Mysore's little jewel

A juvenile Brahminy Kite?

My recent visit to Mysore was memorable in more ways than one.  There was wonderful company of family, young and old, laughter, fun, memories and musings.  Masala dosais, chocolate fudge and cappuccino.

Its a city that I love to visit.  The people are oh-so-gracious, the roads are tree-lined, and there are so many neighbourhood parks.

This time, I discovered a little jewel, though, just around the corner from the Ginger hotel where we stayed.  An added bonus.

Click on the picture, you can see the storks circling in the sky above

Karanji Lake.  In the Nazarbad area.  Restored in 2005, before which it had deteriorated, like all city water bodies, filled with sewage and garbage.  ( So the notice board said, at any rate.)

And now, teeming with life - water birds, garden birds, butterflies, fish, raptors and even crocodiles!  Quite amazing!

A darter sunbathes with a spot-billed duck

And to add to our enjoyment, there are these pedal boats you can hire and take onto the water, in a designated area, not too close to the trees with nesting birds, but close enough to see this darter drying its wings, while a spot-billed duck kept it company.

My January trip to Bharatpur had given me enough exposure to this bird, and so I very airily and loftily informed the other members of my family about the Bird that craved for a ramp, its interesting fishing habits, and its gluttony!

See the red loral spot of the spot-billed duck

Thankfully, the darters obliged me, and fished and ate in front of us, and I, ahem ahem, was the designated bird expert for the day!  (Aunts are of some use, after all!)

There were whoops of amazement from my mother and niece and even my nephew was impressed by the darter's performance, as it swam with its periscope-like neck sticking out of the water, darting underneath only to emerge with a fish in its mouth, which it would then expertly toss down its gullet.

A spot-billed duck paddled serenely by in the water.  The males have a little red "bindi" on the nose - its called a loral spot.  And this male obligingly showed his spot to us!

By now the sun was beating down on us, and we decided to get off the water and into the shade offered by the lovely trees  all around.

We chatted away excitedly, and strolled on around the lake, my sister-in-law expertly reading the kannada boards with bird names for the purple moorhen and common coot giving us much amusement at the naamudhu koli and banna something else.

Boards every few meters cautioned us to "Beware of Snakes", and we did look around and make doubly sure before walking into the tall grass.  

The grey heron "grins" triumphantly with breakfast in its mouth, while a pond heron looks the other way, unimpressed by its catch!

The water birds were intent on their morning breakfast.  

This egret waits patiently, framed against the grass

We then reached a watch tower, which seemed reassuringly sound and sturdy.  We climbedsay, three-storeys up, and had a lovely panoramic view of the lake and the flight of the birds, as they glided in to land on the trees, or took off on another fishing mission.

Looking through the binoculars, we could see scores of nests of black-headed ibis, painted stork, spot-billed pelican, and egrets and cormorants.

A brahminy kite looks across the lake

The previous evening, I had clambered midway up, and enjoyed the sight of the pelicans coming in to land.  It was like a scene from an aiport.  Several of them circled in the sky above, then on some unseen signal one would come swooping down in a wide glide, circle the central island, and then land either in the water or on the "pelican island".  I looked on as about five pelicans came in, in this fashion.  It was quite a sight.

This morning, however, it was the painted storks that were in the air, and they glided and flew all over the lake, either rising to circle in the thermals above, or going back to their chicks in the nests.

Painted stork

Oriental Magpie Robin

We climbed down, and proceeded down the walkway to check out the butterfly park at the end of the walk.  Sign boards urged us on, like milestones on a highway.

But there were distractions a plenty along the way, slowing us down.

A magpie robin cheekily hopped about on the grass, its tail twitching in curiosity, but it did not give us a nice song, which I quite like from that bird.  

Read more about Magpie Robins here.

Asian koel - female

A pair of koels we spied, high up in the canopy, though their calls followed us all through the walk that morning.  These birds, so common for us, lose their voices in winter, and its only in the heat of the summer that they regain their voices!

It is Mr Koel-of-the-black-body-and red eyes, who is responsible for the increasing ko-el, ko-el calls we hear, while the spotted-lady just emits a krrr-krr sound when she dashes off to another tree.

Asian koel-male

Grey heron

A grey heron posed for Sekar on a branch close to the lake, its hunched up neck giving it an air of discontent and moroseness.

Maybe he was having a bad morning?  No luck with the fishes?

Quite different from the body language of the heron-with-a-fish!

Coucal

A coucal skulked in the shadows, reminding me of the Ghana Ghouls in Ranjit Lal's The Crow Chronicles.

This was probably the Lesser Coucal.  There is a Greater Coucal that is larger.

Their call resonates through forests all over India, and they seem to move around in a furtive fashion keeping to the shadows, unlike the bold and brassy robins.  Funny, given that these birds are so much larger!  

The Butterfly Park!
   Star Clusters Yellow alders

A butterfly and a shoe!

The Butterfly Park is a little island at the end of the walk, reached by a small walking bridge. Bushes and shrubs that attract butterflies have been planted, and walking around it, you see butterflies of all hues and colours!

My niece clicked away with her phone-cam in an attempt to get them framed for posterity, but they kept flitting around, refusing to sit still.

Finally she got this Common Tiger which sat for more than a second!

Sekar skulked around (like the coucal maybe?!), and got these two beauties.
Striped Tiger?

Glassy Tiger

I wondered idly, if Valley of Flowers would also have butterflies...

I could quite happily have spent a few more hours there, but we all had to check-out, and so it was time to head back.

Similar silhouettes, different birds

    

The one on the extreme left is a Little Cormorant, the one in the middle seems to be a juvenile Indian Cormorant (called Shag in Salim Ali), with its brown head, and the one on the extreme right is the darter, with the snake-like neck and sword-like bill.

These birds have webbed feet, and quite happy swimming in ponds and lakes.

The icing on the cake, was this....
A crocodile glides by in the water

At this point, some of the group had gone ahead, and my son and nephew were discussing snakes and reptiles, of Ranganthittu.  He (my nephew), pointed casually at the water and said, oh look, crocodile.  So, I said, yeah right, nice try and all that, but anyway looked in the direction he was pointing...and there it was swimming away!  I did a double take, looked again through the binocs, and yes it was a crocodile.  Thankfully, before it vanished around the island, Sekar got a picture!

It was my first in-the-wild crocodile.  

The guard informed us that there were several! Any croc rescued from a temple tank is released here, it seems!

In my opinion, Karanji lake is a much more pleasant and enjoyable experience, than say Vedanthangal.  The bund and area around the lake has been better planned.  There are no screaming hordes of tourists and students out to have a good time...or did I go at a time when they were not around?  Plenty of couples, but they minded their own  business and did not disturb the birds, absorbed as they were with each other!

And no film music blaring in the neighbourhood.  It appears that the Mysore Corporation has shut off the road outside the sanctuary to traffic in the night, and the barriers are removed only at around 8am.  Also, visitors are allowed in only after 9:30 am, which gives the birds a good nights sleep.

So early morning birding is out of the question here, and the evening closing hours are 6 pm.

I've been away

May 22nd 2009:  I chanced upon this little paradise in the middle of a city.  It was quite by chance, as it happened to be near the hotel we were staying.

A lake that has come back to life and been rid of sewage and garbage,

water birds a plenty, 
a 2 km walkway all around the lake,

butterflies, birds...and a crocodile!

More soon.

The colours of a Madras summer

I see bright pinks, flaming reds and sunny yellows.

The tree orchids pine for their guardians who are away,

Bauhinia

Bougainvillaeas red ask to be photographed
Bougainvillaeas 

The whites creep over the neighbour's trellis, 
Bougainvillaeas 

and meet the pinks
Bougainvillaeas

while these orangey-yellows greet the early morning sun.
Bougainvillaeas 

This desert rose does not seem to mind the sun,
Adenum

while this ixora continues to hold its head up in the midday sun,
Ixora

Yellow laburnums all over the city
Cassia fistula (amaltas)

And copper pods too.
Peltophorum pterocarpum

The tabebuia are in full bloom, their purple and yellow trumpets celebrating the sun.

Tabebuia

But these palm fruits enjoy the shade of our car park.

The little periwinkles stand bravely and defiantly, even as the earth scorches around them.

Catharanthus roseus 

The tulip tree sunbathes, its blooms show off their lovely orange tan.

Spathodea campanulata

The quisqualis blooms with relief as the sun goes down, 
Quisqualis indica

and so do we, enjoying the sea breeze!

The "ambitious" keelback and the climbing perch

Baby olive keelbacks got eaten by a kingfisher at Vedanthangal, and now a checkered keelback is caught on camera trying to eat a humungous fish, at IIT, in front of forty kids on a birdwatching outing!

Read about it here!  Keelback steals the show

So many questions from this incident.

What was the snake?

A chequered keelback was the general opinion.  Its a common water snake supposedly and non-poisonous. But, folks, and this is an important but, it is an agressive, bad-tempered snake!!

I'm glad it was busy with the fish when the kids came across it!!  Its bite can be quite painful, and it also does not let go until its jaws are forced open.  Yeesh, all that does not sound very nice.

Chequered Keelback Snake
Originally uploaded by Naseer Ommer

What was the fish?  

A climbing perch, opined some.  I had heard of these fish, which supposedly "walk" on land, and IIT does have them.  Reportedly these fish can survive out of water for a while, and move with the aid of their fins and tail!

Why was the snake unable  to eat it?

Preston Ahimaz said, "In the case of snakes, the jaw bones are hinged with elastic ligaments which simply stretch to enable the jaws to swing way beyond any bone pivot would permit."

So, despite this elasticity that all snakes have, the keelback could not swallow this fish, and gave up after an hour, reported the observers.

Maybe it was not a full-grown keelback?

PS:  It seems to make a habit of biting off more than it can handle.  A search on Flickr, revealed various pictures of the snake with a huge fish in its mouth!!

The Black winged stilts at Pallikaranai

The Pallikaranai marsh at Velachery never ceases to amaze me.  People tell me stories of how it was a wetland with scores of birds ... but to me its just Madras' rubbish dump.

And as Madras went through successive summers with poor rain and the wetlands dried, we even decided to build huge buildings in it. And of course the rains came, and oops all the buildings were marooned. So, instead of removing the buildings we now need to drain the marsh don't we?!

The greenies shouted themselves hoarse, in an attempt to reclaim the marsh...and atleast no further development is to happen in the area that has now been declared as protected.

So what's so amazing? Well, quite oblivious to all these political battles are the black-winged stilts, who populate these marshes in their thousands. They take off as a flock, frightened by a marauding marsh harrier, and then land at a safe distance, their long red legs and black wings making them look better in flight than when they are wading in the waters.

Any time you visit the wetlands, these birds are a sure shot.

BWS - Photo by Skandan

And last month, Skandan came across this nesting pair. So, more stilties to follow!

Lets hope that the marshes don't die, and continue to be home to these birds and more.

...And my son could tell his kids, there used to be a garbage dump here, you know.

Deja Vu in Delhi

7am, and I'm walking the streets of Jorbagh. I'm not endowed with a good memory,and I was quite convinced I would not locate it.

But three years of roaming the streets seem to have seared themselves deep in the cerebellum (is that where its stored?) , and I was hit by deja vu in Delhi.

Here's the street we lived on, way back in the seventies.  It hasn't changed all that much.

And here's the maidan behind the temple, where my brother left his bike, overnight, and found it standing in the same place the next morning!
Oh and here's the temple itself.  It was much more derelict in those days.  See the bars behind the temple, well we girls used to use them as uneven bars, and swing from them and try all kinds of stunts, while the boys would run down that slope.  (OK, OK, I was much smaller and slimmer in those days, you know.)

Somehow, the temple-on-the-hill had seemed much higher in my memory than when I actually saw it this time, well I was shorter as well.

Was it an age of innocence, or am I just changed?  As ten year olds, my parents considered it safe for me to roam the streets, confident that I would be back before sundown.  I cant bring myself to do the same with my child now.

As I walked through Lodi Gardens, I remembered learning to cycle...barrelling into an old man, and falling down.  The man was full of concern for me, while my parents were profusely apologetic to him.  Politeness, concern and social connect all around.

Another cycling story.  My brother, who was my tutor-in-chief, decided that it was high time I learnt to get off the cycle on my own.  ( I couldn't), and the only way I would learn was if he did not come to my rescue.  So, while I circled on the Lodi Garden lawns, he stood there with hands crossed across his chest, stubbornly ignoring my pleas to help me dismount.  Round and round I went not knowing what to do, when a brainwave struck - I just let go off the handlebars!  I was on the ground in a flash, with the cycle beside me all in a heap, grinning triumphantly.  Said brother did look a trifle contrite.

And as I sat at breakfast, looking out of the window, a red-whiskered bulbul and a pair of oriental white-eyes kept me company.

The red-whiskered bulbul, with his mohawk crest
Oriental white-eyes