Bharal the "Blue Sheep"

Bharal the "Blue Sheep" from Sikkim. On the way to Gurudongmar Lake from Lachen, at around 5000 mt above the sea level; saw these animals. They merge with the background excellently and thus are hard to see; but some males were fighting and that's why we could spot them. Females were nicely enjoying the warmth of sun, but males had something else on their mind.

Hodgson's flying squirrel (Petaurista magnificus)

A really rare image. Hodgson's flying squirrel (Petaurista magnificus). On the way back to Gangtok from Lachen (Sikkim) at around 9.30 PM, saw something like a flying squirrel on the edge of the road. First we thought it is injured, but when looked through the binocs it was clear that its a flying squirrel and is not injured but is licking the ground.It was there for about 3 minutes. Then it went to the other side of the road, facing the valley..... got ready to glide.........then................vanished in the dark.
The main identification character is the reddish-orange tail with black tip. This was an amazing sighting of this elusive animal.

Eurasian Spoonbill

Ant-Mimic Spider (Myrmarachne plataleoides)

Ant- mimic spider (Myrmarachne plataleoides).
This spider mimics the weaver ants.

Birds of Nagpur

Hermit crabs from South Andamans

Hermit crabs, amazing variety of shells can be seen and even the hermit crabs too

These guys utilize shells of snails to protect their soft abdomen from predators. Not only abdomen but whole body is retracted inside the shell.

As the hermits grow in size, they change the shells, the abdomen is flexible enough to grip the shell on inner side. And they have amazing shells and even hermits themselves come in variety of colours.

Hermit crab from South Andamans.

Hermit crab from South Andamans.

Bay island forest lizard

Bay island forest lizard (Coryphophylax subcristatus)from South Andamans.

Sarus Cranes !

Sarus Cranes from Navegaon NP. The one with a Brownish orange head is a Sub-adult. These are amazing birds, but the habitat in which they live is heavily modified, even the eggs are stolen as they are believed to have some So called "Medicinal properties". The future of these cranes is really uncertain in this area.

Bar-headed Geese

Collared Bar-headed goose photographed near Nagpur city, Maharashtra, India

Mr. Martin Gilbert of WCS, successfully captured and marked several waterfowl species while sampling for avian influenza in wild waterbirds in Mongolia during July 2007. It says during the course of this fieldwork in summer, a subsample of 30 Whooper Swans Cygnus cygnus, 50 Bar-headed Geese and 21 Bean Geese Anser fabalis have been fitted with coloured neck collars in Hovsgol (Khuvsgul) aimag (province) in northern Mongolia.

One of these collared Bar-headed goose came near Nagpur, Maharashtra (First Photograph).Due to this photograph of collared Bar-headed goose, the migration of these birds was revealed.

These birds come every winter season near Nagpur. These are amazing birds migrating large distances away from there breeding grounds in winter and then return back as the winter withdraws.

Stream Glory (Neurobasis chinensis) - a Damselfly

Stream Glory - Female. These are really wonderfull. Females of this species are with brownish- semi-transparent wings. The body is greenish metallic in colour. But the males are just Superb.

Stream Glory - Male, This one is a male, normally when it is in the resting position the outer wing colouration are blackish with metallic sheen on it.

click on the image to enlarge
But the vibrant colour is displayed when inner side of the wing is exposed.

Blue bottle

Got this beautiful Blue bottle when it was mud puddling. Took this image at Top Slip.