Plants around us are havens for wildlife!

Correction: What is written as "Nest of a warbler" is actually the nest of a sun bird. Sorry for the error.

It is hot 40 degrees plus in May

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.

Viewpoint of a green barbet

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!

Birds Love the Anaar Tree!

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

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.

'Instars' after the rains!

This year the rains came late and lingered till end of August. The butterflies and moth caterpillars waste no time in completing their life cycles; Here are some I managed capturing on the lens, in the beginning of September.



The above picture is that of a lime butterfly caterpillar which is probably in its third stage (instar)of moulting. The picture below is that of the same caterpillar after two more moultings. Now it is in its last 'instar' and the next stage will be the pupa and then the lime butterfly. The host plant is the Chinese Orange tree.



If the caterpillars of lime butterfly are fast eaters, they pale in comparison with the moth caterpillar's eating capacity. The picture below is that of the Elephant Yam moth caterpillar. This one could devour huge leaves of the yam plant overnight and was found hiding beneath the leaf during the day. I could not observe this caterpillar in its next stage; probably a mynah or babbler found this packaged fast food irresistible. The caterpillar disappeared sometime during the day.

Red Cotton

( photo:wikipedia.org )

Red cotton trees line the road in front of our house. Come March/April and the trees are in bloom and the road lined with fallen red flowers. "You can make a vegetable with the petals" " Take out the red color by boiling the red flowers; best organic red color for Holi!" But one normally finds that no one picks up the flowers, they are just swept away.

Come May and the tress are full of cotton pods which open and pour out the cotton fluff all over the neighborhood. Some murmur "These cotton fluffs cause Asthma" But before the murmurs die away, the fluffs disappear and the short flowery season of the "Semul"tree is over. The trees are back to providing shade to passersby with their large branches.

Come June, and new bugs in bright red color spring from nowhere in my garden. I search their pictures on the web and realize they are "red cotton bugs".





Red cotton bugs? Is it because of their color? It seems they survive on cotton seeds. We have had a few drizzles in June and the cotton seeds on the ground must have got soggy and soft. That is the stage at which I noticed these young bugs devouring the seed. See the short clip below. So, now the web of life of Silk cotton was falling in place. Observing nature around you can be really stimulating.

Hoopoe and Shikra

Birds(and animals) live a life of "high alert" at all times. This hoopoe is busy using its long pointed beak to dig out and eat juicy worms from the freshly mowed lawn. Cars and people are passing by the road nearby and my camera is not far away focusing on him. He is unperturbed. Experience tells him "not to worry".

Suddenly he freezes. I wonder why. Can you guess?. Look at the video below and I have tried to bring the action in the background through the recorded sound.



Listen through the din of cars and wind and you can hear the shrieking of a "shikra" -a raptor, who is circling above the lawn. The hoopoe knows that any movement on the lawn will attract the raptor's attention and he will swoop down for a meal.

As the shikra flies further away, the hoopoe resumes his meal.

Here is the disappointed shikra taking a break

Cat and the pigeon

Mention the domestic cat and the vision is that of a 'purring' furry creature happy to sleep on your bed, slurp milk from a bowl and eat cat food for breakfast and dinner keeping the pet food manufacturers happy.

A very different picture from that of "kitty"-the cat who roams our neighborhood. Her territory consists of the back and front yards of at a least a dozen houses in the neighborhood and loathe she will, to enter a human household.

So we are not surprised when at times we find bird feathers in the yard, remains of kitty's meal. We also know that kitty keeps in check the rodents and garden lizards.

The latest hunt of kitty surprised us though. A full grown pigeon attacked and downed in a jiffy. The pigeons usually avoid the small hedges and lawns in our garden but this one did not and paid with its life.



Kitty Claiming the prize hunt



Kitty the hunter with the pigeon she felled

Barbets

The colourful barbets are closely related to woodpeckers. They are as common in the gardens of Delhi as they are in the wooded streets of South Mumbai.

Many believe that the typical calls repeated rhythmically is an indicator that our city pollution levels are still under control in many parts which have large trees around.

In common with woodpeckers barbets feet have two toes facing forwards and two back. This feature allows them to cling easily to trees and excavate their nests.

The place to look for them in Mumbai is old fig trees. In Delhi, the coppersmith and green barbet are regular garden visitors (mostly in large public gardens).

The short video below on the “feathered heritage of India” opens with a coppersmith calling and excavating its nest on a dead tree trunk in a common park in a residential area in Delhi.


India's Feathered Heritage - These bloopers are hilarious

The photos below are of a green barbet guarding its chicks inside the tree hole nearby. Curious onlookers are still there, like the mynah, which is trying to peer in and of course my camera!

Climate change and some refugees

The Delhi and NCR region are experiencing climate change first hand. April and May used to be the hottest summer months. In 2008 we had a mild summer. The summer of 2009 seems destined to be the same! The hailstorm in first week of April has brought temperatures down so much, that today, 10th April, Gurgaon feels like a hill station. See the video clip of the hailstorm below.



We also had a surprise visitor(s). Three peafowls inspected our lawn and the neighbourhood for possible roosting points- apparently. They seem to have been displaced by yet another construction coming up in the cleared Aravalii Ranges which surround Gurgaon.

In the photo below, two of them are surveying the neighbourhood from a vantage point.




Below is the photo of the peahen in our backyard.



After going around the house, it seems at home in the frontyard. However, the peafowls did not visit us again; hope they found a better place to call their home.

Back-yard wildlife

If you observe carefully, nature provides enough surprises in our own back yard. Have a look at the slide show I have put together.

http://www.wildbytes.in/backyard-wildlife/index.html#0.0

Urban wildlife

We are fortunate to be in India where national parks are always within manageable distances. While following pugmarks to track a tiger or looking out for wild elephants capture the imagination of most wildlife lovers, we often neglect nature around us and closest to us. Feeling connected to life around us make us realise that we are part of a habitat. The more you are fascinated by forests, the more you learn to observe nature around us.

Read more on backyard wildlife at

http://www.indianwildlifeclub.com/blog/Topic.asp?id_top=28

Online chat "Urban Wildlife"

Chat on 18th October 2007 (Thursday)

Log in to IndianWildlifeclub.com for an online chat on

" Urban Wildlife"

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To reach the chat room, enter with your username(email id) and password for IndianWildlifeCub at the appointed time.

**Lima Rosalind is Director Environment Education, WWF (I), Lodhi road, New Delhi.


She can be contacted at lrosalind@gmail.com


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