Kannan had wanted me to take him to Valley School, but earlier, there were too many people coming, so we went to Ragihalli instead. But this Friday, though it kept raining pretty heavily, Chandu, Kannan, Jayashree and I set off….. the rain actually made several things more beautiful…look for example at these lovely berries, dripping diamonds!

Would you like to see some of the things that I managed to photograph?

All the plants were bejewelled, even the very common LANTANA bushes: I loved the name of this tree...this is the flower of the UMBRELLA or the OCTOPUS Tree. The flower glitters with raindrops, too! Quite appositely, this the flower of the RAIN TREE, also called the POWDER PUFF TREE: The MAYFLOWER TREES (GUL MOHAR) had already responded to the heat by flowering in April: I photographed this succulent flower, which also has sweet nectar at its base: PASSION FLOWERS (PASSIFLORA) were all over the place: The SILK-COTTON pods are ready to burst, propelling the silk-cotton and the seeds for wind dispersal: On the road were several COTTON plants, with the cotton bursting out of the seeds: Under one tree sat a beautiful idol of GANESHA: under another sat a set of musicians...making wood music, perhaps? You can see how weak the sunlight was, even at 8am, though the rain finally stopped! The drizzle didn't stop us from getting out of the car here and there to look at birds, and we often forgot to shut the doors! Here are Jai, Kannan and Chandu, intent on seeing a White-cheeked Barbet that was actually eating a dragonfly: The tiny birds were the first to come out after the rain slowed to a drizzle; here's a PURPLE-RUMPED SUNBIRD sipping nectar from the flowers and buds of the COPPER-POD tree: One another tree, a PURPLE SUNBIRD was doing the same thing. Across the pond, we watched a PIED KINGFISHER sitting patiently on the foliage...until the moment came, and in a black-and-white splash into the water, it got itself some "fast food"! Earlier, we'd seen this as-yet un-id'd CUCKOO at some distance from us. Though it looked somewhat like a Common Hawk Cuckoo and somewhat like a Grey-bellied Cuckoo, the totall rufous head has puzzled us: That was the back view of the bird after it flew to a Lantana bush. A LITTLE EGRET got ready to pierce its reflection: a CATTLE EGRET poked about in the weeds: We saw a SHORT-TOED SNAKE EAGLE soaring high above us: We heard the plaintive notes and looked at a female KOEL: Heard the lilting song of the ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN: saw a COMMON MOORHEN walking about: Other creatures were fascinating, too. Here's a common-or-garden SNAIL crossing the wet road....probably started a few days ago! Here's the AFRICAN SNAIL which came into our country along with agricultural imports and is now officially a pest, over-running all local species: As we were on the road home, we could not resist stopping to spot, and snap, this PENINSUAR ROCK AGAMA: We saw two CRABS in the pond: Chandu spotted this very beautiful CARPENTER BEE: It was tough to take this COMMON CROW against the sky: but a TAWNY COASTER posed for us! I loved the colours of the BLUE TIGER against the Lantana: A very tiny COMMON CERULEAN alighted on a leaf, like gossamer: I got my first-ever sighting of a seasonal butterfly, the SPOT SWORDTAIL:

A wonderful morning…none of us knew where the time went, and we finally had “breakfast” at 11.15 am!…Here’s a lovely “sitting portrait” of the Spot Swordtail:

And let me close with my regular boyfriend, the

TICKELL’S BLUE FLYCATCHER

which Kannan wanted to see, and finally did!

Pics of butterflies are

here (Facebook)

and other photos including people and plants,

here (Facebook)

Kannan’s photos are on Flickr,

here