Apart from the sighting of the

Shieldtail

Soma, Baljeet and I also spotted varied and interesting (always!)creatures and plants…

There was, for example, this beautiful little amphibian, posing on a rock:

I was a little worried that the number of birds we had spotted was on the lower side, but Soma, an indomitable spirit who does not let her rheumatoid arthritis get in the way of her birding, was very happy that she saw the RUFOUS-TAILED LARK for the first time: For a while, we watched this crowd of SCALY-BREASTED MUNIAS both male and female, preening, and pecking around on the ground in front of the lantana bushes: Let me show you, for once, not the bird as photographers finally manage to capture it, but as it is normally seen. The GREATER COUCAL belongs to the pheasant/crow family, and it skulks in the most irritating way, amongst the foliage. So, all one usually sees is a flash of red-and-black disappearing into the trees, and then this kind of sight: It's a large bird, and yet manages to keep out of sight! We watched many BLACK KITES taking along nesting material to construct their homes: A couple of butterflies added to my image pool, too; this LEMON PANSY posed for me... Soma was quite thrilled with the RED PIERROT too, and said it was a lifer: One amazing thing was this un id CATERPILLAR ....it swung on a fine silken thread, and slowly descending, swaying the morning breeze, to the ground, where it went to earth under a pile of fallen leaves. Does anyone know what cat it is? I pointed out the "potato plants" from the family Solanacae or Eggplant family to them, and snapped the brinjal-like flowers And the red berries.... Here's the bird-list, a not-bad tally (after all!) of 41: Babbler,Tawny-bellied Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, White-cheeked Bulbul,Red-whiskered Bulbul, White-browed Bushchat, Pied Cormorant, Little Crow, House Crow, Jungle Drongo, Ashy Drongo, Black Egret, Little Flycatcher, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Tickell's Blue Francolin, Grey Kingfisher, White-breasted Junglefowl, Grey Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Small Blue Kite, Brahminy Kite, Common Lapwing, Red-wattled Lark,Rufous-tailed Moorhen, Common Munia, Scaly-breasted Mynah, Common Mynah, Jungle Parakeet, Rose-ringed Robin, Indian Shikra Silverbill, Indian Sunbird, Loten's Sunbird, Purple Sunbird, Purple-rumped Swallow, Red-rumped Swift, Asian Palm Swift, House Treepie, Rufous Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, Pied Waterhen,White-breasted

I’m closing with this lovely flower of a creeper that’s probably some kind of gourd:

A very short but enjoyable trip to my favourite haunt!