My Monsoon journalling journey - From Owlet Moths to the Intertidal

All through August and September this year, I maintained a daily blog of my observations.  I observed the trees around me,  watched the daily bird visitors, found insects I had not noticed before and absorbed the daily beauty of Chennai that is around me.

I know this is rather late, but what the heck, I decided to go look back and see what I did, and call out some of my favourites.

Here are my favourite posts.  The titles are hyperlinked, so click on them to go to the post. 

Day 2 – Owlet Moths

A gentle beginning, with a magnificent moth stopping by the night of my late father's birthday.  I made a sketch as did Van Gogh,  😅

Day 16 – Leaf Treasure Ode 

A quiet meditation on leaves — young pink leaves,  rain-washed and the fallen leaves:  all treasures. What most would dismiss as litter becomes treasure, my poetic celebration of transience and renewal.

Click here for Day 24 – Champaca and the Beetle

Watching the golden orange flowers on the Champaca tree made me curious about them.  Magnolias - trees so ancient that they were there before the bees!  So how were they pollinated I wondered. 

Fragrances wafting in the air, sent me into a daydream. Flowers and wavy-edged leaves, and a beetle to pollinate.  The ancient beetles pollinate these ancient magnolias. The beetles are after the protein rich pollen, not the nectar.  The flowers entice them with their fragrance.  One little intricate and ancientinterconnectedness. 

Click here for Day 25 – Tacoma and Bees

Another floral vignette: the yellow trumpet flowers alive with bees. Here the monsoon is not only moisture but abundance, drawing pollinators into busy communion.  I learnt about nectar guides, how cool is that!

Day 43 – The Beach Streeties - my limerick lament

The street dogs of the Thiruvanmyur beach - they have become a force of their own.  .While they do roam free, they are also not in the best of shape.  There is insufficient ABC and unplanned feeding, even though well meaning.  It is the poor and the children who are vulnerable.

Day 48 – The Romance of the Munias

My balcony observations brought a little slice of munia courtship - what a wonderful little dance and small rituals of courtship - all quite endearing.  A fleeting moment, where we just happened to be at the right place at the right time!  All because of a power cut and a day unplugged.  

Day 50 – Barbets and Teak

We got some beautiful images of the barbets amidst the teak flowers, outside our bedroom windows. The coppersmith call, the white flowers and the green and red little wonders these beds are - it was a memorable moment.

In that period, there was a family of barbets.  Their nest must have been close by.  They delighted us everyday. Right now, they are gone.  It was as if they celebrated monsoon beauty along with me.

Day 53:  Tiger Beetles, Charles Darwin and some beetle mania

The braided tiger beetles are creatures of beauty, speed and predation.  There they are right under our noses, and slipping unnoticed - so camouflaged are they.  

I saw 8 new beetle types this monsoon season, including darkling beetles and ground beetles.  I read about Charles Darwin's manic hunt for beetles and his rather amusing recollection of the bombardier beetle is part of this entry.  

Day 57 – The Misunderstood Black Daubers

A defense of the often-feared black mud dauber wasp. Observed closely, it becomes less menace and more marvel — an architect, a pollinator, a thread in the web of life, right there in my balcony, making mysterious holes in the mud in my pots.

They continue to visit I know - judging from the holes in the mud that keep cropping up!

Day 60 – Dragonfly Eats Dragonfly

Not all beauty is gentle. My eye-witness account of a dragon fly eating another!

Day 66 – Jacobins and Tamil Culture

The seasonal arrival of Jacobin cuckoos opened my eyes to its migration history and folklore. In Tamil tradition, they carry monsoon’s promise, weaving natural rhythms with centuries of cultural memory.

Day 70 - I wrote about the Pongam, my wabi sabi tree. that got me wondering about its leaf galls and led me to discover the little fly that resides on it.

Day 71 – Ant-Mimic Spider

A marvel of adaptation: a spider disguised as an ant, a friend who shows me this little dramatic twist and my wonder at evolution’s creative playfulness almost.  

Day 72 – Ending with the Intertidal

The journal closes where land and sea meet — the intertidal zone, so close to where I live. It is a threshold place, shifting with tides, just as the monsoon shifts days and moods. The Intertidal by Yuvan is close to my heart.

I reflect on my observation journey - it began with noticing presence of creatures in the early days of the series - excitement at a presence and delight at discovery.  Slowly, it became more about seeing connections (between plant and creatures, between land & water, between rain and life).  I explored environments around me, be it the Valmiki Nagar thickets, the intertidal zone on the beach, or my own balcony garden.  I realised that with the exception of two posts, the remaining seventy were things around me, in my backyard.  And that is the point of it all = so much close to home, if I just open my eyes, ears and mind.