Semmozhi, again

More Semmozhi trees here.

Markhamia Lutea - 

The "throat" of the flower is deeper colour as against yellow cordia, which is yellow throughout.

Terminalia bellerica - one of the "triphala" trees.  There are lights strung around this tree....not good. 

Schleichera oleosa - Ceylon lac tree - kasumbh in Hindi, a rare tree.  

I need to go back to collect some fruit and seed.

An amazing, magnificent, huge tree.  Is it a mimusops/maghizam?  The canopy was so high, we couldn't check for flowers or fruit!

 There were a few saplings like this, which was identified as Buddha coconut by Arun.  Pterygota alata, it has lovely flowers, and a fruit that looks like a coconut!  Its a medium-sized tree, and can be used to line avenues.

 Another sapling - Milettia ovalifolia - shisham, a variety of rosewood with clusters of pink flowers.

A lovely large red sanders, endemic to our region, valued for the wood, and protected as well.

It had a lovely blue vine along its trunk, so if you visit the park, that is a good way to know you are at the red sanders!

Another large magnificent tree.

Where have all the stars gone?

We did not see a supernova this weekend.  M husband forwards me the article, and while I'm all enthu, and in a "let's take out the telescope" mood, he mumbles and mutters, about the polluted night sky and how we have to look at the northern sky etc etc.  Talk about a wet blanket!

But sadly he was right, I looked up and there were hardly any stars seen.  I was also a bit shocked and saddened.  When we moved into this part of town, a decade and a half ago, the night skies were beautiful, and I was introduced to the Big Dipper, the Great Bear, Mars, venus, even the rings and moons of Saturn.  I looked out for Orion's belt, which was as far as my idying skills went!

Even then, the Milky Way of my childhood was not seen.  Summer nights in Coimbatore as a child, used to be magical, not least because of the splash of starlight that would stretch across the sky

But atleast there were some stars to show our son.  Now even that has gone..as the country has got electrified, so too the night skies have disappeared.  That is inevitable, but could we be reasonable and innovative in how we light up?

I came across this post, which seems to indicate we can....

Weekend Diversion: Protecting the Night Sky : Starts With A Bang

Rhinos, elephants and waved albatrosses

Its been a fascinating last few days of TV watching. India lost her T 20 match, Messi is in Kolkata and I have been watching BBC Entertainment, weekdays at 7pm.

And so I learnt that there were four Northern White Rhinos in a Czech zoo, which were successfully relocated back to Africa, by the same person who took them there in the first place! Well, almost. The zoo culture sucks in the 21st century, and I'm glad for these rhinos, which got sedated, shipped in crates and moved by cranes before arriving in Ol Pejeta conservancy in East Africa.

The footage of the BBC documentary with Stephen Fry was amazing and endearing.  But also alarming and depressing.

An article in The Economist on Game Conservation in Africa puts it succinctly,

The problem is not that the rhinos are half-blind, lumbering, and often infertile—which they are. It is economic: the ornamental and medicinal value of rhino horn makes it hard for the rhino to pay its way alive.

The fate of the northern white rhino then, rests with Fatu and Suni, two of the relocated rhinos and their desire to start a family. I wish them well.

And then I learnt about one more large, magnificent creature also threatened by poachers also in Africa.  The forest elephants of Dzanga Bai.  So, these forest elephants found in the forests of the Central African Republic, are different from the regular African elephants, and not much is known about them, supposedly.

The BBC Entertainment episode on these elephants, centred around the amazing work being done by a woman called Andrea, who has been there some eighteen years, and now recognises the elephants one from the other, understands their different calls and has been a reason for the reduction of poaching.  I was just enthralled to see the footage, the low rumbles of a mother elephant to her calf, the high-pitched "lost" call of an errant baby, the intertwining of trunks of family when they emerged out of the forest into the clearing of Dzanga bai. There are calls that the human ear cannot pick up, and a whole social life which is rather complex.

This was the evening of Ganesha chaturthi, and I was pensive at how little I know about these gentle giants, so provoked nowadays by pressures of space and development.  I wonder, do the Indian elephants also have similar social structures and vocalisations?

Today I watched half an episode on the Galapagos islands and caught the bit about the waved albatrosses.  Galapagos has always meant Darwin, island and tortoise!  I was amazed to learn that these large birds with webbed feet, and huge gull-like bills, partner for life, can live up to fifty years and breed on only one of the Galapagos islands, Espanola.  Each year, the pair will raise one chick at Espanola, and it is five to six years before the chick will be ready to mate and breed!  And once the chick is off, the mum and dad go their ways, (hanging out at sea or on the coasts of Ecuador/Peru), and then dad returns next year to Espanola, hangs around waiting for his missus to show up.

And when she does show up, they go through this elaborate courtship dance.

Crazeeee! The wonders of the natural world!

Memories of my childhood

Isn't it unfortunate, when its there you take it for granted, and when its gone you sorely miss it. I was reminded of my maternal grandfather's home when I read this quirky description. The Green Ogre:A tree may be our primary connection with the universe.

Summers spent hanging around under a huge peepul tree there, watching the huge black ants scurry among the roots and fallen leaves. Teasing and getting teased by cousins and my brother, reading a book a day, wandering off to the cow shed to feed the calf. Nungus from the tree in the evening, picking parijatha with my grandmother in the mornings, listening to the never ending koels. Slapping the gigantic evening mosquitoes with irritation and frustration. Mosquito nets, dim lights.

A lifestyle disappeared?

Semmozhi Poonga at last

Sunday Aug 20th. Madras Day Celebrations. Tree walk by Nizhal.

Dr Vijaya retired HOD from Stella Maris led the walk, ably assisted by Chitra.

I quite like the design of the entrance, though the gate could have been wider?
Terminalia arjuna. I have not seen such a magnificent specimen.
Strychnos nux-vomica. Loved by Agatha Christie and ayurveda!
Erythrina indica and the diamond shaped leaves of the kalyan murungai
The light fades as we reach the Brazilian Ironwood

Valley of Flowers - the trip that never was

We bought our trekking shoes
and paid our travelling dues.

We were off to the mountains, we three
From our town in the south by the sea.
But it seems it was not to be
Oh, so woe is me!

No monal pheasant, no whiskered yuhina
No Himalayan Poppy, no Potentilla
Himalayan Griffon I shall not see
Nor the snowy peaks of Badri.

Valley of Flowers, I missed for sure, but dear Raji and Gapi, most of all,
with you two it would have been such a blast, we would have had such a ball!

Valley of Flowers - cancelled

The VOF trip ended even before we started.
Rain & landslides continue.
The trip is wisely called off.
Deflated
Disappointed
Relieved
Our little loss minor in comparison to what those living there must be going through.

Valley of Flowers - the state of Uttarakhand suffers

Uttarakhand tourism, power paralysed by incessant rain

My going (or not going) on the trip is a small matter. People have died.

Valley of Flowers - will the weather gods be kind?

Raji emails that there are landslides in Uttaranchal, and schools are shut until the 18th. I pretend to be blasé, oh we are only travelling after that.

I casually look up accuweather, and oh no, bad idea. The whole of next week has rain forecast fr both mornings and nights. It will be no fun if we get rained out or rained in.

My trekking shoes have settled in well, and gear is falling into place, and what a letdown if we don't go. Raji has her medicine kit all organised, Gapi has picked up a nice indexed book on flowers of the valley.

All we can do is wait and watch.

A Lemon Pansy stops by

It stopped for a while on my bathroom floor

Almost stepped on it, as I walked in the door.

Lemon pansy, did you flee from a foe?

And after a while, where did you go?

Maybe out of the bedroom window,

or protein for my house gecko?

Sunbirds

Mr Ramanan saw these sunbirds as they came seeking nectar to a male papaya tree, at Gandhigram.

As he sat watching their antics, Mr Ramanan also witnessed the resident cat stalk and kill one of a group of babblers that was feeding noisily off some grain. It caught the babbler by its wing, and just like its larger cousin the tiger, bit into the neck with its canines, bringing a swift end to the bird, and resulting in much indignant calling and cawing by the other babblers as well as the crows in the vicinity.

Male Purple-rumped sunbird. Photo by Mr Ramanan
Male Loten's sunbird, with the longer, curved beak. Photo by Mr Ramanan.

The female sunbirds are olive coloured, as seen here, as they picked up nesting material.

This was a sunbird's rather untidy nest I came across at my mother's home some months ago.