Encounter: Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin
It had given me the slip in Kutch, but in Oman I caught up with the Rufous-tailed Scrub Robin.
Category: Beej
All posts authored by Beej
Wordless Wednesday – Symmetrical Suckers
Photo: Beej The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
The First Green Ogre Monsoon Conclave at ARRS, Agumbe
If all goes well, The Green Ogre will hold its first-ever Monsoon Conclave at the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station from Saturday through Monday. Conclave is actually a dignified and rather hyperbolic term that describes the rare opportunity when all four (and now five) of us get together. Weather and luck…
On World Environment Day, out with Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus, exotic and introduced, has had a complex relationship with the Indian forest landscape, impacting biodiversity and the water table.
Encounter: Fork-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo
Is that a drongo? Or a cuckoo? Or a bit of both? Meet the Fork-tailed Drongo-cuckoo
A homecoming to Iruppu Falls
A chance trip to Iruppu Falls at the foot of the Brahmagiri peak in southern Coorg brought back a rush of old trekking memories The falls, not yet at their most splendid, are captivating In 2006, a little after my broken humerus had regained its sense of humour, I ventured…
Remembering Simon and Garfunkel in Ramanagaram
The wind blew down from the hillock and hissed in my ear: “I am a rock” A stray spell of sun lit up Ramanagaram’s famous rocks It wasn’t a winter’s day, as Paul Simon would have had it. But it had rained all night and the morning presented a stipple…
Osama is dead, but will the cranes fly again?
Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, will America allow Afghanistan to lick its wounds and restore its natural heritage? In India, the wintering Siberian Crane has been missing in action for nearly a decade Afghanistan has always suffered for its place on the map. For millennia, before traders discovered…
Tree-hugging for beginners
When you can’t hug the whole tree, start with a new leaf Photograph: Beej The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
Indian Laburnum – the Vishu tree
Wherever you go in the world, Mallus can be identified on Vishu’s eve as they strip Golden Shower trees bare of flowers! On that cheery note, Happy Vishu!
Oh fish, no hooks, no line, no net!
How to fish in troubled waters. Or how to spice up your dinner with an old pan, a tattered towel and a lump of cooked rice!
Blossom Showers and Bamboo Famines
Coffee in full flower Early this week I travelled to Coorg on assignment. Mild spring showers had triggered a riotous explosion of coffee blooms. Planters depend on these early rains, known locally as Blossom Showers, for the next year’s coffee crop. The dark-leaved boughs drooped under the weight of the…
Encounter: Kashmir Rock Agama
At 6,000 feet oxygen isn’t as easy to aspire as I’d like. My lungs labour to adapt subcontinental lethargy to the punishing demands of altitude, and for a while I am oblivious to the spectacular Himalayan scenery drifting by in a sweat-soaked blur only furlongs away from my fumbling feet.…
One flew over the crow’s nest
How long before a koel discovers that it is not a crow? The family of House Crows (Corvus splendens) in my yard is upset. For the past few weeks mother and father have been teaching their youngsters to fly. I have often seen the young crows follow their parents about,…
Assassins in the Garden – Part 1
For 20 years the mango tree that my father planted had stood its ground. It took less than 20 hours to bring it down.