK friend, I am executing a sneak to Bandipur tomorrow.
Alas, this time I am not going just to see what I can see. Usually, that's what I do. And I come back happy with whatever I saw, but never a glimpse of any stripes.....Then, I was told by someone, when I said that I had never seen a tiger in south India: "You lack focus. You are too happy and contented with what you see, so you will never see a tiger."
OK, this time, focus, focus, focus. Ever since chirdeepshetty went to take up a 2-month voluntary assignment as a naturalist there, he has apparently seen nothing but tigers. They are crawling out of the woodwork....he posted to the JLRNTP egroup about sighting 5 of them recently. And whoever has gone there from the NTP this past week....Praveen, Avinash, Amogh...have been also been doing nothing else.
So having once cancelled my train ticket for today, I went back and bought a bus ticket for tomorrow, and I am FOCUSSSSSSING as I go off. Wish me luck everyone. I have a great fear that these other tiger-sighting characters are swifty exhausting the April 2008 Tiger-Sighting Quota before I arrive there, and will do the usual "The tiger was sighted HERE yesterday" or "Look! Tiger Scat!" (That's a polite and technical way of referring to tiger shit tiger waste-products.) I even had one naturalist who enthused, "OH! It's FRESH and STEAMING!!!" as if it was a fragrant breakfast dish of idlies that he had found.
I don't want tiger claw marks, I don't want pug marks. I don't want to listen to other people's tiger-sighting stories. I WANT MY OWN TIGER SIGHTING IN SOUTH INDIA. This means YOU, you tiger hiding in the forests of Bandipur. Come on out you coquette, I want to see if you actually do exist, or are a piece of these other people's fevered imaginations....
Want to see some of my Bandipur posts?
click on this
adarshraju told me he hopes I will sight one. That was nice of him.
He also told Anush not to go with me as anyone with me would never see a tiger. That is NOT nice of him. I am deciding whether to smile at him or growl at him the next time I see him....
I do love Bandipur, tiger or no tiger. But I would prefer tiger to no tiger... Sigh. |
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| BRHills, K.Gudi JLR, 17 and 18 March 2008 |
[Mar. 24th, 2008|11:33 am] |
The 17th of March was a landmark birthday for KM...yes, he (I can't believe it!) turned 60. When I see him, I still see the 28-year-old whom I married, so I keep having to remind myself that 32 years have passed in the blink of an eye...
In our community, a 60th birthday is celebrated as a second wedding, with the husband actually tying a fresh "thAli" for the wife....but since we hardly have any family members nearby, he was rather adamant that he didn't want a "fuss" made over his birthday; he does not celebrate birthdays in general, and couldn't see why there should be a departure this time. But I secretly asked my sister-in-law to come over from Chennai. And then, out of the blue, he said, "Shall we go to B R Hills that day?" and, truly delighted, I rushed to comply. I made the booking at JLR, and we were all set to leave at 5am.
At 4.30am, he said he had a sore throat and didn't want to go! But at 9am, when he got up looking quite OK, I insisted that we should go...and certainly, it turned out into a memorable trip, even though just for a day!
We reached the K.Gudi (Kyathadevararyana Gudi if you want to twist your poor tongue into knots be precise ) Camp of JLR at about 3pm and this too, turned into a mini NTP meet, with Nahar, R Narayan and G S Narayan all being there...and yours truly of course.) Nahar had organized a lovely tree-planting ceremony for KM, and sampige (champa,magnolia) saplings were planted...I do hope they grow and thrive!
As usual, all lousy pics are to be excused as documentation...
Here's the sign for our destination, with that wonderfully-well designed Karnataka logo on top:
Here's Mr Tree-Planter himself:
( see several pictures,including one of a leopard taken on my S3IS, under the cut )
Though there were just 2 safaris, and one ended in pouring rain, it was still a most amazing trip!
I close with this picture of the colours that run riot in the hills right now, with the new leaves of spring:
B R Hills...Beautiful, Rapturous Hills! :) |
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| Glow Worms.... |
[Mar. 20th, 2008|06:06 am] |
I have been having a really rotten internet connection and have not been able to post about the varied and wonderful sightings we had at the Biligiri Ranganna Hills property of Jungle Lodges and Resorts...but while I can, let me make a quick post about a short outing I had yesterday....it turned out to be a mini NTP outing!
Karthik had mentioned that he had been seeing glow-worms in a park near his home. Each year, for a few days around this time, he has been seeing the glow-worms in his own garden; but this year, he didn't find them there, but in the park where he goes for his evening walk.
Since I was interested, I called up Pallavi, Vittal , and anushsh. Vittal brought along his wife Santrupti and son Adu (dare I call him very cute?!) and we all trooped off to Karthik's place where he gave us delicious Darjeeling tea, and we then walked (risking life and limb in the traffic, may I add) to the Nanda Road park.
( several grainy, not-good, but documentation pics of glow-worms if you click here )
Whenever we shone light on the glow-worms, they responded by bringing down their own glow, which was brightest in the dark. It was very interesting to watch these little creatures; Karthik says not very much is known about them, including the reason why they appear only for a few days, and only at this time! We were lucky that Karthik notices these tiny creatures, and is willing to share his observations with us....so we got to see the Glow-Worms of Nanda Road! :)
anushsh has also made a post, with lots of links, at
http://anushsh.livejournal.com/92250.html |
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| Lunch |
[Feb. 24th, 2008|11:22 pm] |
One goes to Kabini, the flagship resort of JLR, and one sees such a wealth of sightings that it leaves one breathless.
However, the fact remains that I was there on "work"..and so had taken the S3 and not KM's nice 20D or the 300mm lens...and there were times when I sorely missed them both.
But one of the images I really loved was this one....
That's the common HOUSE SPARROW,er, well, it *used* to be common, and is still to be seen around the outskirts of my city...I love these perky, chirpy birds; watching their behaviour used to while away a lot of my childhood time...
Have been having an extra hectic weekend; want time to ponder over the Golden Chariot experience, but not finding it. But some thoughts...
1. I like having an experience, and then having the time to mull over over and articulate my thoughts and views. I find it difficult to live life at a hectic pace. I love the luxury of time. So then...do I want a job, however enjoyable it may be, when it may mean curtailing of several activities which give me happiness? I also have the incredible luxury of having enough money (or at least the perception of enough money, which is what is better) not to need the job.
2. This trip has been a self-revelation to me. I have always been feeling constantly that I am a beginner still, at both birding/wildlife. But dealing with a busload, a boatload, and then a safari jeepload of tourists has made me realize that I *have* learnt a lot since the days when I wore the "wildlife tourist" shoes myself. I found that I do enjoy addressing a group of strangers, and using a combination of humour and information "Mango tree is Mangifera indica; Silk-cotton tree is Bombax indica; what sort of tree is Tata indica?" ). It was satisfying to be able to identify birds and mammals and talk a little about them. The culture/history part, too, is something I think I can do well. I realize that while self-comparison with more knowledgeable people will keep me learning, I must step back and occasionally and see how I am making steady progress on the road.
3. There is great satisfaction in knowing that my skills have resulted in my being offered a couple of jobs...whether I took/take them up or not. At 53, I did NOT expect that anyone would ever offer me jobs that are interesting and utilize my skills. What a difference from my parents' generation, which was considered washed-up and ready for the morgue when they entered their fifties.
Oh, well, introspecting out loud, like Mr Hamlet and Mr Othello used to do (but using far easier English!)
Sigh, there are the posts on the Golden Chariot experience, the incredible sightings at Kabini, and the great interactions at the recent batch of the JLR Naturalists' Training Program that I want to write, the pics to post to Flickr, another couple of articles to write, the QuizFamilies next-quiz details to take care of, and so the list goes....gah, I do NOT like having stuff backlogging like this...there is nothing nice about it, I suffer from piles..work-piles, that is!
Posts and photographs (some of them nice, please excuse the others, they will also be shamelessly posted) soon... |
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| anirudhc wins a photography contest |
[Jan. 27th, 2008|10:25 pm] |
It's a great feeling when someone you know does good....
anirudhc, I have always known, is a very good photographer; it made me very happy when a friend, Pratima, told me that he had won the Blossom Fest photography contest:
http://www.meetvolunteers.org/article/blossoms-fest-2008-photography-contest-winners
That's a beautiful photograph, on several levels. It brought tears to my eyes.
Here's a photo that he took on my camera when we were on a birding trip together:
http://www.indianaturewatch.net/displayimage.php?id=11425
and to see his photos, go to
http://anirudh.smugmug.com/
Great going, Ani, and wish you the best for more successes, and great photography...whether or not you win other prizes, your talent is great! |
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| The B R Hills trip, 030108 |
[Jan. 8th, 2008|12:57 pm] |
As chirdeep_shetty called up and said he, anirudhc and a couple of college friends were going to the K.Gudi property of Jungle Lodges and Resorts , the temptation to visit this favourite property of ours, and also spend a little time with Chirdeep and Anirudh was too much to resist...so we quickly made our bookings and executed a quick sneak very early on the morning of the 3rd, accompanied by amoghavarsha for whom the combination of Chirdeep, Anirudh, B R Hills, and a chance to drive the CR-V was also irresistible!
I will have to do a separate post on the Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple at B R Hills, and one on Ranganathittu....there was just so much to see and I captured about 1/1000th of it on camera...!
Chirdeep had indicated that it was a kind of old boys' get-together for them, and they would prefer to be separate...but we still managed to bump into each other at Kamath Lokaruchi on the highway! We did both the safaris together, though, and since I had not been able to meet him on his last trip, and his stay in Chicago has been extended further, it was nice to say hi to him. It was also a JLRNTP meet, with Chirdeep,Nahar and myself from the March 06 batch (Vikrant from our batch was in Blr and we couldn't meet him, alas) , and Anirudh from the March 07 batch...and an INW meet as KM, myself, Amogh,Chirdeep, and Anirudh all post there!
We passed Mysore, seeing the landmark Chamundi Hill, with the Rajendra Vilas Palace perched in silhouette atop it, on the way:
We entered the Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple Wildlife Sanctuary,sorry, Sanctury....
( Lots of pictures from B R Hills and K.Gudi camp of JLR here )
I am closing with this photograph of the sunrise through the thick mist as we drove off from Bangalore towards BR Hills asakiyume, I thought of you!)
and I hope you enjoyed the e-trip to the Kyathadevarayanagudi area of B R Hills! |
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| Galibore and Kanakapura Road |
[Dec. 17th, 2007|06:55 am] |
Let me start with a nice picture of a RIVER TERN on the Kaveri...
We took our huntin' friend to Galibore to check out the angling, rather than take him to Bheemeshwari. We hadn't seen the JLR property there, and the last few kilometers would be through the scrub jungle of the Kaveri valley. Unfortunately, I don't think, overall, he was very happy with the trip. He is petrified of eating anything outside, having been warned by eveeryone...and definitely not open to new experiences the way some of our other American visitors have been. He really starved through the day!
I think it's a basic difference between tourists and business visitors; the first lot are here by choice, so they are willing to experiment with food and travel. But the business visitors are here for work, and they may not be keen on new experiences.
But KM and I managed to have a really lovely day. The Kanakapura Road is still really picturesque, and the Kaveri valley very beautiful....
( for more pictures and the tale, click here )
A mostly enjoyable day, with the exception of the snake, and the way we felt when we tried to go to Koodala Sangama, and were repulsed by the crowds and the amount of trash strewn everywhere... |
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| The Pixetra Club |
[Nov. 6th, 2007|07:54 pm] |
http://bangalore.metblogs.com/archives/2007/11/the_pixetra_club.phtml
And a couple of images from the trip:
That was a view of the wooden planks leading to my cottage...
And while on the subject of "my cottage", here's the view of the Bhadra Dam catchment area that I had from there:
A lovely trip, though just for a day... |
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| The Fruit of Passion.... |
[Nov. 6th, 2007|02:30 pm] |
Did an overnight trip to the Bhadra property of JLR which I had wanted to see for a very long time. So when amoghavarsha was going to be the "photography-guide" for a group of people who are members of the Pixetra Club , and Karthik, too, would be there at the time, I decided to join up and join in. For me, it was a learning experience on both wildlife and photography fronts. Will be making a Metroblogs post about it....
But meanwhile...it was not a wildlife trip per se (though of course, on safari we sighted ELEPHANTS, SPOTTED DEER, BARKING DEER, MONGOOSE, and --as usual--- the recent pugmarks of a young male tiger...when am I ever going to get beyond the scat and pugmarks and see an actual South Indian tiger, I wonder?) so we were concentrating more on the photography this time.
The property itself proved a great source of excellent subjects, and here are two photos of "Life Under Foot" as I like to call my macro photos...one, because a lot of these subjects can be found just underfoot, if we only look down and about with attention...and two, because the subjects are generally much less than a foot in their dimensions!
Here's the fruit pod of the Passion Flower plant:
I loved the delicate tracery of the lacy cage that holds the seed safe within itself.
And as we walked along, my friend Sadvi, who works as a naturalist at the Bhadra property, spied this little green beauty. And just to make things interesting, along came an ant...
We all know the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper, but of course, just to be contrary, real life has only the story of the Ant and the Preying Mantis!
The ant actually did go up to the Preying Mantis and pulled one of its legs, and the Mantis reacted by taking its legs out of harm's way...but DIDN'T prey on the ant! A very Gandhi Preying Mantis, this one...indeed, one can quite call it the PrAying Mantis, it was so non-violent!
Then it quite deliberately turned its back on us and mooned us, I think...here's the view of the behind of a Mantis!That's Amogh clicking away in the background with his really awesome macro lens...watch out for the pics on his blog.
It was a very enjoyable trip, I must say! |
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| Just to be beautiful |
[Sep. 9th, 2007|05:11 pm] |
Some things are born
Just to be, and to be beautiful
They do not stay too long;
Permanence is not their trait.
And they do not make a show
Or drag our eyes to them.
But when we happen to see
Our eyes remain riveted.
Their beauty gently awakens something deep in our hearts
Which has no voice, but is very strong.
Tomorrow, this object may not be:
But today, its beauty can move you to tears.
I just looked up in Bandipur, and there it was, this simple vine and flower...and I gave thanks for being sighted. |
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| Anjali's excellent collage of the Mason Wasp building her nest...And bad news for JLR |
[Jul. 7th, 2007|09:50 am] |
When I went to meet the people who were taking the Naturalists' Training Program, at the JLR property in Bannerghatta in May this year, I found every one fascinated by the mud nest that a Mason Wasp (also called a Potter Wasp, for reasons obvious below) had built. She proceeded to lay her eggs and then brought a paralyzed caterpillar which she stuffed into the nest and sealed in, as food for the larva when it would hatch.
This process has been posted as a very nice collage by anjali_ar...and here's the link to her journal entry:
http://anjali-ar.livejournal.com/1325.html
This morning I switched on the Suvarna channel to watch the music telecast (they are continuously telecasting bits and pieces from my concert recording)...I got the news that there was a fire yesterday at Shrungar Shopping Complex where the JLR office is situated, and there was actually video footage of the damage done to the JLR main office. I will have to ask Karthik what the damage is...looked rather bad.
The buildings have a tangled web of wires everywhere as they are very old; and a short circuit is believed to have caused the fire. |
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| We're all ears here at Bandipur... |
[Jun. 19th, 2007|10:28 pm] |
All the better to fan out the gossip we hear! |
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