The Green Ogre - a green blog from India

Wordless Wednesday - Darn this itch!

2012-01-25T09:37:00.000+05:30

Photo: Sandeep Somasekharan Enjoy more Wordless Wednesdays, when we Ogres get picturesque speechless! ;) The Green Ogre - Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.

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Life and death - Another Richard Dawkins lesson

2012-01-24T19:16:00.001+05:30

Silent in life -- and in death While critiquing a book by his contemporary Stephen Jay Gould, the noted writer on evolutionary theory Richard Dawkins refutes his contention that the idea of progress in evolutionary history of life is an artifact of our anthropocentric bias, and evolution is...

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A ramble through Alaska - Portage Glacier, Anchorage

2012-01-16T08:04:00.000+05:30

Concluding Anand Yegnaswami's sojourn in Alaska, this episode sees him face to face with a Grizzly and learning something new about the gender of Santa's red-nosed reindeer Refreshed from a rather uneventful third day of our trip we emerged from our slumber gung-ho about what was to be our...

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Raptor Friday: The White Tiger of the shores

2012-01-13T10:07:00.000+05:30

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 remember that day more than four years ago. We...

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Encounter: Large-tailed Nightjar

2012-01-12T08:41:00.000+05:30

When the dim, shadowy silence of the leaf-litter suddenly takes wing, it's either a ghost or a nightjar that sets your heart racing. Our search that began in the hunt for a peacock feather took us to the adorable Large-tailed Nightjar The Large Tailed Nightjar wrapped up in silence. Notice...

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A jaunt across Mudumalai - Trip Report

2012-01-10T07:37:00.000+05:30

Our quick, packed trip to Masinagudi and Ooty yielded few lifers, but it gave us plenty of top-quality sightings We stood at the junction of two worlds in Bangalore City Railway station. The arched stone buildings on Platform 6 were relics of a distant past and across the tracks were the...

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Happy 2012! Here's the January wallpaper

2012-01-04T21:40:00.000+05:30

First off, Happy New Year! Sorry for the delay, but the cyclone that hit Pondicherry threw our plans out of gear a bit. That said, the events that unfolded last Friday reminded us a bit of the butterfly effect. Putting the past gently behind us, we offer you a keepsake of that image. Here's your...

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Shrieks of silence in Pondicherry's treeless avenues

2012-01-02T22:05:00.000+05:30

Statistically, 35 people perished in the carnage essayed by Cyclone Thane. Yet, the obituaries that will never be written are of Pondicherry's beautiful avenue trees, many of which we have celebrated on The Green Ogre. In the funereal streets of this old French enclave, their limbs are being hacked...

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Encounter: Cyclone Thane, Pondicherry

2011-12-30T11:21:00.000+05:30

To those of us sitting in Bangalore, Cyclone Thane is just a cold, wet day to grumble about. Or perhaps even enjoy as we huddle (or perhaps cuddle - but don't let us give you any ideas) amid cups of tea. But out on the east coast of India, the cyclone's fury was at its peak early this morning. In...

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In the kingdom of the Lion-tailed Macaque

2011-12-23T08:12:00.000+05:30

In Valparai the endangered Lion-tailed Macaque inhabits tracts of dense evergreen forest hemmed in by tea plantations. It lives, literally and alarmingly, on the edge We were driving down from Valparai along one of the remaining patches of tropical evergreen rainforests, soaking up their...

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Wordless Wednesday: Flight of the Hornbill

2011-12-21T09:38:00.000+05:30

By Sandeep Somasekharan More on hornbills More Wordless WednesdaysThe Green Ogre - Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.

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When Sky Jasmine rained down

2011-12-19T11:07:00.000+05:30

The Indian Cork Tree's expended blossoms infuse rare magic into the morning after a stormy monsoon night I stay on the coast in Pondicherry. My sense of infinity is linked to the sea. It is not confined to poignant gazing at the horizon but often it attains a physical dimension...

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The next time you ignore a drongo...

2011-12-16T09:09:00.000+05:30

A birding lesson from the field: Don't pass up a drongo -- or any black bird with a forked tail Towards the end of our Parambikulam tramway trek, as I dragged my weary feet past a tree on which was perched a dark bird with a telltale fork at the end of of its tail, Beej stopped and whispered,...

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On hobbled knee across the Nandakini

2011-12-11T13:16:00.001+05:30

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 reflected in Bedni Kund was...

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Download the December wallpaper

2011-12-07T09:10:00.001+05:30

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 PHOTO TO USE AS A WALLPAPER...

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Wordless Wednesday: Do or Dive

2011-11-30T08:55:00.000+05:30

Photograph: Sandeep Somasekharan And if you prefer words, read: What's black and white and hovers?The Green Ogre - Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.

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Hail to the leopard, spirit of the forest

2011-11-29T09:29:00.000+05:30

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...

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Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal - Shelter from the Storm

2011-11-27T12:36:00.001+05:30

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...

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Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher: An Afternoon Haiku

2011-11-25T07:21:00.000+05:30

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...

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Encounter - Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

2011-11-22T07:30:00.000+05:30

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...

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Odyssey to Bedni Bugyal - A night in Wan

2011-11-13T10:15:00.001+05:30

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 spread...

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Death of a warbler

2011-11-10T07:15:00.000+05:30

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 knows how...

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A Red Cassia in late flower

2011-11-09T09:06:00.000+05:30

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...

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Download the November wallpaper

2011-11-02T07:30:00.000+05:30

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, KarnatakaThe Green Ogre - Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and...

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Horsing around Horsley Hills!

2011-10-31T09:10:00.000+05:30

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 Andra...

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