The trees are dead! Long live the forest!
Dead trees are vital habitats for nourishing life. Then why do we have a problem with them?
Category: Birds
Birds are probably the gateway drug for many people into the fascinating world of nature. Because they are ubiquitous, birds arouse curiosity. Birdwatching is also among the most accessible of hobbies. Soar with birds in their world as you read these posts that celebrate birds and draw us into their world of marvels.
How looking out of the window saved my sanity – a quarantine birdwatching tale
Burning out during the lockdown looked like a very real possibility for Sandy. Until he began watching birds for a few minutes every day. Over the year, he documented more than 40 species in his North Carolina backyard
Doddanekundi Lake – A birder’s journal
Starting in 2016, Praveen Tangirala has kept a close eye on Doddanekundi Lake, the large wetland in his neighbourhood that hosts a wealth of bird life. Besides the obvious delights that birding at the lake brings, he is also wary of the environmental threats that endanger its fragile but resilient ecology.
Birdsong in Grindelwald – Notes from the Bernese Alps
Ravens, choughs, blackbirds… the stars of the snow-white alpine playground of the Swiss Alps are mostly black. A birding diary from the fabled Jungfrau region
Faces at a Feeder: Meet the Carolina Wren
Teakettle… teakettle. The Carolina Wren, though diminutive, makes its presence felt with its big, loud voice.
Kutch Diaries: Up close with the raptors of Banni
In the Banni grasslands of Kutch, raptors hold sway, holding sway over sky, scrub and tree-line
Faces at a Feeder: Northern Cardinal
Lockdown birding gets a boost with the arrival of a nesting family of Northern Cardinals at a North Carolina home feeder. Here’s the first post of an absorbing pictorial series
Bird-watching in Dandeli’s fragile forest
While the lockdown brings birds and beasts out into the cities, clandestine moves are underway to destroy the pristine forests in which they live. Praveen Tangirala recounts a birdwatching trip to the beautiful Kali Tiger Reserve in Dandeli, great stretches of which are threatened to be swallowed up by the proposed Hubbali-Ankola railway line
Kutch Diaries – Going Waku Waku with Sandgrouse in Banni
Continuing the Kutch Diaries, with close encounters with three different species of sandgrouse in Banni grasslands
Kutch Diaries – Breakfast with the Grey Hypocolius
On a wintry morning in Kutch, we waited among the dense Salvadora bushes for a glimpse of a rare winter visitor from West Asia – the Grey Hypocolius
Lockdown Diaries – 100 days of birding
One hundred days of birding. And the last lap in the midst of a lockdown!
Hush! This Magpie-Robin just stole a bulbul’s song!
The Oriental Magpie-Robin is an accomplished songster. But its powers of mimicry are often underrated.
Eastern Bluebirds – Spare the rod and spoil the child?
A run in with a rat snake prompts a question about conservation and ethics while setting up nest-boxes for Eastern Bluebirds
Spring arrives in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, flowers are blooming, waterfowl are cackling. The days are growing longer. Spring is here and a new cycle of seasons has begun
On World Wetlands Day, some funerary fanfare at Bengaluru’s dying lakes
That’s the way a wetland dies. It desiccates and seeps into memory, and then awaits a rain of retrospective wisdom that may never come.