Family entertainment for this family of Little Grebes might be, in all seriousness, a training session for the future. Notes from a morning well spent… Early one Sunday morning, a fortnight after I got my new lens, I headed out … Continue reading What Little Grebes learn at Sunday School
Make this picture your desktop wallpaper-calendar for February 2012. To download, click the link below or the picture above. file storage online Garden Lizard (Calotes versicolor) Photograph: Sandeep Somasekharan The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from … Continue reading The February wallpaper — Enter the Dragon!
On broad soaring wings, the mighty White-bellied Sea Eagle patrols the coastline, plunging every now and then into the ocean for fish or sea snakes. Its aerobatic displays can make test pilots envious. If you see one, stop and watch. I … Continue reading Raptor Friday: The White Tiger of the shores
In the final episode of her Bedni Bugyal travelogue, Jennifer Nandi crosses a bridge and a river into another consciousness, one that holds the tranquility of the Himalaya and perturbation over its future in delicate balance The snow-clad flanks of the hills … Continue reading On hobbled knee across the Nandakini
December is seven days old and we’ve been sluggish. Blame it on the cold! Here’s our last wallpaper of the year. May the lemony yellowness of this Oriental White-eye light up your holidays. Seasons Greetings! Photo: Sandeep Somasekharan DOWNLOAD THIS … Continue reading Download the December wallpaper
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 … Continue reading A Red Cassia in late flower
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 Continue reading Download the November wallpaper
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 … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – In another world
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 … Continue reading Green Ogre Autumn Conclave Dandeli – Trip Report
We arrive at Bedni Bugyal, but only barely. Food, shelter and rest are in pitifully short supply. Add to that the prospect of two long, cold, terrifying nights at 11,000 feet. An hour later, Bijoy comes up to us to … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Slow Deterioration
It takes more than eco-tourism or tokenism to save the tiger. Improving the lot of conservation’s foot-soldiers can be a good start. Forest officer Prabhu Swamy at one of the best-maintained anti-poaching camps in Bandipur, supported by the Jumbo Foundation. … Continue reading Nominate a warrior for the Kumble Foundation – Jumbo Wildlife Awards
Pressed to ascend an indefinite distance to the alpine meadow of Ali Bugyal, Jennifer Nandi’s mind fastens to thoughts of self-preservation and meditations on the Zen of climbing Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we set off from Didana the next day on … Continue reading Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal – Didana to Ali Bugyal
Fluffy and tubby, the Indian Giant Squirrel is a treat to watch anywhere you may wander in the forests of peninsular India Continue reading Encounter: Indian Giant Squirrel
Did that curious crowd know, or care, that the snake we were trying to see off to safety was a harmless albeit aggressive Checkered Keelback? Here’s how to tell a Checkered Keelback from its venomous relatives: Round eyes, checkered scale pattern, keeled scales and the oblique stripes behind and beneath the eye I didn’t really plan to make a habit of writing about snakes and the human folly of mistaken identity, but it appears that the subject seeks me out. Remember the young cobra I had written about some time ago? And the harmless rat snake that could easily have … Continue reading Would they kill the keelback?
The White-cheeked Barbet, earlier known as the Small Green Barbet, just melts into the canopy. But peer into the roof of leaves and you’ll see it devouring fruits and figs I saw this green bird for the first time at Polachira, a wetland near Thiruvananthapuram. My friend Rahul pointed to a bush and said, “White cheeked Barbet”. Where? All I could see were green leaves. Careful scrutiny helped me discern its form. And that was my introduction to Megalaima viridis. In the green canopy, the barbet is tough to spot Look carefully atop fruiting trees, and you can see through its … Continue reading Encounter: White-cheeked Barbet, the Invisible Chatterbox