Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
It’s that time of the year when I ache to be anywhere but in an office, feeling the tug of the breeze on my face, the burst of impatient rain. To be drenched in the news of the sea that the monsoon brings ashore. So much for dreaming. I’m still here. Clacking away on a keyboard, conjuring up visions. So share my pain. With monsoon Instagrams.
Here was the Bicoloured Frog again, dressed for its wedding party.
These are not just encounters, but close encounters. In these situations I have either touched or been too close for comfort with certain members of the suborder SerpentesI’d never imagined…
Its serpentine structure and moist, clammy skin gives the caecilian the appearance of a frog masquerading as a snake. Chances are you’ve seen this intriguing amphibian before but never taken a second look at it!
Our very own Golden Frog, a Western Ghats endemic, gave us the cherished privilege of a long and uninterrupted audience
The two faces of a forest stream are so unlike each other
Little did we know that we were being watched by a silent and mysterious presence on a wooden beam behind us
For three days we roamed Agumbe despairing that no snake had slithered across our path. And then we had a stroke of Last Day’s Luck!
Monsoon in top gear is a season for an unabashed green orgy, and we voyeuristic Green Ogres clicked away shamelessly. So much for the birds and bees…
It’s tiny and blends in completely with the leaf litter but once you spot it, the Bicoloured Frog is unmistakable
Bright yellow, almost 12 inches long and half a foot across, it seemed almost artificial among the bright green leaves where I found it. I wondered first if it was a life-like miniature kite that was stuck in the leaves. I called out to the Green Ogres and exclaimed “Butterfly!” and got a curt rap on the knuckles. “Moth!” Well, most of the moths I had come across hardly had the vivid patterns I was looking at, so I knew this one was special. We were looking at the Malaysian Moon Moth (Actias maenas)
On a dark, wet monsoon night in Agumbe we met the very kissable blue-eyed prince of frogs
