Urban wildlife

Featured in IATB #110.
Yess! Finally, some rain! The skies have turned cloudy, and we have begun to get some serious showers. Its been one extended and long summer, here in Madras, with no respite as the south-west monsoon completely passed us by. Oh, for a good north-east monsoon now!

Photo by Mr Ramanan

So besides navaratri kolus, sundal and payasam, its also been some rain, wind, thunder and lightning, this last fortnight..

There have also been rambles around Madras - taking kids to Pallikaranai marsh, walking around Guindy National Park, checking out tree saplings at the PWD park.

The rains have made the PWD park thick with undergrowth. The grounds are buzzing with busy little pollinators - bees, butterflies and even this moth that I found.

Crimson-speckled Flunkey (Utetheisa pulchella), a rather pretty moth, dont you think?

At Pallikaranai, we saw all the usual suspects. We had gone with a group of rather small kids, who were unamused at the smell, garbage and general unsalubrious conditions! Hopefully, by the time they grow up, Pallikaranai will be well restored.

Also, the new bird in town seems to have become a permanent resident! These Fulvous whistling ducks that created quite a stir in July when they were first spotted, continue to hang on in the marsh, and Mr Ramanan got some good pictures of them.

The Fab Four! - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Fulvous whistling ducks - Photo by Mr RamananPheasant-tailed jacana- Photo by Sekar

A very ruffled purple heron - Photo by Mr Ramanan

On to GNP then.

Narasimhan's got some great photos from the GNP walk.

We saw common crows and blue tigers in plenty. A group of leopards as well. Emigrants, grass yellows and emigrants.

Over the last couple of GNP visits, I've found it a lovely walk for butterflies, bugs and flora...but I dont find the birds there. The white-browed bulbul was calling away, but I did not see it.
We saw parakeets and red-whiskered bulbuls, some palm swifts and mynahs.

And we saw this "butterfly grave". A whole host of common emigrants maybe, all caught in a spider's web. All that was left were their pretty wings.

As Kamraj, the forest officer explained, the spiders would have sucked out the juices from their bodies, even as they struggled to free themselves form the sticky webs.

There was a kind of sympathetic silence for the butterflies, but this is just another moment in the web of life is it not?

Asian Bushbeech - Gmelina asiatica. If I remember right, Bhanu said this bush has medicinal properties.
Social spiders at work

Chital - completely unperturbed? Its nose and ears twitched all the while, ready for action if it senseed any kind of threat from us.

Pretty coral vine. My son discovered that even our Cybershot has a macro function! Thank you Dr Alaganandan!
Another macro shot - seven-spotted cockroach

We saw many squirrels like this, but this candid shot is by Mr Ramanan, around his neighbourhood.
Mr Ramanan's spectacular shot of a purple-rumped sunbird. Check out its beak as it feeds, and see the way its legs cling on to the leaf.

I end with this beautiful picture of the Indian roller bird, caught in flight by Mr Ramanan, during his Vedanthangal visit, recently.
The Indian roller - Photo by Mr Ramanan

Pallikaranai is the marshy wetland now very much a part of the city, encroached upon by development, and spoiled by garbage disposal.

Guindy National Park, is an urban wildlife reserve, a somewhat unique concept in the region.

Vedanthangal is a bird park to the south of the city, with nesting water birds.

The PWD park mentioned in this post is along the banks of the Adyar estuary where Nizhal is attempting to develop a tree park with native species of trees and where volunteers take turns to monitor the saplings, and plant even more!