Celebrate June rains with this wallpaper
Celebrate June rains with this Green Ogre calendar wallpaper for desktops, ipads and laptops. Download it for free
Author: Sandeep Somasekharan
Sandeep Somasekharan (or Sandy as friends call him) took his headlong plunge into photography with a three-megapixel Nikon point-and-shoot he purchased in 2003. The avid reader and occasional scribbler started enjoying travel and nature more as he spent more time photographing. Meeting Beej in 2008 helped him channel his creative energies in the form of essays and nature photographs that he started publishing on The Green Ogre.
Sandy loves to photograph birds and landscapes, and considers photography and writing as his meditation. Now based out of the US, Sandy juggles his time between parental duties, a full time engineering role, writing short fiction in Malayalam, and an occasional birding trip thrown in between. His debut novel in Malayalam hits the bookstalls in January 2025.
Sandy can be found at instagram as @footprintsonlight
Encounter – Anna’s Hummingbird
Meeting Anna’s Hummingbird, with its startling metallic pink head and dazzling green plumage, is nothing short of birding epiphany
GHNP Trek Day 7-9 – Lapa-Neuli-Kullu and civilization
Back to Kullu — and woeful civilization — after a half-done but nonetheless fulfilling trek in the Great Himalayan National Park. And, with that, we conclude this series by Sandeep Somasekharan.
GHNP Trek Day 6 – Descent or plummet to Lapa?
On Day 6 of our Great Himalayan National Park Trek we detour to Lapa from Dhel Thatch, making a slippery and treacherous descent
GHNP Trek Days 4-5 – Exploring Dhel and foiled plans
Our Great Himalayan National Park trek plan gets altered, as the path to Ghumtarao is snowed out. We end up doing local excursions at Dhel Thatch on day four and five, trying to spot some wildlife, and enjoying the fauna and the Himalayan sun.
Whiteout: Winter Storm Thor shows his artistic side
As Winter Storm Thor freezes North America in his icy tentacles, Sandeep Somasekharan wriggles free to reveal some stunning snowscapes.
GHNP Trek Day 3: To Dhel, and the layers unravel
Day 3 of our Great Himalayan National Park trek takes us from Humkhani to Dhel Thatch (3500 m) – 7 km and 1400 m to climb. Sandeep Somasekharan continues with Part 4 of the travelogue
GHNP Trek Day 2: Beyond the bridge, the wilderness
Once we are across the bridge, it feels as if behind us a huge wall of forest has grown, shutting us out completely. It is silent, dark and mysterious. Day 2 of our Great Himalayan National Park trek, recounted by Sandeep Somasekharan
GHNP Trek – Day 1: An oxymoron called acclimating
Day 1 was an ‘acclimatizer’. Ha. Acclimating is an oxymoron. Ask those who laboured up the slopes from Neuli to Shakti and ended up painfully breathless by the end of the day. Part 2 of Sandeep Somasekharan’s report of The Green Ogre trek to the Great Himalayan National Park in 2012
Great Himalayan National Park Trek – Day Zero – Warming up
Warming up for our trek to the Great Himalayan National Park, the Ogres spend time in Delhi, waiting impatiently to get there. Part 1 of a new series by Sandeep Somasekharan
Mission (Peak) Accomplished – A Trek Report
A Fourth of July trek report from Mission Peak, California. Warning: Birds inside.
Words of a feather – what birds would say if they could talk
What would birds say if they could talk as humans do? Enjoy these candid moments from the avian world – words of a feather. And don’t forget to share the buzz!
On The Wing: Meet the Grey Plover
You have probably seen the Grey Plover on a sandy beach in Kerala and not paid it any attention. Up close, its grace and beauty are alluring
S.P.R.E.A.D of the Common Kestrel
It is indeed a majestic sight, and you can’t but stand there with your jaw hanging open, watching this glorious common kestrel (falco tinnunculus) hover overhead. You obviously can’t afford to gape at this site if you are a tiny rodent, or a small bird, or the garden lizard, because…
Raptor Friday: A meeting with a Lesser Kestrel
A birding trip to Koonthakulam, Tamil Nadu, revealed a rare sighting of Lesser Kestrels, seasonal migrants that pass through India en route to Africa