Wild flowers

I had left my monsoon flowers list pending last time so here are remaining flowers. No, not necessarily I covered all monsoon flowers but monsoon is gone and I guess some of the flowers I see now are already indicating that winter is around. 

As I attempted to ID these flowers, I was in a nice surprise. One of my new interests include Ayurved and I had been thinking for sometime that I should try to get to know some plants used in Ayurved. Plant identification however appeared very very difficult to me (specially given my laziness preventing me to learn it systematically.). Now, when I find IDs for my lovely flowers, I see that many of the weeds actually what are used in Ayurved. ok, just knowing flower and not plant would be highly insufficient but its a nice start anyways.

Vajradanti

Bhringraj

Grey Francolins

One of the most illusive birds for me has been one which is always around. Grey francolin. Their presence is often felt as they scurry away inside dense vegetation or occasionally take off from only few feet away where they were hiding to disappear in no time. Seeing them in open is a rare treat. On those very few occasions that I did see or even photographed them previously were all on ground. Few days before however, they (2 or 3 of them at least) were in mood to make loud calls each morning and I was surprised as once in a while a call appeared to come from a tree. one of those days I got lucky to spot an individual on tree and take a shot from some distance. Soon after that, on seeing me, two individuals decided to fly from the ground to be on a tree that they felt was safe from me and didn’t try to hide/fly away once there as I took shots from below.

Grey Francolin (Francolinus pondicerianus)

Can't keep your berries and cant eat it too?

A tiny little bird chirping happily as if echoing happiness of surrounding that is all eager to welcome its winter visitors with pleasant temperature, cool breeze, passing clouds, abundance of greenery lands on a tree that hosts fully ripe, bright red, yummy little berries. Sounds a perfect world?

P.S. After posting this initially, I was looking at my bird-guide and it said Pale billed flowerpecker feeds chiefly on mistletoe berries. and as I google for mistletoe berries, understand above pictures more fully. its not only bird in action there, its also the mistletoe. Wikipedia says its a parasitic plant and that 

"Mistletoe seed germinates on the branch of a host tree or shrub and in its early stages of development is independent of its host. Later it forms a haustorium that penetrates the host tissue and takes water and nutrients from the host plant....

Depending on the species of mistletoe and the species of bird, the seeds are regurgitated from the crop, excreted in their droppings, or stick to the bill, from which the bird wipes it onto a suitable branch. The seeds are coated with a sticky material called viscin. The viscin survives such treatment and any bare seed that touches a stem sticks tenaciously. The viscin soon hardens and attaches the seed firmly to its future host, where it germinates and its haustorium penetrates the sound bark". Indeed if you look at above pictures, one fruit has already managed to stick out there. and the one that is hanging in the last upload also managed to stick to the same host tree as I watched.