The bulb of life on an electric bulb holder

Well, this bulb holder was lying idle for too long, till it got the attention of natural intelligence. A mud fort in the making. Hope it will cherish the bulbuous fluid in eggs that will sprout the light of life. A wire tailed swallow pair is busy making their mud nest. They pick up mud from rain puddles and deposit it layer by layer, slowly mixing their saliva and droppings in the mixture. During the breeding season their glands have extra salivation equipping them with a suitable adhesive. This is what I call environment friendly birdie cement. My mother has a problem though. She finds it disturbing because at this stage it appears a mud sling on the painted wall. I have convinced her that it will be a very nice, decorative wall hanging once it's completed. Best of luck beautiful birds. They have very bright colours of metallic blue and white.

Awakening the dead

It was a dry, dead branch at the top of an acacia. But that was before the monsoon touched with watery pout, to kiss and infuse greenery even in an otherwise prickly, irritatingly imposing silhouette of the acacia. Overblown life from the surroundings is creeping into the dead wood. The creeper is handing over its extra greenery by climbing over dead pricks and crown the treetop with a symbol of life. The canopy is getting its leafy top. Wonderful greenish encroachment. The birds though may not be happy because this dead branch at the tree top used to be their favourite sentry point to look around.

Dry branch after leafy donation by the creeper

Dry branch when the monsoons arrived and birds had their bare watchtower 

The seven spiritual laws of success by Deepak Chopra

One seed contains the potential of a whole forest. These 9000 words in this small pocketbook comprise a glimpse of the infinite and its day to day reflection in our lives. Explore your own space and nature within the infinitely dynamic exchange of matter in the singular stream of primordial energy shooting off in countless directions, carrying fixed laws and supported by infallible universal intelligence.

Love notes of a lonely bird

Oriental magpie robin's monsoonal love notes. The long drawn love notes are flying in air to catch the attention of an interested female. The guy is so absorbed in his love search that I reached just 3 feet from it. Only then it realised that there are more important things than love and irritatingly flew away to continue its mate searching song from a nearby tree.

The fort-maker on a rainy day

It's hot and humid, the sun sweltering over rain-lashed earth. There is a well-digger in my yard. Sweating it out since early morning. The sand wasp works more efficiently than a human earth mover. No noise, no pollution. Simply going in and coming in reverse with a sand ball tucked between its snout and the foreleg pair which it uses with the efficiency of hands. Freshly hued damp yellow sand growing up like a tiny mound. 

It's unmindful of me taking a picture from a close quarter. Given its single-minded focus, I wonder I may have a tiny hill and a spring--because water table is very high in rainy season--in my yard. Best of luck well digger. But please don't dig too deep to make a hole for a small snake to fit in.

PS: on further enquiries I find it's a friendly insect... doesn't aggressively bite like bees. Now I see why it's unmindful of my presence so near its sandy altar. It also preys upon mosquitoes and houseflies. So continue bro, lay down a long tunnel for your larvae and then prey upon our common enemies. In full support with you. Cheers!

PSS: in the video it's closing the gates of its fort, for new life, new cycle. While closing the gates, it even took a few breakfasty bites at a couple of ants also. Possibly it had missed breakfast today. After closing the gates it hovered over the mound with the elated buzz of a triumphant US military hawk helicopter. It has left a little depression around the gate and gone for the time. Not to loiter around I m sure. There is something in store in its scheme, which I cannot understand at the time. And I am proven right. It's never chalta hai attitude in nature unlike humans who take shortcuts and apartments and bridges collapse. The sand wasp had gone out to get some preys which it collects nearby under leaves. To keep its hole safe and guarded in its absence, it had put up a temporary earthwork by its opening. Coming back it removes the part time gate and gets into business again. It will lay eggs and leave food there. The larvae will eat, grow big and pop out into the world.

The fort-maker scraping a depression around the freshly dug cave-mouth to close it temporarily during its absence

PSSS: So that turned out to be its modus operandi: closing the fortress and temporarily, leaving an oblong depression around the opening, leaving the scene, and come back again after a couple of hours to start the task again. In the afternoon it rained cats and dogs, a furious rain storm which jolted even the farmers and big trees. After the storm I saw the  site lashed by the rains, the small depression around the opening filled with sand and the sand mound washed away. I thought it was over. In such a stormy blizzard the little insect must have been blown away to a far place, I thought. Or most probably it was even dead. But then the tough taskmaster showed that it was still around despite the storm. The next day I see again the trademark little depression around the hole mouth and gates temporarily shut. Well done!

Back to business after the floods.

Closing the gates of its fort again.