deponti

For some birding friends of mine who, looking at a non-typical tail on a Black Drongo, id'ed it as a Drongo Cuckoo:



Sometimes drongos get a divided tail
Sometimes in this task they fail
If we birders get the id wrongo
It's *we* who're cuckoo, not the drongo!


Here's one pic I took of the BLACK DRONGO, a long time ago:

We decided that we would go to Valley School on Sunday, and it was a bonus while on our way there, Chandu called up, saying that he and three of his friends were also headed there! I may have seen no lifers, but it was a wonderful morning, and Anush, Madhusmita, Jayashree and I certainly saw a lot of unusual things, if not unusual birds....


Even the usually seen birds have different angles to them; look at the feeding behaviour of some of them!

Here's the female ASIAN KOEL, doing intricate yoga to get at the fruit of the ORNAMENTAL CHERRY tree:




( birds, and other creatures that were very interesting )


The entire area was covered with the rich deep reds of the GUL MOHAR flowers, which is called the May Flower, but is blooming all over in April!





We did see the TICKELL'S BLUE FLYCATCHER but I have posted so many pictures of it, I am not going to repeat it! We also saw the ORIENTAL HONEY BUZZARD.


Trips which are not especially full of drama are still very interesting for the wonderful creatures of "Life Under Foot" that one can see!


Valley School never disappoints me....

As we were returning from the birding session, we found this Banded Kukri (thank you, Seshadri, for the id!)on the path:






The damage near the head made me rather sure that the snake (it's non-venomous) was dead, and that too, because it had been cruelly killed by someone, who then left it on the path. But the others felt that it was alive, and they all photographed it...and then they, too, realized that it was dead.

Somehow the way this snake was killed and left bothered me a lot. I felt very bad about it....just now, I emailed Seshadri about the id and when he gave me the id, I also googled "Banded Kukri" and got this extremely technical (all gobbledygook!) description on

this Wiki link

I had the following conservation with Seshadri, who is normally based in KMTR, or Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (a tiger reserve in Tamil Nadu) but whom I had met yesterday at the Bannerghatta zoo area when he and a group had just finished a herbivore census in the Bannerghatta zoo park....

S: If the snake was dead, you should have picked it up and sent it to me; I would have been able to do a dissection and do a diet analysis. You could have put it in a plastic bag.

D: If you think I am going to carry a dead snake back with me, not knowing where you are and when I can contact you....! ...anyway, I didn't have any receptacle like a plastic bag (I avoid using plastic bags!) with me, either. I only had my camera and my binocs.

S: You could have put it in a camera or binocs pouch.

D. (Shuddering) I didn't have any such pouch with me. (to myself) ..thank goodness!

S: You could have carried it in your hat.

D: My love of wildlife doesn't extend to carrying dead snakes in my hat and going bareheaded in the noonday sun....

(To myself) And I can just imagine the reaction from the kind couple who took me along in their car, and the two others who shared the back seat of the car with me, if I got in with a dead snake in my hat. I might wind up as dead as the snake.

S: Yes, contacting me is difficult, then you would have had to preserve the snake in spirit, and the insides would rot.

D. (Silent and Intensified Shudder.)
to myself: Pastimes that I am likely to detest: Preserving Dead Snakes in Spirit....

S: But this is a good chance to do a diet check.

D. To myself (Forgive the Hindi but it's untranslatable) sAnp nEy kyA khAyA, mujhEy pathA nahin...par usnEy zaroor mAr khAyA thA....

to Seshadri: I felt really bad about the way the snake was killed and left callously on the path, and I was not sure if picking it up would be an ethical thing to do...I felt very bad about it for quite a while....

We insist on killing snakes without bothering to find out if they are venomous or not. Even venomous snakes would rather avoid us and slither off...but where we perceive a threat, real or imagined, we are quicker to strike, than the snake is....

This post is dedicated to mamtanaidu.....who wants to be a herpetologist, that is, one who deals with her pets...

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!

I looked at this photograph of some passion flowers that I took at Valley School:




And it occurred to me, that flowers make good calendars.

So I put up the picture with my thought, on this post on INW , saying that the faded red flowers are Yesterday, the blooming white ones are Today, and the buds are Tomorrow...

And a comment from someone made me think of these words in Hindi...

kal,Aj, aur kal

manAthEy hain yEh phool...

kucch ban jAthEy hai phal...

kucch sookh kar banthEy hai dhool.


(These flowers celebrate yesterday, today and tomorrow...some become fruits, and some wither and become dust...)

Sometimes the birds co-operate, sometimes they don't...the trip that we took to Turahalli cannot be termed highly productive in terms of large numbers of birds and raptors sighted...but like all trips to the wilderness, it was always enjoyable, and the company was great, too!

Let me start with this dew-bedecked flower of the wild jasmine, that smiled at us everywhere on the rocky outcrops:



( the mammals, the birds, the scenes of Turahalli that day )

To provide a finale to our outing was this beautiful BROWN SHRIKE on the wire, which, according to Garima, was cocking an inquisitive eye at us, trying to get an id of the birders below!





With the onset of summer, I guess my birding trips will peter out...but until now, they have been great outings!

To cheer myself up after all that age-related morbidity...a set of pictures, capturing the sunrise at Turahalli last Sunday.

The melting, and strengthening, of colours is astonishing...


Pre-dawn:








Then the sun rises:








The sun behind the peepul tree at the top of the little hillock:




And behind the rocks:



And finally, after the day is established, the wonder of the cloud patterns in the sky...





Oh...you want to see a very, very beautiful image of exactly the same shot? Go to

http://fotodreamz.blogspot.com/

and see Mahesh's shot...

Mahesh is one cameraman I have a very high regard for. He has taken the trouble to know his camera thoroughly...and is so generous about sharing the info with others, too. A trip with him is a lesson in photography each time. His composition is excellent, he elicits the best colours out of the image, and does judicious post-processing....I don't know if he will have his work on National Geographic or win awards (I suspect not!)...but hats off to him for his photography skills! I know that if and when he reads this, he will think that I am making a big thing out of nothing!

But..it's a great pleasure when Mahesh and Priya (she has a cooking blog!) come along on a birding trip!




Use LJ-cut? Naaaaah....

Oh...these are completely un-retouched pictures. No photoshop, no Picasa, no GIMP....as I once learnt from sainath, WYSWYG...what you see is what you get!

One of the best remedies I have for the blahs is...head out to some greenery (or, as it nowadays, the brownery.) So when I got a chance, even at 8am, to visit Turahalli, I jumped at it, and...the birds seem to just arrive to be sighted by Sharad!

In fact, what we did was, two separate visits to Turahalli, in the morning and the evening. In the morning, the visit was cut short as I learnt of a friend's bereavement and had to come back, and in the evening, we locked the keys inside the car and had a real comedy of about an hour, in which Anush took a ride with a passing scooterist to the nearby village, to try and buy a hacksaw blade to try and pry open the car door.... and Sharad and I hunted around for likely sticks that would do the trick! (Yes, you could call us hunter-gatherers at this point.) Sharad did find a stick that finally opened the car door (all you people who think that locking the car door is very safe, beware!) but in these two short intervals, here's what we saw.

I notice that in my field trip reports I always seem to write about the mammals and birds first and then come to the flowers, butterflies and other stuff, as if they were somehow less important....well, this time I am going to reverse the order.

Let's start with this wildflower that shines in a million tiny sunbursts, all over the slopes, rocks and fields...one normally says one caught an image on the fly, but here it's a fly in the image!







( lots of not-at-all-good photographs if you like )

On another distant peepul tree sat this beautiful little SPOTTED OWLET, but it was very alert and just the fact of our getting out of the car was enough to send it flying off on silent wings.





A great time was had by all, and since Sharad is about to become a father at any moment, we are also hoping for a sighting of the stork!

Got this from Shyamal. I had forgotten how much it made me laugh the first time I read it, so I laughed all over again!


This is an apocryphal tale naturally. The metal bands used for bird ringing in the US once had the address of the Washington Biological Survey, abbreviated: Wash. Biol. Surv. until the agency received the following letter from an Arkansas camper:
"Dear Sirs:
While camping last week I shot one of your birds. I think it was a crow. I followed the cooking instructions on the leg tag and I want to tell you, it was horrible."
The bands are now marked Fish and Wildlife Service.

Here's a warbler (possibly BLYTH'S REED WARBLER, possibly not! All those warblers on the bird book pages look exactly alike to me!)





See you lot tomorrow....

I think that I shall never get
A good pic of the Blue-Faced Malkohet.
(Actually, the name of the bird
Is not Malkohet...that's absurd.)
But the stupid Malkoha
Sees my lens... and does Yoga.
It twists and turns and always goes
Into some weird writhing pose.
So I will stop photography
Of that stupid Malkohy....



Blue-Faced Malkoha Valley School 310109


But the colours of Spring...here are the amazing colours on the fresh new shoots on the Banyan tree (yes, that large one right at the end of the open path!)





The stark red of the Scarlet Morning Glory is beautiful, too...





Here's something that someone who is actually 22 years old sent me:



http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/simon_and_garfunkel/leaves_that_are_green.html


Funny how markings on a sheet of paper can move you to tears!

Yes, when I get back from Chennai I promise to do my field trip reports on Kaziranga...but I cannot resist, meanwhile, doing my field trip report on Valley School last Saturday, when Vittal , Trupti, Adu, and Trupti's niece Pallavi went off to one of my favourite places....

We met up with sharathm and his friends, and Garima Bhatia and Gayathri Naik, too.

Here are a few samplings:




That beautiful ASHY DRONGO sat on the fruit pod, delicately balanced, and opened the account along with several LARKS, BEE-EATERS, MAGPIE ROBINS and INDIAN ROBINS!

Almost immediately, afterwards, several WHITE-THROATED FANTAIL FLYCATCHERS (you can see how they got their name, at least, the fantail part!) danced around in the bushes, enthralling us:






On we went, to the Banyan tree, where several SMALL MINIVETS (what's the idea of saying both "small" and "mini" to describe what are not very small birds?)



I pointed out the COPPERSMITH BARBET to Pallavi, and she enjoyed looking at the colours:





Pallavi certainly lived up to her reputation of being lucky for bird sightings; this BROWN SHRIKE was proof enough...



Then Vittal got a good shot of the PIED CUCKOO, and we were able to see this COMMON HAWK CUCKOO (which, because of its call, is called the "Brainfever Bird")




This beautiful GOLDEN ORIOLE posed in the sunlight for all of us:





And as we decided to go home, the sight of these INDIAN GREY HORNBILLS flying in in their typical flight pattern was a great bonus:





We also saw two ORIENTAL HONEY BUZZARDS circling in the lower area to the right of the path, opposite the school property; alas, we could not get photographs, but it was a sight to see!

Not bad for a less-than-one-hour jaunt, eh? Thank you Pallavi! :)

My NTP friend (well, that's actually one of the interests we share, but that will serve to identify him!) C suddenly called up on Wednesday, saying he and R were going to Valley School.. I didn't even stop to think if they were inviting me along, I just jumped in, and the poor guys had no choice!

It proved, moreover, to be a real treat, with the light at its warmest, and all the birds (except of course the evil few...more about that later) actually posing in a calm and composed way for us....

Here are C and R, clicking away to glory, and the glory was, the grasses lit up by the morning sun:





( photographs here )


And we found one animal that would predate on all the above...this cat (alas, just the domestic variety, but how sleek and well-fed and totally..feline...it was, as it moved along silently!)




A most enjoyable, sudden trip, and one which recompensed me for this weekend, because I was just too tired to wake up this Saturday in time to go anywhere!

PAW=Photographer at Work!

An image of someone busy documenting something he found fascinating....




I do like the way the sun just lights up the grass at Valley School... the peace of the morning spent there has stayed with me throughout the day.

The bird sightings were so varied and lovely that the weekend was a wonderful experience (and you friends thought it was because of your company? cackle, cackle!)....let's see now....we started out, of course, with the CKMP (Crow Kite Mynah Pigeon) and also the Jungle Crow,but then we went on...

Let me start with the end..the very last bird that we saw on Sunday at Ragihalli was this magnificient BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE:







( a wide variety of birds on both days )

We were back on the main road home when I said that we hadn't seen any BLACK-SHOULDERED KITES this time, and alakazam! there one was!





Add the butterflies, the plants, the flowers, the amphibians, the insects, the wonderful greenery, and the people, and that's my recipe for a fabulous weekend! Thank you, everyone who came with me.



*

The area around the Valley School is one of my favourites; there is never any lack of lovely sights to see. This is the plaque of the Krishnamurthi Foundation Retreat:



The birds we saw over the past two weekends were of delightful variety; the most spectacular of them, were, of course, the ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER, which I could not get on camera at all. But other beautiful birds did co-operate a little more; here's a male TICKELL'S BLUE FLYCATCHER:



( LOTS of photographs here; look at leisure )

Two random images I liked very much, to close this. One was of the raindrops on this thorn:





And the other, the lovely pattern this fallen palm trunk made, across the stream:





Looking forward to more birding trips, as winter progresses and more migrants come into Bangalore!



*

Note to myself: When dealing with the Child persona in someone, it is important to take on the Adult persona oneself (cf. Eric Berne ) and not let one's patience or good humour lapse. To lose one's cool is stupid. If there are two children, what can be achieved? When one person is childish, the other person must take extra care.


** (asterisk means, "change of subject")


Here's KM walking along one of the Valley School paths....





Ooh, I love "Bangalore outskirts"...Bangalore is a beautiful woman, and her outskirts are lovely indeed..... now, now, you dirty-minded lot gentle readers, that will be all on the subject....

Due to the constant rain, the paths and slopes at the Valley School area were full of lush vegetation, and the wildflowers were out in their hundreds, too. Ideal conditions for butterflies and insects and all the "et cetera"s that make Life Under Foot so fascinating!

Of course, I am now a nice certified "L board" when it comes to butterfly id's as well. These creatures have got birds beaten hollow. You have the wings-open appearance,and you have the wings-closed appearance, the male, the female, the larva, the pupa...and just when you think you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel it turns out that this is a butterfly which is mimicking another one! GRRRRRR!

Oh, well, following my usual practice of trying for a couple hours or so on the Net,and if I can't get any positive id, ASK (Ask S Karthik), here are some:

A lovely ZEBRA BLUE:




A HEDGE BLUE;




( more flutterby's )

This beautiful, armoured BEETLE was happily going about its business, unaware that it was being photographed at close quarters!






If anyone can give me any help at all with the flower, insect or any other id's, I will be very grateful....that is, I will be full of grate...!

Actually, Garima, who drove anushsh, Gayathri, and me to Valley School, says that the morning was "low" on sightings; yes, indeed, we did not see too many BEE-EATERS, no LARKS at all, and my usual ORIENTAL HONEY BUZZARD had probably gone to visit relatives for the weekend...but what we saw was interesting enough! One of the most leisurely poses was given by this ASIAN KOEL (male) that almost worried us, so contentedly was it sitting in the tree....



( other avians here )


Garima was able to get a photograph of the spectacular white male ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER, but I had to settle for the rufous plumage of the lady:





Next up, the butterflies, insects and others.....

A quickly-organized trip to the Valley School area resulted in a very pleasant Saturday morning indeed; I am trying to get some butterfly ids, but meanwhile, I thought, what better way to begin a Monday than with some beautiful flowers....


Here's a MORNING GLORY with the backlight illuminating it...





( flora )



Lastly, a raindrop caught on bamboo leaves:

To be out in the open air early in the morning, watching the birds slowly becoming active (yes, Bangalore birds are as slow as the rest of us, activity in these cloudy days only starts at around 7.30 or 8 AM!)....it's a great joy.

Some of the birds we saw (AND photographed, which wasn't always possible!), in no particular order....


We regularly seem to see this ORIENTAL HONEY BUZZARD in the area:



Just see that fierce "raptor" look!


( more birds and just two flowers )


Some of these ornamental flowers have spread all over the slopes:





Two lovely mornings, spent with friends....!