Around the house ... Flora and Fauna

I started getting interested in bird photography from beginning of 2013. First thing you learn in any website is to try out things in and around your place. I started wondering if I would notice any around my home. To my surprise, within 1 month, I could spot lots or different birds excluding the common bird like crow. This hit ratio according to me is great as I have a full time job and also considering that garden city is converting to concrete jungle. Other aspect is that you need a lot of patience.

          

The Red Hibiscus Tree:

One can witness the “Circle of life” around any tree. The case in point is the Red Hibiscus tree in front of my house.

 

Just to give you a perspective of the size, it is very hard to find these birds when the tree is in full blossom. Check the size of Birds - compare it to the tree and even the flower! This makes it so difficult to spot them.

  
Some birds come for nectar, some others for the insects, and other animals for both. I was able to capture some of them: 

    

 

While the tree was around all the time , now the way I started looking at has undergone a huge change. Apart from this some other beauties worth mentioning are: 

    

Trip to Chickmagalur – Mullayanagiri and Ratna Giri Bore

This weekend was in Chickmagalur (May 25^th and 26^th). The drive from Bangalore was good except after Channaraypattana, the highway road is yet to be completed. Once this is done, it will be a great road to drive. We went to Mullayanagiri, the highest peak in Karnataka. The plan was to leave early but the weather was too lazy for that. We finally started at 11:00am. It is just 22kms drive, mostly good road except the last 2 to 3 kms where the road gets narrow and full of pot holes.

As we reached the end of motor able road, we were blown away … this time literally. It was so windy that it would have made a great day for paragliding!! Then the challenge was to climb close to 150 steps in these conditions. The kids enjoyed the climb often doing “off roading”. It was worth the effort as the view from top was breath taking. 

 Mullayanagiri peak from bottom

View from top of the peak

View of traffic from the top

We also witnessed the age old way of transportation …

I would definitely recommend this to any one near Chickmagalur or a day trip from Bangalore covering Belur, Halebid and Mullayangiri. 

Next day morning we woke up by 6:45am and it was pretty cool … what else do you expect in a hill station. My cousin and I started for a walk to Ratna Giri Bore, a hill just 1km from where I stayed. It has a great garden with swing and other items that kids would love. They also have a toy train which was not open when we went. I was able catch some birds in action – along with their breakfast spread.