It's great to be able to go back to SGNP

I sneaked in a small birding session with my birding guru 'Addie the Birdie' and good old birding pal 'Nature lover Vidya' on my two day halt in Mumbai at my ex-Sunday home SGNP.

It was great to be back in the forest that formally introduced me to the wonders of nature along with the people who taught and learned with me how wonderful our mother earth is. And what's great about this Urban Forest is that it still holds a lot of surprises for everyone. I had two such experiences today - 1. These fresh Leopard pugmarks (below);

2. A LIFER in one of the most beautiful songsters of the world of birds. The amazing - Malabar Whistling Thrush (Myophonus horsfieldii). Seen in one of the famous Kanheri Caves.

Below a few assorted insects.

And I'll end with a image of the beauty that the Monsoons create every year in the park.

Payangadi, Kannur Dist. KERALA. IN

This small town in the Northern District of Kannur in Kerala plays host a great

variety of ecosystems and hence plant, bird and insect life.

I thought I'll start this post with an image of our common House Crows (Corvus splendens) . Strangely I find myself in Europe even missing these guys.

The small hillock (of mainly volcanic rock) around which the whole town sprawls is an amazing place to watch birds. The wide grassland like habitat attracts a lot of birds. Above aWire-tailed Swallow (Hirundo smithii) minus its famous wire-tail.

The hillock called MadaiPara is a great place to view two species of Lapwings - Red-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus indicus) on the left; Yellow-wattled Lapwing (Vanellus malabaricus) on the right

And down the hill on one side is the nice backwaters of North-Kerala, and as you could imagine yet another great place for birding. Here's a Little Cormorant (Phalacrocorax niger)

An Adult and Juvenile Brahminy Kite (Haliastur Indus)

And lastly from here the Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea)

And this pair of Loten's Sunbird (Cinnyris lotenius) I found two days ago in my garden at home in Calicut. It seems to me that this species of Sunbird is the most common in Calicut city and it's surroundings.

Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Kerala, INDIA

"In the 1930's Salim Ali described Thattekad as the richest bird habitat in peninsular India, comparable only with the eastern Himalayas."Just got back to India yesterday for a short vacation and this morning I made the most of a half a day I had to spare in Ernakulam (Cochin) while I waited my sister. I did what I thought was my best option around here. I drove up to the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary (also commonly known as the Thattekad Sanctuary) some 70 odd kms. from the international airport.

Sadly the rain played spoil-sport on my super short visit to this beautiful forest. I had to unfortunately miss out on the wonderful birdlife and settle some other inhabitants and of course the lovely forest-scapes - so I guess not such a bad deal afterall.

Here's a couple of snaps of the beautiful - Paris Peacock ( Papilio paris)(Even though one of the guides tried really hard to help me find the famous Sri Lankan Frogmouths near the tower, the rain made it impossible)Since Salim Ali's time much of the forest has been diverted to cultivation and mahogany plantation (like in the picture above) but what survives I understand is a great bird diversity of the once widespread lowland forests of Kerala.

(Check out Ramki's website for his trip to this beautiful forest to get an idea of what one can expect to see here @ http://www.wildventures.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1943 )

The only 'not so common' bird I was able to see and photograph was this fellow - the Spangled Drongo (what used to be called the Hair-crested Drongo) (Dicrurus hottentottus) Anyways, can't wait to get back here and go in search for the frogmouths once again!!!

Texel - (Birding on an island in the North sea) - NL

Just back from an amazing weekend trip to one the islands off the north-western coast of the Netherlands - TEXEL.

I was welcomed by my dear feathered friends right from the time I got on the ferry to take to the island from the Dutch mainland.

Once there, the landscape is amazing! And finally I got to see the real Dutch Dune-scape!!!

Along the beach I found along with some usual suspects like the Herring Gull (above) and Common Terns (below) a few interesting species including some Lifers.

Like the Common Eiders (above);

Lifers like the Common Gull (below 3 pics)

and also the Little TernFurther, like I mentioned the Landscapes of this small bicycle-able island was just great and was whole of birdlife.

But unlike what you might imagine even here man has managed to introduce 'exotic' species into the wild, like this Black Swan (from Australia).

And last but not the least the one lifer I was sure I would find here - the Eurasian Oystercatcher - and I was more the glad to get very good views of this species and also to be able to see quiet a few of them :)

Treat at the Lake

Had an amazing treat this morning at the Lake (here in Rotterdam) I got to see a family of Great Crested Grebes (Podiceps cristatus) and that's not all I also got the chance to take a few photos of the chicks taking a ride on the back of one of the adults. Check them out below.

First a habitat shot.

And here's a close up of the small beauties.

Birding @ Wimbledon.

Earlier today I went to see some great tennis action at the Wimbledon. Since I had to wait for hours outside the courts to be able to get in I made the most of it by doing some good birding in the park where we had to wait. Check out these from the Wimbledon Park.

Carrion crow(Corvus corone)

a lifer in the Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

and lastly a Juvenile - Robin (Erithacus rubecula)