The sheetrock at Ragihalli (which is in the Bannerghatta area) means fantastic views, and surreal designs in the rock…the sun, shining through a wisp of raincloud (all that water in the cloud gives that prismatic effect) was reflected in one of the hundreds of rock pools on the rock slopes…

Reminded me, in some strange way, of this photograph by Seshadri…

http://www.indianaturewatch.net/displayimage.php?id=52835

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No birder likes crows, as they …er…crow-d out all other birds (they are the humans of the bird kingdom!) and mob other birds too…but they are very intelligent, adaptable birds.

We were sitting in Ragihalli village after a long, lovely morning of birding, having hot chai at what I call Ragihalli Restaurant, when I saw this baby crow with its mother…

You can see it’s a baby because of the pinkness inside the mouth. The baby is sitting, hoping to be fed more food; but s/he is almost fully-grown, and the mother has the resignd look of mothers everywhere, who wish their baby would start growing up and getting their own food, instead of wanting to be spoon bill-fed!

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The third image had me riveted to the spot for a while. So often we see butterflies whose wings are in tatters; Karthik tells us that such butterflies are old butterflies, which have survived the attacks of predators, and therefore, are fit and old butterflies!

But I found evidence of one butterfly which had not won one such battle…

I think that’s from a SOUTHERN BIRDWING….

There the wing was, lying on the floor of the forest area….it brought me, for an instant, face to face with death, impermanence and loss…and this butterfly had yet made the place a little more beautiful, even in its death….before I went on to try and draw morals out of this, I snapped myself out of my mood, and walked on!

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