Why the bulbul built a nest at our doorstep

Why did the bulbul choose a tree at the entrance to our house to build a nest?  Well, here is the story.

Our garden has feral cats, shikras and tree pies visiting regularly.  Needless to say all three are predators of birds.  The bulbul perceived less threat from the occupants of the house.
I Watched the parent birds and chick through the camera sitting in my house comfortably. Visitors to our house never noticed the nest, so the chick hatched successfully and grew into a handsome bulbul. 

An organic garden which is not manicured, but left to grow naturally.  That is the secret of attracting birds and butterflies into your garden. For me the pleasure of gardening is complete when I see it come alive with bird chirpings.

Please share the video if you like it.  Please also tell  what you think about the video.  Here is the link to the video.

https://youtu.be/csI7uur4mt8

Wildbytes.tv

I have uploaded over 100 videos relating to nature and wildlife in wildbytes Youtube channel.  These videos are drawn from my experiences in various National Parks in India nad abroad plus videos of experts talking on related subjects wherever I could manage hearing and recording them. 

The channel is aimed at all nature lovers who care about the environment we live in. 

It will be good if you can watch and write in your comments about the content of the videos.  Many of you will have comments to add which will enrich the content in each video. 

Please subscribe to the channel to be able to comment

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCng_XfXfguqI-mX1x1xXdWA

Sustainability Day- 24th October. An appeal to recycle our solid waste responsibly

What is plastic doing to our beaches?

The pristine Varkala beach in Kerala

A close-up view of the waves at Varkala beach, Kerala

"Mother earth is a temple, not a dustbin" screamed a notice board in a tea shop at Varkala beach, Kerala.  

This plastic bottle was found lying quite close by to the above notice

Further away, more bottles

The plastic, thermocol, Styrofoam etc which we so carelessly throw away, finally lands up in the ocean, carried by rain, rivers etc.

When I write "plastic" and hit the search button on  http://IndianwildlifeClub.com, I get a few pages of results.  Here are a few random one liners from those results, which sum up our plastic malady.

"Major cause of floods was Mumbai’s plastic bags choking the city’s drainage system."

"Storm-water drains choked with ubiquitous plastic carry bags are partly responsible for Mumbai's woes."

"The Maharashtra government announced the decision to ban the use of plastic bags across the state after reviewing the situation."

"A landmark 1990 study by the research firm Franklin Associates—says

 Plastic is not biodegradable, it litters our waterways and coastal areas, and has been shown to choke the life out of unsuspecting wildlife."

"The leather-back turtle feeds almost exclusively on jellyfish and cannot distinguish between plastic bags and jelly fish"

Fish and sea birds have been choking on plastic litter

What is plastic doing to our National Parks?

We saw a tiger in Corbett national Park with a plastic gunny bag in its mouth.

If we go by road from Delhi to Corbett National Park, we have to pass a place called Kashipur.  Here, for miles at a stretch, we see plastic gunny bags, just like the one our tiger is carrying.  These are filled with more plastic and more non-bio degradable stuff.  They seem to be piled on the road sides for ever awaiting disposal/recycling.

We need to empower the waste recycling factories and give them visibility before we drown ourselves in plastic waste.

The short video I put together on World Oceans Day, portrays the simmering anger of the oceans through the incessant beating of the Dhol.

Watch it at

Oceans and Us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXDcWYK9_oI

And now, we have the Bengal tiger holding up a plastic cement bag left out near a water hole, as if to ask what am I supposed to do with this?

Watch this terrible episode we were witness to at the link

Sharmilee, Virat and Pandit - Corbett National Park 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkea2m2gJow

Let us empower the rag picker who helps recycle bio-degradable waste.

Dr.Susan Sharma is the Founder of http://IndianWildlifeclub.com  

IndianWildlifeClub is a community of nature lovers who care.  You can join in by registering free at our site.  We are mobile friendly.

Nature Lovers Feel Connected Wherever they go!

Nature lovers feel connected wherever they go!  I experienced this lately when I visited my cousin who lives in far away San Diego.  The cabbage butterfly I saw in the botanical garden of San Diego reminded me of Dr.Surya Prakash from whom I had learnt that the Indian cabbage butterfly migrates by flying 300 to 400 miles a year. It  is one of the three in India which migrate long distances.   Want to learn more fascinating facts about butterflies from Dr. Surya Prakash?  See the short film in our you tube channel

https://youtu.be/KLz3rsawl88

The sparrow happlily mud bathing on the ground of an open restaurant reminded me of the sparrows mud bathing back home.  It also made me appreciate the fact that the restaurant owners who had grown local flowers all around, had made the ground  inviting for birds with leaf moulds and mulches.    

On a cruise in the Soth Pacific Bay, the tour guide kept calling attention to the naval might of the USA and the ships and drones which had occupied the shores of the Bay.  On one side a large group of Cormorants were busy fishing, reminding us how nature, especially birds, can adapt anywhere.  The sea lions displaced were huddled up on bait barges (because of which the cruise was called "Sea lion Cruise").  Having seen the interaction between a mum and pup sealions on the Pacific coast near the Torrey Pines Reserve,  the bait barges seemed like a zoo.  Again, the foresightedness to put these barges for sea lions lazy enough not to go to other available shores? was worth appreciating.

Want to feel some of these emotions I went through?   Watch the short film at

https://youtu.be/HYJ5kY1CSeQ

Bee -eater in the web of a giant wood spider

Read more about this photograph at
http://indianwildlifeclub.com/blog/blog-details.aspx?bid=905

An appeal through visuals to recycle our solid waste responsibly

"Mother earth is a temple, not a dustbin" screamed a notice board in a tea shop at Varkala beach, Kerala.  The plastic, thermocol, Styrofoam etc which we so carelessly throw away, finally lands up in the ocean, carried by rain, rivers etc.

The short video I put together on World Oceans Day,  portrays the simmering anger of the oceans through the incessant beating of the Dhol.

Watch it at
Oceans and Us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXDcWYK9_oI


When I write "plastic" and hit the search button on  http://IndianwildlifeClub.com, I get a few pages of results.  Here are a few random one liners from those results, which sum up our plastic malady.

"Major cause of floods was Mumbai’s plastic bags choking the city’s drainage system."


"Storm-water drains choked with ubiquitous plastic carry bags are partly responsible for Mumbai's woes."

"The Maharashtra government announced the decision to ban the use of plastic bags across the state after reviewing the situation."

"A landmark 1990 study by the research firm Franklin Associates—says
 Plastic is not biodegradable, it litters our waterways and coastal areas, and has been shown to choke the life out of unsuspecting wildlife."

"The leather-back turtle feeds almost exclusively on jellyfish and cannot distinguish between plastic bags and jelly fish"

Fish and sea birds have been choking on plastic litter

And now, we have the Bengal tiger holding up a plastic cement bag left out near a water hole, as if to ask what am I supposed to do with this?

Watch this terrible episode we were witness to at the link

Sharmilee, Virat and Pandit - Corbett National Park 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkea2m2gJow

Let us empower the rag picker who helps recycle bio-degradable waste.

If we go by road to Corbett National Park, you have to pass a place called Kashipur.  Here, for miles at a stretch, we see plastic gunny bags, just like the one our tiger is carrying.  These are filled with more plastic and more bio degradable stuff.  They seem to be piled on the road sides for ever awaiting disposal/recycling.

Empower the waste recycling factories and give them visibility before we drown ourselves in plastic waste.

A walk along the banks of Ulsoor Lake, Bangalore- - The Gems and the Glaring gaps

I watch with interest the large number of morning walkers on the walking path so well carved out along the cleaned part of the Ulsoor lake.  Some are engaged in conversation, most glued to the earphone, some exercising, some playing ball in a clear strip.   Cormorants splash around in the clean part of the lake, obviously there are fish in the water.   Their splashes arouse the curiosity of walkers who are new to the area.  Mobile phones go clicking.   Pariah kites circle around.  A single Brahminy kite stands out.  The number of Brahminy kites seems to have gone down.  I could spot only one in about ten days' time.

This blog is for all of those who do not have time/inclination to watch the lovely butterflies and other insects they pass by every day.  These insects are becoming rarer by the day and we in India are lucky that spraying of insecticides is not that widespread yet so as to kill them off for ever from our parts. Safety tests done in labs before marketing insecticides don't account for the long term poison accumulation that kills bees, and possibly many other beneficial insects.   By disregarding the threat of chemicals to tiny creatures, scientists warn, may be endangering larger ones like ourselves.

I call them Gems, because they are priceless in today's world.  Here are a few I could manage clicking.

Tailed Jay

To read more about this butterfly, go to

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/sp/569/Graphium-agamemnon

Common Castor

To read more about this butterfly, go to

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/sp/765/Ariadne-merione

Plain Tiger

To read more about this butterfly, go to

http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/#!/sp/744/Danaus-chrysippus

Silk cotton Bug

And now,  the Glaring Gaps of the Lake!

To reach the walking path I had to walk along a stinking sewer which borders the Lake for almost 1000 meters.   Sewage water kept spewing in from other parts of the lake as well.

The stinking sewer whose water goes into the lake

The pretty water Lilies blooming in the enclosed part of the lake did not prevent the steps of the step well getting strewn about with polythene bags and styrofoam glasses.   (Double click on the picture to see a larger image)

Marketed in the US under the name Styrofoam, EPS Expandable Polystyrene Foam (EPS) was invented by Dow Chemical scientist Otis Ray McIntire in 1941.  There are two main issues that polystyrene causes for marine (read lake) animals - mechanical and chemical.

"The [mechanical root] is very straight-forward," says scientists.   Oftentimes, we find polystyrene foam lodged in the intestines that causes blockages that can be lethal. If you think about how we worry about a mild blockage from eating the wrong thing, imagine eating a ball of Styrofoam. That's what some of these animals are doing."

Chemically, absorbent properties make EPS even more dangerous. "Polystyrene foams essentially act like little pollutant sponges, picking up and concentrating some of the nastiest contaminants in the water"   That's not just bad for the fish and the cormorants. It could be bad for humans.

My earlier article on Ulsoor lake "Bringing back nature into the city of Bangalore"

can be read at the link

http://www.indianwildlifeclub.com/ezine/view/details.aspx?aid=830

The Cosmic Dance

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.

Winter months

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.

Kanha National Park

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

To help or not to help....

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.

World Housesparrow Day

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.

Moth on a shrivelled nest

The photograph above shows a moth resting on the shrivelled nest of an ashy prinia warbler. The leaves are of the creeper "flaming glory bower'.

I have just written a blog on the caterpillar I found on the leaves of the elephant foot yam plant.

Can some one identify whether the moth has metamorphosed from the caterpillar shown? Or are they from different species?