Cut Coral tree grows!

If you sow a seed, water and see tiny plant coming out, you get limitless bliss and pat yourself having done a wonderful job – as a child and also as an adult. You could also have imagined a tree coming out of a seed, as I did! Yes, I saw my tree in three years, as I imagined:

It was in full bloom and its flowers appeared like ’flames in the forest.” My tree is The Indian Coral Tree (Erythrina variegata, ‘Mul Murungai’ or ‘Sudukaai Maram’ in Tamil). But one day in its third year of bloom its canopy was cut down – for its growing up towards the sky (!), to avoid its touching the overhead electric lines:

I felt so sad about it for about two months till I saw tender leaves coming out of the stump:

You see here as it appears now:

I hope to see the wonderful reddish bloom once again on it in a year. Let us see!

Black Drongo chases Crows!

Still I remember the song (call) given by this bird about forty years ago! It is so melodious that it is pleasant to hear it every time. This bird’s monotonous call can be heard first at dawn before any bird could start calling. This bird is our Black Drongo (King Crow, Dicrurus macrocercus, ‘Karichaan Kuruvi’ or ‘Rettaivaal Kuruvi’ in Tamil). Anyone can identify this small black bird with its longer and forked tail. It sits higher on perches like electric lines, or rides on cow’s back, darting down now and then to catch insects and grasshoppers seen on the ground. Its delicacies are the Flying Termites at Monsoon season. And at summer time it is also seen near burning grasslands catching flies that escape out of fire.

This bird lays small eggs in cup like nest in April and the eggs hatch out in fifteen days, and the young ones fly out on the sixteenth day!

The bird chases away in flight even crows or mynahs that come near its nest! In doing so it makes a lot of noise alerting other birds.

I have seen this wonder black bird sitting on electric lines even at dusk, and near street lights catching insects at night!

Laminated Glass prevents injury!

Each time a glass cup or a plate is broken into pieces I take care that these do not injure the person handling them to dispose off. Still I see persons getting glass piece pricks into their feet as they walk on the rural roads. Nowadays there is also a change: I see smaller, regular and similar glass pieces (that resemble large sugarcane crystals) lying on the road when there is an accident, or on the fight scene in movie pictures! These pieces come out of Laminated Safety Glass (also called Automotive Glass). This special glass is a toughened and high strength glass. When shattered it holds together its broken pieces. It also prevents itself from breaking down into large sharp pieces even when it falls down from a height. Inside this glass there is an interlayer of Polyvinyl butyral (PVP). When it is broken the two outer layers of (broken) glass sheets are kept bonded only by this inner layer!

It is a wonder glass that doesn’t injure any one even when it is broken – unlike our heart!

Bagworms with jerky movements!

I often see some tiny spindle-shaped objects move on the floor of my room near the wall. They move in jerks. If I touch them they stop and restart to move on, as I take off my hand. They have the grey flattened casing around them with the head peeping out. (Here they resemble a just born human baby encircled with clothes all around!). These are the Bagworms (larvae of Bagworm Moths, Clania crameri). They have this bag or the case made of silk, and often have leaves or sticks stuck all around it. This nest-like encasing is said to be a protective mechanism against predators or the unfavorable environment (That’s why they have moved into my room escaping the hotness of summer!).

Hatching out from the eggs these larvae feast on the leaves voraciously. Male larvae grow up and attach to the twigs of trees and remain suspended pupating till winged adult moth comes out of it. But the female larvae stay as such inside their bags throughout their lives without developing into a winged adult!

It is a wonder larva of Bagworm Moths lurking inside its bag to grow and live!