When Raja told me about Tirupati bird festival and bioblitz, I was excited about the prospect of participating in my first bioblitz. I heard about bioblitz during my US trip, but never got an opportunity to participate in one. I took a bus to Tirupati on 6th December evening along with Rajaneesh. The organisers were happy to host us as resource persons for the bioblitz.
On the bioblitz day (7th December, 2019), we woke up early, reached the venue- Regional Science Centre, Tirupati. We met Robin in the bus that picked us. Post registrations and briefing, the registered kids and adults were split into separate groups and resource persons (students of IISER, Tirupati) were assigned to each group. The idea of bioblitz is to record and identify all trees, insects, birds except potted plants or captive animals and record them in iNaturalist app. While one doesn't need to know the id, there are other experts who can identify it on the app besides the suggestions the app can generate.
Our group went into the north-west corner of the science center and started recording. We could spot red sanders tree, copper pod, some creepers. The place was wild and the path was made recently. We spotted a stick insect, some moths, a moth caterpillar. One of our team member, sandeep doing his masters in veterinary science from Pondy university was helpful in identifying the plants. The surprise of the day was Sirkeer Malkoha that came, sat on the wall , gave a glimpse and flew away. Two black-hooded orioles kept singing along with a Tickell's blue fly catcher.
At 8:00 AM, with rain intensifying we had to wrap up biolblitz and gathered. We gathered the kids who participated and asked them about the day and their favourite sightings. We are glad they could guess how a woodpecker can smell and grab insects besides drumming on the tree. It's heartening to witness their enthusiasm. Post breakfast everyone split to attend different workshops.
I relaxed for a while enjoying the views of the ghats. Later a group of school children from the nearby government schools turned up. I took them on nature walk with help from Ashwin. We started observing the Silk cotton trees and wondered why it has thorn like structures on the bark. Ashwin, the spider expert at IISER, Tirupati, helped us spot the spiders on the bark. We discussed why the spider is camouflaged and wondered how we could spot it only when it moved.
Moving over, we saw the ant-mimicking spider. I gently took into into my hand and we noticed how it spread it's legs to balance itself when jumping off. It looked different from the regular ant-mimicking spiders I see in bangalore
Pics courtesy: Ashwin, IISER
I found from my friend mittal this is a ant-mimicking crab spider(Amyciaea forticeps). Didn't know crab spiders can also mimic weaver ants.
Kids watched it with awe as I did the magic of pulling it up , out of thin air ;). We discussed about how many legs it has and how it uses its legs as antenna to fool predators. The kids listened to it with enthusiasm. We later found a bark mantis and discussed how two spiders have two different webs. One has a long one to catch insects and another one has a small one. We speculated on their diets going by size of the web. We wind up the walk for kids after an hour where we walked less but discussed more.
Talking about spiders, the science center entrance had a big Signature spider nest, the biggest I had seen and fooled me to think it's a Giant wood spider. Ashwin corrected me and I could see the signs on the web.
The afternoon was filled up with talks and speeches from dignitaries including Subbu from Bangalore explaining how he retraced Salim Ali's Mysore survey. His grit and determination was phenomenal and inspiring for youngsters. The day ended high as I spotted this moth that picked up the lone white post on the wall that perfectly matched its colors.
Here are the observations on iNaturalist from the bioblitz. A day spent productively with some enthusiastic crowd, media and meeting great people.
On the bioblitz day (7th December, 2019), we woke up early, reached the venue- Regional Science Centre, Tirupati. We met Robin in the bus that picked us. Post registrations and briefing, the registered kids and adults were split into separate groups and resource persons (students of IISER, Tirupati) were assigned to each group. The idea of bioblitz is to record and identify all trees, insects, birds except potted plants or captive animals and record them in iNaturalist app. While one doesn't need to know the id, there are other experts who can identify it on the app besides the suggestions the app can generate.
Our group went into the north-west corner of the science center and started recording. We could spot red sanders tree, copper pod, some creepers. The place was wild and the path was made recently. We spotted a stick insect, some moths, a moth caterpillar. One of our team member, sandeep doing his masters in veterinary science from Pondy university was helpful in identifying the plants. The surprise of the day was Sirkeer Malkoha that came, sat on the wall , gave a glimpse and flew away. Two black-hooded orioles kept singing along with a Tickell's blue fly catcher.
At 8:00 AM, with rain intensifying we had to wrap up biolblitz and gathered. We gathered the kids who participated and asked them about the day and their favourite sightings. We are glad they could guess how a woodpecker can smell and grab insects besides drumming on the tree. It's heartening to witness their enthusiasm. Post breakfast everyone split to attend different workshops.
I relaxed for a while enjoying the views of the ghats. Later a group of school children from the nearby government schools turned up. I took them on nature walk with help from Ashwin. We started observing the Silk cotton trees and wondered why it has thorn like structures on the bark. Ashwin, the spider expert at IISER, Tirupati, helped us spot the spiders on the bark. We discussed why the spider is camouflaged and wondered how we could spot it only when it moved.
Moving over, we saw the ant-mimicking spider. I gently took into into my hand and we noticed how it spread it's legs to balance itself when jumping off. It looked different from the regular ant-mimicking spiders I see in bangalore
I found from my friend mittal this is a ant-mimicking crab spider(Amyciaea forticeps). Didn't know crab spiders can also mimic weaver ants.
Kids watched it with awe as I did the magic of pulling it up , out of thin air ;). We discussed about how many legs it has and how it uses its legs as antenna to fool predators. The kids listened to it with enthusiasm. We later found a bark mantis and discussed how two spiders have two different webs. One has a long one to catch insects and another one has a small one. We speculated on their diets going by size of the web. We wind up the walk for kids after an hour where we walked less but discussed more.
Talking about spiders, the science center entrance had a big Signature spider nest, the biggest I had seen and fooled me to think it's a Giant wood spider. Ashwin corrected me and I could see the signs on the web.
The afternoon was filled up with talks and speeches from dignitaries including Subbu from Bangalore explaining how he retraced Salim Ali's Mysore survey. His grit and determination was phenomenal and inspiring for youngsters. The day ended high as I spotted this moth that picked up the lone white post on the wall that perfectly matched its colors.
Here are the observations on iNaturalist from the bioblitz. A day spent productively with some enthusiastic crowd, media and meeting great people.
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