Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
A misty morning in Dandeli revealed this surreal spiderscape. Bring it alive on your desktop. Yours, with our compliments. Happy November! DOWNLOAD THIS WALLPAPER FOR YOUR DESKTOP >> Photo: Sandeep Somasekharan in Dandeli, Karnataka
Horsley Hills, where I had started birding five years ago, beckoned again early this year. And rewarded me with an enriching morning On the last weekend of March this year, after almost five years, I revisited the place of my first ever birding trip – Horsley Hills near Madanapalle in…
Distances in the Himalaya can be tricky, especially when pointed out desultorily by a guide deprived of his liquor. Thus captained, we descended the bleak slopes of Bedni toward the village of Wan. Jennifer Nandi’s spellbinding Bedni Bugyal travelogue continues… The descent from Bedni Bugyal With our faces turned towards…
As a child they were the stuff of nightmares. My spider sense still tingles, but no longer in fear I remember having always kept my distance from Arachnids as a child. Quite often have tarantulas turned up in the toilet, and quite often have I persuaded my parents to smash…
At Exit Glacier, not far from the top of the world as the puffin flies, we stayed at a historic hotel and stayed clear of bears We were drained from the previous day’s drive to the Arctic that ended only at 3 AM on Day 3 of our trip at…
In the charming alpine meadow of Bedni Bugyal life goes on as if on another planet, though Jennifer Nandi notes that our inexorable worldliness has preceded our arrival here Life’s symmetry, reflected in Bedni Kund Trishul peeks fleetingly behind scudding cloud and the earth is white. I can hear melt-…
Dandeli, post-monsoon, is a completely different forest. Quieter, darker, denser, and offering a whole new birding experience that left us unsatisfied A misty morning welcomed us as we got down at the VRL bus stand at Dandeli and through the veil of vapor we could see three Malabar Pied Hornbills…
Here was the Bicoloured Frog again, dressed for its wedding party.
We arrive at Bedni Bugyal, but only barely. Food, shelter and rest are in pitifully short supply. Add to that the prospect of two long, cold, terrifying nights at 11,000 feet. An hour later, Bijoy comes up to us to beg a sip of water. I point wordlessly to the…
From left to right: Arun Menon, Sahastrarashmi, Sandeep Somasekharan, Bijoy Venugopal, Jennifer Nandi, Anand Yegnaswami and Jagadeesh Seshadri
If coochicooable was a word, it would fit the Indian Silverbill My first memories of fellow Ogre Sahastra are tied to a photograph he posted in the Infosys photography club. The first was of a group of tiny, brown birds with beautiful conical beaks shining like metal, perched on a…
Leaving Mt Denali behind we left with optimism for the Arctic Circle, into the ragged latitude of the midnight sun Disappointed with the weather at Denali National Park that denied us a view of Mt Denali on the first day of our trip to Alaska, we looked for an suitable…
It takes more than eco-tourism or tokenism to save the tiger. Improving the lot of conservation’s foot-soldiers can be a good start. Forest officer Prabhu Swamy at one of the best-maintained anti-poaching camps in Bandipur, supported by the Jumbo Foundation. It is a permanent masonry structure equipped with solar panels…
Raptor on the road. DOWNLOAD THIS IMAGE AND SET IT AS YOUR CALENDAR WALLPAPER
Pressed to ascend an indefinite distance to the alpine meadow of Ali Bugyal, Jennifer Nandi’s mind fastens to thoughts of self-preservation and meditations on the Zen of climbing Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we set off from Didana the next day on what we’ve been told is roughly an “eight-kilometre easy trek”…
