Nature at your door-step

Andrew SCOTT

One need not always travel hundreds of miles spending much time and money to observe nature’s marvellous performances if only one cares to look around his immediate environment, with an observant eye of course. Adventure is almost at our door-step and we have to seek for it patiently.

I live in the hill country city of Kandy, a paradise for any animal lover-specially the more humble and less significant creatures. We can observe the habits, moods and behaviour of many animals in our home gardens and the study itself will be very interesting and mentally rewarding.

Any reasonably large home garden is a haunt for insects that creep, crawl or fly, small reptiles, birds and mammals as well as amphibians such as frogs and toads. Some of the animals in your home garden will be diurnal.

Some are nocturnal and a few others are both. Some of these creatures are residents and others are visitors, either regular or casual.

The common amphibians in any home garden are the frogs and toads. These nocturnal creatures of nature spend the daytime hidden away in some crevice, under a stone or in holes sheltered by a fence or shrub and emerge from their hide-outs at nightfall.

At night they come out in large numbers and become very noisy specially when they serenade their eligible ‘lady-loves.’ They live on unmolested when the silence is shattered by the rude raids of marauding owls and rat-snakes.
 

Unwelcome visitors to most home gardens are snakes who are occasional visitors.

Their sting can be fatal. Rat-snakes (Gerandiyas), are regular visitors to almost all home gardens and their arrival can be easily known by the sharp warning cries of squirrels and the frightened cries of little birds on the nearby tree tops who keenly observe the path traversed by these snakes.

The mongoose, the mortal enemy of the cobras, comes out from their hideouts under the shrubs specially at dusk and sometimes, though rarely, late marauders leave the home gardens after daybreak.

The mongoose comes to a garden in search of lizards and other prey and will always appreciate a feed of chicken whenever available. Because of its marauding habit the mongoose is an unwelcome visitor to many Sri Lankan gardens and whenever possible it is mercilessly killed specially by owners of poultry farms.

The common garden lizard (Katussa) is well-known for its unpredictable movements and the intricate act of laying eggs. This process of laying eggs is quite fascinating to watch but many do not care to observe it even though it takes place in almost all home gardens quite regularly. The female garden lizard is not shy and it is quite easy to watch her laying her leathery eggs.

Many feathered friends visit any home garden, the most common being the crow (Kaputa) and the Etikukula. Both these birds are very useful in controlling snails, slugs and other little creatures which are found in abundance in our home gardens.

In most of our gardens where trees abound early in the morning crows bustle on the tree-tops. Honey birds dart across in a hurry and at times seven sisters jump and twitter all over the compound.

The magpie robin, nature’s playboy, dances about in many a home garden and high up on the large trees can be heard the sharp cries of the naughty parrots, mynahs and Selalihiniyas. Sporadically king-fishers too can be seen happily devouring their unfortunate victims.

The nesting habits of many of the birds in any home garden are very fascinating to watch. There are great variations in their nest building from the artistic nests of the weaver birds to the untidy structures of the crows. Some of the artistically inclined birds exhibit an artistry and ingenuity which can hardly be matched by even human beings.

During the migratory season butterflies flutter and dance adding colour to our home gardens and this is the best time to observe closely these dainty creatures. Bats, emitting their little squeaks are nocturnal predators who come to the home gardens specially when there are fruits on the trees to feed on.

Earthworms, humble and inoffensive little creatures, enrich the fertility of the soil and their greatest enemies are the birds, specially the early birds.

All our home gardens abound with a wealth of ants, specially the red and white ones and the latter are a great nuisance indeed. Throughout the day they are active and agile and there is a great bond of unity among them. Aren’t these noble qualities that man can learn from the life of ants.

Other little creatures in the home gardens that we can observe during the wet weather are the centipedes, millipedes and the dreaded leeches. All of the creatures could pose a nuisance.

Another unwelcome home garden inhabitant is the scorpion. At night many geckoes would come down to feast on the left-overs or on little insects that frequent our home gardens at night.

More than all of these, nature’s voices at night - the orchestra of the frogs, the chirp of the crickets, the hoot of the owls and the squeal of the bats, supported by the background sounds of smaller creatures illumined by the phosphorescent light of the fire-flies that criss-cross the pitch-dark environment will always remind us that we are so close to nature. So, do take pride and satisfaction in observing nature at your door-step.