Frogmouths, leech socks, rain and puttu.

The north-east monsoon is well and active over the Bay of Bengal, but one would think that that is no reason for Kerala on our western coast to get rain, isn't it?

But rain it did, poured according to all accounts, and the MNS group that went to Thattekad and the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary had their full share of leeches, spiders, birds, lush green trees, flowing rivers and butterflies.

No, I did not go, (Boo hoo!) was attempting to be a responsible parent, you see. Anyways, Mr Ramanan has taken some fabulous (as always) pictures, and Vijay has written this most entertaining and thorough account. (Please note how each meal has been detailed to add to my envy, and leech inconveniences happily glossed over!)

(Actually, the group went well armed with "leech socks" - a kind of canvas covering for the legs all the way up to the knees.)

Click on any of the photos for a larger view.
View of the valleys - Photo by Mr Ramanan
White cheeked barbet - Photo by Mr Ramanan

Vijay's report:

"16 of us boarded the Thiruvananthapuram Mail amidst pouring rain on the evening of Friday, Nov. 6, 2009. ABEL - a spacious bus - piloted by Unni awaited us at Aluva Station on Saturday morning. In about 90 minutes we were at the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary at Thattekkad. After dumping our stuff in the dormitory and downing a quick breakfast of Idli and Kadalakkuutan, we trekked off into the Sanctuary upto the Watchtower with our very knowledgeable guides Sudheesh and Mani (pronounced Maa-ni).
Racket tailed drongo - Photo by Mr Ramanan

The trees are gigantic...the cheeni (tetramulus nudiflora) towering nearly a 100 feet in height with a base, to encircle which would need atleast 5 persons to link hands. We parked ourselves atop a broad rocky surface and our binocs began chasing the numerous birds which flew hither and thither gleefully beckoning us to play 'catch'. Butterflies too flitted around gaily. The morning ended with the sighting of a pair of Sri Lankan Frogmouths.

Sri Lanka Frogmouth. The male is more grey and the female more rufous - Photo by Mr Ramanan
The female frogmouth. Their call is supposed to sound like chuckles! - Photo by Mr Ramanan

After a sumptuous lunch and rest we were off again early evening to another part of the Sanctuary that led us to a view-point that gave us a splendid vista of the Western Ghats. We could not spend much time here as it began raining quite heavily and so we were back sooner than planned to the dormitory. Dinner was Rice Kanji, Kappa, Cheru Payaru, Pickles and Pappadam. We retired early as we had planned an early morning trip to Kallippara - 6 Kms. away. Around 11 pm the rains became harder, and continued to be so till 8 am Sunday morning.

The dormitory had a tin roof and so we experienced 'thundering rain'. The din however completely drowned the loud sounds of the inevitable snores. Fortified by a breakfast of Aapam and Veg Curry, we set off by bus to Kallippara, so called because of its rectangular shape. We were rewarded with the sighting of the Crimson-backed Sunbird. Sunday evening, we trekked across the Periyar River to the other side of the Sanctuary looking for the Barred Jungle Owlet and ended up seeing one fly overhead (we did see a couple more though very clearly the next morning).

Little blue kingfisher - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Monday morning was bright and sunny and so we caught a bus and went off 14 Kms. away and trekked to a place called Knacheri. The canopy here was awesome. On our return we saw the Malabar Trogon and the reconstructed Bhagavathy Temple. The reconstruction has been done atop the old Temple remains. We came back famished and the Nool Puttu and Veg Stew awaiting us vanished in no time.
Indian Pitta from below! - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Mid-day saw all of us in various attire scrambling to sight the Indian Pitta, and to our good fortune we also saw the Orange-headed Groundthrush. Kuttikkal was our destination for the evening - the place is so named because it is at this spot that the Periyar and the Edamalayar meet. Further downstream is the old Boothathankettu - a Dam of just big rocks - our destination for Tuesday morning.
Male Asian Fairy Bluebird - Photo by Mr Ramanan

The overnight rain ruled out Boothathankettu and instead, on a very cloudy Tuesday (Nov. 10) morning we trekked 10 Kms. inside the Sanctuary right upto its boundary called Ovungal/Kolumbu. We birded from atop Anachathappara, so called because an elephant is known to have died here. The remains of a Shiva Temple, several centuries old and the watchers' home on the banks of the Periyar were the stops on the trek. Before we began the trek, we were lucky to see the pair of Brown Hawk Owls back at their usual roosting place. They had been chased away by the Bonnet Macaques on Sunday morning. After a late breakfast, we hung around the dormitory and at the bottom of the steps to the Periyar River, rested a bit and began desultorily packing.
The River Periyar flows through the sanctuary - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Soon after lunch, the rains came down in torrents and barely let up to allow us board ABEL to go to Aluva to board the Chennai Mail back.

A rock agama - Photo by Mr Ramanan
Dr. Sugathan, the resident Ornithologist, who was also a close aide of Dr.Salim Ali, said that since the lake inside the Sanctuary had no water this year, the migratory water birds came, stayed for 2 days and went away.

Despite losing around 10 hours of good birding time over 2 days, we still recorded 110 species of birds and around 40 species of butterflies."

A wood spider - - Photo by Mr Ramanan

Aren't the spiders grand?

Looks like they had a great cook as well! (For those unfamiliar with Kerala cuisine, puttu, aapam, etc are all local staples, and highly recommended!)

And the frogmouths do have strange-looking mouths!

Adyar Poonga

Finally, the monsoon has arrived here in Madras. After a wet and rainy week, I see the sun today! The trees are all green and washed, and the birds and butterflies are zipping around making up for lost days.

Before the monsoons, we sneaked in a walk to the Adyar Poonga. A huge battalion of MNS members, (some of them becoming members at Adyar Poonga!) descended on Preston and the Poonga, at 6:45 in the morning. We were delighted to see the huge progress in tree planting and recharging of the water holes that have happened in the past six to eight months, and look forward to its moving forward and playing a dominant part in restoring the estuarine ecosystem of the region.

Preston took us around the 53(?) acres and of course we did not stick together and of course we straggled, but he dealt with all this with great fortitude!

Its a surprise that the birds were still around, given the racket we were making. The water had attracted cormorants, little grebes, coots and water hens. We even saw a pair of black-winged stilts, lapwings, Pond and night herons lurking in the undergrowth. White-throated kingfishers were there in plenty, as also parakeets and pigeons.

And then there were butterflies, dragonflies, spiders ...and a mystery caterpillar and cocoon. (Check out the slideshow above for more details.)

Husbands are very useful, I realised (yet again!) on this walk. As we watched and oohed and aahed about the strange cocoon and caterpillars, there was a quiet tap on my shoulder. Look out for the ants, he said pointing down to an ant's nest just maybe three inches from where I was, and I hastily jumped the other way. Of course, I quite forgot to tell the stragglers who came in to see what all the fuss was about, and they were all promptly bitten by some very enraged and angry ants who had been stepped upon.

The sun was climbing in the sky, and we had to cycle back to Thiruvanmyur - we decided to be "green", and bike there you see. A delightful morning, with the added bonus of seeing some MS members I had not seen since our Kanha trip, many many moons ago.

Pallikaranai picture parade

All Photos by Mr Ramanan, in this post! He has been busy, catching all the avian stars of Pallikaranai.

The stilts stood in repose

Striking a haiku-like pose.

Black winged stilts

But the spot-billed ducks were swimming purposefully

In a line, so disciplinedly.


Spot-billed ducks

The grebes and coots were all a-chatter

Wondering whatever was the matter.

A congregation of Grebes

A group of Coots

"Look at me!", chirped this one,

"I'm in breeding plumage, isn't it fun?!"

Little Grebe in breeding plumage

"Huh, so what?", grumbled this comb duck

"So am I, but have had no luck.

No mate have I found

in this blessed pond."

Male comb duck, seen at Bharatpur

"Its not a pond, its a wetland

And you wouldn't understand

The joys of solitude, but I can",

said this frequently solitary pelican.

Spot-billed pelican, with a swallow in the foreground, and a little grebe in the background

The swallows swooped so swift,

But this grey heron looked miffed.

The roars of the cars on the road nearby

made him cross and ready to fly by.


Purple heron

This coot wasn't crazy

just a trifle lazy,

It stood on the water's edge,

looking at the water so hazy.

With all this sewage and garbage

Its a wonder its able to forage.

Common Coot (Nama kozhi in Tamil)

The purple moorhen bowed and strutted

and to his lady love, clucked and hooted.

With weeds in his bill he chuckled,

And under his courtship, she buckled!

Purple moorhen
Pheasant-tailed jacana

Up and down the jacana goes

walking on his spidery toes,

"When will my tail appear,

oh will it never, that I fear.

Oh blimey, oh banana,

then I will not be a pheasant-tailed jacana!"

Pheasant-tailed jacana

When you do grow your tail, Mr Jacana,

Mr Ramanan will be there with his camera.

Then make sure you strike him a good pose

So I may salute you with poetry, not prose.

Tell all your feathered friends in the marsh

On us, please dont be too harsh.

We've made a mess

that I confess

But we'll try our best

to reverse the process

and make your homes green once again.

***********

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

Insectopia!

I have been overcome by a lethargy and inertia, as far as blogging goes, my excuse for the long hiatus.

But this beauty that I received from Mr Ramanan was just the stimulus I needed. Isn't it beautiful? Its called a Common lime butterfly, and you can see how it looks when basking, with open wings, here.

He found it outside his window! Its quite amazing what one sees outside the window, even in our cities.

Common lime butterfly - Photo by Mr Ramanan

Its called a Common lime because its host plant (where it lays eggs) are usually of the citrus family.

And then we saw this lovely Crimson Rose as it rested in my parents' home!

Crimson Rose
Crimson Rose, with the red body. The Mormon also mimics this butterfly, but its the red body which tells me that this is the real Crimson Rose, and is poisonous.

....And I saw these nice juicy caterpillars at the PWD tree park...the one where I saw the argiope, remember?

Its the Common or Lemon Emigrant caterpillars, all, in different stages - the initial little black one, then the all green and then the large geen one with a stripe!

I wonder where it migrates to or from? The butterfly looks a piece of lemon yellow paper! And its host is the Cassia species, and I did find them on a Cassia fistula sapling!

Do you see the large painted grasshopper on the plant below?
We saw these on the roadside, in Thoraipakkam on a Calatropis plant! There were dozens of them, all over the plant! They feed on this poisonous plant and become poisonous themselves, so the birds leave them alone.

The grasshopper and Crimson Rose are taken on my Sony Ericcson K 750i phone. while the caterpillars were shot with the Cybershot.

My camera and binoculars...(I salute you, inventors), what would I do without them?

Update - 25th Oct 2009

The common lime - at Adyar Poonga

The same common lime - they were all over the Poonga campus

A female common mormon butterfly - seen at my parents'. Check out the similarity to the Crimson Rose that it is imitating. But notice the differences - the black body, and the two white markings lower down!

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!