A jewel in the jungle

After all these long years in Madras, I can finally say that I've visited the Guindy National Park. Not the snake park or the children's park, but the protected reserve behind a locked gate.

Sunday evening and Banumathi of MNS took a bunch of 15 of us into the park. The basics of nature walking - silence, dull clothes and a keen eye.

This beautiful antigonon spray greeted us on our entry. Its a lovely creeper, and commonly called Coral Vine. I believe there's a white variety, which I have not come across. This pink variety is all over the KFI school walls, Blue Cross and various large estates in south Madras.

I learnt about the difference between a bug and a beetle - the bug sucks and the beetle chews. Saw some great looking insects - the jewel bug, the green link spider, the flightless grasshopper, and other creepy crawlies. Some parakeets, posed for us, as also the coppersmith barbets.

One of the high points was definitely coming across this little marvel called the jewel bug. It was a real beauty, its colours glitterring in the sun. Belongs to the Scutelleridae family.

Learnt that bugs like this "suck", while beetles chew!

One learns something new everyday.....

Frog spawn - oh I thought it was a rossogolla - star tortoises, and the endangered black buck. What kind of strange human beings could shoot these magnificent and handsome creatures?

Ate wild berries, worked up a good sweat, and was in the heart of south Madras without the sound of a bus, or a crow. The big aeroplanes though roared by at regular intervals, startling the fawn and gambolling deer.