Mascot of Nandi Hills - voting open

This? Or this?

Test-driving the FZ28

Snapped these up with the new box on a walk in the park 

Calotropis gigantea - one of my favourite weeds, because there's always much happening on its leaves and flowers

See - what did I tell you? This chap was sitting here waiting for brunch

Closer crop. I need a macro lens for any more detail. Donors, listening?

'Tis the season for Tulip Trees

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Encounter - White-eared Bulbul

A prim little bulbul that's completely at home in the desert

In Horse With No Name, Neil Young sang: "In the desert, you can't remember your name." It's sort of what you feel when you see a bulbul in the desert, comfortable among the spare vegetation.


Meet the White-eared Bulbul, locally common in the salt desert but rare elsewhere in India. We found parties of these birds in every little oasis of greenery, picking away at insects and consuming available plant nectar. In Kutch, where there are few large trees, stands of exotic Prosopis juliflora have begun to make their presence felt in the desert vegetation. Hopping among these low trees are these bulbuls with a difference - their strikingly contrasted pied heads make them resemble slightly oversize Great Tits. Their crests are short, and their musical fluting calls are similar to those of other bulbuls. But what sets them apart is the sulphur-yellow vent. In overall coloration, the White-eared Bulbul is very similar to the Himalayan Bulbul, but the latter's range ends at the foothills (while the White-eared Bulbul's begins in central and northwestern India and stretches westward to Arabia). Also, the Himalayan Bulbul's Elvis Presley hairdo is tell-tale.  


Photograph: © Sandeep Somasekharan

Darwin's finches, a scrapbook from MyARKive

Arkive.org is a fantastic resource offering information about the world's endangered species. I found this scrapbook on Darwin's finches very handy. Darwin's finches - a MyARKive scrapbook

Encounter - White-browed Bulbul

It makes itself scarce. Its call is so enmeshed in the thickets and brambles of forest undergrowth that it is part of the sound you take back with you from the jungle. But few first-time birders I have escorted on their maiden outing have come away after a good look at this fellow. The bird in the picture is the White-browed Bulbul (Pycnonotus luteolus). It has one of the longest and most exuberant of songs - bursting out in a rush of joyous chuckling notes. One of my early birding mentors described it to me, quite memorably, as a marble being shaken in a bottle. But look in that direction, and the stage-shy songster would have dived for cover. So, take a good look at this guy here and memorise the sight - the bright white supercilium is diagnostic. A crestless bulbul, unlike the Red-vented and Red-whiskered Bulbuls, this fellow's dietary habits have been observed to be similar to that of its cousins, which means it feeds largely on fruit, insects and flower nectar. When it's breeding time, the White-browed Bulbul makes a cup-shaped nest in a short tree, where it lays two to four eggs in a clutch. So, the next time you hear that bubbly song, you know whom to look out for. Photograph: © Sandeep Somasekharan