Indian palm squirrel (Funambulus palmarum)

Looks like it's not just the Rose-ringed Parakeets (Psittacula krameri)  that enjoy eating the seeds from the brown ripe pods of the African Tulip Tree (Spathodea campanulata). The Indian palm squirrel  also known as the three-striped palm squirrel seems to share the meal too. Never seen this little fella so high up the tree whenever I've observed these two squirrels that have made this tree their home, scurrying around jumping from tree to tree. Nevertheless the tasty seeds seemed to keep this one pre-occupied long enough for me to get a few shots!

Chewing away...

Rose ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) - Different moods

 This Rose-ringed Parakeet keeps visiting the African Tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata) near my house. It's also known as the Ringnecked Parakeet. It hardly stays in one place for a few minutes. Luckily this one which looks like a male was too engrossed in munching away and I just couldn't help clicking away!! 

Incidentally, two of these huge trees, which have stood tall for years (they can grow upto 82ft) , right across my house find their homeland in West Africa which also used to be my second home quite sometime back. Having spent a major part of my childhood in the port city of Lagos, Nigeria...I never knew, until now that these trees which I have always admired, especially for their dashing tulip shaped reddish orange flowers and long green pods filled with seeds having transparent wings are native to the tropics of West Africa. Looks like the world is a small place after all!


So why do the parakeets come here?..It's for the seeds in the green pods which turn brown when ripe. Hundreds of pods containing millions of seeds which fly all over the place giving the street sweepers a field time. They are also known as Fountain Tree or Flame-of-the-forest which suits because if you look at it during sunset when they are in full bloom, it actually looks like there are hundreds of bunches of small bright orange flames all over, lit by African tree pixies or something. Right now they've just begun to bloom....will put up pics once the pixies have lit all the fires!


I've sat in the terrace and stared at these trees for long hours especially during early mornings and felt totally at peace.You could call it our karmic connection- we both have our roots in the same place after all. I have observed two crows build their nest in one of them, feed their babies and watched the chicks hopping  from one branch to another trying to fly and eventually fly away. It currently plays host to a pair of Black Kites (Milvus migrans) which have a huge nest, bang in the middle of the tree made of dried twigs, branches, grass, wires and what not. In fact the nest has been there for ages and the kites use the same nest every year improvising on it. The chicks have hatched, looks like there are two of them and are growing up fast thanks to mama and papa's tireless hunting day in and day out and their constant high pitched calls that go something like ewee-wir-wir-wir...eweeee-wir-wir-wir...eweeeeeeeee-wir-wir-wir  which also doubles up as my wake up call every morning! Am so used to that sound, that those days I don't hear them, it feels like something is wrong.
This was one of the closest shots I managed to take of one of the kites in it's nest . Couldn't get a pic of the chicks but am sure they are in there. Really need to get that DSLR and good pair of lenses to go with soon!

Black Kite in it's nest



Well it was one of those staring sessions that led to spotting this parakeet which had stopped by for it's evening snack...Hope you enjoy it's different moods I was lucky enough to capture! 

 Inquisitive..Should I or should I not?

A small jump...

Are you looking at me?..

 Aah..This tastes good..

Munching away..

I even managed to get a goodbye wave...:)

And he flew away.....

The Danaid Eggfly (Hypolimnas missipus)

Looks can be deceiving. While clicking the pics I thought these were two different butterflies. Only later upon a closer look I realised it was the same butterfly with different patterns on the front and back wings. Had never given much thought to the fact that butterflies could look astonishingly different with their wings open and closed. 

This one looks like a male because of the distinctive white spots. The Danaid Eggfly is also known by two more names- Mimic or Diadem. They are deservingly called so because of their characteristic 'Polymorphism'  which in layman terms would mean it's ability to appear in different forms and 'Mimicry' which means similarity in appearance to one or more species in terms of appearance, behaviour, sound , scent and sometimes even location. Visual mimicry known as camouflage is quite common among butterflies where for Eg., say a green colored butterfly may take on the deceiving appearance of a leaf thereby duping potential predators.

Wonder how different our world would be if we were capable of both?- Well I wouldn't mind dissolving into my surroundings once in awhile when there are unwelcome predators at bay or even remotely taking on the appearance of an Angelina Jolie or a Julia Roberts once in awhile-It could prove to be quite handy and am sure they wouldn't mind !!! 

Well I guess even butterflies have their own stories to tell and what I've unearthed in the process is that it get's more and more interesting by the line....not to mention the satisfaction you get in identifying them later on from your very own pics..:)

Crimson Rose (Atrophaneura hector)

This one will always be special. It's the first picture I thought I took of a butterfly when I was taking an evening stroll in my aunt's banana plantation field situated right in their backyard! I had presumed the Grass Demon (Udaspes Folus) I clicked just before my encounter with Crimson here was some kind of a moth. Now that I look back it makes me wonder why I did that....funny but true! Had gone there over a weekend thinking it would be a good excuse to give the more curious part of me an opportunity to spook around for a bit. Had been several times to my aunt's place in the past, knew that there was this field right behind their house but was never really inspired to go and check it out. To me back then it was just another mushy place with creepy and crawly insects, bees, hens, cows and snakes even. Years later I'd never imagined that I would be the same person who would go in there actually looking for all that stuff! Funny how just holding a camera in my hand changed that whole perspective- It's like seeing the same boring world with a new interesting pair of eyes! 

Crimson Rose perched on a banana leaf

Well sometimes you need to experience it to know what it truly feels like. Well this small stroll in my aunt's backyard was just that. I had no idea what to expect but had made up my mind to go in there and spend sometime no matter. What had got me even more interested was when my aunt happened to mention that snakes were quite common there because it was a marshy swampy area and I guess snakes love that. 

I remember the last time my aunt took me to the plantation was to show me the graves of her mother and father-in-law. Well in those days if u had a field in the backyard, generally the elders were buried there. In this case both my aunt's in-laws were buried right next to each other, near a well whose water was used for irrigating the plantation. I later learned that my aunt's father-in-law had actually chosen the area near the well to be his final resting place. I still recall feeling really spooky and weird when I set foot there for the first time to visit their graves thinking that their spirits probably haunted the place or something. Ironically this time, I was so engrossed in looking for friends of the crawly and fluttering kind while enjoying the cool breeze that I completely forgot to even look at the tombs even though I was standing right next to them, my eyes transfixed on a Grass Demon (Udaspes folus) butterfly perched on a leaf of some creeper on the ground...totally my bad! Made a mental note that I should pay my respects the next time.

So this time I ventured out hopeful of some encounter with the slithering kind (although made it a point not mention that to either my aunt or my mom who had accompanied me there) but instead met this pretty fella- The Crimson Rose perched on one of the several banana leaves. I was so excited about my luck that I just clicked away with shaking hands and ended up taking only a couple of pics that were not blurred! Another lesson learnt- Patience pays! Focus and give it your best shot...don't get too excited- You'll either scare your subject or it may scare you off!!!

What really struck me about the butterfly was the dashing red colour on it's body and the structure of the wings- One of the prettiest butterflies I've ever seen! The Crimson Rose is a large swallow tail. One of the interesting things I learnt was that the bright red colouration and the striking pattern on it's wings are meant to indicate to predators that this butterfly is inedible. Wow!... never realised that all those pretty colours could be giving out the danger signal to potential predators. In our world when someone goes red in the face it assumes a totally different meaning!

Well here's to my first butterfly- will always remember you Crimson...or perhaps if I were a guy I would have called you Rose!

Grass Demon (Udaspes folus)