This agama rocks!

Bad joke, sorry.  Well, this is a rather spectacular lizard, and its called a rock agama, so do forgive me.  A Peninsular Rock Agama, to be precise.  This was another treasure that hung around the Chikaldhara resort.  The first time I had ever seen something like this.

I'm not a great reptile person and suffer the usual fears and concerns about all things cold and clammy.  But these two specimens were rather fascinating in a sort of creepy crawly way.

These rock agamas are interesting lizards, it appears.  Their bodies are about a foot long, and their tails could be a foot and a half.  They live in groups and have territorial fights with other lizards, and one weapon seems to be their looooong tail, which they use to whack the head of the enemy lizard.  The thump can be so hard, that enemy could end up with a broken jaw!  Regrettably, our lizard was a peaceable chap and just sat there, or should I say lay there.

Then, there was this other long-tailed fellow on the rocks around Chikaldhara.  Definitely tail once again longer than body.  Is this the female agama or a salea lizard or a skink lizard?  I have no idea, as of now.  Will add the details when I get to know.

Tree Pipit?

(Mr Ramanan took these photos to help us id the bird)

The intitial consensus was tree pipit.  But looking at the bird books have confused me more.

Also, we always saw it in the scrub below and not in a tree....

So, could it be Richard's Pipit?  But the I dont see the long hind claw.

Paddyfield pipit?  Its a bit bigger than a paddyfield isnt it?

And what about Blyth's then?!!

Please pick your choice!

My introduction to butcher birds

The heat and dust of Melghat did knock me off for a day. With a heavy head and a fever I decided to stay up at Chikaldhara one morning, and not take the jungle ride down to Melghat. I did wander through the lanes around and also had the privilege of getting morning tea. (Given the way the MTDC place was organised, it was a real and rare privilege believe me!)

As I sat in the verandah overlooking the valley, a rufous-backed or long-tailed shrike came and sunned itself on the bare tree in front of me. I have not seen this bird before, about a foot long, but immediately recognisable by its profile, and my constant thumbing through bird books. It was quite enjoyable, I must say, drinking hot and sweet chai, sitting in a chair in a verandah overlooking a valley, the cool morning air and the birds come and parade in front of you!

When the group returned I told them about my morning, as they briefed me on their morning walk through the forest, seeing a mamma stork and her 2 juveniles, and coping with an increasingly nervous Deepika!

Shoba then enlightened me about these shrikes - also called butcher birds. They have hooked beaks, and have this rather nasty habit of impaling their prey for future eating. So, tasty worms, bugs, lizards, mice and such like are stuck on to a convenient thorn or barbed wire, and eaten later when they are hungry.

I was quite appalled when she first told me about this habit, but then on reflection I realised its not such a big deal is it?  They are just being clever and planning for future needs isnt it?  Well we do it all the time in our refrigerators - keeping more food than we need!  Okay, its not bugs and lizards, but so what?

And then I saw this video......

A flycatcher and a Colonel

(Photo credit: Mr P Ramanan)
I saw this lovely little bird on my recent trip to Melghat and Chikaldhara. The MTDC Chikaldhara resort did have many feathered visitors, and all we had to do was sit around with our binoculars, and sure enough you would see a daily parade.

One afternoon, Mr Ramanan wandered in excitedly with his camera, and showed us this amazing capture - a Tickell's Blue Flycatcher. Though we all rushed out to try and see it, it had whizzed away by then.

I remember idly flicking through Grimmett and Inskipp's book on birds of South India, and wondering whether I would see any of the lovely, colourful flycatchers on Pg 180! And I was in luck! He showed up again the next day, and I was ready and waiting. Under the fig tree this time. Something blue whirred past my ear, and darted from branch to branch seemingly snapping things out of the air. When it settled for a rest, it was the same Tickell's Blue!

He kept me fascinated and enthralled for a while, as he showed off his flying skills, trilling excitedly (or so it seemed to me anyway!) These flycatchers eat, well flies, and so do need to do these fighter-plane type dives!


Feeling rather pleased with my "sighting" I went off and announced to all the others, rather grandly, then read up about it, and wondered aloud who this Tickell was, who seems to have a lot of birds named after him.

Then, the next day, this little fellow was down by the leaky pipe - remember the one I wrote about here and I took this picture on the left. He is quite small isnt he? Then, of course everybody got a view, and so now all the Melghat gang have seen this bird!

On our return, I did a desultory search for "Tickell", and guess what, he showed up rather quickly, on Wikipedia at that! (What would we do without that marvellous tool?!)  There's even a picture of him there.  This Colonel of the British army seems to have been one active birder, and there's this little blue marvel, plus a flowerpecker and a leaf warbler and a thrush named after him.  

My salaams to Colonel Tickell

Melghat vistas

Continued from here...

The table tops from Chikaldhara....

The Gavilgarh hills, with their characteristic table tops.

The brown hills are actually covered with teak forests.

Will make a pretty sight, post-monsoon.

The picture on the left is the view from the resort.  Perched atop the farthest hill is the Gavaligarh fort.  The picture on the right is the hilltop with the MTDC resort.  The little speck of a building is the resort.  

Great location isn't it?

Below, the hills at dawn, and then later at midday.

A greener view ...

And the rivers ..

These were at Melghat in the sanctuary.  Tributaries of the Tapti.  The Sibna, mainly.

Below, left is the small pool at Ghol Khas, where we saw water birds like the Black Ibis and the Woolly-necked stork, as well as a Malabar Whistling Thrush, which had to be lost!  Its supposed to be in Malabar isnt it?!

Above right, in the evening light, and below, in the early morning light!
 

The dry river beds revealed the lovely rounded and smooth river stones.  I was tempted to bring a few back....

Beautiful sunsets

Birds profiled against the fading light, on the tree top.

There is a view point called Sunset Point, on top of the tallest hill there called Vairat.

And the wildflowers

... Which were all so pretty.  I checked them out on  Flowers of India.

I got a few ids.

The one on the right is the Mexican Prickly Poppy.  It grows all over India, and give a yellow juice according to the site, and is toxic, so animals dont graze on it.  Pretty though.

The one on the right is either Indian Snakeweed or Blue Porterweed.