My Rendezvous with Nature

The final Sunday of this month was spent amidst nature again in the kharghar hills in Navi mumbai. The nature trail was organized by the BNHS navi mumbai group. Having Isaac sir and adesh to lead it was definitely a treat for all of us. I was quite excited about the trail as it was a new destination. The actual trail or the path rather was of 6km one way. It is a small hill called the chandbibi hills having a village settlement at the top. Though v had planned to trail along along the whole path v could not as most of the time was consumed by exciting and interesting birds, butterflies and plants all along the way. The first exciting thing was a barren tree loaded with birds. We saw couple of hoopoe, White throated kingfisher, long tailed shrike, red vented bulbul, black Drongo, laughing dove, pied myna, Indian robin on the same tree. I again had a plenty of first time stuff like the hoopoe bird, Datura metel plant, Sopobia plant, sesbania plant, mucuna flowers, many more butterflies too. Thanks to Isaac sir and adesh for the information given. Also thanks to adesh’s spotting scope which enabled us to see the birds very close. As v started climbing v saw plenty of frogs dead on the tar road, reasons only speculated. We also saw the Eurasian golden oriole being chased by the black Drongo twice. Moving on v came to a spot were there was a small but beautiful waterfall. The whole path seemed to look like v have come to lonavla and have been crossing those tunnels. The dusky creg martins were in good number were seen collecting nest material. I was mesmerized by this enchanting place and dying to go there again. The flora and fauna is pretty impressive. With the balsams ceasing away the color of yellow has taken over the purple. Its still beautiful.
It was altogether a very ‘DIFFERENT ‘ experience in terms of Adesh and in my terms
“AWESOME”
Please add in if I forgotten something. I wish we had vijaya aunty with us too.
I am also eager to click snaps of the people again.( esp vinay, divij, ria,). Wanna me take one???? It was fun. 1…2….3… click.
Bird list
1. Hoopoe
2. White breasted Kingfisher
3. Laughing dove
4. Indian Robin
5. Pied Myna
6. Common Myna
7. Long Tailed shrike
8. Small Green Bee Eater
9. Greater Coucal
10. Rock Pigeon
11. Spotted Dove
12. Black Kite
13. Oriental Honey Buzzard
14. Eurasian Golden Oriole
15. Black Drongo
16. Common Iora
17. Oriental Magpie Robin
18. Red Whiskered Bulbul
19. Red Vented Bulbul
20. White cheeked bulbul
21. Ashy Prinia
22. Plain Prinia
23. Common Tailorbird
24. Yellow eyed Babbler
25. Scaly breasted munia
26. Red munia male
27. Red munia Female
28. Dusky creg martin
29. Paradise flycatcher male

Butterfly List
1. Common grass yellow
2. 3 spotted grassyellow
3. Common Castor
4. Cupid
5. Plain tiger
6. Danaid Egg butterfly female
7. Skipper
8. Common wanderer
9. Hedge blue
10. Cerulean
11. Common gull
12. Common jazebelle
13. Great egg fly female
14. Yellow orange tip
15. White orange tip
16. Choclate pansy
17. Danaid egg fly male
18. Great egg fly male
19. Common crow
20. Gram blue
21. Peacock pansy
22. Common pschye
23. Syke
24. Common rose
25. Crimson rose
26. Striped tiger

Plant List
1. Datura metel ( Angel’s trumpet) Flowering . A herb with big white flowers.
2. Ipomea chinensis ( Morning glory)Flowering Creeper with purple flowers.
3. Alternanthera strictus Flowering . A herb with small flowers in clusters at the axils of the leaf.
4. Malachra capitata ( brazilian jute) Flowering. A herb with yellow flowers belonging to mallow family or bhindi family
5. Tridax procumbens ( Ek dandi )Flowering . A herb with pale yellow flowers of sunflower family
6. Sopobia delphinifolia Flowering . A herb with very reduced thin leaves and purple flowers with dark purple tinge inside the petals.
7. Celosia argentea ( Cock’s comb) Flowering. A herb with pink flowers.
8. Adiantum ( Maiden hair fern)
9. Ipomea sp. ( Red star glory) Flowering. A creeper with bright red flowers.
10. Sesbania bispinosa ( Ran shevri) Flowering. A big erect herb with yellow flowers with red dots on the back of the petals.
11. Crotolaria sp. Flowering. A herb with yellow flowers.
12. Crotolaria sp. Flowering.
13. Cyanotis cristata Flowering. A small herb with blue flowers. A monocot.
14. Commelina benghalensis. Flowering . A small herb with lots of bracts enclosing little blue flowers having 2 types of petals.
15. Mucuna pruriens ( Khaj khujli) Flowering . A annual climber, with dark purple flowers, sepals with silky and bristly hairs,
16. Trema orientalis Iron wood tree. Flowering. A tree with small white flowers on the axils of the leaves similar to the amla.
17. Urena lobata. Flowering. A small herb with small pink flowers belonging to mallow family.
18. Hibiscus lampas. Flowering . A erect herb with drooping yellow coloured flowers looking like a lamp post. A mallow member.
19. Cassia mimesoides . Flowering A herb with small narrow pinnate leaves having a shiny colour. Flowers yellow.
20. Teramnos labialis. Flowering. A herb with pink Flowers, fabaceae family member.
21. Heptis suavolens . ( American mint) Flowering. A herb with thick leaves having strong aroma. A member of the tulsi or Basil family or mint family. Flowers purple.

Misc list]
1. Fungoid frog ( dead)
2. Cricket frog( dead)
3. Blister beetles of various sizes in plenty
4. Spittle bug in plenty
5. Frog bug
6. Grass yellow butterfly’s caterpillar
7. burrowing frog ( dead)
8. Robberfly
9. Damselfly
10. Dragonfly
11. Garden lizard juvenile and adult
12. Painted grasshopper

Today being Parsi New year we did not have college. I thought why not utilize the morning to go for a nature walk and explore a new place. Therefore I along with my 2 friends ( neighbours) went to Naigaon the station next to vasai towards Churchgate.
There is a abandoned railway track that leads to unused the bassein creek bridge between naigaon and Bhayander. This bridge is now the medium of transport for the people staying in the panju village along the coast of creek. We began the walk on the patri at around 6.50 am in the morning.
We where welcomed by the melodious chirping of the tailor birds which were very active vocally. We also got to see them very close. The region along both the sides of the track were filled with fluttering streams of cocks combs and balsams that were waving gracefully along the gentle stoke of the wind. Walking further we also encountered many other plant species , butterflies, dragonflies and birds. We also saw red whiskered, red vented and white cheeked bulbul in plenty. They were very generous in appearing in front of us. We saw the ashy Prinia, cattle egrets, small egrets, flocks of cormorants, Brahminy kites etc on our way. The sighting of the Brahminy kite was also very close. Few butterflies that I could identify were the psyche, yellow orange tip, white orange tip, striped tiger, etc. We also saw certain butterflies that I could not recognize. The plant list I have given at the end.
Well it was fantastic trail as the end point of our trail was the tip of the creek where the bridge begins. We were awed by the massive waterbody that showed the ripples with supremacy and pride. The wind at the point was blowing fiercely and we had a tough time holding on to ourselves. As my friends were first timers for a nature trail , they were indeed fascinated by the beauty that a small spot like this provided. We thus ended our trail with the beautiful close encounters of birds and butterflies captured in our minds thanking God for creating beauty so close so near.
This place is worth a walk for 4-5 hrs as it also promises sightings of different snakes, birds very close and beautiful butterflies.
Plant list-
Impatiens balsaminae
Clerodendron inerme
Lantana camara
Celosia argentea
Cyanotis cristata
Trichodesma indicum
Clitoria biflora
Cyanotis fasciculata
Sesbania bispinosa
Cleome viscosa
Tridax procumbens
Acacia sp.
We saw the flowering of all the above plants

After having an eventful day in the morning we had had a splendid evening. I and Sagar had been to Shewree for bird watching. The place was the dockyard near the colgate factory. There were many asian palm swifts welcoming us and so were the crows and pigeons.
Reaching the place which was exposed to the sea we grounded to our feet after seeing the sight which was waiting for us. Their were thousands of flamingoes on the muddy areas near the mouth of water. There were around 5000 of them. While walking along the shores we noticed mangrove plants and some beautiful birds like the white wagtails moving around making beautiful sounds. Kentish plovers, common sandpipers, accompanied them. We walked a little further down; we climbed on to a motorboat to have a better look at the birds. We got more birds to see like the gulbilled terns, ruddy turnstones, Eurasian curlew, black-headed gulls, little terns, lesser flamingoes and greater flamingoes.
The prized sights were the flight of these pinkish red colored flamingoes. It was a precious and million-dollar sight. To observe with a photographer’s view was something different than a normal vision. I was awed and struck by the beauty of the flight of the flock of these pink beauties.
Overall it was a great day and I immensely enjoyed my experience.

I am very happy to share my experience, which I had on 18th December with the mentally retarded children of the skills and abilities institute in Nerul. It was an wonderful experience and one of the golden opportunities to interact with these mentally challenged kids.
I am being the first person to arrive in the school was greeted with welcoming smiles by the kids playing on the ground. Returning there greets with a similar smile and words of ‘ good morning’ I proceeded towards the principal’s office. I met the principals of both the sections viz. deaf and dumb and mentally challenged Ms.Surekha Patil and Ms.Juee khopkar respectively. They briefed me about the institute and its works and showed me the splendid artwork of the children. They are true craftsmen.I short of words for appreciating the children’s work. I immediately decided to purchase a waste paper basket made from paper by the kids. It is a beautiful piece of work. Though it is a waste basket I am not going to use it as one.
Meanwhile the children were arranged in lines for prayer. The children to our delight sung the songs like ‘ man ki shakti hame de na datha, manka vishwas kamjor ho na!’. Later Sagar, myself , raghu and sunita along with some staff of the school led them to the garden near the school. By splitting the children into groups , older ones led by Sagar and me and the younger ones by sunita and raghu we completed the small trail. The children were very responsive and understanding. They correctly identified mango tree and mentioned many uses of mango.
Returning back we had a feedback session along with a slide show. The feedback was quite successful and so was the slide show. They properly identified most of the plants and animals shown in the slide show. I should say the I wouldn’t have got a better opportunity than this to be with children. The most interesting part was that the older children knew their responsibility of taking care of the younger ones and they did it wonderfully. When the time had come for us to leave we were gifted by a small bouquet made by these kids. What moved us more was the kids saying bye, shaking our hands and looking at us with a longing eyes that asked when we would be returning.