Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
If my piece on the Bedni Bugyal trek was a one-week breeze, here comes the hurricane. My good friend Jennifer Nandi, whose reading has ingrained in her the poesy of Thoreau and the acidity of Dame Dorothy Parker, has written what I believe to be a heartfelt and insightful account…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iGvD-Tteiw] The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
Sept. 30 – Oct. 2, 2008 Alpine Swift (Tachymarptis melba) Ashy Woodswallow (Artamus fuscus) Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike (Hemipus picatus) Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malayensis) Black-crested Bulbul (Ruby Throated) – (Pycnonotus melanicterus gularis) Black-headed Cuckooshrike (Coracina melanoptera) Black-lored Tit (Parus xanthogenys) Blue-bearded Bee Eater (Nyctyornis athertoni) Bronzed Drongo (Dicrurus aeneus) Chestnut-headed Bee…
On our 10-day trek in Garhwal, we experienced the majesty, beauty, ferocity and the sagacity of the Himalayas. Over a hundred species of birds, hailstorms every afternoon, mountain sickness at 12,000 feet and tearing down roofs to build a fire, our adventure had a bit of everything. If you want…
The man whose breath is the breathing of small white butterflies… – Erica Jong, The Man Under the Bed It’s not often that we see the Page Three element in the life of a biologist elbowing into the foreground. But more people are likely to remember Charles Lee Remington for…
It was in March last year that I stole a trip to Sultanpur, a few minutes by road past Gurgaon, Haryana. It seemed every bit like the wetlands of my dreams. It was the end of a prolonged winter, and the last stragglers — shovellers and gadwalls — were rehearsing…
From The Green Ogre archives, before digital video really caught on and became a thing – here are a bunch of quick nature notes from Horsley Hills
The Chinese, in all their ecological ignorance, have reason to be proud. After systematically decimating all things living from their once-bountiful land, they now expect to be felicitated for their ‘conservation’ efforts. China announced on May 22 that it expects the birth of 100 Siberian Tigers at the Manchurian Tiger…
The ban of the veterinary drug Diclofenac comes as a relief to conservationists. The drug, administered to domestic cattle and water buffalo, has been blamed for the Great Asian Vulture Crisis. Diclofenac enters the food chain when vultures feed on livestock carcasses, causing kidney failure. Ornithologists the world over have…
At a viewpoint on the California coast, we stopped for a bite, and got more than we could chew.
Birdsong brings comfort to tired trekkers ascending to the heights of Brahmagiri in the Western Ghats
“Tusker!” The cry stopped the safari vehicle in its tracks. About 20 tourists gawked at the picture of splendour, like a dark raincloud in a starless sky, chomping on shoots in a grassy verge beside the bamboo forest. On our drive through Nagarahole National Park, we had spotted Elephas maximus…
I have lived all my life with a green finger. Now scurvied by years of abuse in the urban wilderness, it joins my palsied lungs in an anguished cry. For clean air. For fresh water. For uncontaminated soil. For quiet. Around me, the poisoned land is fast losing the battle…
