Blog

Times Passion Trail - 1 I had the honor and good fortune to participate in a “Wildlife and Bird Photography Expedition”, known as Times Passion Trail in February 2018.  This was organized by the popular English daily newspaper, The Times of India.  This was from February 18th to February 24th, 2018.  The expedition was across five dream destinations for wildlife and birding enthusiasts; Thol Lake Bird Sanctuary Little Rann of Kutch Nalsarovar Velavadar...

Times Passion Trail, Day - 2 Day 2: The Little Rann of Kutch (LRK)   The second day began very early.  We left Ahmedabad downtown, around 5.30 am in our cavalcade of Innovas.  We had our packed breakfast on our way so that we could reach as early as possible.  We reached our resort at Bajana at about 8 am, grabbed a quick cup of tea,...

Pelicans……..in India and elsewhere Pelicanus spp. It was in high school or the first year of undergraduate studies, that I first came across ‘Pelicans ‘in my Biology class. They are large water birds which are characterized by a very long beak, the lower mandible of which is modified into a large throat pouch. This is used for catching prey and draining the water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing....

The White-spotted Fantail Rhipidura albogularis It all began with…… It all began with a melodious call I heard about 27 years ago…. This bird used to sing somewhere outside, at precisely 6.30 a.m., like an alarm clock reminding me to wake my son up for school, when we were in Ambarnath.  We shifted to Delhi after that, and the call got pushed to the back of...

The Indian Paradise Flycatcher Terpsiphone paradisi​​​​​​ It was about twenty years ago that my husband gifted me with my first book about birds- ‘101 common Indian birds’ by Dr. Salam Ali and Laeeq Futehally. We were staying in Delhi at the time and he had got it from an exhibition at Pragati maidan. It was one of the best gifts he had given...

Summer Melody……The Asian Koel Eudunamys scolopaceus It is that time of the year when you wake up early in the morning to the beautiful, melodious songs of the Asian Koel or Koyal. This brood parasite (it lays its eggs in the nest of the house or jungle crow) starts getting vocal at the beginning of summer with the song getting more melodious with each passing day....

The Sunshine Birds I see a bright flash of yellow in my backyard….and my heart is filled with joy and hope!  There is this feeling of ‘the sun is shining in the sky and all is well with the world’! Yes, here I am talking about the sunshine-yellow birds…the Eurasian Golden Oriole, the Common Iora, and the Purple-rumped Sunbird.  I call them  ‘the sunshine birds’ of my backyard. ...

Aditi’s Bird Registry Please click the hyperlinks to access each bird. Accenters Alpine Accenter Black-throated Accenter Rufous-breasted Accenter Ashy Prinia Ashy Woodswallow Asian Koel Babblers Common Babbler Barbets Brown-headed Barbet Coppersmith Barbet Great Barbet Bee-eaters Chestnut-headed Bee-eater Green Bee-eater Rufous-headed Bee-eater Black-winged Stilt Bulbul Eastern Yellow-vented Bulbul Himalayan Bulbul Red-vented Bulbul Red-whiskered Bulbul...

Times Passion Trail - Day 3: Nal Sarovar   I had already been to Nal Sarovar about three years ago.  The earlier trip, spread over two sessions at Nal Sarovar and Vadla dam, fetched me wonderful pictures of several dozens of birds, almost 80% of which were lifers!  However, I was equally excited to visit the place once again. Nal Sarovar bird sanctuary consists of a beautiful lake and ambient...

Times Passion Trail - Day-4: Velavadar Blackbuck National park.   The next morning we drove to Velavadar national park.  This national park is located in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, about 42 KM from the district headquarter city of Bhavnagar. It originally belonged to the Maharaja of the erstwhile princely state of Bhavnagar. He used to hunt the blackbucks with his famous hunting cheetahs. This wildlife...

Times Passion Trail Day 5 & 6: Sasan Gir.     We left in the morning around 7.30 am after a buffet-breakfast.  We took a break on the outskirts of Amreli and munched on the famous Bhavnagari Ganthia (Light crisp fries made of chick-pea flour with local condiments), with three different types of chutneys and piping hot tea. We arrived at the resort around lunch.  Our stay was...

The Avifauna of Sirsi.  Birds & Wildlife   It was in June 2016, that I visited Sirsi in Uttara Kannada, for a week.  It was a vacation with my siblings and their spouses. We stayed at a beautiful Jungle resort, on the outskirts of Sirsi, bang in the middle of a tropical evergreen forest.  Our arrival early in the morning, from Kumta Railway Station, probably added to the charm of...

QUARANTINE.....   The word Quarantine has the dubious distinction of being the most used word in recent history, I think!  It is not that I hadn’t heard this word before, it was mentioned in our textbooks during high school, that the patients suffering from communicable diseases causing pandemic situations (like tuberculosis, plague, Spanish Flu) need to be quarantined if my memory serves me right. However, when my left...

A weekend in the Big Bear Lake City It was the second weekend after the lockdown was lifted in California in June 2020.  We had been confined to our home in Los Angelis, for almost three months.  My grandson was about four months old then, and the new parents really needed a change of scene.  So we took this opportunity to drive down to Big Bear Lake City. Big...

Sirsi Travelogue   In the previous blog, we had seen the avifauna and a couple of other vertebrates.  But Sirsi is so much more - now let us see the geographical wonders of this beautiful region.   The Yana Rocks were probably the most spectacular of these. These Monoliths are made of dark limestone formations of crystalline karst rocks. There is a very interesting mythological story about these...

A Place called Durshet... Nature at its best! It was a surprise birthday gift from my husband - a couple of days at a place called Durshet. It took us about four to five hours of drive from Vapi, to reach there in the evening, just before sunset. Nestled in the picturesque Sahyadri hills, Durshet is quite close to Lonavala and Khopoli.  In fact, it is situated on...

GANESHGUDI....WHAT A REVELATION!   I fell in love with North Karnataka when I visited Sirsi. I vowed to continue my affair with the region and visit it soon! It took me all of four years to visit again, this time to Ganeshgudi.  I was looking forward to this journey, specially after the lockdowns, and social isolation of  not meeting friends or relatives for...

THE GRANARY TREE & ACORN WOODPECKERS. One fine sunny day in Dec 2021, my daughter-in-law went on a hike to Westlake Trails. We were visiting them in Thousand Oaks then. She came home all excited as she had seen something very curious and interesting; she wanted to take me there and show me her discovery! My curiosity was piqued and I was equally eager to visit the place. I...

  A LEISURELY AFTERNOON ON THE POOVAR BACKWATERS.   It was a pleasant afternoon in the middle of December.  I was on a short visit to Trivandrum or Thiruvananthapuram.  Knowing my passion for bird-watching, the cab driver suggested that I visit Poovar backwaters.....he said, 'I am sure, you would love it madam'! With nothing to lose, I thought, I would give it a go. ...

Birding @ Kumbhargaon-Bhigwan   We had been to Kolhapur and Tuljapur, in the first week of June 2023, to take "Darshan" of Goddesses "Ambabai" and "Tuljabhavani". A couple of days before we started, we thought of visiting Bhigwan for some birding.  We asked one of our friends, a proficient birder, Mr. Saurabh Dhanorkar, if he could suggest someone who could help us.  He promptly suggested to contact Mr. Sandip...

My Costa Rica Birding Expedition If there is a birding Paradise, this is it!   Costa Rica had been on my 'Bucket List' for a very long time.... I had the good fortune of ticking it off in February 2024. Those nine days were a dream-come-true! We visited quite a few places there and each place was a veritable treasure chest, presenting so many varieties and species of...

Welcome 2025 I Express My Sincere Gratitude to All The Birds In This New Year Greeting For Letting Me Capture Them In My Camera! I herewith Wish You All a Very Happy, Healthy, Peaceful, & Green 2025. Aditi Deshpande January 01, 2025