And now, ladies’n’genmun, we come to some of the more unusual creatures that reside in our forests…..I must say, this time we seemed to have all of them coming over to the road to meet us!

Saying hello is the Monitor Lizard , which might remind us, sadly, of ladies’ handbags:

The wiki says they are very intelligent and some species can count, isn’t that amazing?

Next we come to the Pond Terrapin. At least, that’s what this chap is supposed to be, but we found him on the road! I joked that he had probably left for a short walk to the nearest water body,the previous day….

At first, he was shy, but soon his head came peeping out:

Doesn’t he look for all the world as if he is grinning happily?

Amazing, I googled for “pond terrapin” but the only reference I got to an Indian Pond Terrapin was an image on INW! So perhaps I have the id wrong..someone please correct me if so.

This is the Mongoose, looking rather evil and satanic because of his red eyes, but a shy creature in reality: We found a large group of Langurs chattering away on the trees, feeding on the leaves and tender shoots. Here's one: We found this Indian Roller quite close by; it is the State Bird of Karnataka: And it was funny to watch this Mynah looking over the Sambhar as if to ask, "how am I supposed to keep you clean if you are going to sit in the mud?" As soon as I took the snap, that's exactly what the Mynah did, jumping up nonchalantly on the Sambhar, pecking at the ticks on his skin. I found this Oriental White-eye (at last, a bird name that actually is logical!) in the young trees of the resort where we stayed: And I loved the sight of the House Sparrows flying around; here's a fat young male, all puffed up and full of himself: On safari, this Gaur (Indian Bison)really did sit in this picturesque setting and posed for us patiently, while yet another Mynah groomed him... The poor Gaur definitely had something wrong with his right eye, either a cataract or an injury in a fight, I don't know which. Streak-Throated Woodpeckers(thank you for the correction, !) were a common sight, but instead of being on the barks of the trees as was usual like this, we found many of them foraging on the ground: Here's a close-up of the bark of the "Crocodile Bark" tree: Incredible, but that's wood, not stone! And of course, the monsoon clouds in the sky, such a thing of beauty and promise: </lj-cut> And could I close a post on the jungle without a pic of this Adonis? I had posted some pictures a while ago, from Gudgaon, where the males had just started to get their breeding plumage; on this fellow, it is in full glory: Bandipur, a wonderful forest..I am trying to go back there again