TIGblogs - Dr.Susan Sharma's TIGBlog

From a green barbet

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:02:00 -0500

lt;A href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Slc3M_lmqMU/S39lguIhNrI/AAAAAAAAAbU/eMDl050Yksw/s1600-h/greenbarbet2.jpg"gt;lt;IMG"DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0p...

Spring in the garden

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:02:00 -0500

lt;A href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Slc3M_lmqMU/S3fiIXYtcOI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/giSnHp6_BHc/s1600-h/peacock+at+NMML.jpg"gt;lt;IMG"TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLA...

The Anaar Tree

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:12:00 -0500

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Blue Pansy Butterfly

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 03:12:00 -0500

lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Slc3M_lmqMU/SzS-3TQSv7I/AAAAAAAAAX0/eQTISr7Csg8/s1600-h/Peacock+Pansy.jpg"gt;lt;img styl...

Mahogany Forest, Kerala

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:11:00 -0500

A visit to Kerala is never complete without a peek into the deep forests the State can still be proud off. Waiting nearly two hours to get permission to drive through the Illithod Mahago...

Jellyfish at Kovalam beach

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:11:00 -0500

lt;Pgt;lt;A href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Slc3M_lmqMU/SvZtXwGksKI/AAAAAAAAAVc/vY8dstz2et0/s1600-h/cochin2810+130.jpg"gt;lt;IMG"MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT:...

Nobel Prize for work on user managed common properties

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:10:00 -0400

lt;Pgt;Economic governance: the organization of cooperationlt;/Pgt;
lt;Pgt;lt;STRONGgt; Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson win Nobel Prize for Economics 2009 on Monday.lt;/STRONGgt;lt;/Pgt;
lt;Pgt; lt;A href="http:...

Butterflies and moths from the kitchen garden

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:09:00 -0400

This year the rains came late and lingered till end of August. The butterflies and moth caterpillars waste no time in completing their life cycles; Here are some I managed capturing on th...

Walking in the fields of Kangra

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:09:00 -0400

lt;Pgt;I was in Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) late October, just before winter set in. As always, the countryside is ever changing and never fails to reveal something new for my camera to capture...

Survival Instincts of Lapwings

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:09:00 -0400

lt;Pgt;lt;A href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_Slc3M_lmqMU/SE0LIy8xDXI/AAAAAAAAAC0/ZQajBFb3UrE/s1600-h/lapwingeggs.jpg"gt;lt;IMG

Sinking Islands

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:09:00 -0400

lt;Pgt;lt;FONT size=4gt;Sunderbans of West Bengal in India lt;/FONTgt;lt;/Pgt;
lt;Pgt;Sunderbans is the world's largest delta formed by the river Ganga. Sunderbans comprises 54 tiny lands at present and a n...

Forest Department Culling Little Cormorants

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:09:00 -0400

lt;Pgt;The following news item which appeared in lt;EMgt;The Hindult;/EMgt; today, should make all of us sit up and take notice. Conservation is the most complex subject-It is only when environmental...

A Trip to Morni Hills, Chandigarh

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:08:00 -0400

lt;Pgt;August 15, Independence Day- An ideal day to check out the hill station near to Chandigarh since we were already in Chandigarh on a visit. lt;/Pgt;
lt;Pgt;The weather was good. It had rained ...

Solar Eclipse 2009

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:08:00 -0400

Here is a visual journey of the total solar eclipse in New Delhi.

The Nehruplanetarium at Teenmurti was surrounded by parked cars in hundreds well before 6 AM on 22nd July 2009. The Su...

Fertilizers and pesticides

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:06:00 -0400

Fertilizers and pesticides-Are they necessary?

In my small backyard I do not use chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Segregated kitchen waste of vegetable peels and dead leaves from the yard are composted and used as manure. Calcium for my lime trees? That comes from eggshells. Natural pesticides are used when needed. The most effective pesticide I found comes from the oil of the Neem tree (available in ready to use form).

I have uploaded some slide shows of the plant and animal life who have made my garden their home. See the link

http://wildbytes.in/backyard-wildlife/index.html#home

Hope you enjoy watching them!

Red Cotton

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:06:00 -0400

( photo:wikipedia.org )

Red cotton trees line the road in front of our house. Come March/April and the trees are in bloom and the road lined with fallen red flowers. "You can make a vegetable with the petals" " Take out the red color by boiling the red flowers; best organic red color for Holi!" But one normally finds that no one picks up the flowers, they are just swept away.

Come May and the tress are full of cotton pods which open and pour out the cotton fluff all over the neighborhood. Some murmur "These cotton fluffs cause Asthma" But before the murmurs die away, the fluffs disappear and the short flowery season of the "Semul"tree is over. The trees are back to providing shade to passersby with their large branches.

Come June, and new bugs in bright red color spring from nowhere in my garden. I search their pictures on the web and realize they are "red cotton bugs".

Red cotton bugs? Is it because of their color? It seems they survive on cotton seeds. We have had a few drizzles in June and the cotton seeds on the ground must have got soggy and soft. That is the stage at which I noticed these young bugs devouring the seed. See the short clip below. So, now the web of life of Silk cotton was falling in place. Observing nature around you can be really stimulating.

Hoopoe and Shikra

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:06:00 -0400

Birds(and animals) live a life of "high alert" at all times. This hoopoe is busy using its long pointed beak to dig out and eat juicy worms from the freshly mowed lawn. Cars and people are passing by the road nearby and my camera is not far away focusing on him. He is unperturbed. Experience tells him "not to worry".

Suddenly he freezes. I wonder why. Can you guess?. Look at the video below and I have tried to bring the action in the background through the recorded sound.

Listen through the din of cars and wind and you can hear the shrieking of a "shikra" -a raptor, who is circling above the lawn. The hoopoe knows that any movement on the lawn will attract the raptor's attention and he will swoop down for a meal.

As the shikra flies further away, the hoopoe resumes his meal.

Here is the disappointed shikra taking a break

Cat and the pigeon

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:06:00 -0400

Mention the domestic cat and the vision is that of a 'purring' furry creature happy to sleep on your bed, slurp milk from a bowl and eat cat food for breakfast and dinner keeping the pet food manufacturers happy.

A very different picture from that of "kitty"-the cat who roams our neighborhood. Her territory consists of the back and front yards of at a least a dozen houses in the neighborhood and loathe she will, to enter a human household.

So we are not surprised when at times we find bird feathers in the yard, remains of kitty's meal. We also know that kitty keeps in check the rodents and garden lizards.

The latest hunt of kitty surprised us though. A full grown pigeon attacked and downed in a jiffy. The pigeons usually avoid the small hedges and lawns in our garden but this one did not and paid with its life.

Kitty Claiming the prize hunt

Kitty the hunter with the pigeon she felled

Barbets

Sat, 23 May 2009 12:05:00 -0400

The colourful barbets are closely related to woodpeckers. They are as common in the gardens of Delhi as they are in the wooded streets of South Mumbai.

Many believe that the typical calls repeated rhythmically is an indicator that our city pollution levels are still under control in many parts which have large trees around.

In common with woodpeckers barbets feet have two toes facing forwards and two back. This feature allows them to cling easily to trees and excavate their nests.

The place to look for them in Mumbai is old fig trees. In Delhi, the coppersmith and green barbet are regular garden visitors (mostly in large public gardens).

The short video below on the “feathered heritage of India” opens with a coppersmith calling and excavating its nest on a dead tree trunk in a common park in a residential area in Delhi.

India's Feathered Heritage - These bloopers are hilarious

The photos below are of a green barbet guarding its chicks inside the tree hole nearby. Curious onlookers are still there, like the mynah, which is trying to peer in and of course my camera!

Climate change and some refugees

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:04:00 -0400

The Delhi and NCR region are experiencing climate change first hand. April and May used to be the hottest summer months. In 2008 we had a mild summer. The summer of 2009 seems destined to be the same! The hailstorm in first week of April has brought temperatures down so much, that today, 10th April, Gurgaon feels like a hill station. See the video clip of the hailstorm below.

We also had a surprise visitor(s). Three peafowls inspected our lawn and the neighbourhood for possible roosting points- apparently. They seem to have been displaced by yet another construction coming up in the cleared Aravalii Ranges which surround Gurgaon.

In the photo below, two of them are surveying the neighbourhood from a vantage point.

Below is the photo of the peahen in our backyard.

After going around the house, it seems at home in the frontyard. However, the peafowls did not visit us again; hope they found a better place to call their home.

Visiting the ski slopes of Auli - The Destruction

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 09:03:00 -0400

The destruction

Golden Oak Trees marked for felling

Just completed! Swimming pool for storing water which will be turned to ice and then sprayed over the slopes.

The ski slope and swimming pool for snow in perspective

Bull dozers and men at work

Dislodging grass and bushes which held together the mountain slopes for years

Army training camp

A very cryptic message!

Travelphotolog

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:58:00 -0400

Beatenberg, Switzerland
Switzerland is a beautiful country with beautiful people.

To absorb the beauty of the Swiss countryside, a trek through Beatenberg is ideal. This countryside on the banks of Thun lake, is charming and offers various adventure sports as well.

If you are a wildlife enthusiast, the higher reaches of Beatenberg is home to the rare ibex.

A few freezes from my experience of Beatenberg are given at

http://travelphotolog.blogspot.com/2008/10/beatenberg-switzerland.html

Lapwings

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:06:00 -0400

lt;H3gt;lt;A href="http://indianwildlifeclub.blogspot.com/2008/06/urban-wildlife-survival-instincts-of.html"gt;Urban wildlife- survival instincts of lapwingslt;/Agt; lt;/...

River Aravari

Thu, 22 May 2008 01:05:00 -0400

lt;Pgt;There are some stories which can be told and retold - one such is the story of River Aravari in Rajasthan. lt;/Pgt;
lt;Pgt;In 1987, Tarun Bharat Singh (TBS-an NGO), took the initiative to rej...

Desi Power from biomass

Fri, 16 May 2008 03:05:00 -0400

lt;Pgt;A 50 KW power station, based on gasification of rice husk briquettes is providing the villagers of Baharbari in Bihar with electricity.lt;/Pgt;
lt;Pgt;lt;BRgt;The facilities provided by lt;A href="...