entry reflections 24 titled: monsoon cormorants

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it is monsoon season in india. the lower back part of our property floods from june to august creating a pool up to about 3 feet deep, at the most 3 1/2 ft. as soon as the monsoon starts there are several species of frogs and insects that come to life. especially the frogs create a wonderful assortment of sounds as they eat mosquitoes and search for mates.

coconut trees like the one above survive the flooding but they grow very slowly and are not particularly productive. the coconuts that do form are best harvested as water coconuts

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these photos were taken last year as this year i am in norway for the season. but i presume much the same is going this year as it has for decades and centuries. at first some egrets and herons appear at the edges of the water to hunt the frogs and insects. later when the water reaches full depth other birds including an occasional cormorant stops by and swims methodically around the deeper sections of the pool. by this time of year in july the nightly concerts have become rather subdued as either the mating has been accomplished or the frogs have been eaten or both.

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unlike most water birds, cormorant's feathers do not trap air bubbles while swimming. this allows for them to make deep dives with little effort wasted in fighting floatation. however without the air bubbles the feathers become waterlogged and heavy. that makes it difficult to fly so they spread their wings and allow them to dry.

the stones the cormorant is standing on are blocks of laterite from a nearby quarry. there at the quarry large areas of stone are leveled and then cut into rectangles by a tractor like machine. from then on all work has been done by hand. the blocks are pried and uploaded onto trucks, 200 -300 per load. when the entire level has been removed the next level is cut. the stones are then shipped and downloaded at the building site. they are relatively malleable when freshly cut. each stone is then hand shaped and carried to where it is cemented in place. both our house and the compound visible in the background are built this way using over 15,000 stones. more recently, some technological advances have been made. the stones are now mostly machine shaped at the quarry but the remaining work is still enormously labor intensive.

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Wow..!
@eolianpariah
Beautiful and amazing Reflections. Fantastic photo capture of the cormorant..!
A Delightful and great post..! Thank you for sharing.
:-D

it is a pleasure to share beautiful moments with all who appreciate it. thanks for all the work you do hosting this dynamic and varied contest