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.

Nature Notes/Dragonflies & Butterflies Of Deepor Beel

The sky reflected in the calm waters of Deepor Beel

For today's post, my husband and I headed to Deepor Beel, the largest water body in our area. It's on the outskirts of our city and it's always a treat to be there and photograph the flora and fauna. If you remember my last Nature Notes post I had gone gaga over a solitary Common Picture Wing dragonfly in my garden. But at Deepor Beel, they were clouds of them flying in the air and on twigs and dead branches. The photo shows the male and female. Females have more of the black spots.

Scarlet Basker/Urothemis signata

Although this spectacular dragonfly is said to be fairly common around low-lying marshy areas, I haven't seen it in our neighbourhood. There were about a dozen of these beauties where I stopped to take tons of photos.

I couldn't resist taking these shots. Wherever I looked, they were there!!!

Another basker!

Trumpet Tail

A moth on a small stem of a wild bush.

Ditch Jewel

Clouds of Common Picture Wing dragonflies (again!) were hovering in the air. I only managed to capture a small "cloud".

Not sure what this one, and the one below, are called.

 A swallowtail butterfly larger than the ones I see in my garden, feeding on the blooms of the lantana. The lantana's blooms attract several butterflies. The plant  is one of the most invasive weeds in our region.

Another pretty dragonfly that I have never seen before.

A pair of bee-eaters

Golden Birdwing Butterfly

The Golden Birdwing is one of the largest and most beautiful Asian swallowtail butterflies. I have seen it a few times in our city's outskirts but had never managed a decent picture. They are very difficult to photograph as they flit from flower to flower, feeding only for split seconds!! I hadn't expected to see find this butterfly here. It was truly a day well spent!

There's more in store here at Michelle's meme Nature Notes....http://ramblingwoods.com/

 

Birds At Deepor Beel

On Sunday, I headed off to Deepor Beel with my friend Mitali and her cousin. Deepor Beel is the largest water body in the outskirts of the city. In winter it's where all the migratory birds come.We left around 7.30 in the morning. It's an hour's drive away. As you can see from the first picture, it was foggy and the horizon could barely be seen. But there were birds galore. It was my first bird-watching trip so I was happy to see birds in great numbers. It didn't matter that I didn't get pictures of birds from colder climes, as such.

I don't know most of the names apart from the cormorant, the heron, and the eagle. Even the pylon was packed! I hope you've enjoyed the photos...despite the cloudy backdrop. I'll surely be going back to Deepor Beel. Now I'm thinking of sunny day bird pictures.....


This is my entry for World Bird Wednesday. Click on the link to see various feathered friends from across the globe.

Elusive Dragonflies

I'm calling these dragonflies elusive because looking at these pictures reminds me of the length of time that I had to wait under a searing sun. There were several red dragonflies and the vibrancy of the red stood out against the dying grass. as for the last photo, that's a Picture wing dragonfly that kindly deigned to stop for a moment.


All these pictures were taken about ten days ago at Deepor Beel,  the largest water body in our area.

Nature Walk

                                                                     

Yesterday we spent an afternoon on the banks of Deepor Beel, the largest water body in our vicinity. It is home to several varieties of aquatic life, local and migratory birds, reptiles and insects.

Guess who was the first to greet me? Not something that I expected as soon as I reached the place! A snake got out of its hole, looked around and disappeared. I just managed this shot and I made sure I wouldn't go near its den even if the prettiest butterflies led me there!

The Grey Pansy butterfly in its natural habitat. So far I have shot this one only in my garden so it was a delight to be able to photograph it in the wild.

To swim or not to swim seems to be the question for these pretty ducks.

Another Grey Pansy on a dry leaf. And now for some colour!

A damselfly, the Coromandel marsh dart on a lantana leaf. There were several damselflies but I couldn't get a good shot of the more colourful ones.

The lantana blooms attract several butterflies. These skippers look pretty happy!

There were clouds of dragonflies flying in the air. If you click on the picture below, you'll see several of these beautiful black and gold dragonflies known as Picture Wings. Below is a picture I had taken of this kind of dragonfly a few years ago  .

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

I hope you liked joining me on my walk today!