Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
Over the last three weeks, the weather has been very odd in Bangalore. We had an extended spell of rain and some very wet days. And then some very warm nights — sleeping with the fan on at night in late November has certainly been a first. It’s been such…
Like thousands of coins jingling in hundreds of fists, the chirruping of sparrows heralds dusk. Trees quiver as roosting flocks fuss like train passengers arguing over berths. The din dies down with the fading light and all is quiet again. Until the morning, when breakfast squabbles are made public and…
Even a peacock must bow to this unchallenged monarch of mountain fowls, the majestic Himalayan Monal
It’s something we have read about before, but this story by Tehelka puts all the canards and reports in perspective: India has become the ultimate receptacle of the first world’s trash. As if we don’t generate enough of our own. Excerpt: According to an estimate, India imported around 16.8 lakh…
Caught her waking two moons ago over a city unaware of its certain doom ballooning unnoticed unsung a giant speech blurb full of aching emptiness and terrible secrets to tell us without a tongue to twist them into words The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from…
This? Or this? The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
Snapped these up with the new box on a walk in the park Calotropis gigantea – one of my favourite weeds, because there’s always much happening on its leaves and flowers See – what did I tell you? This chap was sitting here waiting for brunch Closer crop. I need a…
A prim little bulbul that’s completely at home in the desert In Horse With No Name, Neil Young sang: “In the desert, you can’t remember your name.” It’s sort of what you feel when you see a bulbul in the desert, comfortable among the spare vegetation. Meet the White-eared Bulbul,…
Arkive.org is a fantastic resource offering information about the world’s endangered species. I found this scrapbook on Darwin’s finches very handy. Darwin’s finches – a MyARKive scrapbook The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
It makes itself scarce. Its call is so enmeshed in the thickets and brambles of forest undergrowth that it is part of the sound you take back with you from the jungle. But few first-time birders I have escorted on their maiden outing have come away after a good look…
Mockingbirds are the true artists of the bird kingdom. Which is to say, although they’re born with a song of their own, an innate riff that happens to be one of the most versatile of all ornithological expressions, mockingbirds aren’t content to merely play the hand that is dealt them.…
Stepping into the shoes that we think Al Gore has now vacated since accepting the Nobel Prize, Sen. John Kerry takes over as the Next Big American Voice Against Global Warming. But despite the big press, the noises he is making are no different. And particularly, coming from another Presidential…
Footloose in Garhwal, my travelogue on our trek to Bedni Bugyal in April-May 2007, is finally available for viewing. It had been privately circulated until now. Here it is: On Yudu (Firefox users may have some Flash 10-related viewing trouble): We’re sorry, your browser doesn’t support IFrames. You can still…
You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing…
The Chinkara or Indian Gazelle (Gazella bennettii), more of a newsmaker for its association with a trigger-happy Salman Khan, is a sight to behold in the arid wilderness of Rajasthan and Kutch
