Jul 212013
 
Reddish Burrowing Frog

Reddish Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya rufescens) Typical habitat near water bodies, on landlaterite rocks, stones, forest clearing. Elevation upto 1500m   This frog is endemic to India, widespread across the Western Ghats and the Western Coast. A tiny frog, it merges into the pebbles around it with utmost ease. Found usually during monsoon along laterite rock

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May 102013
 
Allopreening

Mutual preening between two birds, the main purpose of which is to reduce the instinctive aggression when birds are in close contact. In the breeding season allopreening helps to strengthen the pair bond between the male and female.   Jungle Babblers  This behaviour is especially common in parrots, babblers, crows and some finches, or when

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May 082013
 
Ooty – Udhagamandalam

        Ooty is the district capital of Nilgiri, Tamilnadu. I know everyone knows about it , So will  jump to why I visited & wrote about it. Distance: Approx 265Kms from Bangalore. Route I took: Bangalore > Mysore > Nanjangud > Bandipur > Masingudi > Ooty. Why I went : Bird Photography

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Jan 072013
 
Thippagondanahalli – TG Halli

Thippagondanahalli Reservoir, also known as T G Halli Dam or Chamarajsagar, is located at the confluence of the Arkavathi and Kumudavathi River, 35 km west of Bangalore, India. The name Thippagondanahalli was named after the village head Thippagonda.  A supervised construction from the very great Bharatha Ratna Sir M. Visvesvaraya. The dam was built & inaugurated in

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Oct 152012
 
Thorn mimic hopper

Tree hoppers disguise as thorns on plant stem to prevent predators from spotting them,  to get extra protection they hire ants by providing them sweet liquid in return.  The insect body look like leaf buds under the thorns. Hoppers (order Homoptera) are herbivorous insects that suck the carbohydrate-rich juice from phloem vessels in plant sap through

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Jun 272012
 
Ant Mimic – Myrmarachne sp

Recently I had been to Valley school for birdwatching. Surprisingly there wasn’t much bird activity & eventually I was in look out for insects & butterflies. Saw this amazing ant like spider moving very fast on ground, sometimes hiding behind small grass & popping out once a while.  It waves its forelegs mimicking the antenna

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Jan 272012
 
Gulakmaale

Republic day was awesome as a group of birding friends decided Gulakmale as the destination for the day. Gulakmale is a small village near Kaggalipura of South Bangalore off kanakapura road. This place is accessible both from Kanakapura Road & Bannerghatta road. My route was through Kanakapura road ( Chamarajpet > K.R Road > Banashankari temple > Thalaghattapura

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Jan 252012
 
Civet Coffee

Recently we had a college reunion at a coffee estate in Sakaleshpur, while sharing thoughts with the owner, I found that Kopi luwak an Indonesian pronounce for Civet Coffee is the costliest of all coffee grades. He explained that these civet cat chooses to eat only the best ripe coffee berries & the undigested seeds are excreted in their poo. The processed

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Jan 032012
 
Garole Sheep – Bi-annual lambing

Garole, a precious sheep breed from West Bengal an eastern province of India, is having some outstanding genetic potentiality such as high fecundity and lambing frequency. Its prolificacy, lambing frequency, disease resistance and other extraordinary merits is rarely observed in any other sheep breeds of the world. Garole Sheep Garole weighs around 12-15Kgs in adult, It

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Dec 282011
 
Jayamangali Black Buck Reserve – Maidanahalli

Jayamangali Black Buck Reserve was a long pending trip on my wishlist. Day just came as Deepa Mohan initiated a day trip & I confirmed immediately. Jayamangali (formerly called as Maidanahalli) is in Madhugiri taluk, Tumkur district of Karnataka. This place is appox 140Kms from Bangalore where availability of food & drinking water is absolutely

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