Wildbytes from India

Wildbytes Videos

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 03:51:00 +0000

21 WAYS TO PLANT A RESTORATIVE CITY - Richard Louv

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:31:00 +0000

21 WAYS TO PLANT A RESTORATIVE CITY - Richard Louv

6th CMS VATAVARAN 2011: Animation for environment

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:20:00 +0000

6th CMS VATAVARAN 2011: Animation for environment: Animation has revolutionised the way films are made. More so, this not so old genre of film-making has created a niche for itself among f...

Wildbytes Videos-Breakfast with butterflies!

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:26:00 +0000

Wildbytes Videos

Don't Wanna Stop: May 4 | The colors here are striking.

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:18:00 +0000

Don't Wanna Stop: May 4 | The colors here are striking.

Green Hiker Campaign: The Roaring Mountain

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:48:00 +0000

Green Hiker Campaign: The Roaring Mountain: Kavitha Reddy Roaring winds from Mt. Nanda Devi (East) were crashing into the tent at Camp-1 at 5,200 masl. One strong blow would take th...

Mumbo Jumbo: The Epic of Mara

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 05:25:00 +0000

Mumbo Jumbo: The Epic of Mara

The season of yellows

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:14:00 +0000

The labernum is in full bloom announcing the summer season ahead. Labernum is native to India and is venerated by Indians as a "lucky charm". The pretty dangling flowers cannot be missed where labernum grows as avenue trees or as a tree welcoming one to a house.

Another tree, the silver oak (Grevillea robusta)an exotic from Australia which is now very popular in urban parks, also blooms. Very few take notice, as the blooms quickly transform to seeds. A fact which is least known about this tree is that its flowers and seeds are known to cause dermatatis. The flowers are golden-orange washing brush like blooms and are toxic.

The ground is awash with yellow blooms as soon as it rains. Pretty lilies bloom to welcome the short rainy season in these parts.

The yellow and white butterflies are common now.

Not so common, is the yellow lemon pansy.

The birds are busy nesting and bringing up new chicks to feed in the abundance of the rainy season. The bulbul decides to make her nest just outside our main door, on a Christmas tree. She has been very clever. The tree pie is on the look out for eggs every day morning and one day we woke up to bulbul cries. Luckily the nest attacked was not the one near the door, but the one on a ficus tree outside the gate, on the main road. Her nest is resting on a branch near the wall of our house. No big bird can reach it. The height is such that the prowling alley cat will not jump at it either. But every time someone comes out of the house, the male or female(they take turns) sitting on the nest is disturbed and flies out to the nearest tree.

We are honoured at the trust imposed by the bulbul in us.

When the little chick flew out for the first time leaving the nest vacant, we celebrated.

Bye bye season of yellows till next time!

The Season of Blues

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:12:00 +0000

The Jacaranda tree is in full bloom with blue -violet flowers

Spring is here in Gurgaon with cool mornings and evenings. What we call, beautiful weather. When spring comes with a tinge of cold, rather than an abrupt change from cold to hot, the colours are vivid and rare beauties bloom.

The above flower is called bachelor button and it is mostly blue in colour.

More bachelor buttons among pink flocks

The iris lily forgot to bloom last year as the summer came swift and strong. But this year one eagerly awaited the blooms hiding inside wrinkled leaves of the lily.

Young Iris bloom

Full bloom Iris Lily

But the highlight of the early spring is always the appearance of Common jay butterfly, that streak of blue in flight, but whose underside blends well with the surroundings, with hardly a hint of blue.

Common Jay resting on the kitchen garden hedge.

Common Jay in flight

The Blue pansy also appears sucking in wet mud and taking a break on the Ashoka leaves

The crowning glory of the season this year, was of course our own blue cricket team who lifted the world cup after 28 years!

IndianWildlifeClub.com

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 10:59:00 +0000

The Cosmic Dance

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 08:52:00 +0000

My camera is not good for taking photos in the night. But I was determined to freeze my experience of watching the "super moon " rise over the apartment buildings near by house.

Super Moon, 2011

But what I am sharing with you, is not this bad picture but the thoughts that raced through my mind as I focused on the super moon, which was at its closest point to earth on 19th March 2011-"14% bigger, 30% brighter".

The Cosmic Dance

The above Ikebana arrangement is taken from an exhibition held in Gurgaon on 29th January, 2011. The theme was "symbolism" in Japanese Ikebana. This evocative piece by Gayatri Dayanand was titled "The Cosmic Dance". Nice mixture of Japanese symbolism and Indian thought, I said to myself. But it looked like a 'wreath' you present at funerals and so I had no intention of publishing it anywhere. How wrong I was! As I watched the super moon rise, I felt like asking the moon to place a wreath on Japan.

I also remembered the beautiful "Bonsai" garden of Renu Vaish in Kapashera(near Gurgaon) which the members of our Kitchen Garden Association visited on the fateful day of 11th March, 2011.

Images of the Japanese Bonsai garden, clicked just one hour before the earthquake struck Japan on 11th March, 1.04 PM, IST.

I am ending this blog with a photo from the ShantiStup in New Delhi.

Nichirin Buddhism, Shanti Stupa, New Delhi

Writing this blog has been cathartic for me. So, thank you, all of you who have had the patience to go through it.

Tale of a mustard plant

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:51:00 +0000

The mustard plant in full bloom in my kitchen garden conjured up visions of large fields in Punjab/Haryana and even in Leh (Ladakh), during the short spring in the Indus valley.

The warbler and the tailor bird started visiting the mustard plants in the morning. They seemed to relish some white powdery substance from the back of the leaves-the leaves were now nearly white with morning frost and not good enough for making "sarson ka saag". So I let them be and started watching the birds. Only small birds came, warbler (almost daily) tailor bird and an occasional white eye.

Then one day, I noticed the leaves getting eaten up by large worms. The birds stopped coming on the plant. Even the babblers and bulbuls ( who I found were particularly fond of worms) gave the mustard plants a miss. The worms grew bolder and bigger.

I tried spraying neem oil, since by now, I was determined to let the mustard seeds ripe. The worms were apparently not moved.

Then, within a week, the temperatures started going up. The morning sun hotted up. One such hot morning I found the crawlies all down from the plant moving around in all directions.

I looked up Google. The worm had a name-diamond backed moth worm, which normally affects mustard leaves and cabbage leaves. The leaves were all eaten up, but the seed pods were intact. So I can still hope to get some home grown mustard seeds.

Winter months

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:17:00 +0000

Most of us urban folks in the North, spend the winter months, tucked in cozy quilts filled with fine cotton, eating “makki ki roti and saag” and showing off designer woolens which are taken out for the few cold months.

Wrapped in a woolen shawl, comfortable in a closed car traveling up the mountains, the windscreen in front of the car suddenly showed up fellow trotters on the road.

Hundreds of sheep and goat with tending shepherds, watch dogs and carry mules occupied the road ahead. While clicking the pictures, I also started to wonder what we would do without the warmth provided by the wool on the back of these animals.

Reaching back to our village home, I took a walk in the fields. The bright sun shone during the day, streaming in through the pure mountain sky. It seemed to reassure everyone that "all is well" with the world. The foggy air and grey skies of the city were soon forgotten.

A pretty jezebel danced on the flowers, soon followed by a blue tiger and a high brown silverspot(?)

Butterflies I had not set my eyes on in Gurgaon. Here, in this small Himalayan village, they merged with everyday life.

So did the beautiful plum headed parakeets which descended in hundreds to peck on the grains thrown in the front yard. There were wagtails, tree pies, jungle crows, mynahs, white cheeked bulbuls and sparrows vying for the grains.

But when the parakeets landed as if on cue, all the others stepped back and here is the pretty picture they made.

Need to conserve water to save wildlife

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Need to conserve water to save wildlife and stop desertification-Listen to an audio clip by clicking on the link.

Mansoor Khan from Bilaspur is talking about the need of wildlife conservation. He says water is the most important link for it. We need to save water. If we allow the rain water to flow to sea and continue to take out ground water at such a speed then we are inviting deserts. We need to stop cutting of trees. If you want to save tiger then you will also have to save sambar, its prey, he says, who is dependent on trees and entire nature and environment.

CGNet Swara

Kanha National Park

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 07:28:00 +0000

Here is a very economical offer to visit Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh!

Three days standard itinerary

2 Nights/ 3 days stay charges

Plus

Meals (Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner)

Pick up and drop facility from Gondia Station and back

Two visits to Kanha National Park

Rs 18400/- per batch of six persons

This offer is courtesy Kanha Village Camp

Cats!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 07:58:00 +0000

Feral cats are descended from domestic cats but are born and live without human contact. Any environment that sustains people can sustain feral cats, who are known to have thrived in urban, suburban, and rural areas in all parts of the civilized world.

Feral cats may be apex predators in some local ecosystems.

Feral cats can be effective hunters of small animals.

Felidae is the biological family of the cats. Felids are the carnivores. The most familiar felid is the domestic cat, which first became associated with humans about 10,000 years ago, but the family includes all other wild cats including the Tiger.

With the above background knowledge, when I saw mother cat training the younger one in the art of holding a prey down, I had to record the event even if it meant shooting through a glass!

See the video at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT2merQnawI

Cats can be wild too! Feral cats are descended from domestic cats but are born and live without human contact. Cats belong to the family ' felids', with strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey.
Here the mother cat is teaching its young one how to hold on to prey just caught. The play of motherly affection interspersed with strict injunctions made this video interesting. This was shot through a glass partition separating the lawn from my house.

Changemakers

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:48:00 +0000

IndianWildlifeClub has entered a competition hosted by Artemisia and Ashoka's Changemakers for "Leveraging Business for Social Change" and we'd love to get your feedback.
Ask us a question or post a story about how our portal has impacted you and we'll respond directly on the site.
http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/75297

To help or not to help....

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Sun, 16 May 2010 02:01:00 +0000

When I photographed this plump larva on the small lime plant, I had visions of it metamorphosing into a beautiful lime butterfly.

Two days later I saw that a group of babblers had entered the garden and were busy scouting for food with their sharp eyes focused on plants like a search light. Watching from the kitchen, my first thought was "should I drive them away, because I could see that there is little chance of the lime larvae escaping attention.

Then the thought came "Who am I to play God, after all the babbler has as much of a right to live as the larva. So I watched.

Sure enough, within minutes, the loudest and and biggest babbler had got his prize-a plump green larva in his beak- the very same one which I was waiting to see the transformation into a lime butterfly. All visions of the flitting butterfly crushed in a moment!

Few days later

This white eye chick has just fallen from its nest. It is so motionless, yet a mild quiver of the body says it is alive. I resist an urge to pick it up and put it on a nearby tree. Soon I hear the frantic parents on another tree.

White eyes are usually very muted in their songs-one has to strain the ears to hear them while they are foraging. But just now the parent birds were ballistic- flying about and chirping continuously. Again I watched from a distance.

As if motivated by the coaxing of the parents, the chick flew a short distance. The coaxing continued and the chirping shriller.

About half hour later, I found the chick had managed reaching the nearest bush-a jasmine plant. It kept sitting there while the parents came with morsels of food.

So this story ended happily- it was clear that the chick had overcome the fall and was on its way to start life again.

It is hot 40 degrees plus in May

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:41:00 +0000

garden lizard

Weather has been rather unpredictable-with temperatures going up almost every day with brief preludes of showers. Much like the chameleon who is half rusty and half brown, we have got used to the hot and hotter days interspersed with mild showers.

The butterfly population has been low, with the rare specimens making a brief appearance immediately after a shower. I was surprised to see the striped tiger resting on my chinese orange plant one day. Last year I had spotted plain tiger butterflies but not the striped one. Nature never fails to amaze in my small back garden!

Striped tiger butterfly

The newly born (?) butterfly also appeared immediately after a rain

unidentified butterfly

The blue jays are not yet seen here though I am sure they are just waiting in the wings for the right temperature in the environment.

The cackling babblers appear in large numbers every morning and I have a vague suspicion that many larvae are ending up as food for these sharp eyed birds.

First Online Nature Club of India

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:20:00 +0000

First Online Nature Club of India

Posted using ShareThis

World Housesparrow Day

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:46:00 +0000

Why celebrate a house sparrow day? Because, the lowly but sturdy sparrows are a good indicator of bio diversity and their decline in urban areas is proof that we have succumbed to chemical fertilizers and pesticides, not only in agricultural fields which are around us but also in the small kitchen gardens next to our homes.

20th March 2010 was celebrated as the first Worldhousesparrowday. Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit unveiled a nest box for sparrows made by "NatureForever" while Mr. Asad Rahmani of BNHS looked on.

That the Chief Minister of Delhi spared time for the cause is proof that organic gardens in and around our homes must show the way for sparrows. The CM herself has converted the compound of her bungalow to a "Green Canopy" open to public for nature trails. Fruit bats outside the CM's house kept a caophony going at the inaugural function held at her residence.

Write-up about fruit bats at the interpretation Centre at 3, Motilal Nehru Place

Mrs. Barack Obama hosting organic lunches for children from produce of her kitchen garden made news recently. Realization is dawning worldwide that we need to say no to chemical fertilizers and pesticides, to protect ourselves, if not the sparrows. Sparrows are but an indicator of what is in store for our future generations.

The vermi compost pit

Sheila Dixit's organic garden

Ms Lima Rosalind explaining the digital kiosk at the interpretation centre to a visitor.

Viewpoint of a green barbet

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:57:00 +0000

We, barbets are great at home building. Apart from finding something to eat, pecking a hole on the tree keeps us occupied for the best part of our life. (After all we are related to the famous woodpeckers!)

When this neat hole on a wild neem tree was complete, we had reason to be proud of our handy work. We managed raising two broods inside during the summer months and our chicks are now grown up and flying about on their own.

During winter, we normally fly away to warmer climes, what are wings for anyway.
It seemed appropriate to rent out our premises to other needy folks. But look at what the ants have made of it. They are really dirty housekeepers.

When the squirrels came and cleaned up the mess, we were happy. The squirrel kids were snug and warm for the winter. Not one but two families lived inside.

The parakeets need a spacious bungalow and are now checking out the squirrel home. We barbets are sitting on the fence and watching the fight between the parakeet and the squirrel.

Hey, but why is the tree looking shrivelled up? The squirrels have been extending the house illegally from inside, eating away the sap inside.

Looking at the withering tree, we know that it will not be able to weather the next winter storm. May be it is time for us to move on to another tree!

Spring Again!

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:59:00 +0000

At last the cold winter of 2010 is on its way out and spring is here again. The redstart which heralded winter for us, is all set to disappear to higher plains till the weather beckons again.

The nasturium flower smiling at the sun gives itself completely to the grass blue butterfly.

A peacock balances itself on the wall as the clouds proclaim a mild shower coming.

Birds Love the Anaar Tree!

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:17:00 +0000

The Anaar tree which bears the Anaar (Pomegranate) fruit is valued in Ayurvedic and Unani systems of medicine. The fruit and its rind have nutritious values and healing properties. The pomegranate is native to the region of Persia and the Himalayan ranges of India.

The bird community seems to realize the value of the pomegranate fruit. Of all the plants and bushes in my garden, the Anaar attracts maximum number of birds at all times.
The soft spoken "white eyes" and the chirpy "bulbuls" relish the red fleshy seeds.

The squirrel, evening brown butterfly and common Castor butterfly are the other regulars I have observed at various times.

Go ahead and plant an anaar tree in your garden!

Blue Pansy

noreply@blogger.com (IndianWildlifeClub) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:11:00 +0000

This winter we have not had many butterflies in the garden; may be because it has been a dry winter with no signs of rains coming. So I was thrilled when the blue pansy flitted about under the morning sun. First on the yellow chrysanthemums and then on the Asoka Tree.