Namoora Mandhara Hoove

Seriously, ;-)) I don't know how a Mandhara Pushpa looks like though most people would. Yesterday - July 6th - happened to take a small walk towards Kumara Parvatha - Western ghats - less than 2 hour walk, and the following were what I saw. It was raining on & off.
The first chaps to catch my eye were these two. Not sure if they were fighting or smooching ;-) But seriously reminded me a lot of a close couple of mine, and a shot I took of them last weekend. Hey, can you guess the gender of these ?? I am not sure. I think both male & female cows have horns. And, apart from the obvious difference, which I think we can't notice here. Anything else ??


As I moved on this place was turning out to be a flowering paradise. Amazing flowers washed clean by the rains. And this is what caught my eye. They are conical clusters, and seem to be quite common.

I was approaching a small bridge, and a tributary of Netravati(??) was flowing hurriedly. Came across this butterfly. Infact, lotz of other species were seen, but flying too fast or not sitting anywhere at all.














As I was looking down the bridge onto a tree for butterflys, came across this chap. Was not so easy to pick, and infact seen better from the zoomed camera eye. This particular one sat there fora long long time, 11am when I first saw, 11:45 when I was walking back, and afternoon 3pm, when I went back for a quick look. It has a thin long body, and wings that have some darkening at the tips, and the wings are at some 30 degrees angles to the very slender body. Rarely, have I come across wings that don't close on the body. And, those eyes - simple or compound ??? ( generally throwing some jargon).

A common house-hold flower. Mandhara hoovu ??? I am not sure. Basically, I was walking on a street that led to the start of Kumara parvatha trek route with houses on both sides



Hey, this is lovely...no further comments.

A bee does its job, look at the flower next to it.
This insect sat there, and wasn't scared of me. Lot of shots, he generally moved around & posed. Note, the yellow streak in it - matched with the yellow of the pollen/stamens (????). Okay, at this point I seemed to reach the outskirts of the town. Greenery seen to be believed, a farm looked this.

Moving on...I was nearing the start of the climb to Kumara parvatha. I was helped by couple of sign boards pointing the paths. And, soon I was climbing. And soon, a moth flew around, I waited it to sit somewhere. Surprise, surprise....it sat on my feet for a long time, and then flew & this time settled on my pant.

As I climbed, the sound of the forests welcomed me. For a change the cicada's were silent. And a lot of birds sang....sang a lovely song. The call of the ghost-bird in Paheli seemed artificial but here, I seemed to hear such long calls. Recorded a few calls on my video, and then it started raining. I climbed up somemore - knew I had another 5 minutes b4 I turn back - at this point noticed 2 leaches on my feet, quickly got them away, and turned back ;-))

Videoed a leach. The movements are interesting, it seems to have a base(tail end) & a sensor head, both ends can stick. It senses for a hold with the head and then sticks it at a new position & then moves the tail also to the new position & sticks it. Frees the head now, and looks for the next step. It does this pretty fast.

There were a lot of Cacti's around, and this caught my attention. Somehow, reminds me of an Elephant .Reminded me of the Elephants we saw from the top of Savandurga - which Dharin couldn't locate for a long long time ;-))

As I descended, came across this farm again and these orange stuff sticking at the base of a tree . Adike mara (Beetel nut tree) I think. I couldn't go closer for a better shot. Any idea ??

Walked along. Saw a women washing clothes in a stream, men at work at a farm. Still raining. And, this time I had marked the plants for a good picture of these flowers. I see a lot of them in western ghats. Noticed them on the last trek. And, these were the best shots I got. Notice, the yellow & orange flowers (donno what the funda is)....yellow later turns to red or the other way ?? It has a lot of white leave like petals too closeby. Its very interesting. Took these shots in the rain.

The yellow guyz are drooping, is that a clue ?? red turns to yellow, droops & falls away.

It still was raining heavily, to my rescue were the now-old DC jacket & an hand-kerchief. Walked along hunting for my subjects. And, soon here was a lovely one, shielding the camera lens I took this shot. A nice colorful butterfly isn't it ??

Soon, I came across the plant I felt had the best view of these white flowers. They are heavenly ;-)) This along with the red conical ones were THE flowers for me in this trip.

A close up here, notice the fly like insect at the base of the stamens.

Okay, now for a quiz question.

How many sons does Lord Shiva & Parvathi have ?? (no daughters, strangely!!)

Stumped by the change in subject ??. Well, this had been in my head the last couple of days. I think, the answer is three. Ganesha, Subramanya & Aiyappa (north Indian crowd, may gasp at the third ;-)) But, then I was stumped when I continued to see a forth one in the family for almsot 2 continuous days. Come rain or shine. This 4th member stayed there, and didn't seem to budge.