deponti

Just got back home...and it feels wonderful!

So here's the first image from Arunachal Pradesh...wotzit?






Each one allowed one guess.....

And, I hope all of you who celebrate the festival had a very, very....

Today I was told that the sighting of the Black Stork, that I posted about

here

was a first for Bangalore! What a thrill that was!

This is not a thrill that the experienced birder will understand. S/he is probably used to making rare sightings and first records all the time...but for an L-board, the thrill of having made a record sighting is quite high....

It's the same in our monthly family quiz group. When, at my most ignorant, I stumble upon the right answer, my happiness in doing so (and gaining all of 2 or 5 points for my team) is far greater than the greatest Mastermind champion could experience, sitting in that black chair answering questions on, say, "The Use of the Semicolon in Shakespeare" or some such chosen subject!

So let me savour the moment, all too soon, it will be gone....

And a word of gratitude here to Karthik, who is a great guide..he points out the direction and lets one arrive at the destination by oneself.

Yesterday I was chatting with my friend

Chandu

as he and Ramesh were supposed to come birding with me. He said, "Ramesh can't come as his wife has gone out and he has to take care of the maid."

"Oh," I said, "I understand. Yesterday, someone I went birding with had to run home to catch the cook."

...then we both just broke up laughing!

The

BLACK-WINGED KITE

(earlier called the Black-Shouldered Kite, which I think is more accurate)

is easily one of the most handsome common accipiters in the Bangalore outskirts....

You can see the black shoulders clearly as it lands on the insulators of the power cables:





( this kite flies itself )


But back it came, to land on the wire again:




More photos from our Bheemanna Kuppe Kere trip (thank you Sangeetha!) on Saturday....coming up as soon as I can upload them...! We were 4 NTP members in a group of 7.

Organizing events is not something I do regularly...I do hope it's something I do well...!

When one is organizing an event, one HAS to take the majority's convenience into consideration while setting the date and venue....but it's SO disappointing when some of the people who, you know, will add a lot of value to the event, cannot make it!

I am organizing the JLRNTP meet in January Twenty-Ten...and so far, I have got 18 "yes"es, and only 2 "no"s...but both are from people that I would *particularly* like to have.

Well, actually, I must say that I know most of the NTP members personally now, so, to me, every "no" would be a disappointment...

How I wish I could organize an even where EVERYONE could be there! Ha, that will not happen in the real world.

My article about NTP in Citizen Matters:

here

My announcement of the March 2007 program:

here

My account of the October 2008 NTP:

here

My account of the March 2009 NTP:

here

And..finally...my account of the NTP that I took:

here

prashanthks was wanting a time machine, to finish all the tasks that he has. But here's a friend of mine who already owns one! I sent an email and got this reply:


On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 10:53 AM, wrote:

I will be travelling between 24 Nov to 29th Oct 2009


If this person is not careful, they could wind up as an infant....

Tags: bloopers, friends, humour, mistakes, ntp, signboard

premkudva recently posted that McDonald lost their claim to be the only ones to use the "mc" in front of their name! That being so, I promptly dubbed this McSquirrel when I saw him on our way home from sightseeing:



He was carefully eating the filling before going to work on the base:





Eat pizza, it will keep you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

On Saturday, a sudden change of plan resulted in my forgetting to take MLC2 when I went to attend the wedding; and there, I found the bride's uncle, after the ceremony, taking pictures of a huge spider with a large egg-sac. I watched it, of course, but felt bad that I couldn't take photographs.

On Sunday, however, Madhu, Kusi and I decided that rather than go to Delaware to do some hiking, we would go to the same

Wissahickon area .

And....when we reached

Valley Green Inn ,

I went over to the tree where I had seen the spider, laughing at my own idiocy in looking for the spider again...and..there she was!



Amazingly, she didn't react at all to my presence, and sat, perfectly still; I don't know if this is normal behaviour for a spider with an egg sac...butI was thankful that she allowed me the time to observe her for a while.


You can see the very large egg sac in this picture that I took ffrom the side:





Could someone tell me what spider this is? She was a little larger than a golf ball...

Update: charleshaynes has id'd it, correctly, I think, as a

WOLF SPIDER


Thank you, Charles and Debbie! :)

Just back from a very enjoyable trip to

the City of Brotherly Love

Thanks to Madhumsita and Kusi, I had a whale of a time:




(Philadelphia is ..er..phill of murals.)

Lots of photos to follow, but meanwhile:

I got the following photograph quite by chance...votzit? One guess allowed per person :)





Off to sleep now...

KM and I walked down to the History Museum to hear the Twilight Tuesday concert, but it had been cancelled due to the heavy rain.

So we walked back; but the twilight had something else to offer us:





I first saw one; then we saw two...and then, several, twinkling in and out of the bushes and trees....when we were de-lighted (the sun was down), we were delighted with this unexpected treat!

I immediately thought of the evening that Karthik had called us over, each year, to come and watch the few glow-worms in the park on Nanda Road ...

The glow-worms were easy to photograph compared to the drifting fireflies! This was the only not-terrible shot that I got.

We didn't get to hear the concert, but...we got some "light" entertainment that we had not expected!

Update: The firefly show goes on every evening, and to my daughter's disgust, one of the fireflies (or as they are also called, "Lightning bugs") got into the house, and before I caught it in a cup and released it outdoors, I snapped it:

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....

We went, after Karthik's alert, to see the glow-worms again this year:

http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/blogs/show_entry/942-the-glow-worms


Here's my post about it last year ...



Where do they come from? Where do they go?
Why are they so tiny? Why do they glow?
Why do just some of them have wings?
What, exactly, is "bioluminicence"?
Is it a word that even makes sense?
Have you wondered about all these things?


If so..

click

here

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...!

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....

I don't need to mention how I value the NTP that I took in March 2006. It's given me access to Karthik's immense knowledge, and brought me a lot of on-the-net and face-to-face friends, all of whom have unstintingly helped me in my learning about birds and wildlife.

So let me announce the next NTP....

Here's the email from JLR:



----------------------------------
Greetings from Jungle Lodges and Resorts Ltd.!
We are pleased to inform you that the dates for the next Naturalists Training Programme has been finalised. The details of the programme are as follows.


( all the details if you are interested... )

I have personally found the NTP of immense value... in terms of information and friends and the whole learning process!

When I went to the Malleswaram Heritage Walk, my beloved MLC fell to the ground, and though it was in a bag, it still broke...and the camera guy told me that it would cost "more than 3K" (that more-than sounds ominous!)....

Yesterday we went to attend the wedding of fellow NTP-er, sainath (can you imagine, I can't post a pic of him and his very beautiful bride, as there is no MLC!)...and, a very rare occurrence for me, I had decided to take the car.

So naturally, an autorickshaw (I don't know WHERE the driver was looking, he could not have hit me if he had been looking ahead) hit the car broadside on, on the left-hand-side, and when we stopped to look at the damage, he ran away. We spent a lot of time trying to see how we could file an FIR at the nearest police station....

It turned out that if the damages were anything less than 7K,it doesn't make sense to claim insurance, as we would lose the no-claim bonus for the next two years, and that would amount to a loss of 5K....so today, the tinker-job garage told me that it would be done for 6.5K...and we are not claiming insurance, which is anyway a big pain...

That flapping noise that you hear is all those K's flying out of our pockets quite quickly....! That's why I feel that worrying about money is futile...K sera sera....whatever (expenses) will be, will be!

We still managed a lovely weekend, though!