Costa Rica Diaries – Parting Gifts
Pura Vida. The phrase that translates roughly to “Pure Life” doesn’t do enough justice to all that Costa Rica offers the nature lover. It’s goodbye for now.
Tag: birdwatching
Costa Rica Day 4 – Midnight weightlifting, flashing hummingbirds and misgendering in Spanish
On Day 4 in Costa Rica, Sandy learns his Spanish grammar the hard way, and indulges in a little light experiment with hummingbird photography
Indian Nightjar, Sweet Child O’Mine
Nightjars own the dark. To spy one by daylight is a gift from the night. An Indian Nightjar with a baby by its side is a vision
Christmas at Boca Tapada – Costa Rica Birding Diary Day 3
Scarlet Macaws, Great Green Macaws, Shining Honeycreepers, King Vultures — a great big birding feast! What better way to spend Christmas in Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Muddy Boots in Guapiles | Costa Rica Birding Diary – Day 2
From white bats huddled like dumplings under banana leaves and shimmering hummingbirds and gaudy tree frogs, to majestic owls necking in the dark of the forest, it’s just another birding day in Guapiles, Costa Rica. Is crazy!
Costa Rica Birding Diary | Day 1 – Cinchona and Sarapiqui
Exploring the bird life of Costa Rica, Sandy meets many that he assumes are either marital partners or relatives, but is mistaken!
TL;DR – No Ugly Ducklings
There are no ugly ducklings. And here’s proof! Just one look at these adorable young Indian Spot-billed Ducks and you’ll want to adopt them
TL;DR – Little Grebe, Holy Diver, Tireless Parent
Little Grebes are tiny wetland birds specially adapted for diving in search of food. Each dive can last up to 30 seconds!
TL;DR – Black-winged Stilts, helicopter parents
Black-winged Stilts are anxious parents, always patrolling their nesting sites. Predators get a brutal sendoff.
Bird-watching in Dandeli’s fragile forest
While the lockdown brings birds and beasts out into the cities, clandestine moves are underway to destroy the pristine forests in which they live. Praveen Tangirala recounts a birdwatching trip to the beautiful Kali Tiger Reserve in Dandeli, great stretches of which are threatened to be swallowed up by the proposed Hubbali-Ankola railway line
Kutch Diaries – Breakfast with the Grey Hypocolius
On a wintry morning in Kutch, we waited among the dense Salvadora bushes for a glimpse of a rare winter visitor from West Asia – the Grey Hypocolius
On World Wetlands Day, some funerary fanfare at Bengaluru’s dying lakes
That’s the way a wetland dies. It desiccates and seeps into memory, and then awaits a rain of retrospective wisdom that may never come.
Encounter – Yellow-throated Bulbul at Rishi Valley
From an apparition to a presence, the endangered Yellow-throated Bulbul regaled us with an appearance on a short birding walk at Rishi Valley.
Winter birding – it isn’t over until it’s over
Visiting the same location time and again has been the secret of this year’s winter birding escapades. It’s March but the migrants are still here. Among this week’s surprises was a flock of Garganey, wintering ducks from Europe that I have observed at Kaikondrahalli for the first time
Northern Pintails and other finds at Kaikondrahalli Lake
Though winter has been erratic these last few years, migrants are still seen in Bangalore’s dwindling lakes. At Kaikondrahalli, the sighting of two Northern Pintail drakes is a cause for celebration, however minor