Lizard wife of snake - the Skink!

In my childhood days I was warned about a slithering lizard inhabiting wastelands. It is still believed that its presence means that there is also its 'consort' nearby - snake! That lizard has also a warning red line line on its sides extending to its tail end. It is the Common Sun Skink (Mabuya multifasciata, 'Paambu Rani' or 'Paambaranai' in Tamil).

Bird making a booming call - the Crow Pheasant!

When I was a child, elders told me to listen to the sounds coming out from a nearby grove and alerted me about it like this: 'it is the sound given by a snake (cobra) as it is now incubating its eggs; don't enter into the grove' For many years I was made timid by this sound as my peers were also done so - until I found out myself that it is not a snake making that sound but a bird! Yes, it is the Crow Pheasant (Southern Coucal, Centropus parroti, 'Sembotthu' in Tamil).

Rats living in community - Naked mole rats!

We see ants, termites and bees live a social life sharing tasks among themselves. But a mammal too leads such a eusocial life! It is the Naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glabra, Desert mole rat, Sand puppy). It is a burrowing rodent that lives underground in East African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia). Its adaptation to desert life is surprising.

Merry-go-round, Earth and train are interrelated!

Science teacher at school explained why trees grown along the sides of railway track seem to 'run' back as one travels in a train. But I did not expect at that time that that explanation and my realisation will help me later in life to understand easily a mega event that happens daily! What is it?

A crawling wonder on back!

At school, as boys we used to play on its sandy ground. Then we were often stunned by feeling some creature crawling up between our shirt and the back. As soon as we understood it to be a 'biting ant' we pulled out our shirts and brushed away this ant - to avoid its agonizing bite. Yes, this is a special type of 'ant' that looks like an ant; but it is a different one: a Flightless Wasp! (Eupelmus vesicularis, 'Rail vandi erumbu, Soogai erumbu' in Tamil).

Garden Wonders!

Though some plants are thorny, they bear beautiful flowers and have also medicinal properties; you see a flower of Tack weed (Tribulus terrestris, 'Nerunji' in Tamil).A blue flower with thin petals from a weed that has also tinnier leaves:

Another visual treat from garden!

If we get something unusual we are amazed. You see here the flowers of hybrid Cluster beans that were robust and grew up tall over a meter!

Garden has often winged visitors that it invites with its plants. Here are the pictures of a Locust:

Appealing wonders - Garden pictures!

An unusual colour excites and sticks well to your mind - a Yellow Shoe flower shows itself here:

Delicious fruits that were offered by my tree (that was uprooted by a downburst) - Guava fruits invite you here:

Downburst - a mighty nature of Nature!

On one of the days in June 2010, the Guava tree in my garden was uprooted by the windy rains. That tree yielded delicious fruits twice each year; it gave me the fruits through the window of my house - I plucked them through the window itself! The tree was a wonderful place to both birds and animals that I used to click many pictures and posted them in this blog. It was a tall tree that had grown up for almost eight years then. I was sorrowful about the incident. How could it have been uprooted on a single day?