Posted here are last of the images from last birding session. It is always nice to see birds gulping their prey.

This cormorant was fishing along with a bunch of its friends. Each time they went in, they would come back with a fish struggling between the beaks. Also read my commentary of watching a cormorant hunt in the water. They are very swift swimmers.

An Indian Cormorant.

Bay backed shrike

We watched this shrike sitting on a short perch and looking around. It flew out and came back with this centipede (or whatever worm it is) so fast, it must have taken less than a second. The centipede struggled for another 5 seconds before it was consumed.

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We are preparing for the upcoming TravelWise tour to Coorg with lot of research and information. While we are at it, here are some stories from Coorg area that Lakshmi and I had written for Deccan Herald.

Lakshmi writes about some intriguing stories of the kings of Coorg in Tuesday issue of DH.

As the Vijayanagar empire crumbled, Veeraraja, who dreamt of establishing his own dynasty was looking to exploit the weakness of local kingdoms… Disguised as a jangama or a priest with healing powers, he established a small group of followers in Haleri. He slowly overthrew the local Nayakas, including the formidable Karenbahu of Bhagamandala and Talacauvery, and went on to become the lord of Kodagu with Haleri as capital.

My story about my repeated treks to Thadiyandamol peak appeared in DH a few weeks ago.

Never before has a place beckoned me to return so many times. My second visit followed just a few months after the first. The third and fourth did not take very long either. I had made six visits at the last count and yet, each time I think of Thadiyandamol Peak, I ponder on making another journey soon.

Finally, here is another story I wrote a few months ago about the trek to Brahmagiri.

Wildlife is plentiful on the grasslands above the forest bungalow. Sambar deer, nilgiri langur and wild gaur are commonly seen along the hills. Elephants can be occasionally sighted grazing on the slopes. Lucky ones may see lion tailed macaques hopping from tree to tree in the shola forests. Tigers are known to exist, but sightings of the big cat are not common.

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Divya Muddappa writes about trees on Nature Conservation Foundation’s facebook page. She celebrates trees through her note, eloquently expressing many things that we take for granted about these gifts of nature.

…trees have a range of survival battles to fight, too. Finding the right spot to grow, avoiding being eaten by herbivores, defending themselves with thorns and toxins, fighting with others for space and light, attracting the right pollinators and dispersers, extracting water, nutrients, and micronutrients from the soil and sending it all the way into the canopy—all of these are challenges that trees have solved in as many ways as there are species on the planet.

But despite their grandeur and the infinite benefts they bring, all around us we see trees being cut. We have already lost most of our old-growth and mature forests…

Read Trees, the pillars of life

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