Birdweek: Fowl play.

Hiya hiya hiya. The Daily Critter’s back! At long last.

So without further ado, I give you the day’s post. Let’s finish the bird week fortnight, shall we?

Last week there were posts on male roosters of the Red Junglefowl and Lady Amherst’s Pheasant varieties. Turns out that when it comes to male cockiness, you don’t even have to be off the same species to compete.

The pheasant was bigger, meaner and had better straight line speed. The junglefowl was scrappier, agile and more limber on its feet. Together, they had quite a few rounds of jousting (for that was what it was, there was a lot of running around and minimal contact,) before the two slunk off in separate ways, reluctantly admitting to a stalemate.

Alas, for there was no betting going on.

An Unwelcome Hiatus

Hey everyone. It’s been one helluva week. Wayanad was freakin’ awesome. And the monsoon weather there was so amazing (sarcasm alert) that it messed up my laptop within 5 hours of my getting there. One fine morning I’m happily watching Scrubs before breakfast, and come the evening the damn machine doesn’t switch on properly.

Turns out that the I/O chipsets incurred some water damage and are getting replaced. Wish atheists had gods to pray to. Here’s to hoping that it gets fixed by tomorrow eve.

Keep your fingers crossed for a proper update tomorrow!

Bird week: Running afowl.

Hey everyone. Guess what? I’m off to Wayanad for the whole week!

It’s on work, but it’s Wa-ya-naaad! It’s crazy to get paid to go to such places. So anyhou, I may have good net access from there, but I can’t be sure. So instead of posting heavy, analytical spider posts, you’ll all be treated to a week’s worth of birds. Hope you like ’em. Warning: My cam’s not exactly the best for capturing birds. Kindly make do.

(And yes, this was where I got to capture the Phonognatha vicitra on camera for the first time ever, so I am really excited about finding more spiders there. Y’know, so long as it doesn’t rain too much when I’m there.)

This is a Red Junglefowl that I got to see at the lovely aviary at Karanji lake in Mysore. It’s this lovely little getaway in Mysore (behind the zoo, on the road to Chamundi hills) that most people miss out on. I went there once for the first time before I left for the states, and since coming back, I must’ve been there at least four times.

Oh, and the Indian-subspecies of the red junglefowl is known as the Gallus gallus murghi. I’ve come across a trippier subspecies name, but let’s save that for later in the week, shall we?

No post Friday.

Hey folks. TDC’s traffic analytics shows that people don’t really like visiting blogs over the weekends (D’oh!). I do get a lot of hits on Mondays though, and by then the post is usually 2 days stale.

From next week onwards, expect new posts Sunday through Thursday night. (This way, you know, I can also go out on Friday nights and have a life and all.)

However, I don’t want any of you to trundle off disappointed that all you got tonight were some crummy words and flimsy justifications for my laziness tonight, when you came looking for a new picture.

So enjoy some budgies!

A Bug’s Life.

A commonly occuring Jewel Bug that goes by the name ‘Lychee Shield Bug’ or Chrysocoris stolli. Pretty little thing with an iridiscent shell.

Note the position of the legs. Bugs and insects have a tripedal gait, whereby they move alternating legs in a synchronized manner. In this still you can see the legs R1 (the photographer’s right), L2, and R3 as having moved up fractionally. The other three legs are firmly fixed while this happens.

On the Web.

Welcome to The Daily Critter! We open with the photo of a fairly large spider from Mysore. Casually referred to as the ‘Signature spider’ this is a female Argiope anasuja, belonging to a genus of spiders called the St. Andrew’s Cross spiders. These spiders build lovely two-dimensional orb webs, the ones you see in textbooks and illustrations, with a special twist. The X-shaped white bands that you see are called stabilimenta, ornamental decorations whose function has not yet been fully understood. Taken back in October last year, this is the spider that started it all.