Tuesday, October 15, 2013

2013-09-30 Kaas Plateau

Just thinking of Kaas brings forth memories of a huge plateau covered with different colors. This year like earlier the plateau was covered with flowers of different colors. Being a little late in the season the carpets were not that huge but still good.



Mainly this year concentrated on individual flower and in that got a lot of varieties.
At the start of the ghat itself got to see the beautiful bird I was looking forward to find Crested Bunting named "Yuvaraj" in marathi, a very apt name.

Yuvraj (Crested Bunting)

Yevraj (Crested Bunting)

Some of the varieties seen at the start of the ghat.

Nabhali(Cyanotis cristata)

Motha Kawla - Smithia(Smithia setulosa)
Sonki(Senecio grahamii)
Ghodegui (Lavandula Bipinnata)
Nabhali
Nabhali
Ghodegui (Lavandula Bipinnata)

We stopped for breakfast at a small restaurant on the way before the pathar.
Here we had the knowledge to find some glory lily and other varieties not seen on the plateau.

We got glory lily but there was just one flower and that too not very fresh. So could not get any pics.

But we got some other nice varities of flowering shrubs.

Kartoli (Momordica dioica)

Karambal(Justicia procumbens)

Kate-Ringani
(Solanum Virginianum)
Lahan Kawla -
Double paired Smithia(Smithia bigemina)
Chimine (Thunbergia fragrans)
Halunda (Vigna Vexillata)
Kanpet (Commelina)
Kanpet (Commelina)

Here we got 2 surprises other than flowers.
First a short toed snake eagle calling loudly in the sky. It was not too high and gave us very good views through the binoculars with the yellow eye clearly seen and light belly.
The second was a beautiful common silverline butterfly.
There was lot of wind but still the butterfly was sitting for a long time on the same plant and I tried get some shots in this wind.
Common Silverline (under wings)

Common Silverline (Lower wings)

Common Silverline
Common Silverline (wing texture)
Common Silverline (Eyes)

From here we moved to the plateau.
There were carpets of yellow smithias and sonkis and also pink carpet of terda on the right side.

Terda Carpet

Smithia carpet

Just at the entrance to this plateau towards the right on the moist rocks Ritesh searched and found the drosera indica flowering. This is one of the insect eating plant.

Gawati davbindu (Drosera Indica)

Gawati davbindu (Drosera Indica)

Some more individual pics of the plateaus seen here.

Nisurdi (Adelocaryum coelestinum)
Abhali (Cyanotis tuberosa)
Gend (Eriocaulon sedgwickii)
Kilwar (Canscora diffusa)
Nilwanti (Cyanotis fasciculata)
Taraguchha (Neanotis lancifolia)
On the left side of the plateau there were carpets of Smithia, Gend and Nili Papni.


On this we also saw the Topli Karvi, Abolima and Nilima.
Abolima (Murdannia lanuginosa)
Abolima (Murdannia lanuginosa)
Nilima (Murdannia simplex)
Nilima (Murdannia simplex)
Gend (Eriocaulon sedgwickii)
Nili Papni (Utricularia reticulata)

Kaas talav is a few kms away from the plateau.
You get to see a little differernt variety of plants around this.
One of them that we were looking at was Ceropegia.

While searching of it we saw some Deepkadi, sheput habeamri and again halunda. Also saw a keelback or a trinket snake (not sure about the id).

Medi Kharchudi (Ceropegia Media)

Deepkadi (Dipcadi montanum)
Halunda (Vigna Vexillata)
Medi Kharchudi (Ceropegia Media)
Keelback or Trinket (?) Snake
Jewel Beetle
Vargamul (Euphorbia dracunculoides)
Kokan Pinda (Pinda concanensis)
Pandhra Terda
Vargamul (Euphorbia dracunculoides)