I am not fortunate enough to be able to be in a jungle over weekend or just be able to live in a jungle. However that did not deter me from enjoying the thrill of a predators hunt, the hunter becoming the hunted becoming the hunted or experiencing the joys of new life being nurtured.
Yesterday morning we took a bunch of 7 to 11 year old kids for a bird watching walk to the nearby VNIT campus. This was not supposed to be a serious activity considering the fact that it is very difficult to keep kids quite and also was not expected to last long as the kids were anticipated to tire out very soon in even in the early morning sun. We started at 6:30am and were done by a few minutes past 7am having spotted about 24 varieties of birds. Just as we were on the edge between the shrub land and road I heard a very tiny ‘cheep cheep’ sound…. Lo behold! right in front of me was a nest of a Purple Sunbird, one of India’s smallest but also a very beautiful bird. I was able to get a picture of the male in all his iridescent beauty despite shooting through a wire fence. I also got a couple of pictures of him feeding the tiny chicks. All of them – shots of a life time, that I will treasure forever!
In case you are curious – yes, the female also shares the caring duties but she was more busy trying to mimic a broken wing to distract me. I did not get any decent pictures of her…. well some other day!
We returned home with me gloating over the pictures and a grin which nothing could wipe of my face. The children were playing outside while Swati fixed them some breakfast. My attention was drawn to a Praying Mantis as I was just settling to observe it hunt the hunter became the hunted. The Praying Mantis was preyed upon by a Garden Lizard. The flurry of activity attracted a Black Drongo who thought that the Garden Lizard was a pretty good meal! The whole drama was played out so fast that all I could capture was the Garden Lizard with the Mantis in its mouth.
Rest of the day was largely inconsequential as was the long end of the day discussion between me and Swati about the long term road map for SANIsoft.