Column: Nature feature

A moth that looks like a tiny bird! India does not have Hummingbirds, those tiny creatures of the light and air that so delight those living or visiting abroad, especially the western coast of America. Our smallest birds are our Sunbirds and Flowerpeckers. However, even in urban gardens, one may find oneself looking at something that seems remarkably like a Hummingbird, and yet seems different. In India, this probably means that one is looking at a Hummingbird Hawk Moth! The scientific name for this small creature is Macroglossum stellatarum. They belong to the family called “Sphingidae”. Pic: Deepa Mohan In…

One of the very beautiful tiny insects that will often catch your attention is a needle-like creature that you see close to the edge of ponds and lakes, which seem to float magically in the air before settling, lightly, on a blade of grass. This slelnder, exquisite creature is the Damselfly. Damselflies, like Dragonflies, belong to the order Odonata, and are technically called Odonates. If you are interested in a more detailed name, they belong to the sub-order called Zygoptera. How does one distinguish between Dragonflies and Damselflies? The former have their wings open at right angles to their bodies…

I was requested by Irina Ghose and Gopal Swaminathan to conduct a nature/birding walk at Lalbagh for their daughter Divya, who was celebrating her birthday. We gathered most of the group together for a "landmark" shot: And off we went. We started with the commonest of birds, the Blue Rock Pigeon: And the Black Kite (here, a silhouette in the sky): At the lake, we saw a Little Egret and a Purple Heron: A Purple Swamphen: A Common Moorhen: A White-throated Kingfisher looked out over the rose garden. The Spotted Owlets didn't seem too enthused to see me back again…

Sometimes dry, barren-seeming patches of land have so much of interest in them. Recently, my friend Manivannan S spotted, in a small empty lot, this Painted Grasshopper. The wiki entry on this gorgeous-looking creature says that the grasshopper feeds on the poisonous plant Calotropis gigantea. Certainly, these grasshoppers had stripped all the Calatropis (milkweed) plants nearby. Striking in appearance... The mature grasshopper has canary yellow and turquoise stripes on its body, green tegmina with yellow spots, and pale red hind wings. The wiki also mentions the interesting fact that these grasshoppers, when squeezed or handled, upon slight pinching of the…

I enjoy taking groups of people on nature and bird walks. So, when my friend Vaibhav Chaudhury, who’s involved in many social initiatives, called me to help him guide the residents of a gated community on a bird walk in Madiwala kere, I was very happy to do so. So off we went to the kere at 4pm. I first got a photo of him with the bird board that Brickwork India had put up. The photos of the waterfowl are all by him and Dr Sanjeev Managoli, a paediatrician who manages to follow his passion for birds and contribute…

Here’s a video I took, of some remarkable ‘fishers’ that we are able to see, even in urban lakes such as Madiwala or Lalbagh, in the winter. These are Spot-billed Pelicans which are local travellers. There are some long-distance travellers, too. These are Bar-headed Geese landing at Hadinaru Kere, near Nanjangud, Karnataka, in August 2015; they come all the way from Mongolia! Here’s one, which was tagged in Mongolia (yes, I received a reply from the scientists there when I emailed them, it was quite a thrill). This winter, we had another lone, and surprise visitor. The Demoiselle Crane was a lone bird that I spotted in a lake…

Right now, the rains are a distant memory, but it wasn't long ago that we felt our city was just soaking in water... and though we didn't have the major deluge that Chennai had, we too had our share of dampness and moisture. There are some organisms that thrive in this moist, humid environment, and though they have a short life, they still look beautiful, and intriguiging, when they appear. Mushrooms are a form of fungi... and in fact, the fruiting body of these organisms. Mushrooms come in varieties called bolete, puffball, stinkhorn, morel, and gilled mushrooms themselves are often called agarics.…

At the last minute, on the morning of December 13th, I convinced 20 other birders that instead of going to Valley School, we should bird along the Kaggalipura-Bannerghatta stretch, and then go to check out Hulimangala. And there, at nearly the end of a long birding outing, we saw a migrant which has never before been sighted in the Bangalore area... the Demoiselle Crane. Can you spot the crane in its habitat?  Here it is: Demoiselle cranes undertake one of the toughest migrations in the world.... as tough as that of the Bar-headed Geese.  From late August through September, they gather in…

Wildlife surrounds us, and one doesn’t have to go anywhere except to the nearest patch of greenery to observe it. Last week, I’d been to Lalbagh, and observed the wonder of the Weaver Ants . The scientific name for these ants (not that we need to bother much about it!) is Oecophylla. Weaver ants, especially the worker ants, make their nests by creating an 'ant-silk'... Workers construct nests by weaving together leaves using larvalsilk. But this time, it was unusual to see the ants covering the fruit of the Soursop tree (Annona muricata) for their nests! Perhaps the ants were finding…

Very often, after the rains, one sees dragons in the air. Not fire-breathing ones, of course; those belong in the realms of fantasy. But the often-ignored dragons I am talking about, are marvellous creatures, too! Here’s a closeup of a dragonfly that I took, recently. Dragonflies are called 'odonates'; that is, scientific-name wise, they belong to the order Odonata. Dragonflies are agile fliers; you can find them hovering, quite motionless, in the air, and then, suddenly, zipping off at great speed. Contrary to their gossamer, delicate appearance, they are voracious predators, both in their aquatic larval stage, when they are…