Encounter: The Black-and-Orange Flycatcher
In a Nilgiri forest cloaked with moss, the adorable and confiding Black-and-Orange Flycatcher sets the woods — and your imagination — aflame. Continue reading Encounter: The Black-and-Orange Flycatcher
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.
In a Nilgiri forest cloaked with moss, the adorable and confiding Black-and-Orange Flycatcher sets the woods — and your imagination — aflame. Continue reading Encounter: The Black-and-Orange Flycatcher
After every birding trip there is always one bird that occupies our thoughts after we return. For me, it was the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie As a voracious reader of Tintin, my first impression of a magpie was a rather plain, … Continue reading Encounter – Yellow-billed Blue Magpie
It was early days when I still hadn’t started birding seriously. A fun trip with some friends to Edamuri falls, near Mysore, more of a ‘get your feet wet’ trip. As we stood along the shore of the irrigation channel, taking … Continue reading Encounter – Common Kingfisher
The red-and-black seeds frequently used in the indoor games of my childhood, I learned recently, are deadly poisonous. Introducing the pretty and dangerous Rosary Pea or … Continue reading Indian Licorice – Black-eyed beads of death
In the foggy ruins of time, most memories can get blurred, or muddied entirely. But not a birder’s remembrance of a cherished bird. Every time I see the Blue-capped Rock Thrush, I am reminded of myself at twelve, a scruffy, itchy pilgrim gazing in rapture at a sprite, a vision, a gift of the forest. It’s a story that involves God, Darwin and Salim Ali — all playing significant bit-parts. Continue reading Encounter: God, Darwin, Ali and the Blue-capped Rock Thrush
On broad soaring wings, the mighty White-bellied Sea Eagle patrols the coastline, plunging every now and then into the ocean for fish or sea snakes. Its aerobatic displays can make test pilots envious. If you see one, stop and watch. I … Continue reading Raptor Friday: The White Tiger of the shores
When the dim, shadowy silence of the leaf-litter suddenly takes wing, it’s either a ghost or a nightjar that sets your heart racing. Our search that began in the hunt for a peacock feather took us to the adorable Large-tailed … Continue reading Encounter: Large-tailed Nightjar
To those of us sitting in Bangalore, Cyclone Thane is just a cold, wet day to grumble about. Or perhaps even enjoy as we huddle (or … Continue reading Encounter: Cyclone Thane, Pondicherry
In Valparai the endangered Lion-tailed Macaque inhabits tracts of dense evergreen forest hemmed in by tea plantations. It lives, literally and alarmingly, on the edge. Here are memories of a brief but illumining encounter with these fascinating primates
Continue reading In the kingdom of the Lion-tailed Macaque
In the presence of two regal cats we watched mesmerised and awestruck. Some of that aura rubbed off on us I have wandered only a handful of forests. Most wildlife enthusiasts might have traveled more in one year than I have over the last five. … Continue reading Hail to the leopard, spirit of the forest
What could be common to a tiny forest bird and a temple statuette that embodies grace, beauty and wild power? Having looked at a small group of 4-5 highly energetic and extremely acrobatic birds with small grey heads, small straight … Continue reading Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher: An Afternoon Haiku
In the deciduous forests fringing the Western Ghats, look out for the charming Chestnut-headed Bee-Eater Bee eaters are probably a bird-lover’s (and photographer’s) favourite birds — breathtakingly beautiful, amazingly acrobatic and acquiescent. Early into my birding days, I ran into … Continue reading Encounter – Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
The late-blooming Red Cassia sets the avenue canopy aflame, flowering as it does when all colour is spent after the monsoon’s departure In early August I … Continue reading A Red Cassia in late flower
Here was the Bicoloured Frog again, dressed for its wedding party. Continue reading The Bicoloured Frog’s Wedding Suit
If coochicooable was a word, it would fit the Indian Silverbill My first memories of fellow Ogre Sahastra are tied to a photograph he posted in the Infosys photography club. The first was of a group of tiny, brown birds … Continue reading Encounter: Indian Silverbill