Skywatch Friday - A sunset in Siem Reap

Sometimes the skies make you pause in your journey. You may be on the road or in a village somewhere and then you suddenly stop and look at the drama in the skies. I was travelling through Siem Reap and was returning towards Angkor Wat from Bantay Srei when I saw this beautiful lake on the way drenched in the evening light..And I couldnt resist , but to stop and watch the spectacle

If you like my photographs and would like to see more of them or join me on my journeys, follow me on My Travel Page. For lovely skies around the world, visit Skywatch

Birding in Masinagudi

I was in Masinagudi a few days ago and went on a birding trip with Atul, the manager of Club Mahindra Zest property - Casa Deep Woods. My first visit to Casa was almost a decade ago, when it was not a Club Mahindra property .Incidentally it was my first ever trip to Masinagudi. It was sheer serendipity as we drove towards Mudhumalai forest after being told that we had no accommodation in Bandipur. The property was very new and Masinagudi was still very much not a tourist destination. I have visited Masinagudi several times, but this trip was sheer nostalgia.

And what a birding haven it turned out to be -the iora, the sunbird, the white eye, the warbler, the flycatchers, the thrushes - we sighted almost 50 species of birds in just one session and the best sightings were that of the pitta and the paradise flycatcher .While the pitta was hanging around for more than half an hour, walking around the dry stream , barely a few feet from me and at eye level, the paradise fly catchers were rather elusive. An entire family was high up in the leaves , right above us and we watched them fly with our binoculars.

The pitta chased the orange headed ground thrush that landed finally up in the branches of the trees.

My favourite of course was the poser tickell's blue flycatcher. For more birds and photographs, do see my album on my travel page on Facebook. For the entire story, please read here

Birding in Coorg

I was in Coorg last week on an assignment for Club Mahindra and we spotted more than 30 species of birds. We would have probably seen more but for the rains that came tumbling down. However, my bird for the day is the malabar whistling thrush. The school boy was the first to wake up me with his song but he vanished into the dark shadows of a sunless dusk when I went to greet him. However I spotted him later and we spent a good 20 minutes together as he went foraging in the grass for his breakfast.

Some of the other birds that posed for me was the blue capped rock thrush and a pied wagtail among others. To see more photographs , visit my Travel Page on Facebook. To read the entire story, visit CLAY, the travel blog from Club Mahindra

Skywatch Friday - Spectacular skies of Jordan

We were driving around in Jordan from Madaba towards the Dead Sea when we saw this spectacular sky.

To see more spectacular skies around the world, visit Skywatch

Happy Holi !

Say it with flowers and colours..wishing you all a very vibrant and Happy Holi..here is welcoming the spring, right from my garden ..these are flowers - marigolds and dahlias that bloomed today and we have some roses, hibiscus, jasmines and the "kanakamparam " - is it called the firecracker flower ?

By the way did I hear someone saying where is the spring ? Getting a bit hot under the collar as summer is already here..take out the bhaang I say :)