Episode 44: A life with birds and insects with Dr. Bernd Heinrich
About ravens, tree swallows, great horned owls, woodpeckers, golden-crowned kinglets, crows and more. Our guest today is distinguished academic, author and ultra-marathoner, Dr. Bernd Heinrich. He talks about owls, ravens, tree swallows, painted snipes, great horned owls, crows and much more. This episode is about the various birds that Dr....
Episode 43: Challenges of the Arctic-breeding shorebirds with Dr. Erica Nol
Today we are talking with Dr. Erica Nol of Ontario, Canada about challenges of the arctic-breeding shorebird. Dr. Nol is a professor at Trent University in Canada. Her research interests lie in the biology and conservation of shorebirds across many areas in Canada and beyond. In particular, she studies the impacts of climate change on the...
Episode 42: Birds in myth and legend. Part 4 of 4
Part 4 of How to bird-watch series In which the author loops in some history and fables and talks about her habitat. Birds are the stuff of myth and legend in every culture. Some of the most beautiful poetic images come from birds. My father, an English professor, loved the Romantic poets: Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth, who lived in the...
Episode 41: The art of seeing in bird-watching
How to bird watch Part 3 In which the author talks about how to see. Ayurveda divides us into three phenotypes: vata, pitta and kapha. Vatas have acute hearing and enjoy the sense of touch— if my memory serves right. Pittas have acute vision and enjoy the sense of smell. Kaphas have acute taste and enjoy the sense of touch. As a classic vata, I...
Episode 40: The pleasures of bird watching. Part 2 of 4
In which the author connects birds and bees with flora and foliage Nature is both generous and opportunistic. Trees attract birds during certain seasons; and then allow other trees to get that opportunity. The red silk cotton tree beside my house was agog with birds when it flowered a few months ago. Today, it stands bereft, with its flowers and...
Episode 39: How I got into birdwatching. Part 1 of 4
And how you can toooooo This episode addresses a question that every bird watcher hears at some point or other. People who watch us stand still at balconies gazing skywards or at trees, peering through binoculars at walks, or getting excited by some random tiny green bird. Some of us get this question from puzzled spouses or confused...
Episode 38: Amazing bird species: The Hoopoe
Episode 37: Talking hummingbirds with Anusha Shankar
Today’s guest, Anusha Shankar studies hummingbirds as a Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She has lived and worked on four continents and loves being an Indian woman in science. She is fascinated by hummingbirds’ ability to use a hibernation-like state called torpor to save energy at night. She is investigating how they...
Episode 35: Talking waterbirds with Gopi Sundar
Our guest today is Dr. Gopi Sundar, who heads the international ecological journal, Waterbirds. He is also a scientist in the cranes and wetlands program at the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) based in Udaipur. Gopi has worked on waterbirds for over three decades, particularly on the Sarus Cranes of Uttar Pradesh. In this...
Episode 34: Amazing Bird Species: Brahminy Kite
There is this bird that my mother watches. When it comes down, she says Garuda, garuda. And does a namaste. This bird is called the Brahminy kite. Haliastur indus. But is this bird really the Garuda that Hindus worship? That is the bird of Indonesia– after which its airline, Garuda Indonesia is named? We find out in this short...