Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
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. So I never complain about not having seen most of…
In the penultimate episode of her Bedni Bugyal travelogue, Jennifer Nandi revisits the Himalayan hamlet of Kanol, tucked into a fold in the vast district of Chamoli and haunted by the ghosts of ancient forests long lost to the logger’s axe Our reception committee at Kanol. Behind them, Satish and…
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 sharp beaks, large black eyes and yellow bodies, I looked…
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 the Chestnut-headed Bee Eater (Meropus leschenaulti) when I had imagined that…
In Wan, Jennifer Nandi marvels at the great Himalayan night that has no trouble falling, and laments how so many city-dwellers look skyward and never see the stars The guest house at Wan adjoins a grove of some of the tallest deodars in all of Uttarakhand The village of Wan is…
The Blyth’s Reed Warbler makes a long winter journey from the temperate zones of Asia to the Indian subcontinent, and then returns when its northern breeding grounds warm up. This year, at least one of them isn’t going back, thanks to a glass-and-steel high-rise that stood in its way. Who…
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 had posted an encounter with the lovely Red Cassia (Cassia roxburghii) and that was already late for the summer flowering season in the subcontinent. Not so…
A misty morning in Dandeli revealed this surreal spiderscape. Bring it alive on your desktop. Yours, with our compliments. Happy November! DOWNLOAD THIS WALLPAPER FOR YOUR DESKTOP >> Photo: Sandeep Somasekharan in Dandeli, Karnataka
Horsley Hills, where I had started birding five years ago, beckoned again early this year. And rewarded me with an enriching morning On the last weekend of March this year, after almost five years, I revisited the place of my first ever birding trip – Horsley Hills near Madanapalle in…
Distances in the Himalaya can be tricky, especially when pointed out desultorily by a guide deprived of his liquor. Thus captained, we descended the bleak slopes of Bedni toward the village of Wan. Jennifer Nandi’s spellbinding Bedni Bugyal travelogue continues… The descent from Bedni Bugyal With our faces turned towards…
As a child they were the stuff of nightmares. My spider sense still tingles, but no longer in fear I remember having always kept my distance from Arachnids as a child. Quite often have tarantulas turned up in the toilet, and quite often have I persuaded my parents to smash…
At Exit Glacier, not far from the top of the world as the puffin flies, we stayed at a historic hotel and stayed clear of bears We were drained from the previous day’s drive to the Arctic that ended only at 3 AM on Day 3 of our trip at…
In the charming alpine meadow of Bedni Bugyal life goes on as if on another planet, though Jennifer Nandi notes that our inexorable worldliness has preceded our arrival here Life’s symmetry, reflected in Bedni Kund Trishul peeks fleetingly behind scudding cloud and the earth is white. I can hear melt-…
Dandeli, post-monsoon, is a completely different forest. Quieter, darker, denser, and offering a whole new birding experience that left us unsatisfied A misty morning welcomed us as we got down at the VRL bus stand at Dandeli and through the veil of vapor we could see three Malabar Pied Hornbills…
Here was the Bicoloured Frog again, dressed for its wedding party.
