Windows to Woods

Check out the photobook on my latest trip to Girivan! Please share your feedback in the comments and the following links: Instagram      Facebook      YouTube      Blogger      WordPress

(Date: 05/07/2021)  "WAKE UP APOORVA!!!", my mum yelled at me. I woke up, thinking I was late, just to realize that it was only 8 am (my regular time😂). She called me again, "Wake up!! Wear your glasses and come here with your camera!!" Well, this is a usual thing, mom calling me out with my cam so that I can capture something beautiful that she is watching. Half asleep, I picked up my cam and was about to head out lazily when I heard this "There's an OWL IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE!!! COME QUICK!!" Yes, an Owl. MY FIRST OWL🥺 It was a Barn Owl trapped in our duct because it is closed from the top with nets to prevent pigeons from nesting there. It was looking at us with its "Oh so beautiful!" black eyes.😍 Mum had heard somewhere that Owls understand what we say so we were trying to call it near us so that it realizes that there's another way out from the lobby. All it did after this was rotate its freaky neck and look at us innocently. The o...

You know sometimes we are surrounded by things we want but we fail to notice them. No no, I am not quoting any cheesy dialogue from some Bollywood movie 😂. Think about it, when we see a nature photo on social media we assume that it's clicked somewhere on the outskirts of the city, somewhere quiet and peaceful. But it only takes one moment of attention to realize that we are surrounded by the same wonders of nature that we scroll through on insta and FB. I had the same moment of realization when I encountered some uncommon birds in my backyard (i.e., the small forest that has been mentioned so far). Well, actually these birds are very common but most of us haven't even heard their names. You know, for example, the Robins. There's Indian Robin and Oriental Magpie Robin. Both of them are quite common, beautiful, and have a very lovely voice. See for yourself👇 Oriental Magpie Robin (male) Oriental Magpie Robin (female) Indian Robin (male) Indian Robin (female) We usually not...

In the small jungle that I mentioned in my earlier posts, I also encountered the White-throated Kingfisher. My mom and I often call it "the saint of the bird world". I don't know if it truly is a saint of the bird world, but it surely does behave like one. You don't believe me, do you? Now look at the picture above, one might think that this kingfisher moved just moments after capturing this pic. Well, that is where you are wrong. In all of my visits to that forest, I always found the Kingfisher sitting quietly over the garbage pits or one of the nearby trees. Just like saints meditate for hours and hours, secluded from the rest of the world, this Kingfisher too sits quietly in some corner away from all the disturbances for hours.   The only difference between the two is that saints meditate to achieve a state of higher consciousness, whereas Kingfishers do it to catch prey. They silently observe all the movements in their surroundings and then make use of the most fa...

The other day I made an unplanned visit to the mini forest while returning from the grocery store. So, obviously, I didn't have my camera with me. That is why this post does not contain any pictures at all. However, I couldn't help but share this experience instead of the post I had planned initially. So, here's what happened when I went to the forest at noon- There was pin-drop silence; I was trying to spot some birds when suddenly something big flew over my head. Until I could figure what it was, another smaller bird flew over in the same direction. The smaller one was the Red-vented Bulbul , sitting on a branch, all fluffed up. And just below it was the bigger bird - Asian Koel . The Koel then flew to another tree, followed by the Bulbul, again😂. While on the opposite tree, some beautiful birds were making their signature sound. Nah, not the Asian koel. There were two Red-whiskered Bulbul dancing and singing around the Greater Coucal who was quietly enjoying the shade....

Yes, finally one of those famous birds, the Asian Koel. I think many of you have heard the sweet song of Koel early in the morning but found it hard to spot him. That's right "him", quite a few of us have the impression that the female is a singer whereas, actually, the female does not have a very lovely voice. Moreover, the koels are sexually dimorphic i.e., the male and females are different in appearance. The male has a shiny bluish-black plumage while the female is brown in colour with white spots all over the body. However, both have crimson iris and a pale greyish bill. The first time I spotted a male Koel, I didn't know it was a Koel, I thought it was a juvenile Greater Coucal. Later, on observing the photos carefully, I realized that it was the Koel. I had never thought that I would get a chance to watch this singer so closely. And to my surprise, I still get to observe it almost every day. It mostly roosts on dense trees like the blackboard and sometimes neem...

Among all the birds that I have encountered until now, Scaly-breasted Munias are as close to my heart as cats are among all the animals. In future posts, I will be sharing a lot of beautiful experiences that I had with these small little beauties. My mom used to always tell me how she had seen these munias near our balcony and how cute they were, but I hadn't seen them even once in 9 years. In June 2020 I finally got to see those cute little birds that my mother had been talking about for so long. So how did that happen? Well, before answering this, let's learn a little from Miss. Know-it-all. So the thing is that Scaly-breasted Munias don't make a normal nest like other birds. They prefer a nest made from lush green grass over brown dried twigs; a nest that barely has an entrance. They started visiting us to collect lemongrass from our kitchen window for the nest they were building on the balcony in front of our house. Look how they were plucking grass from the pot They vi...

Imagine you are roaming around in a garden, early in the morning. The weather is cold, the air is filled with silence and as far as your sight goes, there is no one with you. Suddenly you hear this sound (Audio credits: ebird.org) Creepy, isn't it?😂 Even though it may sound creepy right now, this sound is associated with omens in many cultures. You may have heard it from your parents, relatives, or the elderly that catching sight of the Greater Coucal brings you good luck. The Greater Coucal, i.e. our Bhardwaj pakshi. Well, I don't know about the good luck part, but watching this bird up-close in its natural habitat will definitely make your day. I have been living in this society for 9 years now, and all those years went by observing the Bhardwaj from a window on the 11th floor. The first time I got to see this bird at eye level was one of those days when I visited that mini jungle. Moreover, this first look was kind of funny as I saw the Coucal with a potato in its beak whil...