| 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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| 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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| 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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| Lalbagh on Saturday; films on the weekend... |
[Mar. 24th, 2008|07:12 pm] |
Karthik had told me that he would be free this weekend, so I tried to organize an outing; the weather was not very predictable, so he said that rather than Manchinabele, which was much further away, we should go to Lalbagh, where if it rained, we could do some id'ing of hot idlis and coffee at any nearby Darshini...
We were a round (well, none of us are ROUND, really, but...) dozen...Karthik the NTP Guruji, and the NTP members were, in alphabetical order, Adarsh,Anjali,Geeta,Pallavi,Prasanna,Vittal, and me; and then there were, also in alphabetical order, Vittal's son Adu (it should be Jayaditya, but I want to put him first!),Vittal's friend and potential NTP-taker Girish, Nisarg, whom I have met at various birding and wildlife locations, and Pallavi's husband Preetam, who just took Sudhir Shivaram 's course on photography, and was there to try out all the newly-learned stuff....
( LOTS of pics if you click, or you could skip! )
A lovely weekend, spent with a lot of friends...what could be nicer? |
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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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| 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 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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| The JLR Naturalists' Training Program |
[Mar. 2nd, 2007|05:58 pm] |
Jungle Lodges and Resorts are going to conduct another batch of their Naturalists' Training Program, which sainath, chirdeep_shetty, sanathreddy and I, amongst others, took last year.
( Details of the Program, Venue, Dates, Charges...here )
Having given the details, here is my take on the program.
Since the time that yathin, kalyan and others took the course (at that time it was intense inputs on a lot of fronts), it has become almost entirely birding-oriented. Mammals and flora are touched upon, and reptiles or insects are not discussed at all. The program would be of use to someone who is interested in learning the basics of bird-watching. However, what does happen is that the contacts with the other students (many of the people in my batch were committed wildlifers/birders) are quite useful. But for a birding-focused program, the charges do seem a little steep.
However, one of the major pluses would be meeting S. Karthikeyan, the Chief Naturalist of Jungle Lodges and Resorts, who will be conducting the course. Karthik has been with WWF for many years before joining JLR. But more than his professional details...his knowledge of Nature is pretty vast. Whenever, in the wildlife trips or gatherings I have attended, there has been a query about some aspect of wildlife, the answer is,usually.... "The best person for that is Karthik."
I started an egroup (still pretty active) for everyone who has taken the program. I am planning to set up an initiative for a Volunteer Program for JLR, so that any of us who have taken the course can help out JLR on a voluntary basis when the need for naturalists is very high. |
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