Monsoon rains and a Spotted Murrel on the Basunti lawn.

Monsoon rains normally start at Basunti in mid to late June with fairly light rains, developing into heavy downpours in July and possibly early August. By the end of August, the rains would subside, followed by the classic, glorious Indian summer months of Sept/Oct/Nov; Bright, clear sunny days, with cool nights, truly idyllic weather that can continue into December. On quite a few occasions we were swimming in the pool on Xmas day.
This year has been completely different. We had no rain in June and this continued up until the end of July. The weather was exceptionally hot and the talk was about a failing monsoon, with its accompanying doom and gloom scenarios. Everything suddenly changed at the beginning of August with a continuous torrential downpour. Never have I seen so much water come down from the sky. The water levels at the pool went up by over 20 cm in just an hour and as the ponds overflowed, I had to rescue my three kilo spotted murrel which was swimming on the lawn…what a bizarre sight of a large fish scooting around on the grass.
There are massive landslides all over the area. The only way into Basunti at the moment is on foot, as I am waiting for a break in the weather to clear the road. The garden just loves it, as it is a bit like being in the tropical house at Kew Gardens with endless thundery showers. The only downside is the salad beds, which I am replanting on an almost daily basis, as the seedlings just get washed out of the ground.
Huge great flocks of Cattle and Little Egrets are flying over Basunti mornings and evenings. They are making the most of the rapidly rising water levels, which is driving all the grubs and insects that they feed on to the surface.

Yesterday I quietly observed a display of two White-browed Scimitar Babblers in the mango tree. They pranced around and, I swear, sang a duet…