Month: March 2010

Forty on Flickr explore

Forty on Flickr explore

1. Dark Blue Tiger, 2. Great Cormorant pair, 3. Indian Flying-fox (Pteropus giganteus), 4. The hidden dozen, can you find them?, 5. Little or Striated Heron, 6. Summer is here!!!, 7. The critically endangered Long-billed or Indian Vulture, 8. Pale-Billed Flowerpecker,

9. The critically endangered Red-headed Vulture., 10. Happy birthday Swati!!, 11. Bay-backed shrike – Explored, 12. The critically endangered Forest Owlet, Heteroglaux blewitti., 13. Peregrine Falcon – Falco peregrinus, 14. A woodpecker unlike any other – Eurasian Wryneck, 15. Gimme Red!!!, 16. Plum-headed Parakeet, female,

17. Plum-headed Parakeet, male, 18. Small minvet, male, 19. The jewel of my garden!!, 20. Banzai!!!, 21. Eye of the tiger!!, 22. The woodpecker and the squirrel, 23. Indian Pitta, 24. Barn Swallow,

25. Red-crested Pochard – male, 26. Common picturewing – Rhyothemis variegata, 27. Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, 28. Cleared for landing!!, 29. I know that smell!!, 30. Damsels in love 😉, 31. Yellow on yellow! One-spot Grass Yellow Butterfly (Eurema andersonii), 32. Magenta dragonfly – Aurora themis(?),

33. Striped Tiger (Danaus genutia) II, 34. Striped Tiger (Danaus genutia), 35. Common Leopard (Phalanta phalantha), 36. Blue grass dartlet damselfly, 37. Ummm… This size will fit her!, 38. Green on green – Merops orientalis, 39. Cuddle party!, 40. Tigress with cubs at Pench National Park

Great Cormorant – A vicious cycle?

Great Cormorant pair
Great Cormorant in breeding plumage

Currently IUCN Red list classifies the conservation status of the Great Cormorant, Phalacrocorax carbo, as of Least concern. However it was not so always Read how was it and more…

Life Updates!

Was going through older posts searching where to people land up with the weird search terms that I so often keep seeing in the analytics screen I felt the urge to do an LJ style update post (Take that Twitter!! You just don’t make the cut).

Things which are dominating my free time?  TV serials: Started watching LOST completed the 5 seasons and now up to sync with season 6, season 1 and 2 really held my attention but after that it was mostly watching something while I read thing. The serial which has really caught me up is Caprica. If you are a sci-fi buff or more specifically BSG then you should not miss it! Tells the story of 58 years before the War. Oh yes! You probably guessed it right I have picked up a WDTV.

The most recent books that I finished were “Raiders from the North” by Alex Rutherford, “Goddess of the Market” by Jennifer Burns and “Spectacular India” by Shobha De. The selection doesn’t really represent my likings but since I have gotten better reading glasses I am enjoying reading anything I can get my hands on 😉

The bird photography has slackened a bit but last Sunday we drove around in the non-protected areas of the Bor wildlife Sanctuary, an almost 230km trip. No we did not see any big cats, though it would not have been unlikely we did see a good number of birds. A photo lifer for me was Green Heron. Meanwhile I have been updating my Flickr account fairly regularly. Have a conceptual photo-shoot planned with a Painter for tomorrow, let see how that goes.

Have been coding on a few itches – basically WordPress plugins for better Flickr integration. WordPress code is a nightmare but it gets the job done very well and that is what ultimately counts – Interested? Have written about them here

Pale-billed Flowerpecker

Pale-Billed Flowerpecker
Pale-Billed Flowerpecker

This bird is rather plain looking, it not is endangered or rare but still getting a full frame photograph was a thrill!

Pale-billed flowerpecker (Dicaeum erythrorhynchos) is a tiny bird, 8 cm long, and is one of the smallest birds occurring in most parts of southern India and Sri Lanka. It is reportedly common in the southern India but in Nagpur we get to see them seldom and that too very high up in trees, so when last week in Pench I saw this individual a few feet away I was ecstatic. Read more about the Pale-billed Flowerpecker

Bay-backed Shrike

Bay-backed shrike - Explored
Bay-backed shrike

This post is merely for testing my latest Flickr related WordPress plugin – Flickr foto info. If you view this post on my blog – hover your mouse over the picture above…. Amongst other thing – this picture made it to Flickr explore on 27th Feb 2010, rising to #5

You can grab the plugin here