So here we are in December, the last month of the year. Nope, I have not just woken up to the fact a la Rip Van Winkle. Not that he woke to something minor as a few days into December, rather he was twenty years too late to wake up at all to whichever month it had been. Imagine, he missed a whole revolution, the American one! What wouldn’t I give to sleep through the present and wake up twenty years later to find my country is rid of all its cow vigilantes and other termites. But I digress, as I am infamously wont to do as soon as my fingers start tap-dancing on the keyboard. 

I was talking of how we are already into December. December with its clear blue skies, and days warmer and drier relative to those of months gone by.  But it’s not yet time to echo Johnny Nash and sing I Can See Clearly Now The Rain Is Gone.  Not yet. There’s some more in store for us, light showers, in the next few days. Then they will peter out altogether and  be gone for quite a while. That’s when the theater will finally be set for the sun to begin its ascent to glory. 

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The December sun has brought out the butterflies in full force. They dance and chase each other across the yard and around the lantana bush. Common Jezebels, Common Leopards, Tailed Jays, Lime, Chocolate Pansy, Plain Tiger… all the regulars are here.   In the backyard, on the hibiscus leaf I found a Common Baron with torn wings. Wow, a veteran. What if it could speak, write …or use the computer even? The tales it could tell of its life, the battles fought, how bits of wings were lost, and more.

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Pale-billed Flowerpeckers have made a comeback this December. They are so tiny – the smallest bird in southern India – you blink, they disappear. So yeah, you guessed right, I didn’t blink till I captured one of them. The other promptly dived into the foliage of the mango tree. After a long, long while, I got to see a Loten’s Sunbird, only the missus, not the more colorful mister though. But he is sure to be somewhere around and will be framed one of these days. It is for a reason that I am known as Sunbird Mohan. 

I have not yet got to the really, really good part about December though. This is the month the children come home (and the month I usually do less of blogging).  Hooray! I am counting the days, impatiently. 🙂

©Shail Mohan 2018