Double strike

Hey, the previous post was too short, so here I go again ;-))

Snakes, have fascinated me, probably for the sheer fear & mystery surrounding them, and also that they are hardly seen. I use to offer 100$ rewards for chaps who showed me one during our outings. Nobody has claimed it yet ;-)

I knew cubbon housed a few snakes, some in the pond, a few around the bamboo groove, and the rest almost anywhere. Yet, I failed to spot them. The huge number of people frequenting the park perhaps make them keep a low profile.

Sometime back, there was a crowd below a tree, and they said, a snake had attacked a squirel nest in the branches, some fight, and once people intervened with sticks etc had gone probably into the nest. The nest was a withered hollow branch. Again, I had just missed action.

A few days later, as I walked with Dinesh close to the bamboo grooves, one guy was striking something repeatedly with a big stone, we quickly dashed there, but the damage was done. A green baby snake lay dead with its head crushed. Shouted at that guy, he simply ran away. So much fear & ignorance.

On Tuesday, Aug 23rd, I turned lucky at the pond. This chap hung around for quite sometime, and was busy hunting his prey.

There was a flow of water, and this guy hung around the barrage to catch his prey.

There was another smaller snake - more greener - but disappeared soon.

I moved away delighted at the sightings. The first time I saw a snake through my camera. More luck, a family of parakeets, screeching like hell, had settled on a tree.

Moved very slowly, and took a few snaps, most of them were bad. My hand seemed to shake a lot & fading light didn't help either.

Notice the long tail & the blue in it. Reminds me...somehow I feel there are not many green colored birds. Barbets, parakeets and perhaps a few more. Birds generally are more brightly colored with contrasting color combinations. But, evolution must have aided birds which could camaflouge with the green leaved surroundings, right ?? So what is it that favours brightly colored birds ?? Yeah! we could keep out the water birds out of the picture. Still, lotz of land birds are non-green, why ??