Rare Dollarbird sighting

Vikas is a young and serious naturalist and MNS member  with whom we have travelled on several birding trips across the country.  I have never seen anyone with the astonishing speed of capturing record shots like Vikas - if he was in the Wild West he would have been known as Velocious (yes there is a word like that) Vikas! - and this ability of his  coupled with his thorough grasp of the bird books, yields some amazing sightings/ rare gaffes and never a dull moment.

I have an easy formula - on any trip my personal bird sightings will be half of his!

Anyway, he has been on the prowl at GNP, and on 26th November spotted a Dollarbird at the Polo ground.  This is what he has to say -

"Words can't express my astonishment when I saw this bird sitting on a tree near Doctors Road. We were trying to find orange breasted green pigeons when I spotted this odd bird. When Rama Aunty and I took pictures we were dazzled that the bird was blue and had a prominent red bull and violet throat.

Hence we went closer to the bird and it flew to a new open perch where I could confirm it to be a Dollar Bird!"

 Photo by Vikas - Eurystomus orientalis

 This bird is usually seen in the Western Ghats in south India, and it is an unusual and rare sighting for Chennai.  I have not seen this bird as yet.  I am quite sure given my poor sighting skills and my rotten sense of timing, I would have missed the pretty bird even if I had been around Vikas!

Hope you have a good time in Chennai, Dollarbird, and the weather suits you and you find a mate and a family soon.

Flamingoes on the wing!

Nov 27th - MNS members reported in of large flocks of flamingoes, flying south to north, along the Chennai coast.  Three large groups were reported.

Luckily Mr Shankarnarayan was on his terrace, and took pictures of these large flocks.

Photo by Mr Shankarnarayan

Photo by Mr Shankarnarayan

Photo by Mr Shankarnarayan

Photo by Mr Shankarnarayan

On Saturday October 29,2016, a big flock of around 2000 Greater Flamingoes were sighted by MNS member Subbu and his group of three, off ECR and Kelambakkam backwaters around 4 p.m. 

"The first group around 1500 birds were flying North, North-east from our location on ECR towards Tiruvanmiyur/Besant Nagar. They returned and joined another group of 500 birds over Kelambakkam and then flew off south and were not seen again.
A lone injured Flamingo was also observed at a great distance. "

This has been reported in eBird here:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32294702

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32308907

INDIAN CORMORANT AT SHOLINGANALLUR

I have always struggled to differentiate the Indian Cormorant or Shag from the little cormorant. 

These wonderful pictures from Mr Ramanan helped me resolve the difficulties. 

Notice the blue eyes and the smaller head. And the picture below shows the white threat that's restricted to just below the gape. 

Notice also the long narrow bill, which is longer than that of the little cormorant. 

The large cormorant is a visibly bigger bird and with plumage that is more black than the mottled brown black of this one.

The fig tree at the timber depot in Dandeli

Ficus mysorensis - the mysore fig, at the Timber Depot in Dandeli

As with all fig trees, an ecosystem in themselves.

The fruits loved by birds and squirrels, including the hornbills.

I could happily spend hours here.

The yellow fig fruits and the fig wasps 

The story of the fig and its wasp
Posted By Katie Kline on May 20, 2011

Inside the rounded fruit of a fig tree is a maze of flowers. That is, a fig is not actually a fruit; it is an inflorescence—a cluster of many flowers and seeds contained inside a bulbous stem. Because of this unusual arrangement, the seeds—technically the ovaries of the fig—require a specialized pollinator that is adapted to navigate within these confined quarters. Here begins the story of the relationship between figs and fig wasps.
The queen of the fig wasp is almost the perfect size for the job—except, despite her tiny body, she often times will lose her wings and antennae as she enters through a tight opening in the fig. “The only link the fig cavity has to the outside world is through a tiny bract-lined opening at the apex of the fig, called the ostiole, and it is by means of this passage that the pollinating fig wasp gains access to the florets,” as described in Figweb, a site by Iziko Museums of Cape Town.
Once inside, the queen travels within the chamber, depositing her eggs and simultaneously shedding the pollen she carried with her from another fig. This last task, while not the queen’s primary goal, is an important one: She is fertilizing the fig’s ovaries. After the queen has laid her eggs, she dies and is digested by the fig, providing nourishment. Once the queen’s eggs hatch, male and female wasps assume very different roles. They first mate with each other (yes, brothers and sisters), and then the females collect pollen—in some species, actively gathering it in a specialized pouch and in others, accumulating it inadvertently—while the wingless males begin carving a path to the fig’s exterior. This activity is not for their own escape but rather to create an opening for the females to exit. The females will pollinate another fig as queens. The males will spend their entire lifecycle within a single fruit.  Each species of Ficus has a corresponding specialized species of wasp that fertilizes it. 

There's a wonderful video on the Queen Of Trees.

The beautiful squirrel of peninsular India

Ratufa indica - another marvel endemic to India.  We saw these at Dandeli, in the timber depot, at our lodging and in the forests.

Shy and sticking to the upper canopy of large trees, their tails give them away.  More often heard than seen.