I had decided that I would not go any nature trails this morning (Vijayadashami Day) as it was a holiday…but since KM suddenly announced that he was going for golf, I decided to join Rohit Girotra and visit Valley School.

I’ll be putting up the pictures of the birds and butterflies (and the occasional dragonfly!) on Facebook, but want to share a funny incident…

As soon as we started up the path, we found our usual escorts waiting..this time, it was two dogs. They always follow us, or go ahead…but are generally around for as long as our trail lasts.

While I was looking at the profusion of Coppersmith Barbets and Red-whiskered and Red-vented Bulbuls in the fruiting Ficus tree…a delight to watch….there was a commotion, and I realized that the dogs had attacked some bird, which I could see flying up, in an ungainly fashion, into the tree. I levelled my binoculars and exclaimed…it was a

GREY JUNGLEFOWL! I have never before seen a Junglefowl sitting on a tree; after all, I thought, it is the same kind of bird from which our domesticated fowl are descended, and they are ground birds for the most part, and cannot even fly in any sustained manner. However, Karthik tells me they regularly roost in trees. I realized that it was the scare that made the bird jump/fly into the nearest tree, and it went up and down on the branch, looking for a way down! Here's a video of the bird doing that: I watched him (all that plumage! Of course it's a male!) for a while, and he finally dropped down into the undergrowth (the dogs had wandered off by this time, and hopefully, he will be alive to tell the tale to his hen...and eggs!)

As a bonus for patiently reading this post…..here’s what our morning opened with….a

LOTEN’S SUNBIRD

singing on top of a tree!