The area around the Valley School is one of my favourites; there is never any lack of lovely sights to see. This is the plaque of the Krishnamurthi Foundation Retreat:

The birds we saw over the past two weekends were of delightful variety; the most spectacular of them, were, of course, the ASIAN PARADISE FLYCATCHER, which I could not get on camera at all. But other beautiful birds did co-operate a little more; here’s a male TICKELL’S BLUE FLYCATCHER:

Another first-timer for me was the PIED CUCKOO: The BLACK DRONGOs may be common, but still very beautiful with their graceful tails. The Valley School area seems to have more than its share of COPPERSMITH BARBETS...in Lalbagh, one sees one of these for every twenty or so SMALL GREEN BARBETs! A loud-voiced regular, is, of course, the ASHY PRINIA, singing its heart out... Lots of clutter can't hide the beauty of the female ASIAN KOEL: The female, and then the male, INDIAN ROBIN showed themselves at almost the exact spot on different days! The female: The male: Someone in the Valley School had carved an umbrella handle to resemble a vulture, and I thought of 's umbrella crow post ... Just couldn't resist snapping that! One surprise sighting was this POND TERRAPIN, in the little pond near the ruins of the Art Village...like Narcissus, it seemed to be contemplating its own reflection: The only other amphibians I was able to photograph were: this very tiny FROG: and this small TOAD: The lush foliage brought out butterflies/moths in plenty, too. This is a SWIFT, but what, exactly, I have not been able to find out: An EVENING BROWN had settled on the ground briefly: A COMMON CROW also stayed put long enough for a photograph: One certain mode of entertainment on a nature trip is to see a photographer with an increasingly frustrated expression, running here and there behind a flitting butterfly. But then, success.... this is a BLUE TIGER: The prismatic beauty of this web behind the butterfly also captivated me! A CHOCOLATE PANSY also alighted on the ground: This un id butterfly was on a grass blade, with the morning light shining through its translucent wings: A COMMON SAILOR, however, sat quietly for us. Sometimes, one just has to look down, not up; here's a BROWN GRASSHOPPER: Can you see the green grasshopper here? Of course Karthik always advises us not to handle these creatures, but this times, it just jumped on to my jacket and we had to take it off! A CARPENTER BEE added colour to the place: I don't know why this SPIDER was all bunched up like this in the centre of the web: I am lumping the MUSHROOMS with the flowers, they certainly looked as beautiful as any flower. I also loved these little cloth roses that someone had left on the pathway: The bud of the MORNING GLORY had its own dewy beauty: The CLERODENDRUM was in bloom, as usual: Some cultivated flowers looked lovely too, as did this POINSETTIA: All over, the PASSION FLOWERS showed their exotic beauty: We came across a very hot (pungent) variety of CHILIS, ripening on the plants: And as for the mammals....here's most of the group on the 26th of October: and most of 'em on the 2nd of November: As we left, we chanced on this MONGOOSE; I just had the camera pointing the right way, so I clicked quickly for this foozly shot: </lj-cut> Two random images I liked very much, to close this. One was of the raindrops on this thorn: And the other, the lovely pattern this fallen palm trunk made, across the stream: Looking forward to more birding trips, as winter progresses and more migrants come into Bangalore! *