Sunday, May 30th, 2010. - Day 8

15:30 Hrs. Forest Trails, BNP, Karnataka, India.

We decided to go for a bit of bird-watching before our guest, Dr. Krishna, arrived. Armed with binoculars and few bird books we traipsed around pretending to know what we were doing. I truly have a new respect for birders with the skill and patience they must have to retain such a hobby.

While staring through the binocs at nothing in particular, Dr. Krishna arrived. The only way I can think to describe him is as a sixty year old Urkel. In fact I think he solely defined the term 'old geezer'. Nonetheless the man truly is brilliant, with the most profound passion for knowledge I've ever seen. We walked around the area and discussed many a topic, from botany, to behavior, birds, riligion, intelligence, physics, music, monitoring, and so much more. The man truly understood the link between all subjects and matters.

We learned various methods of survey, and even how to trace a leaf rubbing. After a hot day, we turned in early to rest for a very early morning.

We woke up around six in the morning on Saturday to go bird-watching some more. After breakfast with the Doctor, we ventured out once more this time travelling far uphill. A beautiful brown dingo-looking dog had been milling around us for awhile (not that we hadn't encountered many dogs before) and even ran ahead of us on the trail, scouting the way. We made our way with Krishna to the top of the large hill of modified granite to a most beautiful site. The top of the hill was the highest point in the nearby area and allowed a stellar view. Our first sight was the granite quarry on the side of a nearby mountain. It is from here that the booming dynamite blasts that have become a nightly ritual originate from. From there, it is taken and used all over. Granite is everywhere in this place, making it all the more beautiful. As I near the top of the hill, (also capped in granite) the most beautiful sight came into view. Stretching for hundreds of miles in front of us, India's natural beauty reached out to the misty mountains of the Western Ghats in the distance. Scout (the dog had been given a name) led us to a rickety old tower to get a better view. We remained up there for quite some time enjoying the view, until the trumpet of a wild Asian 'elephas maximus' was heard in the valley beneath our feet. The mood instantly shifted as we raced to get down the hill and back to our site before the elephants reached our area.

After bidding farewell to Krishna, we lounged yet again before preparing for the bonfire we had discussed at length. In the process of collecting and breaking firewood, I managed to accquire my first permanent souvenir of India. While breaking a stick, the left side broke and gashed my left hand quite severly. I sit even now with a large piece of gauze taped to my hand. Our next gues, Dr. Arvind, whom you may recall from earlier at ATREE, arrived and began a lecture on monitoring a speicies through the transect method. In addition to an interesting way to gather and analyze diversity, the man was an expert on butterflies and gave many examples of his work with them. Before dinner, we rushed to remove our bonfire preparations, as lightning and thunder was merely a prewview of a twenty minute downpour warning of the monsoons to come. We are definitely seeing more and more cloud cover. Hardly deterred by a brief rain, we enjoyed a decent bonfire anyway, swapping stories late into the night thinking reluctantly about another early start the next day.

Today was data collection and transecting like crazy. Shannon Diversity and Jacard's index, and many other ecological terms later, and we were exhausted. We said bye to Arvind once more and again are enduring the bug-ridden heat of pre-monsoon India. The plan is to return to our 'mountain' spot this evening to watch the sunset and return before our next guest, a botanist I believe, arrives later.

~Already missing family and friends,

- David