Yesterday, at Lewis Park, I was walking around, and thought I saw some mosquitoes….

I learnt this nonsense rhyme as a child, and as part of my cultural heritage, I’m carefully passing on the nonsense to KTB, as well as the sense!

Here’s KTB the Mother cuddling HER daughter (her name is Yaya Papa…papa is baby in Tamizh), changing her nappy by stripping her, and wishing everyone Happy Mother’s Day, at our behest…

I do enjoy the wit wherever I find it, and on the Hasiru Usiru egroup, a civic citizens' forum that I belong to, S. Nityananda has posted, regarding car-free walking zones in Ahmedabad, which has been recently introduced:

<div>"at least something gets done in some cities. In Bangalore, we also do things… like deciding the dates for a preliminary meeting to discuss whether it would be advisable to consider deciding a date for discussing initial ideas for car free zones."

I'll probably be thinking about this at odd timed, and there will be an unexplained smile on my face!</div>

How I miss the pre-monsoon showers in Bangalore! (But not too much, as weather.com tells me the high in Bangalore is 30 deg C, and it is 24 deg C in St.Louis…I propose to go for another long hike in Forest Park when I am done with housework!

Some of the very common birds I'd

The Brown-headed Cowbirds and their mates seem to be out, and the "treeeee!" call of the Red-winged Blackbird can be heard everywhere. Mockingbirds and the immigrants….the European Starlings with their bronze-green sheen, and the House Sparrows….are briging forth families. The American Robin (called Robin Redbreast in Britain) also has babies trailing along, chirping loudly for worms.

As I walk along Des Peres Creek, the Mallards and the Green Herons look up alertly at me in case I am coming to catch them.  Several Kildeer are now to be seen on the grass along the banks…… A Snowy Egret quickly spears a fish,  and takes it off. I go to watch the Great Horned Owls, but can see only the mother today….the other birds, such as the Common Grackle, also show their shining plumage, and as a bonus, I see the "Woody Woodpecker" Red-headed Woodpecker, at her nest:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150819684993878.417256.587058877&type=3

The migratory warblers (they arrive in St.Louis in summer; alas, Missouri is not a hot-spot birding location, but it's great for my level of ignorance!)  show themselves here and there, and once in a while, I get a lovely video like this:

http://deponti.livejournal.com/836849.html



This kind of nature ramble is certainly not the stuff of National Geographic…but it's my morning "battery recharger", and I come home by 7am, ready to take on my daily duties, with a happy smile on my face, that lasts the whole day long. Just this morning, an elderly lady (er, I mean, MORE elderly than me!) smiled back at me and remarked, "It's so nice to see a smiling face early in the morning.)

I watch the mink family in the creek, which I've been following from last year:

http://deponti.livejournal.com/826742.html

I can't see any young ones now, I was very lucky last year, as my friend Danny Brown informed me!


Dear Subbu…thank you for inspiring me, with your descriptive post,  to write this….and Zafar Saab, I want you to know that halfway around the world, when I joined  the Audubon Society's monthly bird-watching outing (exactly like our Lalbagh outing)  this time,  there were THREE people who knew about you, and were awed to think that I knew you personally.