Like kites? Then look at this moon moth

Indonesian Moon Moth?

This is one crazy-looking moon moth. My father-in-law (FiL) came across this guy in the school he is headmaster at. This was probably 3 years ago and at that time, all he had on him was his Nokia phone, so the captures are not crystal clear.

Even then, this moth is striking in appearance, with its kite-like wing span and long, tapering tail. The tail-end looks like a twisted tassel, something you would come across in flower petals.

The antennae is not very clear but they are long and brush-like, typical of any moth. My FiL excitedly mailed the pictures to me and I in turn posted them on BirdForum.net. Unfortunately, no one was able to identify him. The people on the forum are pros and veteran nature photographers. After a lot of googling, I came across similar moths – moon moths. Not much is written about moon moths on Wikipedia, except for their classification in the insect kingdom.

Like a hang glider...

At the time of writing this post, I tried searching again and I came across a picture of the Indonesian Moon Moth. This looks strikingly similar to the one my FiL found in his school office. I do remember visiting this website earlier but never did come across the Actias Maenas, which is the scientific name of the Indonesian Moon Moth. Well, I am glad I did now. The identification mystery is finally solved, I think. But I don't understand how this fellow ended up in Siliguri, West Bengal, India. There must be sub-species or a migratory route it follows. I mean, the Indonesian Moon Moth's habitat is listed as tropical rainforest. This one was sighted on the outskirts of Siliguri, which is a town at the base of the Himalayas and serves as a trade corridor the north-east. Now I am not sure whether the forest area is tropical or not, I am no expert on that but it does not add up. Lost or not, this guy made for some eventful e-mailing, Googling and forum posting.

Parrots: House hunting?

Paying a friendly breakfast visit?

This morning I happened to take a train from Grant Road Station, Mumbai and walk down to the Post Office for some work. On my way back, I came across these two parrots looking into a hollow on this (Gulmohar?) tree. All I had with me was my phone cam, so the pictures are really not that good. As soon as I took pictures and walked on, one of the parrots shrieked loudly, flew off and to my amazement a third one popped its head out of the hollow! I'd like to think this was a breakfast meet up.

...or scoping for a new home?

In reality, these two must have been scouting for a new home and got startled by the resident. Anyway, when I checked these pictures out, I realised that these are not rose-ringed parakeets. I assumed they were because you usually see the Alexandrine parrots in the suburbs. It was my oversight that I didn't bother to notice what type they were before impatiently (and hurriedly) taking a picture.


So, it turns out, if one looks very carefully at the poor quality captures, one will notice reddish patches (smudges, in this case) on their shoulders. That means they are Alexandrine parakeets – an 'introduced' species of parrots in Mumbai. Yep, I had read somewhere that unlike the rose-ringed ones, these guys are not native.

Asian Palm Swift: Mumbai

While taking a tea break with colleagues, I spotted some swifts swirling madly about at a distance. Now, we had with us a megazoom camera, a Canon Powershot SX40 HS and I knew that even with this cam it would be difficult to capture such an active bird. Initially, I took this to be the house swift or the Little Swift. But when we looked at the photograph I managed to take – which I must say was a lucky one because after this shot, I was unable to grab another still of the birds, they were just too fast – I realised that the swift was probably not a House Swift/Little Swift. I have only seen the House Swift, first hand, in the suburbs and South Mumbai.

Asian Palm Swift

This is a  crop of the original image, where the chap looked like a speck in a blue expanse. Laughable, I know. All you can see is the profile – which is good enough for a super amateur like me. Anyway, after some Wiki-ing, I think this might be the Asian Palm Swift. Let me know if any of you think otherwise.

Shillong Chamber Choir: The Indian Train Song

About a week or two ago, I got a chance to watch and listen to the Shillong Chamber Choir, live. A pre-Christmas celebration was being held on Chowpatty Beach and we were invited. Naturally, we attended it. We have always liked the Shillong Chamber Choir and I’m a big sucker for anything North-East. This is a recording of the Indian Train song. I started recording it the moment Neil Nongkynrih, the music director, said the train song is dedicated to Mamata Banerjee (the CM of West Bengal). Just like the Incredible India! ad, this song is supposed to convey what all one experiences while on a train journey. Except for the smells one encounters through train travel, I think almost all the common sounds have found a place in his composition.

Before you go on to watch the video (apologies for the poor audio), here are some of the words you will hear being repeated through the song, along with the literal translation. One thing to keep in mind is this is a group from the North-East, Hindi is not their mother tongue and English is mostly their second language. Not only do their sing Hindi songs like pros, they have even sung some Punjabi lines in this train song...

Chai, chai: Tea, tea
Samosa: A stuffed, deep fried snack
Channa, channa: Spiced up roasted/boiled chickpeas
Mishti doi: Sweet curd (a lip-smacking dessert from Orissa, West Bengal and Bangladesh. For the record, yogurt is nothing like mishti doi)

English words:
Coffee, coffee
Cold drink
Bread omelette
Veg cutlet

I hope I haven’t missed anything. Feel free to leave a comment if you find that I have left some out. The basic gist of the Punjabi verses is, “There are some girls in the train with us. They have lipstick and powder on their face... but I can see a beard under all of that makeup!” (LOL!)

What train journey is complete without a eunuch bumming you for some change? There is the manly, nasal chant, “Aye! Chuttaa de re!” (Give some change) and “Sirf dus rupiya!” (only ten rupees). And what follows is an argument between the eunuchs and passengers who are not willing to part with small change also.
My video recording is not very clear but it ends with passengers coughing and probably farting because the girls start holding their nose and waving their hands in the air disapprovingly.

I’ll stop my commentary now – enjoy the song and their superb singing because they did what the rest of the choirs couldn’t do on this windy day on the beach – sing beautifully and clearly. And I have to add that the men in this team are awesome singers. I was impressed with the shortest guy of them all (extreme right) – sings bass like a boss!



I just found a better video of this song, albeit in a different setting (a noisy football stadium), has been recorded and uploaded by WildFilmsIndia on YouTube.

Insects that have visited my house

Not everybody has the luck, time or the means to go birding or traipsing down nature trails to get their dose of excitement. Some of us city slickers have to make do with what they got. So if that means, sighting a common bird out of the kitchen window and act as though he spotted the Bird of Paradise, so be it. The same goes with coming across interesting insects too. I mean, I have seen some really wild spiders (read as shapely, colourful, etc.) even while on my way to work but it is virtually impossible to shoot the little buggers because of their size, the situation and the lack of said equipment. This here is a list of insects I have managed to photograph at my convenience and in the confines of my home. This does not include the Citrus Butterflies I nurtured many years ago on my orange plant. They hold a separate, special space in my insect world. For now, take a look at the guests I entertained in my house...

Praying Mantis giving me 'the look'

The Praying Mantis: One insect that has always fascinated me since my Tinkle-reading days. Found this guy on the floor, eerily still. His dry-leaf colour went well with the tiles, which is why he was hardly conspicuous and made it difficult for my camera to focus on. Anyway, the moment I prodded him, he jerked to life, making me momentarily jump out of my skin (Wodehouse-style).
Click on the image to see the rest of this fella on Flickr.
Now I know that there are many type of praying mantis out there. This time, Wikipedia was only a wee bit helpful on identifying this critter. The Bantiella Fusca comes close to resembling this particular Praying Mantis.

"I go well with your curtains"

The Curtain Insect: I am unable to identify this insect. He/She cleverly hung out near the flowers on my curtain. Notice the orange spots on its body? And how about those spots that resemble a pair of angry-looking eyes? Plus those loooong antennae...good thing this guy doesn't have to travel by bus or train. Imagine the trouble he would cause with those ticklers.
Once again, click on the image to see more on Flickr. And if you happen to know something about this six-legged, orange-spotted, goggle-eyed insect, please leave a comment.


Brown Flower Beetle: Came across this beetle in the balcony, struggling to free himself of the dust and cobwebs around his legs and on his outer shell. I have never seen such a shiny beetle. I have always shiny beetles to tropical rainforests kind of places, you know. So this guy was a really great find. My son and I crowded around him with a glass and make-up brush, taking photographs at the same time.
Anand on Flickr, helped me identify this beetle because he had shot a superb macro of the exact same one with the Canon G12.

This guy made a loud whirring-buzzing
noise when aggitated

This one was the complete opposite

Then there were these two - one really large and positively the most freaky looking and sounding, while the other was tiny and so docile.

Blogger for Android

Just found this app. Hopefully more ramblings to follow. Wonder it integrates within 'Share' also...
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Share via, works. Can post to blogger directly from there. Now if I could check box list and post to multiple destinations in one fell swoop...
(Added html up there, let's see if it takes that as well)

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Right...so the HTML tag did not work, the image didn't resize automatically to fit the column width and it didn't get published the right way up either. I can go directly to the camera mode and shoot a picture to attach to the post but there are no options to add/shorten a link, edit html (simply because there are no formatting tools available — it is a mobile version after all — and I may want to add some emphasis tags, etc. from time to time). Maybe I am asking for too much too soon.

Catscapade

Long stare
Originally uploaded by Flip Fantasia

I visited the WSD Shelter today with the intention to take some photographs of the volunteers with the US School kids. But when I reached one batch of children was already on its way and the next one seemed like they would come after lunch.

The second batch was going to paint a part of the wall in the shelter. Saw one of the US School representatives using a projector to complete the outlines of the artwork that the first batch could not complete. I suppose the next lot of kids must have filled them in with colour.

Once inside the kennel, it was little under-lit for my basic camera and I did not want to use the flash and irritate the dogs. There were quite a few volunteers (veterinary students) inside and Abodh was a little busy with the next batch of visitors from the US School. Didn't want to ask disturb and ask too many questions. Maybe next time, I will plan a little better and get some photographs of the dogs. One thing I must stop and say, I am amazed how clean the guys there keep the place. Given the number of dogs there and how many times the caretakers need to clean up after the dogs and keep the O.T. squeaky clean, it's a great achievement.

Meanwhile, feast your eyes on these lovely cats that were sprawled out outside the AIWA shelter, right behind the WSD kennel. I seemed to have mistimed my entry here as well. Since it was noon and probably around lunch time, so most of the cats had disappeared inside where it was cooler. Thankfully, there were still a handful outside that enjoyed all the fuss.