Anhinga

Hey everyone..

I haven't stopped keeping an eye out for birds and little creatures. Just recently I spotted this bird sitting on the banks of a pond. Wings wide open, waving a lazy sunny welcome to Soorya-dev!

Fig. 1. Anhinga

I looked it up on the net and found that this is an Anhinga. A boy Anhinga (because of the full black body). This is a "darter" or sometimes called a snake bird, which is certainly a very apt name. It swoops into the water.. all the way in. And then swims with its whole body underwater.. except for its head and long neck which entirely stick out into the air. Looks exactly like a snake dancing on the water! ;)

After all those underwater acrobatics, it is sitting out on the banks now sunning itself to dry out its wings. And you thought birds don't have to dry their laundry!

Blue Jay on a run

Hey everyone..

I have been back to running fairly consistently past few days now. And every morning I remind myself of days like these.. See there are very definite benefits of running outdoors. You get to see cute stuff! :) Here is a little blue birdie I saw recently while out on a run.

Fig.1. Blue Jay - kind of small, maybe a baby Blue Jay?

It was nestling at the bottom of a tree trunk. All fluffy and cozy. Head under its wing. Like it did not want to wake up. Like it did not care that it was daylight outside. Like it did not even know that it was a week day for goodness sake!

Birds these days, I tell you..

Now if birds were on Twitter, we could leave them tweets about the day's to-do, whats-in, whats-not, which worm is happening and which isn't.. Then they wouldn't dream about staying in bed like this and missing out on all the buzz!

When will birds learn to tweet..

PS: On a more serious note.. why would a little bird be sleeping on the ground? Shouldn't it be in a nest somewhere up there? I couldn't see a nest up in the tree.. but then that doesn't mean there wasn't one. Oh well.. another mundane, but unsolved mystery!

Turtle watching

The other day when I visited a friend, we went to a small nature preserve. A very short hike away, we reached a pond/some-sort-of-murky-water-body.. and there we spotted this darling turtle..

Fig. 1. Turtle

I increased the brightness a little so we could see the turtle in the pic.. and yet he is hard to spot. He must have been about 4-5 inches large and quite a bit away from us.

I tried to read up about Turtles, but couldn't figure out what this guy's name might be. He was really tiny, and this pic doesn't give very many details. So I am just going to call him Mr. Acrobat!

I couldn't click this, but underneath Mr. Acrobat, inside the water was another turtle poking his head out periodically. :)

Wish we could carry around cool zoom cameras all the time. Wish cool cameras were less expensive. Wish my cell phone camera could take better pictures. (No, this was not my cell phone camera, but even my best camera is an ordinary point and shoot.) Wish Turtles stood still! Wish I'd at least had the presence of mind to take a video of Mr Camera-Shy Turtle bobbing in and out of the frame...

What do you wish either you or your camera could do?

Snail run

I run like a snail. "It's ok, just carry on!" I say to myself. And as an affirmation (doesn't happen often, so it's a nice fluke) I actually saw a snail 3 times this week! On the exact same spot! Oh ok, roughly the same spot.. this guy gets about 2 inches ahead each day. Not sure where he is headed.. I guess to the right?

Sometimes the going is really tough. And it's all very easy to say "Ya, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.." Easier said than done. I am the one who is running!! But just when I start to wallow in self-pity along comes Snail-esh! I saw him on Friday, then again on Sunday and now again today. He's one tough guy!! He has moved less than a foot in the last 5 days. But does he stop? Does he give up and turn back? Nope! You can actually see from the trail of those "wet" (what are those for God's sake?) spots behind him... and none in front, that he stays focused straight ahead!! Slow and steady he trudges on. He doesn't stop, doesn't give up. And what if I had run over the poor guy?!!! He is tiny enough that I could have crushed him in the dark!! I guess Snailesh Dada has more than just determination on his side.. He believes no one will crush him whether inadvertently or.. um.. advertently. I guess there is something to his positivity.

I just have to give it to Snailesh! Stay focused, determined and positive! We will get there!

Cheerio and thanks for reading!

Great Egret

Hey everyone.. time for a nature post! Here is an amazing bird I saw recently while I was traveling. Look at that wisp of a tail! How funny. :)

Fig. 1. Great Egret

It is not usually possible for me to take good pictures of birds.. but I do keep an eye out for them. This one was a lucky shot. The bird was walking fairly close by, carefully, slowly. So I took several pics. This one turned out to be the nicest.

It is likely that this is called a Great Egret. There is more info about Great Egrets on Wikipedia. It is possible that it could also be the Great White Heron, which is the white counterpart of the Great Blue Heron. But wiki describes that the Great White Herons have yellow legs, whereas the Great Egrets have black legs. So I guess this one might be a Great Egret.

Fig. 2 Great Egret

Fig. 3 Great Egret

Keep your eyes open too.. there are lots of beautiful birds and animals around us. :)

Thanks, Mallika (of Veg Bowl!) for tagging me with your Tag award. The rule of this Tag was to post a favorite picture and Tag other people. I guess these are my favorite pictures. :) And I suggest that any blogger who takes pictures of birds and nature around them, please consider yourselves tagged and post something pretty on your blog for us to see!

Papaya tree

Pretty papayas (I think) growing near my friend's house.

And she had never noticed them before!! Do you notice which trees grow near your house? Which birds flit onto your patio?

I often don't know the names for trees, flowers, birds and cannot identify a thing. But let's see, I have decided to post anything pretty I see (that waits long enough for me to click).

If I don't know what it is, you will! :)

Cheers!

Spring is in the air!!!!!!

...... and how fragrant!!!

If anyone knows which flowers these are, I would love to know ..!