Morning Raga by the Kentish Plover
On the first day of 2014, we found this adorable Kentish Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) in half minds whether to sing or not. Warm sunshine, sandy beaches and blue skies – who wouldn’t want to?
Category: Sandy
Winning The Toss: Blue-tailed Bee-eater pops a meal
Humans toss pancakes but birds like the Blue-tailed Bee-eater grab venomous insect prey like wasps and bees in mid-air and thrash them dead to dislodge the sting before tossing them in the air a la Rajinikanth with the cigarette
Say, does this Crab Plover speak Malayalam?
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.
Monsoon romance: Birds love rain, rain loves birds
Rain drives some of us indoors. But a Green Ogre loves nothing more than to step out, get wet and click madly. Uh, let’s go see what the birds are up to.
April Fooled: A drongo’s spot of bother!
The thin line between beautification and photo-manipulation can get troublesome… if the culprit manipulates the vital evidence!
Encounter: White Storks wintering in Polachira
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
Miaow! Hiss! Download the October wallpaper
It’s Wildlife Weekend. Download this Cat Snake, our October calendar-wallpaper, for your desktop and iPad!
September is here, download the wallpaper!
September fluttered in a tad late for us Ogres. But there’s more than 20 days left to enjoy this wallpaper. Download and share.
Onathumbi: Onam with the Picture Wing Dragonfly!
What is Onam without its leitmotif — the Onathumbi or Picture Wing Dragonfly?
All is not well with Alleppey
The Vembanad Lake in Alleppey, once praised by Lord Curzon as the “Venice of the East”, is a Ramsar Wetland and a Birdlife Important Bird Area. But those tags have not stopped greedy and exploitative tour operators from turning it into a sickening playground of hooligans and a dumping ground for trash. Here’s a horror story that will turn Stephen King’s stomach.
Encounter – Plumbeous Water Redstart
Married to foaming mountain streams, the Plumbeous Water Redstart is a constant companion to the trekker in the Himalaya. As cattle egrets are to grazing bovids, mynahs to figs, and flowerpeckers to Singapore cherries, Plumbeous Water Redstarts (Rhyacornis fuliginosa) are married to Himalayan streams.
Download the Green Ogre Calendar Wallpaper for July
Intrigued by ladybirds? Don’t miss this free wallpaper When was the last time you were intrigued by a ladybird? Not the children’s books, though your recollection of that memory might provide the answer to our question. Most adults can’t remember the last time they saw a ladybird, though children are…
Encounter – Yellow-billed Blue Magpie
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, pied bird with a needle-like beak (thanks to the illustrations).…
Encounter – Common Kingfisher
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 off our footwear to drench our feet, I heard a…
Download the June calendar wallpaper!
It’s already June, eh? We’re pretty hung-over, having just returned from the Great Himalayan National Park, where we spent most of the last week of May observing The Green Ogre Spring-Summer Conclave. It’s hard to erase that ache in the heart when we look back at our pictures. Those glorious…