It was an amazingly warm welcome I got from Madhavi and Garima as we set off with some other male co-opted members of BULBs (BULBs being, Bangalore Urban Lady Birders!)..at my request, we went to Valley School. In terms of birding, it can’t have been anything much; we even failed to sight the Scops Owl that ought to have been the highlight of the outing…but….it was so, so, so satisfying to be traipsing the paths of the wooded areas, walk over the stream, listening to the old familiar birdsong….it was peace for the mind and balm for the soul….!

The usual lacy mauve flowers greeted us everywhere:

The weather was cloudy and overcast, and photography was certainly not the first priority for any of us.

here we are, at the beginning of the ramble: and here's everyone going back, against a backdrop of the monsoon skies: The greenery was beautiful to the eye: And the leaves, small flowers and fruits looked so lovely: The banyan tree under which we pass on our way back is growing steadily into a majestic giant: Even fallen Gulmohar seed pods had their own geometric beauty: Some of the trees hid the YELLOW-BILLED BABBLERS and some hid the BLUE-FACED MALKOHAS: to me and Garima, however, the highlight of the outing was a delightful episode of watching a PALE-BILLED FLOWERPECKER not just peck, but try to gobble, and not a flower, but a whole fruit! Here's the little greedy-guts: Here he is, flying from one fruit to the next: and here's the final scene of gluttony...how on earth will that fruit fit into that tiny beak?! I was so jet-lagged that it never occurred to me, until Garima asked if I had done so...that I could have video'd the little scene! We started (and kept seeing throughout our ramble) a very large convention of COPPERSMITH BARBETS ...I've seen other congregations, but never such a large number sitting together, perfectly still and quiet....here's one Coppersmith Barbet tree,against the grey sky! I did get to refresh my memory with the common butterflies, and their caterpillars, too...here's the CRIMSON ROSE CATERPILLAR: and a slug making its unhurried way across the path: YELLOW-TIPS were everywhere, in ones and two's: The COMMON LEOPARD showed its spots :) this LEMON PANSY sat for me, quite literally! I don't know exactly which YELLOW this is: the WHITE ORANGE-TIP made quite a pretty picture: as did this COMMON CROW, one of the stragglers from the mass migration that happened just a while ago: This COMMON PIERROT made splash of black-and-white: I took this pic just to ask, can you spot the butterfly? We even saw some mass feasting happening, when we found a dead worm under a flower being swarmed with ants: It was as we were on our way home that I got a call and realized KM's gastro-enteritis, and the whole saga of ill-health and hospitalization began..... how a day can turn direction is just amazing!