Meeting people....

September 19, 2010

Meeting people…it’s something I love to do, and this weekend has been fantastic for it!

Yesterday was the annual

INW

meet at Mysore, and it was great to go in a fun-loving group, and meet a lot of old and new friends on this wildlife photography forum….even though the death of

a noted musician and scholar, Pandit Puttaraja Gavai cancelled our proposed birding trip to Ranganathittu, (all the lakes in Mysore and Zoo were also closed) it was well worth the trip to Mysore.We meandered back to Bangalore, stopping here and there to see whatever birds we spotted, and constantly pulling each other’s legs!

This morning, too, 11 of us met up opposite my home, and want for the 3rd Sunday bngbirds birding trip, to the Bannerghatta forest area. This time we had some very special visitors…the Amstutzes, all the way from Crane Creek, El Portal, Yosemite National Park, California. It was fun to meet up with both the NTP group, as well as both new and old friends from the bngbirds group….some of them were excellent at spotting, and our sightings were varied…and wonderful.

The trip lasted much longer than I’d usually budget….and then several of us went to Adigas’ for brunch, and I persuaded all the breakfasters to come home, too….we all sat and laughed and joked together, and I am now sitting in an empty home, wishing it weren’t empty. I am, usually, a person content with my own company as much as with others’….but just now, I miss the laughter and fullness and the joy that a house full of people brings.

Friends…the greatest treasure in the world.

Photos (I warn you, even by my standard they are bad photos…!) of the INW meet

here

and photos of the 3rd Sunday bngbirds outing (I like these better!)

here

Here are a few of us at the Jaipurdoddi tea shop (run by Balaji who is in the photographs):

and here are the Amstutzes, Sangeetha, and some of our NTP crowd, along with Guru-G, at home:

Birds and others lists:

Babbler, Jungle Babbler, Yellow-eyed Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, White-cheeked Bulbul, Red-vented Bulbul, Red-whiskered Bulbul, White-browed Bushchat, Pied Buzzard, Oriental Honey Crow, House Crow, Jungle Cuckoo, Pied Drongo, Black Drongo, White-bellied Eagle, Black Eagle, Crested Serpent Egret, Little Flowerpecker, Pale-billed Heron, Pond Kingfisher, White-breasted Kite, Black Kite, Black-winged Kite, Brahminy Lark, Indian Bush Leafbird, Blue-winged Malkoha, Blue-faced Munia, Scaly-breasted Mynah, Common Mynah, Jungle Owlet, Spotted Parakeets, Plum-headed Parakeets, Rose-ringed Pigeon, Blue Rock Prinia, Ashy Prinia, Plain Shikra Shrike, Bay-backed Shrike, Larger Cuckoo Shrike, Long-tailed Silverbill Sparrow, House Sunbird, Purple-rumped Swallow, Barn Swallow, Red-rumped Swallow,Wire-tailed Swift, House Tailorbird Weaver, Baya

Butterflies

Blue, Grass Blue, Zebra Castor, Common Coster, Tawny Crow, Common Emigrant, Common Jezebel, Common Jewel, Grass Yellow, Common Grass Yellow, Three-ring Grass Tiger, Blue Tiger, Plain

Beetle, Tiger Centipedes Dragonflies and Damselflies, Various Millipedes Moth, Owl-Eye