Up the hill

‘It is some kind of a Babbler, I think!’ shot Jagdish
‘Yes could be a Puff Throated babbler!’ replied Paresh.
Five of us Jagdish, Paresh, Hazrat, Donald and Me stood searching for the source of the song from the near by bush. There were 4 to 5 restless brownish birds in the bush, after much deliberation and without any conclusive identification of the bird our party moved on.

Paresh, Donald, Hazrat and Jagdish

We had walked up a trail, leading to a Plateau on top of the hill near Ponda (Goa). The green hill was greener now. The skies were relatively clear, though it had showered when we started to Hike. The red rocks on the wet path were covered with moss.

How the rains transform nature was evident from new tender shoots, the life force of sprouts and mushrooms split the earth, insects frantically hopped around in the search of mates, tender grass reeds painted the earth surface brilliant green.

Orange Pierrot

Beetles Mating

On the top cool breeze blew across the plateau. The plateau too was abuzz with new life, there were colonies of tiny mushrooms here a bright red crab there, tadpoles swam happily in the puddles and hundreds of airborne dragon flies circled around a bush and grasshopper mating pairs hopped on the ground.

Happy Tadpoles in the puddle

Grasshopper Mating

Crab

Paresh, Jagdish and Hazrat

The sun was setting and clouds gathered in the sky above. Nearby, the top of green canopy came alive as the flock of Pompadour green pigeons settled to take rest on their way home. A Malabar Grey Hornbill called from the valley below. We silently settled on the rocks soaking in the serenity, as it got darker reluctantly we started our downhill walk back to the highway where we had parked our bikes.