I went with N C Mohan and Raja Bandi to do a recce of the area around his farmhouse, and by sunset, he took us to a point nearby which was called "Bilekkal". This is a corruption of "Bili Kallu" or white stone...

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On the old, sits the new, like an interloper:


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When two legs are not enough to take one everywhere, one resorts to four wheels....


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I've seen a lot of

glider rockers

and lots of porch furniture. But whenever I go to visit our friends in Columbia, Missouri, their glider-rocker porch set just stuns me afresh!


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Though the bird count at the Bannerghatta Zoo area was on the low side today (this seemed to be more of an "audio" than a "visual" day, with many more birds being heard than seen!)...we did see a lot of interesting stuff as usual. Here's one:


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This morning, Shreeram and I went with John Callaghan, who's visiting from Milton Keynes, UK, to Ragihalli. Unfortunately, we had a very late start and that meant that sightings were quite low....but we still managed quite an interesting time!

This

PIED BUSHCHAT

opened the proceedings, on the barbed wire:


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PENINSULAR ROCK AGAMAS

.... being reptiles, have to bask in the sun on the rocks to warm up their blood, and to prevent predators from picking them off, are masters of camouflage.

Can you see an agama in this picture?


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Today's outing was both more interesting, and longer-lasting, than I had anticipated. I've been to the Ramakrishna Ashram several times, and we've always just walked a little past the campus and come back. So today I was very surprised to be able to go for quite a longish trek up hill and down dale ( Read more... )

I'd gone with Girish and birdonthewire for the 3rd Sunday bngbirds outing, this time from the Ramakrishna Ashram, Shivanahalli, on into the Bannerghatta forest area. The highlight for me, was Harsha spotting this wonderful

Sundew or Drosera (from the Greek for "dew of the sun") plant

...a tiny plant that's insectivorous!


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It was very enjoyable to go and meet the participants of the latest NTP, which happened at Bannerghatta over the weekend. Chandu and I set off, and it seemed that hardly a few kilometres from my home, the Karnataka Forest Department had decided that the forest had begun, though we were still in the middle of a lot of apartment buildings:


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