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

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.

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.

Darwin's 200th birthday!

This blog is dedicated to Charles Darwin whose 200th birthday falls today. After roaming the world and observing all kinds of species, Darwin spent 20 years at his England home, thinking about and observing nature around him before coming up with the masterpiece” The Origin of the Species’.

The wonders which Darwin saw around him about the interconnectedness of species are still all around us, often right in our own little garden!

When Peas (Mattar) bloom,



and “Fenugreek (Methi) blooms,



Nature’s gardeners get to work. The butterflies and honeybees gather the honey while cross-pollinating the flowers so that we get our vegetables!



The flaming glory bower with its red bunches attract many birds, but the purple sunbird is the most frequent visitor. See him in the short video below, choosing and savouring the honey from the flowers.



The warning calls in the background are by a 'bulbul' hiding in the creeper.

Search for "Flaming glory" in the search button on top right handside of this blog and you can read about what an amazing creeper the flaming glory is, in terms of the wildlife it harbours.

Honey Bees

I found this honeycomb buzzing with bees, snug under the creeper on my wall-the flaming glory.

I wondered where the honey came from. Then I saw the bees collecting honey
from the Madhu Malti flowers every day morning.




Social bees use waxy secretions from their bodies to build large nests and
containers in which to store food and raise young.

About a year later I found the nest abandoned. Probably the bees were bumble bees and not honey bees as I had assumed. They produce honey too, but in lesser quantities compared to honey bees.



Where did the bees go? Not far but onto the silk cotton tree branch right outside our house.


In India, beekeeping has been mainly forest based. Several natural plant species provide nectar and pollen to honey bees. Thus, the raw material for production of honey is available free from nature.

Tribal populations and forest dwellers in several parts of India have honey collection from wild honey bee nests as their traditional profession. The methods of collection of honey and beeswax from these nests have changed only slightly over the millennia.

The major regions for production of this honey are the forests and farms along the sub-Himalayan tracts and adjacent foothills, tropical forest and cultivated vegetation in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Eastern Ghats in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

Forest honey, mostly from rock bee hives, is usually collected by tribals in forests and is procured by forest or tribal corporations as a minor forest produce. Quite a large quantity is also collected by groups or individuals on their own.

Forest honey is usually thin, contains large quantity of pollen, bee juices and parts, wax and soil particles. The honey collector gets between Rs.10 and Rs.25 per kilogram of the forest honey.

Forest honeys are mostly multifloral. Wayanad district, which accounts for the bulk of wild honey in extracted from Kerala, yielded a total of 27,000 kg in 2006-07.

Wild honey is mostly purchased by ayurvedic drug makers, whose demand for natural, unadulterated honey has been on the rise.

Ikebana-Flower arrangement

Ikebana arrangement follows a rigidly fixed pattern – a triangle
of three points representing Heaven, Earth and Man. Emphasis
is placed on linear perfection, colour harmony, space and form.

The slideshow below has pictures taken at the annual exhibition of Ohara School of Ikebana at Lodhi Road, New Delhi held on 14 and 15 November, 2008. The theme for the exhibition is "Vasudaiva Kutumbakam' (The world is one family).

Indianwildlifeclub.com was one of the sponsors for the exhibition.

We have made a number of videos on Ikebana exhibitions.  See them at our playlist below

https://youtu.be/Hj8LpaRCuO4

Walking in the fields at Kangra (H.P)

The highlight of visiting my mother-in-law, who stays in Kangra (Himachal Pradesh), has always been the prospect of walking through the lush countryside. I was there late October, just before winter set in.
As always, the countryside is ever changing and never fails to reveal something new for my camera to capture.
The mongoose family scurrying about the neighbour's vegetable fields was amusing.



So was the sight of giant wood spiders alongside walking paths. The females are nearly ten times larger than the males, I believe. They weave the strongest and largest spiderwebs known to us. Shiny legs with yellow joints are their hallmark. Giant wood spiders are the subject of research- Humans would love to know the secret of creating the strong golden websilk. "In modern times, the Golden Orb Web Spider's silk is set to become a major product. The silk is almost as strong as Kevlar, the strongest man-made material which is drawn from concentrated sulphuric acid. In contrast, spider silk is drawn from water. If we could manufacture spider silk, it would have a million uses from parachutes, bullet-proof vests, lightweight clothing, seatbelts, light but strong ropes, as sutures in operations, artificial tendons and ligaments. Studies are now being done to have genetically engineered plants produce fluid polymers which can be processed into silk"



The wild red and white berries were all over.



The fields had spawned metallic mushrooms which vied with the pebbles lying around.



My husband was only too pleased to pose for a photo, framing a wagtail which he was pointing out to me!


More on my next visit!

Butterflies from Madurai

Madurai is in Tamil Nadu, India. The IV th Development Film Festival organized by Dhan Foundation of Madurai gave me an excuse to visit this temple town famous for the Madurai Meenakshi Temple. Living with the Park was screened at this fesival to an audience of over 400.

Dhan Academy is surrounded by green environs and the use of organic manure and near absence of plastic waste ensures that the place is a haven for a variety of butterflies.



The butterflies flitting about included common crow, lime, pansy, mormon, castor and many more. I could capture lemon pansy, chocolate pansy, a skipper ( my first) and plain tiger.


Lemon pansy


Chocolate pansy mating



Skipper


Plain Tiger

Nature at our doorsteps!

Kitchen Gardens are a great vehicle to bring a little bit of nature into our everyday lives. While the plants and flowers are a source of joy in themselves, greater is the joy if these plants attract small wildlife like butterflies, insects, birds and squirrels as well.

Here is a slide show of the creative efforts of a group of ladies who are members of the Kitchen Garden Association of India.

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