Three days in Corbett
Three days in Corbett National Park and Arun Menon returns with a bushel full of lifers… and the sighting of his life leaves us burning bright – with envy!
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.
Balcony Safari – The idle joy of birding
Why go on an expensive safari to watch birds when your backyard is just as well endowed as any forest?
Encounter – Golden-bellied Gerygone
Mangrove forests are among the most inaccessible habitats. But it was one at Pranburi in Thailand that I met the Golden-bellied Gerygone singing its lush, soulful song
A White-bellied Sea Eagle fishes for compliments
A White-bellied Sea Eagle won’t make that astronomical push without a gastronomical pull and this one had no apparent interest in playing the avian Sisyphus.
Trip List – When Bhadra doled out a Dhole
No, we didn’t see the tiger at Bhadra this summer. But nature’s cornucopia overflowed with bird sightings. And yes, a pack of Dhole. Carnivore – check!
Encounter – The Welcome Swallow
The Aristotelian phrase ‘One swallow doesn’t make a summer’ doesn’t quite apply in the case of the Welcome Swallow, which was named by Australian farmers eager for its arrival in the spring
Celebrate June rains with this wallpaper
Celebrate June rains with this Green Ogre calendar wallpaper for desktops, ipads and laptops. Download it for free
Encounter – The Hair-Crested Drongo
Glossy jet-black with iridescent highlights. And a tail so twirly it’s unmistakable. If you peer ever so closely, you can see the thin, thread-like hairs on the forehead. Meet the Hair-crested Drongo.
Encounter – The Galah or Rose-breasted Cockatoo
In Aussie slang, its name means ‘loveable fool’. Meet the Galah, a common but nonetheless striking cockatoo found in Australia
Encounter – Anna’s Hummingbird
Meeting Anna’s Hummingbird, with its startling metallic pink head and dazzling green plumage, is nothing short of birding epiphany
Today and every day, a world of and for sparrows
As a race, we have doubtless lived with sparrows for aeons. We crave the companionship of these cosmopolitan birds, etching them into canvas and verse, song and rime. And we ache for them when they are gone.
Encounter – Tristram’s Starling
In the fog oases of Salalah, a wolf-whistle bids you turn and look. Just a Tristram’s Starling crying wolf. Similar to a redstart but garrulous and raucous like a starling, this bird is all over the wadis, following the waves of human tourists that throng southeastern Oman during the rainy season
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
Encounter – Himalayan Bulbul
Even birders rarely felicitate bulbuls with a second glance, worse if they are Red-whiskered or Red-vented Bulbuls. But when we head up to the hills, the sight of the Himalayan Bulbul is a joy to us. For it means we are in the hills, and there’s a bounty of birdlife waiting to be discovered.