Wordless Wednesday: Babbler thumbs its nose
Photograph: Sahastrarashmi Enjoy all Wordless Wednesdays The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
Category: Sahastra
All posts authored by Sahastra
Immersing Ganesha – An ode to broken things?
The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda may well have been talking of the immersion of Ganesha, thinks Sahastrarashmi as he presents a tableau of pictures from the beach at Pondicherry Let’s put all our treasures together — the clocks, plates, cups cracked by the cold — into a sack and carry…
On the Wing: Black-shouldered Kite
An attractive raptor even while perched, the Black-shouldered Kite is hard to forget once spotted hovering For a long time after I learned to identify this bird, also called the Black-winged Kite to differentiate it from the Australian Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris), I did not witness its flight. During the winter dusk near…
Wordless Wednesday – What’s inside the fig?
Photo: Sandeep Somasekharan See all Wordless Wednesday posts The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
Le Question: Did Indians do nothing but celebrate festivals?
A tree may be our primary connection with the universe — but it will take us all our lives to acknowledge it The Ficus virens that outgrew the shrine Shashwat: Haven’t the Americans built big cities, warships, fighter jets and so on? Me: I guess so. Shashwat And the Germans…
Book Review: Life’s Grandeur by Stephen Jay Gould
Eminently readable, Stephen Jay Gould’s Life’s Grandeur is a must for anyone who wants to understand Darwin better Stephen Jay Gould (Sep 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) is one of the best known and most influential writers on the Theory of Evolution. The author of more than two dozen…
An intimate encounter with the lovely Red Cassia
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…
Gaia and the Lovelock legacy
James Lovelock, whose birthday fell on July 26, proposed the compelling but controversial idea of Gaia. Sahastrarashmi offers an appreciation of the man and his work Gaia as metaphor; Gaia as a catalyst for scientific enquiry; Gaia as literal truth; Gaia as Earth Goddess. Whoever she is, let’s keep her.…
Encounter: The Rufous-tailed Shrike
Often, the stupidest questions elicit the most enlightening answers. Such was my initiation to the little featherball known as the Rufous-tailed Shrike
Encounter: Golden Frog
Our very own Golden Frog, a Western Ghats endemic, gave us the cherished privilege of a long and uninterrupted audience
Encounter: Bicoloured Frog
It’s tiny and blends in completely with the leaf litter but once you spot it, the Bicoloured Frog is unmistakable
Wordless Wednesday: The Orchid, the Slug and the Skipper
Those are pretty orchids, yes, but why are they crawling with slugs?
Encounter: Blue-eyed Bush Frog
On a dark, wet monsoon night in Agumbe we met the very kissable blue-eyed prince of frogs
The Cannonball Tree, an explosion of beauty
In flower the Cannonball Tree is lovely. But, by Toutatis, beware the skull-crushing quality of its menacing fruits
Encounter: Crimson Sunbird
A chance meeting with this charming sunbird kept our spirits high through the unpredictable Himalayan weather In September 2010, on our way to the shrine of Madhyamaheshwar, we spent a night at the beautifully situated GMVN guest house at Ukhimath. It had been a year of catastrophic rains – an…