We saw a variety of creatures on our trek near Chik Yelchetti, and into the forest area; I’m giving the bird-list at the end, but here are some of the living things that I C-on-C (Caught on Camera):

This is the

WHITE-BELLIED DRONGO:

After a long gap of time, I saw an ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN singing away: It was lovely to see a crowd of POMPADOUR GREEN PIGEONS atop this bare tree: Another view of a few: Overhead, the IBIS group flew past in an aerodynamic Vee formation: And closer to the ground, the chirpy HOUSE SPARROW group announced that they were thriving here, at least! I never got a good shot of the COUCAL, it skulked too successfully in the bushes for me...but I got its feather! The mammal list was: Boar, Wild (and a rowdy lot they were, too!) Deer, Spotted Elephant, Indian (er, difficult to spot the African elephant here!) Gaur (a herd came right up to the stream near the home-stay, and our driver had to move the car hurriedly.) Macaques, Bonnet Ravi, our guide, spotted the elephants when we were really far off from them; they were across the lake, on Thondala betta: The next morning, too, we sighted a few: Here's a video to show the far-offness of the first lot of elephants! The CHITAL are beautiful, no matter how common they are at Bandipur! But our nature trail yielded a lot of Life Under Foot, and apart from the SIX-SPOT GROUND BEETLE and the DUNG BEETLE we saw....this CRIMSON MARSH GLIDER (Trithemis aurora)( thanks for the id, Uma!) these ANTS foregathering on the tip of this shoot, for some reason (tasting the sap?) The monochrome beauty of the CHOCOLATE PANSY: and this un id FROG: I wondered what this was, and Ravi told me that it was the top of a termite mound, which the boars break open to eat up the termites inside: In the home-stay, on the blue-painted pillar, a JUMPING SPIDER was busy catching breakfast: and elsewhere, this dead insect was being taken home by industrious ants, to feed their colony: A lot of the flora was very interesting, too. Here is the MATTHI tree, used for furniture: I was enchanted by the dessicated beauty of this CACTUS framework... I wonder if this field-border plant is SISAL ...it looked so beautiful against the sky! Its flowers were lovely, too. One of the shrines in Lokkere village stood under the shade of a gigantic FICUS: I could not id these lovely seedpods, which were like inflated balloons: Ravi showed us a thorny plant with edible berries: Here's a closeup of them, before they went into my mouth! (They were seed-crunchy and tasty!) The bird-list is: Babbler, Jungle Babbler, White-headed Barbet, White-cheeked Bee-eater, Small Green Bulbul, Red-vented Bulbul, Red-whiskered Bulbul, White-browed Buzzard, Oriental Honey Cormorant, Little Coucal, Greater Crow, House Crow, Jungel Dove, Laughing Dove, Spotte Drongo, Black Drongo,White-bellied Eagle, Short-toed Snake Egret, Little Francolin, Grey Grebe, Little Ibis, Black Ibis, Black-headed Kite, Black Kite, Black-winged Lapwing, Red-wattled Munia, Scaly-breasted Mynah, Common Mynah, Jungle Oriole, Golden Parakeet, Rose-ringed Peafowl Pigeon, Pompadour Green Prinia, Ashy Prinia, Plain Robin, Indian Robin,Oriental Magpie Shikra Sparrow, House Sunbird, Purple-rumped Treepie, Rufous Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Pied

Since the

PIED WAGTAIL

is the last on that list, here’s a pic of the bird admiring itself in the water of the Chik Yelchetti stream:

With all this to see, the scenic beauty of the villages, and the eco-activities, Chik Yelchetti is a great place to stay in!