Birds of Raniganj

A list of birds I have seen from my garden

1. Pigeons
2. Doves
3. House Sparrows
4. Common Tailorbirds
5. House Crows
6. Cormorants
7. Egrets
8. Parakeets
9. Oriental Magpie-Robins
10. Greater Coucals
11. Black Kites
12. Owls
13. Woodpeckers
14. Bayas
15. Asian Koels
16. Red whiskered bulbuls
17. Red vented bulbuls
18. Common Myna
19. Babblers
20. Common Kingfishers
21. Rufous Treepies
22. Purple Sunbirds
23. Asian Pied Starlings
24. White-browed Wagtail
25. Purple-rumped Sunbird
26. Stork-billed Kingfisher

27. Black-shouldered Kite 

28. Common Hoopoe 
29. Brahminy Starling

30. Golden Oriole 

The 'Must-Not-Read' List

Over the years, I have realised that no good comes from reading up on certain issues. I avoid such stuff. As soon as my eyes hit on a keyword below, I close the page, uninstall the app, unfollow the tweeter, throw away the newspaper, or close the book, as the case may be. Doing this has increased manifold the time available to read up other things. So without my ado, here's my 'Must-Not-Read' List. Do feel free to suggest more keywords.


1. Indo-Pak Relations, Hindu-Muslim Relations, Kashmir Dispute, Article 370, Uniform Civil Code, the Ayodhya thingy.

2. Anything related to the economies of England, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan or Zimbabwe.

A Nature Lover edits TOI post

The Times of India recently posted an article on what it called 'Elephant Menace'. My edited version below:

KANNUR: The threat of wild elephants human encroachment is a perennial issue in the forest terrains of the district, bordering Wayanad and Karnataka, despite various efforts by the forest officials to prevent it. 

There were many instances of wild elephants people encroaching into human elephant habitat and destroying crops forests not only in Aralam, a spot persistently targeted by the elephants humans, but also places in the interiors of Iritty and Cherupuzha, in the last couple of months.