The treepie

The treepie called me to my window.
Softly,
Like water dripping in a pool
Bob-o-link, bob-o-link.

The teak tree leaves and the wind did their best to hide it from me.
I caught but a glimpse.


Why do I smile so?



Rufous tree pie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) on the teak tree (Tectona grandis) in my neighbour's garden.

The wild olive party

Red bugs - Melamphaus faber (as far as I can make out)- of the Pyrrhocoridae family, feasting on fruits of Sterculia foetida

Flat shaped, and seeming to be permanently conjoined, these bugs are the same family as the cotton stainer bugs of the Dysdercus genus.  Those bugs leave a red/yellow stain on cotton, as well as cut the strands, which basically makes the cotton useless for our human industrial use I guess.

I suppose they are all cousins, but I don't think this one is that one. There are supposedly some 300 types of these, with different kinds of markings.  Uff!  Now I need to peer at these things more closely as well.

In the meantime, the bugs in question were of course having a jolly feast of wild olive  over ripe goo.

The rooster

The Grey Jungle Cock, Nature’s own alarm clock, roams the wooded areas of Munnar when not being snared - The Hindu



A delightful description on the comic rooster.