When many people join for one of the walks that I conduct, I have to be careful that it will be a location which can support the presence of a large number of people. The problem is that I never know how many people will join the WA group…and out of that, how many people will turn up!
Well, by the evening of Saturday, 23rd April, it seemed as if most of the people who had joined the group, were coming. In that case, with many cars, the meeting point I had given on Kanakapura Road (Nandini Milk Parlour, Kaggalipura) was rather narrow, and would cause congestion. I had to change it to another (Hegde’s Condiments, Kaggalipura0 , where many cars could gather without causing a problem. However, since I had to give the new location only after getting there, several people still wound up waiting at the first one! That’s why, though I think there were about 40 people in all, I am not able to give a precise number. I took a photo of those who gathered at the new meeting point:
We managed, however, to make sure everyone was together, and we proceeded to our first stop, which is the small village of Muninagara, with the dam and backwaters behind it.
With all these precautions, I still had not realized that the village was celebrating the festival of Kabbalamma that day…and that loudspeakers would be blaring devotional music at top volume! So, instead of the dawn chorus, we had songs praising the gods and goddesses ringing in our ears…and for the most part, we had to depend on visual aids to locate the birds. However, these were quite plentiful.
Steffin and Sanjay at the dam bund
We still enjoyed the sight of the festivities before we walked up to the bund of the dam…the turmeric and sindoor markings, the beautiful rangolis, ladies in their finery, wearing anklets and toerings, with their hands and feet done up with mehendi!
Lady’s feet, adorned with mehendi, anklets and toe rings
Starting with Barn (yes, they seem to be still here!) and Red-rumped Swallows, and several Little and Great Cormorants, we walked along the bund of the dam, up to the point where the Karnataka Forest Department has put up a barrier. Prinias, Babblers, Pied Bushchats, Indian and Magpie Robins, Sunbirds and Pale-billed Flowerpeckers kept us quite occupied along the walk.
It was heartening to see many children on the walk; Aanvi, Saanvi, Sudhanva, Tarang…. Sudhanva made full use of the Birds of Karnataka brochure that, he said, he’d been given at JLR (Jungle Lodges and Resorts) when he visited with his parents. Saanvi was, I think, the youngest in the group, and graciously accepted the bouquet of tiny wildflowers
I gave her!
It was impressive to see how many birds these children already know about.
There were many binoculars as well as cameras present, and this allowed us to watch the birds better. I am missing the presence of Zeiss and their loaner binoculars and their birding scope too!
Having sighted a reasonable number of species, we moved on to the second stop, the Muninagara grassland. We did a small amount of walking here too, and though most of the migrants have now returned, we had enough birds to keep all of us interested.
A short break where we shared snacks
was followed by the move to the third location,
Gullahatti Kaval lake,
which is also one of the backwaters. Here, we were delighted by the sight of a Pied Kingfisher hovering and hunting, several Spot-billed Ducks flying in and alternately preening and swimming around. We did not find any sandpipers at either the dam or the lake area.
By this time, hunger pangs began to attack again…so we adjourned, with some of us having breakfast at Thavaru Mane Thindi on the way home, and others going for various other commitments.
We were able to see several butterflies, too, and my butterfly booklet came in handy, too! Several Blues, the Common Crow, the Common and Crimson Rose, the Jezebel, Common Grass Yellow…so the list went.
Blister Beetle
Neither did we ignore other insects, plants, trees and wildflowers. Whether it was the Milkweed (Calatropis)with butterfly caterpillars, tent/dome, funnel web, and signature spiders, different bees and wasps…or the everpresent Lantana (luckily, not much of Chromolaena), or the tiny flowers like Adhah Pushpi (Trichodesma indicum) Coat Button (Tridax procumbens), Krishna Kranti (Evolvulus sp) Puncture Vine (Tribulus terristris) or Ceylon Leadwort (Pavonia zeylonica). I was able to point out several plants which are used in alternative systems of medicine. The mango trees were weighed down with fruit, as were the smaller trees of the Singapore Cherry. I looked at the Passion Flowers, but though they were blooming everywhere, the fruit was not yet ripe for us to eat!
Flame of the Forest (Butea monosperma) tree’s huge seed pods
It was a very satisfying morning, with a couple of Honey Buzzards adding to our list of birds at the grassland. Some of us decided to check out the recenlty-reopened Krishi Vihara
where the owner, Sri Ayyappa, is willing to rent out the farm for groups who are doing nature studies. We also wanted to visit Praani; Sanjeev extended his usual warm invitation…but when we got there, the huge crowd of parked cars made us turn tail and decide to come after the school vacation time was over!
Breakfast at Thavaru Mane Thindi
Steffin kindly compiled the eBird checklists for all three locations and shared them with us;
While all parts of the nettle plant are edible, the leaves and stems can’t be eaten straight from the plant due to the barbs. Instead, you must thoroughly cook the plant before eating it to deactivate its stinging potential. When the plant is uncooked it is toxic.
Here is a video of this plant being harvested, and cooked, from Binsar, Uttarakhand, where it is called “bicchu booti” (Scorpion Herb) :
You can see the compere in the video suffering after just having touched the plant lightly!
What a wide variety of posts I see every morning! Some worry about the world, some about their broken fingernails. Some are full of faith and hope, some are dark and gloomy. Some will tell me how to live, some brim forth with anger. Some talk of what they’ve done in the past, some discuss their plans for the future. Some post photographs of others, some post ones of themselves. I like hearing all these voices, seeing all the images… I often stop to ponder on what I see, and read. I then imagine where I stand in the view of my own FB friends… Do they like me? Hate me? Or are they indifferent to what I have to say? Well, ultimately, it doesn’t make too much of a difference to me. My morning begins with a wonderful rainbow… a range through a fascinating spectrum of views ( both literally, as in photographs, and figuratively, as in opinions.) I think, over a period of time, it does shape who I am, and what I think.
on 14 April 22, when rain prevented us from going birding, a young histopathologist called Suvradeep sang part of this song, which struck a chord in my heart:
(I am not able to embed the video, please click on the link above)
I remember, Ruby Roy In poetry, I have called you so often Today, Oh, Ruby Roy Call me and tell me you’ve seen me somewhere.
In the hot, sunny afternoon With your anklets singing When you alighted from the bus.. Why was a lone young boy standing there, Did you ever wonder about that?
In the lamplit evening, In the window of my heart I placed my weeping in a cage The bird did not come; You did not love me; I wove a web of dreams in vain.
I remember, Ruby Roy In poetry, I have called you so often Today, Oh, Ruby Roy Call me and tell me you’ve seen me somewhere.
Here is the full album by R D Burman, with several other songs:
The same melody was used for this song from the movie “Anamika”, where the hero sings of the pain the heroine has caused him through his unrequited love for her:
The same melody was used for this song from the movie “Anamika”, where the hero sings of the pain the heroine has caused him through his unrequited love for her: https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZjYFZ4HRW38?wmode=opaque
I should not sink Into dull depression And a feeling of the futility Of life. Rather, I should celebrate each day Of healthy and good living. That would be the best memorial To those who have gone, But who lived full lives while here On Earth. Keeping their memories alive Is giving them immortality.
Several experts often help us with nuggets of information. Our experts are pearl divers; they dive deep into the natural world, and with very hard work, collect many pearls of information, which they string into necklaces of knowledge.
When some of them drop an occasional pearl, we, the non-experts, eagerly scoop them up…we do not have strings of pearls for a knowledge necklace, our knowledge has gaps…but the glow of these small pearls light up our minds!
Deponti to the world 