Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Devarayadurga


Today, Wednesday the 3rd of October we visited
Devarayadurga and its hills, still part of the ancient granite mountains that stretch north and south of Bangalore. As usual, my guide Kumar Ghorpade brought his trusty insect net so that he could add to his collection of Syrphid flies, also know as hover flies. He tells me he has 100,000 specimens in his collection, more than the Smithsonian, where he was a post doctoral researcher 24 years ago.


One of the delights he provides is a knowledge of many thing besides birds. He has a keen eye for insects of course but I have been enjoying his commentary on India and its people as well.




Here is a gigantic carpenter bee- the size of a grape!









Below is the Red-whiskered bulbul, which has now become familiar to my eyes in this land of newness.













How can we deny our close lineage with the apes and monkeys, the other primates on the planet when we see scenes such as this monkey admiring himself in a mirror?



A common scene every where I go:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any pictures of said Syrphid flies? I'd love to see an example...

Nate said...

Carrie and I are jealous of your iridescent-winged carpenter bee. Ours just has transparent wings.

Maybe you could pack a container of dead insects for us before you return to the US...?