A Kingfisher & Lizards

Going up on our terrace to water my plants this morning I found this white-breasted kingfisher perched high. I ran downstairs for my camera and got these shots through the glass door. I dared not open the door or I'd have missed this chance. From my crouching point there was no flash of that magnificent blue but this is one of my favourite birds to photograph. Isn't that beak incredible? As soon as I had taken a few shots, it called out in that shrill voice. It's a commonly heard sound in our neighbourhood but that sound usually comes from the highest wires and alas, my camera has its shortcomings.

White-breasted or white-throated kingfisher is a tree kingfisher. According to Wiki, they can often be found well away from water where they feed on a wide range of prey that includes small reptiles, amphibians, crabs, small rodents, and even birds.

An early morning call!

Throughout summer I had photographed the lizards in my garden. I have even posted some of the photos from this collage before. This is a reminder of lizard activity particularly in the months of June and July. The picture below was taken on my Indian blackberry tree.

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Tiny Creatures For Nature Notes

We've had several sudden showers this past week and the temperature has come down.

Amid my portulacas and bachelor buttons, I often see the tiniest of skippers feeding on the blooms.

Here's one of the blues on a Polyscias some time after the rain stopped.

Another skipper feeds on a yellow portulaca.

But yesterday's sunshiny day was much welcome. More chores get done when the clouds are gone. The best was the sight of the crescent moon shining through the leaves of my berry tree.

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Nature Notes/More From Deepor Beel

The Golden Birdwing

I was back in the vicinity of Deepor Beel on Saturday. The sight of all the fabulous winged creatures that I had seen and photographed on my last visit kept haunting me so I had to go back again!!

The swallowtails were there again but this time their wings never stopped moving!! But I caught the patterns on the lower portion of this Golden Birdwing butterfly.

A dragonfly rests on a large dried leaf

And the carpenter bees are fond of the Rattlepod blooms/Crotalaria retusa. My reference book Common Book Of Indian Wild Flowers by Isaac Kehimkar says that gregarious patches of this shrub are common along river banks and fields. Bruised and dried plants are attractive to milkweed butterflies like Tigers and Crows, as a source of an alkoloid essential for their reproduction. The flowering period is from September to April.

A Common Sailer butterfly on a lantana bush and the wings of this dragonfly shimmers in the afternoon sun.

Two red-vented bulbuls on a bare tree. This tree also seems to be the favourite perch of bee-eaters.

A pleasant surprise to see when the picture loaded that it had the Golden Birdwing butterfly as well as the Common Picture wing dragonfly in one shot.
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Around our house.

Shrike

Spotted Dove nesting on one of the lamps in our balcony

Now that our cooler season will be here, I noticed this Shrike yesterday on the wires next to our house. They are said to move to warmer climes during the winter. Looks like I'll be seeing them around for a longer period of time since it's only September now.

And I was pleasantly surprised to see this Spotted Dove nesting on one of our lamps. This is on a balcony upstairs outside a guest room that isn't used often. I hope I'll be able to take some good shots of the young later.

There's more in store on Nature Notes at Michelle's Rambling Woods.

An Orange Moth For Nature Notes

For today's Nature Notes I'm posting pictures from my archives. I saw this spectacular moth (looking at the head gear makes me think so) in my parents' backyard. This was taken two years ago and although I've looked at tons of Google images I haven't come across anything similar to this one. I'd be happy if anyone would be able to identify it for me.:)

There's more in store at Michelle's Rambling Woods.

Edited to add: My thanks to Cyren and Brittanie (see comment section) for identifying this spectacular insect. It's a type of Cranefly and not what I thought it was, a moth.