Nylon Threads Are Big Threats For Wild Neighbors of Us.

Non-biodegradable polymers are damaging our ecosystem. From polyethylene to nylon, filters of ciggerates , even the micro particle of various type of plastics are damaging our wild neighbors. 

 The snakes who love to live beside the water bodies, marshes and wetlands are facing a big threat. And the threads is not only disturbing them but also these threads are fetal for them. Just one wrong step and the death is not far. 

                                            Banded Krait
  Here is a pathetic scene of a snake has died by chocking its throat portion, by a nylon net. This net was settled for fishing and was left overnight by a local farmer. The next morning he found that a snake had died by puzzled up with the net and no fish was there obviously. 

                 

This died one is a Banded Krait (In Bengali - Shankhamuti) , a highly venomous  snake found very commonly in southern West Bengal. They can also live beside our residents and in rural areas .Banded Kraits are seen very frequently. But biting rate of this gentle snake is very low. You can hardly find any victim of its venom. These snakes are very shy in nature and they avoid human conflicts as much as the can. And the most appreciable fact about this snake is that they eat other venomous snakes like Russle's Viper(In Bengali- Chandraborah) and Cobras. Not only other venomous snakes, rats are also in their diet and some times fish too.   

Not only snakes, birds are also in the hit list of this nylon threads. Nowadays the nylon threads are used for the kite flying. Traditional cotton threads have been replaced by this dangerous element. The cotton threads are easy to be rotten. But this polymer threads are not easy to be rotten at all. These kind of materials can be unchanged for years. Kites fall here and there along with the nylon threads and it remains unchanged into the branches and leaves of the trees.  

                                        Thick-Billed Green Pigeon 
 Like this one, a Thick-billed Green Pigeon ( a uncommon species of southern West Bengal) is hanging from Nylon thread which was wrapped around a tree branch. The bird was not concerned about the thread and as a result, it got hanged. 

 

Try to reduce the use of plastic elements as much as possible. Remember, our entertainment can cost a life. So, do every work by your practical thoughts.

A Dead One Can Support Other Life.

In our West Bengal, more or less 850 species of birds are found. According to the database, West Bengal has the richest avifauna diversity  comparing to other states in India. From passerines to waders, resident to migrants from arctic region, West Bengal has of a huge variety of birds.

A common concept about birds that they build nests on the branches of the trees with the help of dry sticks and leaves. But nests have a few variety. Excluding  the previous type , some of the birds choose tall grasses, some choose shrubs, some of them build floating nests on the stagnant water.

Even Dead trees help birds to build their nests. So, Some dead elements can also rear up many lifes.

When a tree dies, many wholes come up. Woodpeckers feed on the insects that grow at the rotten  parts of the tree. Then the holes can be used by the woodpeckers as their nests. Parakeets also use the holes made by woodpeckers as their nests. Barbets also make holes to lay eggs in it . Owls like spotted owlet and  scope owls use the holes not only as their nest but also they live in it due to day time to protect themselves from other predators.  Owls use the same holes for years after years if the hole stay suitable for them.

A Coppersmith Barbet( a very common bird of West Bengal as well as India)
 is building its nest on a dead tree.

So, if we think a dead tree is a nothing but a piece of wood , we are wrong . Nature has its own rhythm, every animal has some specific skill to survive in the natural world.  But due to population blast of humans, the wildlife is facing threats of extinction every time.

So think twice before you take any step. Don’t follow others opinion blindly . Question yourself either you are doing the right or not. 

 

Tree Plantation.

 For  cultivation based states like West Bengal , monsoon is the prime season for farmers. Various kind of vegetables and most importantly the rice is the gift of this beautiful season. 

But this year(2020) farmers are going to face off more trouble for cultivation because the super cyclone Amphun was terribly devastating. The crops which was already cultivated, have been ruined by this disaster. Thousands of tree has fallen down, many few have uprooted. Even trees like coconut and palm have broken.

But the COVID-19 effect is not decreasing at all. The rate of spreading of COVID-19 is increasing day by day. At this moment we cannot fight directly against the damage of super cyclone. Tree plantation is needed this time but work as a team is not possible at this moment. And it is not possible for a single person to conduct the tree plantation program. 

Monsoon is the correct time to germinate seeds and plant trees. Specially the rain water which helps plants to grow faster and supply supplements indirectly, . Shrub like Glycormis sp. , Cassia sp. Cleome rutidosperma, Capparis sp. grow in huge numbers during monsoon. These plant are very  important larval host plant ( on which plant some of insects lay eggs and complete their life cycle ) for butterflies.

Larva of Striped Albatross butterfly on its host plant Cleome rutidosperma.

Chrysalis of Tailed Jay (Ghraphium agamemnon )on its host plant Polyalthia longifolia(In bengali- Debadaru).

This Grasshopper nymph spends some days on the branches of trees and bushes
until it get matured.  

As we have discussed previously that at this moment we can not plant sufficient trees locally, but we can plant 2 or 3 trees at backyard of our residence. If a colony is comprises of 40 residence then the number of planted trees can be 80-120. After 10 years, We can expect at least 70-80 new trees around us. 

So, in this way, we can partially fulfill the deficiency of trees.

Now collect saplings and plant trees.

Wildlife Awareness 2

Here is an interesting as well as sad photograph clicked by one of birder friend Suprakash Adak. Here you can see the kite is trying to grab the polyethylene packet and after some couple of seconds it got the plastic by its legs.

Me and Suprakash was watching birds at Rajarhat in Kolkata. We were sitting and sharing each others sighting experiences. Suddenly We noticed that a group of Black Kites ( Milvus migrans)  were chasing a ployethylene packet which was flying up high on the sky. This could be very dangerous for birds as well as wildlife that they are confused between their actual food and this kind of pollutant.  We all know that plastic is indigestible and taking plastic as food, can cause a pathetic death. Declining of wildlife in this way may drive the ecosystem very fast toward a broken ecosystem. 
So, plastic has become a really great threat on wildlife as well as ecosystem and thus on us too.  Keep try to less use plastic and stop using single use plastics as much as you can. We can easily take this small step to save ourselves. 
Please share If you have this kind of any experience. 

The Black Heart 🖤

Almost before two years, I started butterflying. That time my main goal was to capture the photo of  common  butterfly species around us. Here is very common species Common Crow(Euploea core) that can be seen easily around us. Oleander Is the larval host plant for this particular butterfly.

Story behind the photo


One morning I was wondering around my garden to capture some photos of butterflies. So, after some time, I notice a Common Crow butterfly was flying continuously beside a hibiscus plant. I went closer to it and tried to capture a photo. But  it did not sit on the flowers. That time my thought was, 'may be I am the cause of its restless flying' as I was present closer to it and may be it was disturbed by me. Then I sat on the ground little far from that plant where the butterfly was flying. Then I saw that the restless flying was not resulted by my presence. It was continuously flying till then. After a good one hour, it decided to roost on the plant. For more five minutes I waited to take a shot of it. When I saw that it was not flying anymore, then I took my camera out and it gave a good allowance to me to capture its photo.

A Little Poetry

In the sleepless nights, I want to lost in the sea.
The blue water, the blasts of color, The destruction of waves and construction of corals.
The variegated fishes, the moonlight on the sea surface, the phosphorus glow and the half wet sands,The songs of shorebirds.
Even I can't analyse all the things.
Some are unique, some are extraordinary, some have no comparison. 

I'm sitting on the beach at 2.00am.
 Remembering the moments we had.
Even that sounds of your giggles,I can hear till now. 
Till now my fingers are in search of such hairs you had. 
Till now I can guess your mood as well as what you would think . 
Till now your body smell acts as mimetic of oxygen if you would stay.
 Till now I can see you, though little blurry than you were.
 You are with me, smiling at me from the sky.
 I'm assuming the most intensely glowing star as you.

 Hey, don't cry, don't cry.
Let me tell the world, 
Good bye, Good bye.

Never Regret

                                                            Never Regret



Migratory birds have a habit. They return to the summer or winter grounds every year . But vagrants are not this type. They are introduced suddenly at a place unexpectedly, they stay there for couple of days and fly away forever. May be you will not going to see the bird for rest of your life. May be you are the only witness of its arrival and departure. You may find the particular bird at its own ground but it is not as much surprising to see as that time when you saw it as a vagrant. Oh! I'm not writing about any kind of bird right now. It's just a comparison in between some people and a vagrant bird. You will never forget that moment you have spent with that bird. It's not your fault neither of the bird that it went far from you. It just a incident. Some days are golden. May be you have to sacrifice something for that moment but you will not have a regret ever. 😊😊

The Proposal

                                                       




                                                               The Proposal 
This photo was captured few month ago. The concept is to express the inner desire of heart. So I have kept the characters in between the heart shaped frame. Here in the photo, the boy is proposing the girl by giving his heart. Here I've tried to say that the boy is saying that the girl is everything to him. And the background lights are expressing the hope. The girl has already folded her hands like the way of being impressed.
I've tried to show the mind thoughts of a lover boy.
And I think it must be said that every portion of this photo is captures by a single shoot. No cut,paste or photoshop is applied here.

Please share your views regarding this photo and obviously suggest some point for future betterment.

thank you.

Awareness on wildlife

Species ID- River Lapwing ( Vanellus duvaucelii)

River lapwing is a member of Charadriidea family . It is a resident bird species of India. This image (captured by me) is  captured from Damodar riverbed at Bardhaman district, West Bengal, India.

Habitat- Large riverbed.
IUCN Status - Near threatened.

I'm sharing this image on an awareness purpose. See, some plastic garbage can be seen easily in this photo. We all know about plastic pollution and its effect on us as well as on ecosystem. Plastic is being cause of death of  hundreds of wild animals and birds. Waders and Pelagic birds are very musch affected by plastic pollution in high numbers. Even those passerines who collect the small fibrous material like bark of tree, thin stems and other things to build their nests, are collecting   some plastic wastes to make nests nowadays.

Protecting wildlife is not a choice, it is a duty of every human being cause humans can't be alive without natural sources and wildlife maintain the ecosystem balance. It is not a tough work actually. Everybody can participate in wildlife protection. Just change your daily habits a little bit and it will effect hugely. 

Please share your views.

Starry Night

 In frame - Me
Captured by - Me .
 Story behind the photo- During lock down (due to COVID19 pandemic), most of the people are feeling bored and obviously I am also . One fine evening I went to my roof top to enjoy cool breeze after a heavy rain, and suddenly I found that the sky was crystal clear and the stars were glowing exceptionally. Then I thought why not to make a memory of this beautiful evening? So I took my camera ,set it and captured this image. The most glowing star at the right side of the photo is actually Venus. The ray of light was made by a torch.     

Camera used - Sony hx400v point and shoot camera
Exif info- Shutter speed - 30s
                 ISO- 400
                 Aperture- f/2.8.
                 Timer was used.