Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
There’s always a first time. The Green Ogre’s ‘Encounter’ series describes memorable first meetings with birds, beasts, places, natural monuments and natural phenomena.
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.
What happens when a monkey chances upon a coconut? Well, let’s just say there’s no business like monkey business. And monkey business is show business. Enjoy this video
Meet the only eucalyptus species native to the northern hemisphere, the Mindanao Gum Tree or Rainbow Eucalyptus, so known for the vibrant colored patterns left by its peeling bark
The first time I came upon ‘chough’ I thought it was a dictionary entry for an act of expectoration by one with a North Indian surname. It would be a few years before I got the hang of what it was really – a kind of crow
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…
A birding trip to Koonthakulam, Tamil Nadu, revealed a rare sighting of Lesser Kestrels, seasonal migrants that pass through India en route to Africa
The Crab Plover (Dromas ardeola) is a bird of decidedly unique appearance. It found along the coasts of Asia and Africa, where it chases after crabs and deftly pries them open with its highly specialized steak-knife of a bill. Here’s a picture of one on a beach in Kerala.
For many years, the Spotted Forktail was just an apparition in a dream. Now, happily twitched off the list, it is one of my favourite Himalayan birds.
In the Polachira wetlands of Kollam, southern Kerala, the sight of a White Stork, a winter visitor increasingly hard to come by in the subcontinent, fills the mind with memories seen and imagined
A lucky and rewarding encounter with the Bald Eagle, one of the enduring symbols of America, in Maryland’s Conowingo Dam
The sacred grove at Oorani is the last stand of Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests — a postage stamp-sized green patch in the middle of insipid featureless coastal plain dotted with coconut plantations. It does not exactly draw your attention. That, however, would be a huge miss.
From New Castle, Delaware, an eerie ‘watercolour’ of Hurricane Sandy the landscape artist with a sense of humour. Exclusive Photos.
Never mind its cough-syrupy taste, or its tongue-twister of a name, a Rhododendron in flower is inspiration enough to walk the Himalaya, or the Nilgiris
What is Onam without its leitmotif — the Onathumbi or Picture Wing Dragonfly?
Shortwing or Blue Robin? When you see eye to eye with a bird for the first time and don’t know what to call it, just watch. Taxonomy be damned!
