Valley School, 220411

April 23, 2011

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!

berry rain 220411 vs

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: lntna rndrops  220411 vs I loved the name of this tree...this is the flower of the UMBRELLA or the OCTOPUS Tree. The flower glitters with raindrops, too! umbrla tree 220411 vs Quite appositely, this the flower of the RAIN TREE, also called the POWDER PUFF TREE: Photobucket The MAYFLOWER TREES (GUL MOHAR) had already responded to the heat by flowering in April: vs myflwr 220411 I photographed this succulent flower, which also has sweet nectar at its base: un if sclnt vs 220411 PASSION FLOWERS (PASSIFLORA) were all over the place: passiflora 220411 vs The SILK-COTTON pods are ready to burst, propelling the silk-cotton and the seeds for wind dispersal: slk cton pds 220411 vs On the road were several COTTON plants, with the cotton bursting out of the seeds: ctn vs 220411 Under one tree sat a beautiful idol of GANESHA: ganesh 220411 vs under another sat a set of musicians...making wood music, perhaps? musician dolls vs 220411 You can see how weak the sunlight was, even at 8am, though the rain finally stopped! weak sn 220411 vs 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! kannan's car 220411 vs Here are Jai, Kannan and Chandu, intent on seeing a White-cheeked Barbet that was actually eating a dragonfly: chandu kannan jai 220411 vs 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: pr snbd vs 220411 One another tree, a PURPLE SUNBIRD was doing the same thing. prp snbd 220411 vs 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"! pd kf 220411 vs Earlier, we'd seen this as-yet un-id'd CUCKOO at some distance from us. un id ccko 220411 vs Though it looked somewhat like a Common Hawk Cuckoo and somewhat like a Grey-bellied Cuckoo, the totall rufous head has puzzled us: un id ckoo 220411 vs That was the back view of the bird after it flew to a Lantana bush. A LITTLE EGRET got ready to pierce its reflection: Photobucket a CATTLE EGRET poked about in the weeds: Photobucket We saw a SHORT-TOED SNAKE EAGLE soaring high above us: stoed sn egl 220411 vs We heard the plaintive notes and looked at a female KOEL: fml kl vs 220411 Heard the lilting song of the ORIENTAL MAGPIE ROBIN: omr 220411 vs saw a COMMON MOORHEN walking about: cmn  mrhn 220411 Other creatures were fascinating, too. Here's a common-or-garden SNAIL crossing the wet road....probably started a few days ago! ord snl 220411 vs 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: african snail 220411 vs As we were on the road home, we could not resist stopping to spot, and snap, this PENINSUAR ROCK AGAMA: agama vs 2204111 We saw two CRABS in the pond: Photobucket Chandu spotted this very beautiful CARPENTER BEE: crpntr bee 220411 vs It was tough to take this COMMON CROW against the sky: common crow 220411 vs but a TAWNY COASTER posed for us! tawny coaster vs 220411 I loved the colours of the BLUE TIGER against the Lantana: blue tiger 220411 A very tiny COMMON CERULEAN alighted on a leaf, like gossamer: crln vs 220411 I got my first-ever sighting of a seasonal butterfly, the SPOT SWORDTAIL: spt swdtal side 220411 vs

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:

spot swdtl vs 220411

And let me close with my regular boyfriend, the

TICKELL’S BLUE FLYCATCHER

which Kannan wanted to see, and finally did!

tbfctchr 220411 vs

Pics of butterflies are

here (Facebook)

and other photos including people and plants,

here (Facebook)

Kannan’s photos are on Flickr,

here