Walking in the sky
Against the backdrop of the friendly neighborhood, this funambulist climbed steadily into the sky, dwarfing birds and other passing aircraft. The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
Author: Bijoy Venugopal
Founder-editor of The Green Ogre, Beej began this blog as a solo writing project in 2006. A communications professional, he has worked as a corporate storyteller, journalist, travel writer, cartoonist and photo-blogger. He is an active birder and citizen science enthusiast.
An evening for Egrets
The sun went down on the first evening of 2010. The outboard motor that had growled and gnashed through the backwaters in the morning was now silent. The water lapped placidly at the speedboat’s fibre hull. A Stork-billed Kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis) trilled absently. But for this Great Egret (Ardea alba)…
The Whale Wars have begun
News is now afoot of a Japanese whaler plowing through a high-tech powerboat full of anti-whaling activists who hurled stink bombs to disrupt the whalers’ annual hunt in the waters off Antarctica. The trimaran Ady Gil, enlisted by Sea Shepherd activists for anti-whaling protests, is sinking in Antarctica’s Commonwealth Bay.…
Migratory Blue Tiger butterflies ring in the new
Walking by the backwaters at Aronda, a coastal village near Sawantwadi in southern Maharashtra, we came upon a bush of yellow blooms shimmering with butterflies, mostly Blue Tigers (Tirumala limniace) and a few Common Crows (Euploea core). Both species are known to migrate extensively during the monsoon, and it was…
Sunset in Tiger Haven – Billy Arjan Singh (1917-2010)
Kunwar Arjan Singh, better known to big cat-lovers as Billy Arjan Singh, stirred the conservation world to an agitated and impassioned debate when he hand-reared a tigress, Tara, procured from a breeder in England, and released her in the wilds of Tiger Haven, his estate in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri…
In the arms of Shiva – a trek to Tungnath
Our destination is Tungnath, the third Kedar, and my purpose is religious only in a pagan sense. To walk the wild Himalayas, breathe their bounteous air, encounter their wildlife, their trees and wildflowers, rivers and springs, and to be at the mercy of their elements is pilgrimage enough for us.
Moth Smoke – three unidentified flying objects
Over the last three weeks, the weather has been very odd in Bangalore. We had an extended spell of rain and some very wet days. And then some very warm nights — sleeping with the fan on at night in late November has certainly been a first. It’s been such…
Encounter: Russet Sparrow
Like thousands of coins jingling in hundreds of fists, the chirruping of sparrows heralds dusk. Trees quiver as roosting flocks fuss like train passengers arguing over berths. The din dies down with the fading light and all is quiet again. Until the morning, when breakfast squabbles are made public and…
Encounter – The Himalayan Monal
Even a peacock must bow to this unchallenged monarch of mountain fowls, the majestic Himalayan Monal
Can we refuse the world’s trash?
It’s something we have read about before, but this story by Tehelka puts all the canards and reports in perspective: India has become the ultimate receptacle of the first world’s trash. As if we don’t generate enough of our own. Excerpt: According to an estimate, India imported around 16.8 lakh…
Cheddar Moon
Caught her waking two moons ago over a city unaware of its certain doom ballooning unnoticed unsung a giant speech blurb full of aching emptiness and terrible secrets to tell us without a tongue to twist them into words The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from…
Mascot of Nandi Hills – voting open
This? Or this? The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
Test-driving the FZ28
Snapped these up with the new box on a walk in the park Calotropis gigantea – one of my favourite weeds, because there’s always much happening on its leaves and flowers See – what did I tell you? This chap was sitting here waiting for brunch Closer crop. I need a…
Encounter – White-eared Bulbul
A prim little bulbul that’s completely at home in the desert In Horse With No Name, Neil Young sang: “In the desert, you can’t remember your name.” It’s sort of what you feel when you see a bulbul in the desert, comfortable among the spare vegetation. Meet the White-eared Bulbul,…
Darwin’s finches, a scrapbook from MyARKive
Arkive.org is a fantastic resource offering information about the world’s endangered species. I found this scrapbook on Darwin’s finches very handy. Darwin’s finches – a MyARKive scrapbook The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.