Galibore, 070810

August 11, 2010

It was,ultimately a dozen of us who went to Galibore on Sunday….turned out to be a very enjoyable day, though the heat factor made us tired and we returned home earlier than planned.

We, of course, had taken two cars, but this picture of traditional transportation was what caught my eye at our first stop!

traditional transportarion 070810

Notice the woman balancing the vessel on her head and walking unconcernedly… We could take deportment lessons from her.

The sun slanted from just above the horizon, on our group... sun on birders 070810 and shone on the cars, too: sun on the car 070810 The scenery was so beautiful that I didn't really mind whether I spotted a lot of birds or not! Here are the gentle hills of Galibore: galibore hill 070810 Another lovely scene: galibore scene 070810 The rock pools near the Kaveri had each its own shape and beauty: rock pool 070810 and on the banks of the river, it was so peaceful! The water in the river reflected so many colours: 070810 kaveri water and rocks Here are the BULBs, on the banks: bulbs on kaveri 070810 Many of us sat for a while, enjoying the peace and the breeze, under this magnificient tree: majestic tree kaveri But one of us also wanted to try and conquer it! csb on tree 070810 We saw a few BLACK IBIS in the fields: black ibis galibore 070810 And on the other side, the GREY FRANCOLINS were making their calls: grey francolin 070810 Chandu snapped many of the pictures in this post; here's his shot of this lovely PLAIN PRINIA: plain prinia 080810 csb I got this little PURPLE-RUMPED SUNBIRD on a Mango tree: purple-rumped sunbird 070810 Chandu id'd this bird for me as the YELLOW-EYED BABBLER: yellow-eyed babbler 070810 The delightful little INDIAN SILVERBILLS were frequent sights: indian silverbill 080810 High up, I caught a DARTER in flight: darter in flight 070810 Though common, the BLACK DRONGO is a beautiful bird! black drongo 070810 I loved the fan of this Date Palm, which contained many BAYA WEAVERS' nests: baya weavers' nest on date palm 070810 On the way back, I got a quick shot from inside the car, of this Accipiter....I'm id'ing provisionally as a Sparrowhawk, though I am told it is unlikely because it is a migrant: sparrowhawk? 070810 I'd also like to know the name of this very common small tree (as a child, I knew how to make whistles from its seeds!) common un id tree I saw the lacy PASSION FRUIT creeper on the rocks: passion fruit galibore 070810 One of the best sightings was of what I initially thought was an Agama...we later realized it could be a juvenile MONITOR LIZARD! small monitor lizard? 080810 the ones I've seen before have all been VERY large, and in the forest, so I never expected to see such a small one, especially in the middle of human habitation. Here are a few more views of this walking handbag: monitor lizard on granite post monitor lizard 070810 This un id DRAGONFLY was so lovely, un id dragonfly as was this SCARLET MARSH SKIMMER: scarlet marsh skimmer 070810 but I could not id this little beauty: un id insect 070810 when we stopped for a kind of brunch, with lots of great food, I spotted this (already dead, alas!) DAY-FLYING HANDMAIDEN MOTH: day-flying handmaiden moth Chandu took these shots...a WHITE ORANGE-TIP on a flower: white orangetip on flower csb and this female GREAT EGGFLY on the Lantana flowers: great eggfly female  on lantana csb 080810 right on the bank of the river, as I sat in a very comfortable nook in the tree (it was truly like an armchair, as I sat there, fanned by the river breeze!), I noticed the SIGNATURE SPIDERS developing their websites: signature spider 070810

A wonderful day, coming back home singing old Hindi movie songs with great gusto, and carrying the memory of the beauty of Nature, in the lap of that gracious lady, the Kaveri….

kaveri scenery galibore 070810