Of pots and imports…

All creatures great and small, whether they come from some faraway place on our planet or make their home right near us, can be a wondrous source of fascination!

Winter is always a good season for an amateur naturalist like me; the cool weather suits me and I can certainly spend far longer outdoors without getting tired out by the relentless Indian sun. I like to go out as much with friends as possible, and come across interesting things…literally, from far and near.

One of the “far” birds that we went to see are the bar-headed geese, which fly in from Mongolia and other parts in the far north, to our relatively warmer climes.

Bar-headed Geese

IMG_7489

IMG_7453

At Magadi lake at Gadag district, they arrive in large numbers; however, if you are not “chasing numbers”, lots of them can be seen at Kabini, and even nearer, at Hadinaru kere (lake in Kannada) near Nanjangud. Here is one handsome bird.

IMG_7476

The birds flying over the road from the fields, where they forage, on to the lake to settle down, is an amazing sight. One can only imagine what they must look like, flying through the high passes of the Himalaya, on their way here!

However, the nearby, and the small, can also be equally awe-inspiring and riveting. On a recent trip to the Valley School area, off Kanakapura Road near the NICE Junction in Bengaluru, we were done and were returning to our cars, when a small movement on the other side of a chain link fence caught my eyes.

It was a female

Potter Wasp

and there was no need to ask why she has been given that name. Look at the perfection of the home she is creating for her young ones!

She will find a spider or a caterpillar, stun (not kill) it, and put it in the home she has created. She will then lay her eggs on the paralyzed creature, so that her eggs, when they hatch into larvae, will have fresh meat and protein to feed on. All this for children she will never see…because once she’s put her young ones in “the pot”, off she flies, as you can see in this short video.

So…all creatures, great and small, whether they come from some faraway place on our planet or make their home right near us…are an endless source of fascination!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

Micro livelihoods connected to fishing at Pulicat face an uncertain future  

Environmental damage poses a threat to the fishing community dependent on Pulicat Lake, even as youngsters look to more lucrative professions.

Just as the ebb and flow of the Pulicat Lake sustains the fishing community residing in the surrounding villages, the destiny of the people employed in different traditional livelihoods here is intertwined with the fate of the water body. The people in the 250 villages depend on the rich lagoon ecosystem of the lake, which supports a web of different professions connected to fishing in one way or another. Apart from fisherfolk, who go into the sea to catch fish, there are people who unearth earthworms to sell as baits for fish to the fishers and women who make and…

Similar Story

Fisherfolk lament as environmental threats push Pulicat Lake to the brink of decline

As industrial pollution and climate change affect the delicate ecosystem of Pulicat Lake, villagers hold on to their dying livelihoods.

As the evening sun creates an orange hue over the shimmering waters of Pulicat Lake, the fishermen get ready to launch their wooden kattumarams (catamarans) for the boat race. The participants, sitting in the middle of their boats and rowing furiously, plunge ahead amidst the cheering of villagers, who have dropped by to witness the event. At least for a day, the fishing community and others, whose livelihoods depend on the marine ecosystem of the lake and sea, forget their troubles and have a good time. The boat race is a sort of affirmation by the village community around the…