Memories of Yercaud - 2003

Yercaud Lakeside

A pine branch bows to meet the lake

Rippling water 

Boating on Yercaud Lake

The clouds roll into the hills

Time to sit and stare

Coming closer

Closing in

Play of sun and shade

A sunlit valley in the centre

Monkey business

Human beings arrive to inhabit the hills

Yercaud Observatory

Humans worse than monkeys

Destructive nature of humans in full evidence - Mining in the hills

The Red Whiskered Bulbul

Have been tantalized by these beautiful calls.  It is a real sight to see 3 to 4 of them dancing and prancing about on the trees.  They are so active.  However, one decided to pose for a picture and here it is.

Red Whiskered Bulbul

The aviary in and around my house

These birds are driving me to distraction.  As they hop from branch to branch, tree to tree, they keep chirping and calling so enticingly, I keep running every few minutes from window to window to balcony back to window trying to catch these elusive creatures, camera in hand.

I have already posted a picture of a white cheeked barbet taken from my balcony as well as a video of a purple sunbird hopping around.

Purple Sunbird

Today I have a still picture of a very small greenish brown bird.  This bird is very hard to catch as it is very well camouflaged and extremely active.  It hardly sits still for a few seconds. I am told this is the green munia or the green avadavat.  Got it after great difficulty today. 

Green Munia / Green Avadavat

Here is one more beauty in all its vivid colours.

Brahminy Kite

Well, the story does not end there.  It is of course wonderful to have rare birds calling out on the tree just outside my window.  But it is also interesting to see what surpirses my old time friends - the pigeons spring on me. 

Two days ago, I saw a couple of pigeons sitting in one of the empty pots in my balcony garden.  By the time I tried to click them, one flew away.  I quipped to my domestic help that pigeons were growing in my pots.  She took a look inside and whoa - what a surprise.  Just check it out for yourselves.

The elusive visitor

For quite a few weeks now I have been hearing all sorts of new bird calls that I have not heard before.  Our housing complex is in the pathway of flights taking off and landing at what was the old airport.  I wonder if this is the result of the airport being moved out of the city - more varieties of birds making their appearance.

Of these, one bird in particular has a very loud, throaty call that resembles the croaking of a frog.  It is fascinating to hear them calling to each other in a very conversational manner from one tree to the other.  Although they sounded very close at hand, I was not able to spot them for quite a while.

Then one day I saw a blur of green whizzing past and thought it was a parrot.  A few days later, I spotted a dash of green on the branch of a tree outside my window.  I looked - and there it was - but it was no parrot.  It had a strange combination of colours which I had never seen before.

When I posted the picture on a site and asked if anyone could identify the bird, I was told it was a white cheeked barbet.  Kudos to the person who could identify the bird from such a hazy picture taken in such bright light that the picture did not do justice to Nature's art.  The position of the bird did not allow me to get the right colours of the beak etc.

Well, today finally, I managed to capture one of these birds which keep darting from tree to tree, hardly sitting in one place for too long.  This bird mercifully perched itself in full view and gave me a very good pose which helped me get its colours in their fullest glory.

From my balcony

It is amazing to be able to see such birds right in the centre of a major city.