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.
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
While walking in the Nilgiris, listen closely for the guffaw of the Nilgiri Laughingthrush. And treasure it, for you’ll hear it nowhere else on earth When I had first laid my hands on a Sony prosumer camera I found I could photograph birds within reach, and the target of one of my first attempts was a Nilgiri Laughingthrush, otherwise called the Rufous-breasted Laughingthrush or the Black-chinned Laughingthrush (Trochalopteron cachinnans). I first saw the bird on a trip with my parents to Doddabetta, a peak near Ooty. Kannada for ‘the large hill’, Doddabetta is the second highest peak in south India … Continue reading Heard the laugh track of the Nilgiris?
Someone once told not to look a gift horse in the mouth checked the dental signature of a Moose instead and discovered 12 molars, 12 premolars, 6 incisors and 2 canines. Oh dear, a moose is actually a deer, as Ogden Nash evidently knew! Confronted by a mouse or moose, You turn green, she turns chartroose. – OGDEN NASH From “GOOD-BY NOW OR PARDON MY GAUNTLET” My first encounter with the Moose (Alces alces) was in the Rockies in Colorado. It was mid-September and Fall was round the bend. We chanced upon a bull while driving through the Rocky Mountain … Continue reading Encounter: Looking up the Moose’s nose
Pankil Desai recounts a most amazing and suspenseful encounter between a Green Vine Snake and a Calotes lizard It was a regular sunny day and I was in my hostel room at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal. At around 11:30, I got a call from an unknown number informing me of a snake spotted nearby. It was not new for me to get such a call. I had volunteered with the Gujarat Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA) earlier and many people knew that I rescue snakes from human-reptile conflict zones. Since the snake was in the … Continue reading Heads and Tails: The Snake and the Lizard
Fluffy and tubby, the Indian Giant Squirrel is a treat to watch anywhere you may wander in the forests of peninsular India Continue reading Encounter: Indian Giant Squirrel
The White-cheeked Barbet, earlier known as the Small Green Barbet, just melts into the canopy. But peer into the roof of leaves and you’ll see it devouring fruits and figs I saw this green bird for the first time at Polachira, a wetland near Thiruvananthapuram. My friend Rahul pointed to a bush and said, “White cheeked Barbet”. Where? All I could see were green leaves. Careful scrutiny helped me discern its form. And that was my introduction to Megalaima viridis. In the green canopy, the barbet is tough to spot Look carefully atop fruiting trees, and you can see through its … Continue reading Encounter: White-cheeked Barbet, the Invisible Chatterbox
These are not just encounters, but close encounters. In these situations I have either touched or been too close for comfort with certain members of the suborder SerpentesI’d never imagined that such a day would dawn. In 2008, I visited the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) with friends PD, Zak and Subbu. I must mention here that I was so scared of snakes that I was almost on the verge of being ophidiophobic. We were roaming the campus when station manager Prashant’s 4-year-old daughter found a baby Common Vine Snake (Ahaetulla nasuta) and caught it to show us. All four … Continue reading Close Encounters of the Slithering Kind
What’s the fuss about the Serpent Eagle’s crest? At first glance, it isn’t even there. But wait and watch… I first ran into the Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela) in BR Hills on my first-ever trip with Beej, Sahastra and Sunita, and I wondered why those who named this bird thought it was crested. Why not Bulge-eyed Serpent Eagle? To me, the Changeable Hawk-eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus) — earlier known by its well-deserved name of Crested Hawk-Eagle — ought to have benefited from any title that contained “crest”. Majestic in flight This dark-plumaged forest eagle had no visible crest though even … Continue reading Raptor Friday: Crested Serpent Eagle
Not the cuddliest tiger around but certainly the safest to introduce your kids to, this one is best chased with a camera on a sunny spring morning. If your intentions are evil, back off or you’ll be left with a … Continue reading No teeth, no claws, but very much a Tiger!
The next time you hear a chuckle from the treetops or endearing squeaks and musical caws, look out for the Malabar Grey Hornbill. Or maybe a whole flock! What’s so different about the Malabar Grey Hornbill (Ocyceros griseus) compared with the other three hornbills found in the Western Ghats? The casque, of course. Rather, the absence of it. Although the attention-grabbing casque — the horn in hornbill — is not present in this southern species, the bright orange bill (in males) makes up for it and you realise the true meaning of the word “Hornbill”. The bill is shaped exactly … Continue reading Encounter: Malabar Grey Hornbill
Watching one of our most efficient predators in the wild is a treat and a privilege. Most people might be obsessed with cats, but give it up for the Dhole, our very own wild canid Just after I told my wife how endangered the Indian wild dog or Dhole (Cuon alpinus) was, we saw about ten of them on our first three trips together. Which, naturally, evoked the question: “Are they really endangered? I have seen more wild dogs than tame ones since our marriage…” Sadly, they are… At first glance the dhole is very like a dog When, as a child, … Continue reading Encounter: Dhole – the Indian wild dog
The brilliant brick reds, salmon-pink and yellow of Cassias light up avenues even as summer wears out its welcome. Sahastrarashmi presents an intimate encounter with the flowering tree as never experienced before Studio portrait of Red Cassia – the yellow (possibly hybrid) variation Studio portrait of Red Cassia – the brick-red flowers are interspersed with pink, but from a distance overshadow other shades The seemingly endless tropical summer tends to linger a bit longer on the eastern coast down south where I live. It’s an extended goodbye, a season that begins to grudgingly allow the relief of a few cool days … Continue reading An intimate encounter with the lovely Red Cassia
The snake tried every trick to climb the coconut tree. Failing, it slithered down and risked death. How could I stop it from being killed, I wondered. But the snake had plans of its own… Remember how Kaa of Walt Disney’s Jungle Book hissed seductively from a tree: “Trusssst in meee, jussst in meee”? And remember how some time ago I wrote of a little cobra that I had seen to safety, away from the pipsqueak securitas that wanted to bludgeon it? Ethnocide, I say. That’s what it is — to kill a snake for what it is. That tender … Continue reading Would you trust a snake on a tree?
More often heard than seen, the diminutive Coppersmith is a thousand times smaller than its enormous voice Once a while we may be treated to the sight of a coppersmith perched this low I was on my first ever trip to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary near Mysore, when I had a flat tire halfway through. As I pushed my two-wheeler along with my friend for kilometers looking for a pile of tires or a board screaming “puncher” (or variants of it) advertising a puncture mechanic in these parts of the world, I saw a strikingly colorful bird on an electric line. … Continue reading Encounter: The Coppersmith Barbet
Often, the stupidest questions elicit the most enlightening answers. Such was my initiation to the little featherball known as the Rufous-tailed Shrike Continue reading Encounter: The Rufous-tailed Shrike