rocksea and sarah » bhoothathankettu

the dung beetles

rocksea — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:12:31 +0000

The dung beetles belong to the family scarabaeoidea, and are also known as scarab beetles. Those in the images below, are in the process of rolling the dung, after which they take it to a safe place and bury for consuming later.

They don’t need to eat or drink anything else as the dung provides all nutrients they need, including water.

Date: 27 Sep 2007
Location: @ Bhoothathankettu, Ernakulam, Kerala, India
Camera: Nikon D80 + Tamron SP AF90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Lens | Olympus C770UZ + MCON-40 Macro Lens

the giant wood spiders

rocksea — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:48:16 +0000

Giant Wood Spider, nephila pilipes [formerly known as nephila maculata]. If you consider the female of this species and the webs they build, yes they are giants but if you look at the males, you will say they are tiny! Anyways, many of you know that female spiders are usually much larger than their male counter parts.

Female in the centre, with yellow coloration, and you can spot the male on the top right fringe of the web, with a red coloration. [Clicking on the image will give a larger picture]. Females are large and grow to a body size of 30-50mm, with males growing to 5–6 mm. Giant Wood Spider females weave the biggest webs in India. The web can be from 1 to 2 meters in diameter. So you can guess how large the the web is!

We spotted this web far high up between the trees. The distance, the light coming in, and foliage behind made it difficult to capture the web along with the spider, but thanks to the DSLR, we were able to capture a descent shot.

Date: 27 Sept 2007
Location: @ Bhoothathankettu, Ernakulam, Kerala, India
Camera: Nikon D80 + Tamron SP AF90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Lens

the elusive frogmouth and the cup fungi

rocksea — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:41:34 +0000

Ceylon Frogmouth, Batrachostomus moniliger, also known as Sri Lanka Frogmouth, at the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Thattekkad. Male and Female.

The Ceylon Frogmouths are nocturnal in nature, and are found in the Western Ghats of India and in Sri Lanka. Their elusive nature kept their existence under the veil of the dense tropical forests for a long time until Dr. Salim Ali found it at the Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary (which has since been named after him) in circa 1930. Later it was rediscovered in circa 1990 by ornithologist K. V. Eldhose, at the same sanctuary. Its occurrence, ethology, nesting, etc. have been documented since. The bird is still elusive, due to its adherence to roosting on surroundings with dried leaves which resembles its color tone and camouflages it well.

My first sighting of the Frogmouth was in December 1999, when the nature group Warblers & Waders organized a bird survey at the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Thattekkad and the near by regions including Bhoothathankettu and Idamalayar. The first night we listened to the exchange of the distinctive calls between the male and the female (which could be easily recorded and mimicked) and we saw one of them at a different location later. The excitement was so much that time, and I took a low resolution photograph of that sighting, but one could never identify a bird in it, because it was camouflaged so perfectly!

The frogmouth pictured above is my second sighting, along with Sarah, in September 2007. The location is adjacent to the watch tower inside the sanctuary.

Tiny, wine glass shaped, Cup Fungi, cookeina sulcipes of the Family Sarcoscyphaceae, against a dark background, at the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Thattekkad. These cup fungi were located near to the place where we found the ceylon frogmouths in the birds section. Vividly colored in deep red-orange, with a pinkish tone. In these two images you can see the fungi gleaming through the dark.

Sarah capturing the Cup Fungi.

These Cup Fungi are not rare, we have often found them on wet logs around our house premises.

Cup Fungi @ home

Date: 27 Sept 2007
Location: @ Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Thattekkad and @ home, Kottayam, Kerala, India
Camera: Nikon D80 + Tamron SP AF90mm f/2.8 Di Macro Lens