deponti

We thought the mist on the hills would prevent us from spotting birds. It didn't. We thought it would prevent us from photographing birds. It did.

But then we realized that the mist, in itself, was a thing of beauty.




( more images of the mist )

And just to see how it would look, I decided to take one image of the passing scenery through the rain-washed window of the car:






And finally, you can see the way the rainclouds are moving ...gliding...along the hilltops...












Rain and mist make for beautiful photography....!

The Nandi hills trip was wonderful...but from this video, you can get an idea of how it was for birding....






It was utterly beautiful, and we did manage to see a wide variety of birds, and though I don't have the images to back that statement up, I have...plenty of fellow-birders to testify to it!

It's difficult not to sound whiny, but the past fifteen days, as the gum infection has been steadily drained and dried, have been quite murderous. I have now learnt to ask for fresh local anaesthetics as the first injections wear off...but still the deep pain has been quite unbearable sometimes...and being alone in the house is NOT very nice. To be unable, at times, to get up, and yet to know that I have to drag myself to the kitchen for even a drink of water, has been very hard.

But it has taught me how difficult it must be to undergo this kind of chronic pain on a regular basis....and surely, I will be even more gentle when dealing with ill people. I will be able to bear their crankiness, because I know how cranky one feels with constant pain; I will be empathetic to their depression, as I have experienced the lows that being unwell brings. Er...all these good intentions are there now...

These thoughts have been brought out by visiting a friend whose ailing mother is now with her, and she was describing the difficulties of caring for a very strong-willed elderly person...having gone through this a few years ago, I could really understand her problems.

Caring for the elderly is very similar, in the acts performed...feeding, cleaning up, full responsiblity...to caring for a baby...but it is certainly bereft of the joys of the latter. With a baby, one is watching a person and a personality developing...with an elder, it is the waning of a person, of a childhood without any appeal to it. An elderly patient is often cranky and wilful, and also often complains about the caregivers to all the visitors, and sometimes, it's very hard to take.

I am taking a break for a month from the dental treatment, but will come back to get the root canal done...for the fourth (and hopefully final) time.

In the meanwhile, of course, I have tried to do as much as I can, and have thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with those friends who did make the effort to come home (alas, not all of them did!), went on wildlife trips, went to plays, and just....enjoyed being back home as well.

Well, a month in Chennai will bring me back even more appreciative of home....

But before I leave, a quick trip to Nandi Hills, with the BULBs is on for tomorrow! :)

Non-birders... please exkoos, as they say here.

We took a trip to Maidanahalli ("village of the open meadows") on

Rajyotsava Day

...it proved to be a birding bonanza! It was as if Karnataka just wanted to shower us with sightings and observations!


The day started with the usual CKMP (Crow Kite Mynah Pigeon)...but the raptor quotient went up sharply with the sighting of this

WHITE=EYED BUZZARD

in its rocky habitat:




Later, the bird soared in large circles:





Next came this

BOOTED EAGLE





( many birds sitting, standing or flying here )


...and the trip to Ramnagara to see the not-at-all common

LONG-BILLED VULTURE




came to mind, too...so, right now, you can, quite rightly, call me a bird-brain!

( List of birds on two of the trips )

We were waiting at the watchtower in Maidanahalli for the appearance of the endangered Blackbuck...and I was looking around.

I was very tickled to see that three rhyming friends (or relatives or family, perhaps that's more likely) had visited:





When we visit a place, we need to leave our impress upon that spot...the equivalent of "Kilroy was here"....!

I must get down to posting about the variety of birds that we saw in Maidanahalli, but right now, I'm just thinking that dentists are a pain in the........teeth.

I went alone to Forest Park to see the launch of the balloons, and it was a trip well worth it, to see these colourful globes rising serenely and majestically into the cloudy,overcast, intermittently rainy sky. I'd been afraid that the wind would cross the 10-miles-an-hour limit beyond which the launch would be aborted, but it didn't happen....

here

is an account of the race by the St.Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.

Here are a few balloons:




( some more.... )


As I left the field, I saw the lovely sight of this little girl and her dog, amusing themselves:





A very enjoyable afternoon.....I have never seen such crowds in Forest Park, and what fun it was to walk back past the cars jammed into loooong lines, on the way home!

Some images that struck me...these were in

Tower Grove Park

(can you imagine every park in Bangalore having a website?)

where we went on Saturday for

ASHA for Education

for their joint fund-raising initiative with

NetIP St.Louis


it was called "Pakoras in the Park".. Net IP has given some funds for ASHA and members of both organizations met over pakoras, chaat, chai and soft drinks....and I *think* also beer....

It was rather warm weather, but I loved the idea someone in the Park Maintenance Dept had, of painting the park seat to match the flowers....





Here's the Turkish Pavilion (built 1872) where the event took place:





And where there is a tap or a fountain, you can always find children enjoying themselves!





You can go to the Asha homepage, but...do NOT click on the St.Louis link, please....it downloads a Trojan virus....

Remember

my post

about Jefferson County Jail having an overnight visit?

Here's

the newspaper account of how it went


92 people registered, and 66 people showed up!

I bet the present occupants wish they could leave after breakfast like the visitors did!

I am googling up something about prisons...how did the idea of incarcerating someone as a punishment come about?

Here's the

wiki entry

about prisons...but it still doesn't explain the concept very well...

We had a packed weekend, on Sunday, we went to see the Chinese festival and parade in the Missouri Botanical Center, and the show was very good indeed. Then our daughter picked us up and took us for a drive downtown, and this was the first time that I clicked all the touristy images of the Gateway Arch ...

I was supposed to upload several pics to my Photobucket site today...but a series of errands to run and jobs to finish took care of the entire time!

We are off to the hospital tomorrow, where labour will be induced; let's see what happens....obviously, I just might be off LJ for a while as I make the transition to grandparenthood!

But let me leave you with this wonderful mass of tulips at the Missouri Botanical Center...





Well, if you click on that, it will take you back to my Photobucket site and you can see the other images that I have uploaded...very touristy, except for this one which is for beast_666....





OK, see you folks....

The nesting instinct, they say, is an utter imperative; the propogation of the species, and reproduction, is too great an urge to be ignored.


But sometimes, the place chosen is NOT the best.

This CANADA GOOSE (Branta canadensis) chose the edge of the car park in the St Louis Hindu temple to build her nest; and here she is, obviously incubating at least one egg:





I wonder if geese *always* nest on the ground in this way? The entry

here

gives this interesting answer:

"COVER REQUIREMENTS :
Because Canada geese nest in a wide variety of sites, their cover
requirements are not very specialized or specific. Nesting sites that
offer good visibility of the surrounding area, protection from
predators, and are fairly close to the water (within 1 to 94 meters) are
usually adequate enough to support a viable population of geese.
It is possible that fidelity to nesting sites is so strong that the type
of cover chosen, whether shrub or grassland, is almost irrelevent (sic) in
parts of Alaska. Instead, nesting success may depend heavily on the
absence of predators."



Some children came up behind me as I took the snap, and I think the tongue coming out was the equivalent of a goose "hissing", defending nest and young. But she made no other move, passive or aggressive, towards the children, whom I turned back, anyway.

Perhaps, we thought, this was a good place because only devotees come here...but then, chaibacca pointed out that if any of the dogs from the adjoining properties should get loose, it would be short shrift for the goose, her nest, and the nestlings.

All I can do is...hope that doesn't happen!

Well, I know nest photography is a "no-no", but I am hoping that this will warn all St Louis temple-goers to avoid this bird and her nest...and I really don't think I am putting this bird in any more danger than she has brought upon herself by her (bird-brained) choice of site!

more about Canada Geese and their nests here

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!

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 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!

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!

On Thursday night we took the overnight train to Bellary, where Santosh Martin was to meet us....and that train, in many ways, is one of the reasons for my not being able to post anything yesterday, not even to upload photographs.


The second-class compartments of Indian Railways are quite uncomfortable to begin with; they are truly "second-class" or B-grade, as you wish to call them, with the middle berth being one where the passenger can neither sleep until the other two decide to call it a day, nor a place to sit when s/he gets up in the morning, until the lower berth passenger either gets up or gives the middle-berther a space.

And the two side-berths are also uncomfortable, with people walking past the passengers; but now, discomfort has hit a new high level, with a middle berth having been introduced in the side berths, too, which were, so far, only upper and lower. The introduction of the middle berth means that there are now three tiers, much shorter in length than the regular berths, and no one can possibly sleep comfortably in them.

I feel that Indian Railways is getting MORE customer-unfriendly instead of less; the side middle berth is truly a sadistic new invention. (The top berth is also so close to the curve of the bogie that it, too, is an instrument of torture.) I think they should give a 25% discount on those side berths, then it would be a bit more fair.

OK...will be uploading my photographs from Daroji and Hampi soon.....the return on the overnight Volvo bus was more comfortable, but I couldn't sleep at all, and after spending the whole day on Sunday at the HSBC Bangalore Bird Race (we had a great and hilarious time, our bird of the day was the Bald Eagle!!) so Monday went in a haze of tiredness and unwillingness to do anything. Work and email have piled up and must be addressed....

And meanwhile there are interesting plays to go to, interesting films at the international film festival, and so on....

Have to catch up with my friends' list, too. OOH, too much to do is always an uncomfortable situation for the founder-president of the Lazybones Society!

Though we took an overnight train, the visit really started with the sunrise after we got out of the train and were speeding towards Valparai from Coimbatore after a quick breakfast at Annapoorna....




The chill dawn, the pilgrims on their way (most pilgrims would finish their pilgrimage by January 14th, when the sun begins its "uttarAyanam" or northward path, and the festival of Sankranti or Pongal, the harvest festival, happens), and the little lighted shrine in the gloaming, made me feel peaceful...




( read on IF you have leisure )


The lovely trip ended with this beautiful sunset:



Then came the largest full moon (also the first full moon) of 2009:







Valparai is beautiful (even if Hotel Treat is not)...do visit when you can!

I am off to Daroji Bear Sanctuary in an hour or two...everyone, don't be good, until I get back!

I have switched off the TV, and wonder if some of those whom I could see, and some whom I couldn't, on that set, wish they could turn the reality off, too....

I am looking forward to this ...and to the baitu coffee I will be having before setting off.

Life's normal for me. It's the Thanksgiving weekend elsewhere, and I give thanks for the fact that I have no troubles worth mentioning.


And talking of coffee....




Well, I'm going to drink coffee...and take the bus! It's ridiklus to add one more petrol-guzzling, polluting vehicle to the traffic...

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.



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It's amazing that just when I feel I am not totally ignorant about birds, I start noticing butterflies, and am back to square zero with ids....

I am posting all the photos I have, good, bad (they can't be ugly because they are butterflies!)....and where I have blanks, could you please help out with the ids and be good friends?


Let me start with the known ones like the PEACOCK PANSY:





( LOTS of 'em here, so look only if and when you have time )


no. 9041 is also a PEACOCK PANSY, according to Aditya...





no.9044, a PIONEER, according to Aditya



no.9051,which is a COMMON LEOPARD:




I think that I shall never be
An authority on a butterflea...
What? It's called a butterfly?
Oh, I'll tell you why
I call it that..because I flee
When yet another new one I see!

When I saw this image on my laptop, I *did* try to brush off the ant. So I am very impressed with myself (not for being so dumb but for taking such a snap)..I hope it displays as well on this monitor of yours....






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