Hunsur–A journey to the rice fields by the lake side

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A trip to spend some time with Gerry Martin in his farm house in Hunsur by the Devikere Lake, to explore the beautiful rice fields, to observe and photographs the magnificent insect kingdom and yes eat good food. Spent 4 days way back in 2011 and wanted to return back. Went back this year in January and had a whale of a time.

2011 - http://www.wow-wonderworks.blogspot.in/2011/02/snakes-love-story.html

I am going to primarily have this as a photo essay which a few one liners sprinkled here and there.

Frogs, Crabs

Indian Pond Frog (Euphlyctis hexadactylus) – What a beautiful Frog, really huge in size and its distress call can bring Suresh Kalmadi’s (poorly constructed) stadiums down.

Huge Brown Crab, very close to a water stream very late in the night.

Smaller Brown Crab hiding in the rice fields, the ploughed rice fields give these guys and the snakes a perfect hunting / hiding place.

Insects

The Body Armor Bug

A great adaptation, you would have seen green grass hoppers, this was completely colored like a dried straw which is its habitat – superb camouflage.

Another Superb Bug – These are all at ground / tiny twig level, you walk fast they don’t exist!

Hopper

There is a woman behind every …. man…. yeah literally!

Crimson Rose

Life inside a Honey Bee’s Nest

Weaver Ants

We eat to live, we work to live….

With its hunt

Dragons & Damsels

Birds

The Boeing of the Bird Kingdom

The Boeing in flight

Purple Heron

Painted Stork

Nest Building Activity

River Tern – Nest on the hot rock : peeps out with Surprise

Black Crowned Night Heron

Landscape

A nights sleep to recharge our batteries – a star and the crescent share the stage

Others

A unknown flower close to the water bed.

A cacti with yellow flowers

Silky and ready to disperse thy seeds

Beep hoots…Time for the Scorpion Show

Scorpions are also known to glow when exposed to certain wavelengths of ultraviolet light such as that produced by a black light, due to the presence of fluorescent chemicals in the cuticle. One fluorescent component is now known to be beta-carboline. A hand-held UV lamp has long been a standard tool for nocturnal field surveys of these animals. Fluorescence occurs as a result of sclerotization and increases in intensity with each successive instar.[23] This fluorescence may have an active role in scorpion light detection.

The injection the sting

A curled up defensive pose

The dance when the stage lights are up

I never knew Scorpions are gentle, they don’t sting us as they know we are not their prey. They do make hissing sounds similar to a cobra when agitated. However in the few little occasions when humans are stung like in a shoe bite etc, guess either the scorpion is under sever pain and stress or the human foot literally injects himself by stamping on the stinger…

Devikere Lake – Panorama (20263*5414)

Slide Show of the entire set

Didn’t spot many snakes, just a gigantic rat snake and the Brahminy blind snake. Saw the jungle cat quite close. Tried my hand at fishing with sophisticated fishing rods and set a new record after 30 minutes lost my fishing hook and my entire bait. Terrible drive to the Nagarhole reserve never did think we will return on those adventurous roads (my poor car). Lovely & memorable drive with some great discussions on our back to Bangalore with Mr Ossie Martin (Gerry’s Dad).

Monish

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