Falcons are beautiful.
As much as they are aggressive hunters,
their gentleness and elegance is worth admiring.
Here are some portraits of Saker Falcons
from the archives…
Category: Animals
Blue Macaw
A Saturday afternoon.
Zallaq highway.
Long stretch of cars.
Families with excited kids.
Visitors to the animal show.
Animals in nominal enclosures.
Domestic.
Birds resting outside their cages.
Pets.
Sunny. Warm. Breezy.
An unforgettable day for the kids.
And therefore to their parents.
Bahrain loves animals.
Birds, too.
Mischievous Macaws
Macaws sure are harmless. They are friendly, too. But they can also be mischievous at times… All you have to bear with is their moderately loud voices.
Dragonfly at Dusk
Lilies and a Frog
Monet’s Garden in Giverny (Les Jardins et la Maison de Claude Monet) leads to an exit near the gate from a back lane. The exit is a flight of steps leading down a tunnel crossing the paved road D5 between Vernon and Sainte-Genevieve-les-Gasny. The famous pond in the Japanese inspired water garden with its water lilies lies on the other side of the road.
Where there is a pond; there is a frog. No matter how much these frogs tried, Monet is never known to have painted even one.
As Rick Steeve mentions in his website on Monet’s Gardens in Giverny, the true subject is not really the famous water lilies, but the changing reflections on the pond’s surface — the blue sky, white clouds, and green trees that line the shore.
Tern in the rain
Curiosity
Annual animal fair in Bahrain, popularly known as Mara’ai, creates an opportunity for kids to see the lovely animals they had only seen on the telly. Mostly of them are familiar as cartoon characters. Now they are all here for them to touch and feel. Seen here is a student who examines a baby tortoise (hatchling).
Gold wings
Dragon Flies are beautiful, delicate, harmless, meek creations.
Why we call it with a “dragon” in its name has always been a mystery to me…
The word dragon evokes a fire-breathing monster – an image gathered from all the tales and stories and movies.
Lately, the movies depict dragons as friendly, playful animals
but
a fire is a fire.
Brightly coloured feathers
and they were all in blue…
Evident
No chemicals,
No pesticides.
Natural repellents
and manure.
Evident?
Caterpillars, Butterflies, Dragon flies and Slugs see a paradise in the home-garden, back home.
Tea, anyone?
Munnar came to be known to the outside world in the 1870s with the visit of the British Resident of the then Travancore kingdom John Daniel Munro. Munro, who visited the place as part of settling the border dispute between Travancore and the nearby state of Madras literally fell for the beauty of the region.
The Munnar hill station, home to Kanan Devan Tea estates, is situated about 4800 feet above the sea level. The town, which still retains its colonial charm, has a large number of hotels to greet travelers. Virgin forests, savannahs, rolling hills, scenic valleys, numerous streams, waterfalls, sprawling tea plantations and winding walkways are attracting thousands every year.
For someone – anyone – who sees the beige-ish vastness of the desert and enjoys sandstorms more than occasionally in a year, Munnar offers an extra cooler experience that is unforgettable. A trek in the forest with the permission of the Forest Department officials accompanied by an experienced guide will lead you to the Thoovanam Falls.
One must only have to risk a few herds of Elephants and Bisons en route.
Jagged Green Chameleon
It happens even to the best amongst us… to fall occasionally. The lovely, young, Jagged Chameleon was no exception on that bright, humid July afternoon. He was happily perched on the side of a Coconut Palm in the front yard earlier. A mild thud showed him on the ground… shocked and greatly amused by the zoom lens focusing on him.
He hurried back to his perch after waiting for some more clicks to follow. But once was one too much.
On a thin wing
A dragonfly can spend up to several years underwater until it is strong enough to surface, shed its skin and evolve into this beautiful creature. Then it flies free among us but only for a very brief period of up to 2 months before it dies. This one used to visit the same spot regularly in the afternoon hours when the slanting shining sun touch upon the twig that sways to every breeze…
Pearls
Pearls.
Many white.
But one black…
The Bird
Freshly dipped
Change that Mesmerises
Nibbles
MyRefractions 