Lalbagh....080211
February 9, 2011
How could I let C and N go without dragging them over at least a little of Lalbagh? So off we went, as the sun rose:
The morning light was, as usual, lovely to see through the trees:
As the visit was such a quick one, we weren't really looking for birds; I showed them trees like the Monkey Puzzle and the Junipers and the mango trees dating from Tipu Sultan't time, but meanwhile, I couldn't help,er,spotting this
SPOTTED OWLET:
The ancient mango trees were also full of
CHESTNUT-TAILED STARLINGS
high up in the canopy, feasting on the mango flowers:
The gnarled trunks of some trees were beautiful to see, the more so as they were festooned with bright green
ROSE-RINGED PARAKEETS:
some of them seemed to be actually making mangoes of themselves, too, curling in paisley shapes:
The park,of course, is a haven for the very common birds; at one place, it was a flock of
BLUE ROCK PIGEONS
feeding busily on the seeds and breadcrumbs scattered for them:
and at the lake was a murder of crows, sipping water:
I caught sight of this shoot from one of the Royal Palms:
We found some rare blooms, too. One was the
JADE VINE
with its wonderfully-coloured and shaped flowers:
We saw what Carolyn said might be called the
Shrimp Plant
and it had wonderful balloon-like blooms:
I then saw what appeared to be the largest plantain flowers I'd ever seen, and stepped up close to have a better look. These plants were called "Crown of Thorns" (Euphorbia Milii)...but certainly, the wiki entry doesn't match it at all...so I still think I was looking at some variety of plantain or banana plant. Here's the flower, it was a gigantic version of the banana flower:
Here are the infloresences inside each "petal", which, in the usual banana flower, are shorn of their pistils and used as a vegetable:
We saw a few Cormorants on the lake, but had to hurry home, so we left Lalbagh to the trees and to the morning light filtering through them:
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