Today I went to photograph the International Kite Festival 2010 held at Mangalore’s Panambur beach. the Beach was crowded with thousands of people who gathered to see the numerous kites at the two-day international kite festival. The kites ranging from the giant to the small dotted the sky at the beach and featured plenty of attractive designs.

Professional kite flyers and amateurs alike are participating in this festival. The AWITA(Always In The Air) group headed by Nicolos Chorier from France, Maarteen van Hienen from Netherlands, and Karl Hongboton from UK, brought along their special kites. Giant kites, aerofoil kites, stunt kites, nylon-made kites, teddy bear kite, and penguin kite are being flown by this group of international kite fliers. This International Kite Festival 2010 was organized by Team Mangalore.

Please check this Album for the photos. You can click on each photo to get bigger version. If you are not able to see the photos please download Adobe Flash add-on for your browser.

The Common Mime (Chilasa clytia) is a Swallowtail butterfly found in South and South-east Asia. The butterfly belongs to the Chilasa group or the Black-bodied Swallowtails. It serves an excellent example of a Batesian mimic among the Indian butterflies. Wingspan of 90-105 mm. This is butterfly has dimorphism for both sexes – there are two different colour forms for each sex. The lighter form dissimilis mimics the unpalatable Blue Tiger (Tirumala limniace) while the darker form clytia mimics the unpalatable “Crows”. This is clytia form which looks like Common Indian Crow (Euploea core).

The upper sides and under sides of clytia are a rich dark brown – the colour towards the margins of the wings is much paler. There is a series of creamy to white markings towards the outer margins, many of which are chevron shaped. The spots on the margins between the veins are creamy and small. Towards the outer margins of the hind wings, there are two rows of cream coloured chevrons, the outer being much smaller than the inner. The margins of the hind wings have orange yellow spots between the veins; the ones on the lower side are much larger. This specimen had the wings damaged so the the markings are not very clear.

The ground colour of the wings of dissimilis is blue-gray, with heavy black markings along the veins, giving it a somewhat reticulate appearance. The chevron shaped markings towards the outer margins are similar to those of form clytia.

This butterfly is found in India from Kangra to Sikkim, from Assam to Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh, Peninsular India and the Andaman Islands. It is also found in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Southern China (including Hainan), Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, peninsular Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia (Flores, Alor, Timor and Moa). Several regional variants and forms are recognized.

It usually flies within a few feet of the ground when searching for nectar or larval host plants. However, it is not uncommon to see it nectaring on blooms high up in the canopy. It prefers wooded areas with open spaces. It is not uncommon in home gardens.

It resembles its unpalatable Danaid models exceptionally well, not only in its markings and general coloration, but also in its behavior. For instance, when flying, it glides for a considerable distance after taking a few leisurely wing beats. After settling on a flower, it keeps its wings quite still like the models and does not continuously vibrate its wings like a typical swallowtail. Like its models, it sleeps with its wings folded over its body, often hanging onto a twig.

It is interesting to note that form clytia in Sri Lanka differs from its subspecies in India in almost the same way that the Indian Common Crow in Sri Lanka differs from its subspecies in India, illustrating the evolutionary selection pressure exerted on the mimics to look more and more like the model in their own environment.

The larvae feed on species of Litsea, Cinnamomum and Nauclea. The pupa of this butterfly is remarkably well camouflaged and resembles a broken twig so well that if a bird were to memorize its image, it will probably pick many dead twigs before it gets it right!

Taken at Someshwara beach, 13 kms from Mangalore city and 3 kms from Ullala using Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM. Adobe Lightroom was used to enhance the look.

I found this Juvenile Beddome’s Indian Frog or Beddome’s Leaping frog (Indirana beddomei) at Bisile. It is named after the naturalist Colonel Richard Henry Beddome, the first conservator of the newly formed forest department of the Madras presidency.

This medium-size frog whose dorsal skin is covered with short longitudinal glandular folds. The coloration varies; it can be yellowish, pinkish, or brownish, with irregular speckling. The hind limbs are long, the webbing is incomplete, and the tips of the digits are dilated into discs. Adult males have large tympana, vocal sacs, nuptial pads, and femoral glands. It has a big bladder and invariably squirts when handled.

It is endemic to Western Ghats. The frogs inhabit the forest floor or rocky soil in evergreen forest at 330–2,950 ft (100–900 m). Pigmented eggs presumably are deposited outside water under shelters, such as stones, rotten vegetation, or the bark of dead trees. Tadpoles are peculiar, with an elongated body form, extremely large eyes, and a slender and pointed tail. The hind limbs develop early, and they have 4–5/4 tooth rows. From the beginning they can use their tails, and later their hind limbs, to skitter on the rocks or ground, which allows them to go from one humid terrestrial shelter or shallow pool to another.

Last Sunday (29 Mar 2009) I attended a workshop organized by Karnataka Yakshagana Academy at Yuga purusha Hall, Kinnigoli. Discussions at the seminar were mainly around body language, presentation, in Yakshgana Bharatnatyam, Kathakkali and Bhootakola art forms. Here is a glimpse of few facial expression demonstrated by this Kerala Kalamandalam artist in Kathakali.

As I was concentrating on photographing expression I did not bother to note down on what each expressions were. If you are interested in these expressions,  they are from left to right

• tranquility (shaantha),
• surprise (adbhutha),
• disgust (bheebhatsya),
• 2 photos of fear (bhayaanaka) and
• courage (veera)