An encounter with the Fan Throated Lizard!

It was a nice sunny day on a winter morning and myself and my wife were heading to
Koonthankulam Bird Sanctuary in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. Though we knew that we were little early with respect to the arrival of the winter migrants there, we had decided to take a chance
and see if we can find any interesting species.

When we reached the place, as expected the lake was dry and there is no sign of an
migrants anywhere around, except for a couple of Blue Tailed BeeEaters. As I was
scouting the place via my binocular, my wife called me in a hurry to show me something
which she had seen for the first time! It was a Fan Throated Lizard and it was a first
sighting for me too! It was a male and the guy was in full display mode.

It was going to the edge of a small rock and displaying its colorful gular flap in full vigor! I
had seen colorful rock agamas in and around Banglore but this colorful display was first
time for me! As I went onto my knees to shoot this fella I noticed that it was going back
and forth to a place nearby and coming back to the rock.

It was doing it often and when I looked at the place where it was going, from a distance, I could see anything much there. But on the second look and carefully observing I saw another lizard that was almost completely camouflaged in the vicinity of the tiny rocks and dust around. The pattern on
its dorsal side was so much deceiving that it was almost impossible to distinguish the
female from its surroundings.

The male was going near to the female and coming back. It was desperately attempting
to divert our attention away from the place where female was lying, by exhibiting the
threatening display from another point.

We observed the whole drama from a safe distance so that the duo is not disturbed. After some time, when they both felt that we are no more threats, the female started to move and it is then we saw what she was up to until we came there. She was digging small hole underneath a small rock, may be to lye
eggs! The male was fiercely protecting the female.

Once they became comfortable with our presence, the female started to dig further. The male was constantly vigilant about the activities happening around was always very attentive.

I searched for the presence of any more males around but couldn't find one anywhere
around. The process of digging continued for another 15 min or so with lot of intermittent
breaks in between. We decided to make some images of male and head back as we
didn't want to disturb them. We hope that the female might have laid eggs and the
hatchlings might have come to the world safely.
It was an amazing encounter over all!

Cheers,
Ash

Tale of a hanging unfortunate!

Nature is so awful! It never seizes to amaze with its surprises! Its just that we need a bit of luck to be there at the right time at the right moment to be the witness for the same.
One such luck happened to be turn towards me when I visited Gudvi Bird Sanctuary last time. We were returning from bird shoot and I was looking for something interesting for macro on the ground! But not in my dreams I had thought that I would see anything like this! - A snake caught in spider web! I have no idea how it got stuck there! Thought of many possibilities - It might have fallen from any of the above branches and might have got stuck or any possibility of trying to catch the spider as a desperate attempt or by any other means??? I spent around 30 plus min to see what happens next!!! and... what I saw after that was another amazing story....


...I had a very close encounter (just 6 ft away) with the Crested Serpent Eagle[CSE] just couple of hours back at around the same place! As this snake would make a tasty lunch for CSE, I was damn curious to see if I would be a witness for anything like a mid air hunt infront of my eyes!!


There were almost 6-8 Giant Wood spiders high above the web where this fella was hanging. I bet they were also equally tensed and excited as we were! I imagined them to be discussing among themselves on how to get rid of this mid-air crisis! As the size of the snake is bigger compared to their usual (or rarely some unusual) pray they were not looking keen on building some strategy to sack this guy and celebrate their lunch! I was expecting for some hero among them to come forward and do some action! But the biggest question still remained.... Who will bell the cat??


... I looked around in the anxiety for CSE to see if I will be a lucky guy.l.. but no clues of it anywhere! My cousin was busy with his HDV camcorder filming the entire event!... It was silence all around... Then finally one brave guy (or gal, I swear I dont know!) came forward and proceeded towards the hanging unfortunate! He looked clever! He came near, observed the situation closely and took a very wise decision! He slowly cut four major, strong threads which were holding the snake and left some work for the snake to get rid of the rest! After cutting four threads he rushed back as he may be expecting the snake to make some brisk movements to get rid of the rest of the threads, and if he was not fast enough then he may also fall along with the snake... and who knows the next story!!


He was wise and quick and made himself positioned in a safe place to witness the next events.... Then after some trouble the snake finally managed to get back to ground and it must have thanked the spider and GOD (for not sending CSE till then) before it disappeared into the bamboo woods again.


...An unforgettable event for both of us and we looked each other with a silent 'wow' expression!!

Note: A friend Bharat Chedda from India Nature Watch told that the snake is Bronze back and it might have tried to glide from one branch to another and caught stuck in the web of Giant Wood Spider! - quite possible!!

Nature is Amazing....!

Cheers,
Ash