Ordinary Day

White egrets who would be having a very happy time of it, if not but for the local fisherfolk. Whether commercial fishing with trawling nets in the ocean or with homely nets at Arunachala, its generally the same; suck out as much as possible as quickly as possible and leave nothing behind! Its very sad to see how the fisherman are monopolising the water and giving very little chance to the hundreds of patient water birds waiting throughout the day.

There are many predatory birds living on Arunachala and it is very common to see them winging it on the very substantial air currents swirling around the Hill. On the day I took this photograph, there were four of these birds, which look like young eagles, flying around the receding water of the lake-bed on the look-out for rich pickings.

As the summer progresses, water has quickly receded at the lakebed and now there is not much left but a large, shallow puddle. Lots of different kinds of water life have had to pay the price of these changing conditions. Below is a photograph of some kind of fresh water shrimp. He and many of his brethren unfortunately got cooked in the puddles (the water heats up during the day) in which they had taken sanctuary.

Fingerlings; small little fish that also got cooked in the shallow water of their pond.

Here are three of my four dogs on the prowl looking for something interesting. They actually have been fascinated with the carcases of the fresh water shrimps they keep discovering - very interesting and yummy!

This is the dyke wall built up, to prevent flooding during the rainy season when the water level is high. Not much chance of flooding now though!