Posted in Nature Notes on Jun 15th, 2011 25 Comments »
I was walking down the forest track. A little distance from where I was, was a little red creature lumbering down towards me. When I was just a few feet from it I knew what it was. And, this one was indeed a particularly large Red Velvet Mite. To show it to those with me, [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on May 19th, 2011 17 Comments »
It was early winter. The guests staying at the River Tern Lodge had just left for a drive into the jungle. They were very keen on trying their luck with the larger denizens of the jungle. I stayed behind at the campus wanting to try my luck with the little creatures. I was hoping to [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on Apr 8th, 2011 12 Comments »
It was way back during the late eighties, perhaps 1988 that I saw this little creature called the Sun Spider scurrying just outside the forest guest house in Tamil Nadu. I followed it with the help of a torch before it disappeared into the wilderness. The place I was in was very warm and dry [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on Mar 17th, 2011 17 Comments »
The location : Kabini River Lodge (a unit of Jungle Lodges & Resorts Ltd.) Being the month of March, the forests were dry, the trees almost leafless. And, I had decided to go on a safari to see if I can improve my rather dismal track record with the cats. The morning was eventful. Shortly [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on Feb 15th, 2011 20 Comments »
As someone who had been recently introduced to this fascinating hobby of birdwatching, one of the first birds that I got familiar with was the Ashy Prinia. We had moved into a newly built house on the outskirts of the Bangalore. There was open space all round. Not a day went by without seeing this [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on Dec 6th, 2010 15 Comments »
Monsoons breathe new life into the landscape. The dry landscape suddenly becomes a vibrant green. The countryside that was hitherto seemingly dull, dreary, dry and bereft of any life suddenly seems to be buzzing with activity. Plants are in various processes of their reproductive stage. All animals try to maximise this time of plenty. This [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on Nov 1st, 2010 15 Comments »
During summer, the water level in the Bhadra reservoir goes down. This exposes a strip of land. Several plants use this opportunity and grow for a few months until the land is submerged again as water fills up in the reservoir during the monsoon. Among the several plant species that spring up, the Heliotropium shrubs [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on Oct 18th, 2010 12 Comments »
A couple of my friends and I decided to drive to the outskirts of Bangalore and try our luck with photographing some wildlife; the primary focus was birds. However, it turned out to be a dull morning with an overcast sky. So, much of the morning was spent searching the shrubbery for other little things [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on Sep 20th, 2010 17 Comments »
The name Portia instantly transports many of us to the canals of Venice; it however takes me back to the northeastern part of India where i had a chance encounter with Portia herself! Just as her wit, intelligence and superiority command attention, so do the exploits of our own Portia! I had heard the name [...]
Posted in Nature Notes on Aug 19th, 2010 7 Comments »
To locate a frog that is calling out is always a challenge, more so if it is an arboreal frog. I have on a few occasions been lucky to spot a few terrestrial frogs calling out to their potential mates but never had an opportunity to witness a tree frog do so. This opportunity came [...]