Interlochen, Michigan
Bird of the Day: Bobolink
Interlochen, Michigan
Bird of the Day: Gray Hawk
Tacacori, Costa Rica
Splashing Festivities
In the past month, a wave of newcomers has joined the Xandari team, and to my delight, it means I´m no longer “the new girl.” This has been my first opportunity to welcome new members and receive them as warmly as I was greeted when I arrived in July. Our new coworkers at the front desk are the ones I’ve had the chance to help with any questions about billing or assisting with guest needs, and this new responsibility is the one I enjoy the most. Even though in certain circumstances I still have to refer to my other, more experienced, coworkers to help resolve the matter, I still get to learn how to take care of obstacles that I have not encountered before. Additionally, questions or doubts that the new employees have are helpful for identifying the details in the front desk duties and training process that could be made clearer.
Bird of the Day: Crimson Sunbird
Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Bird of the Day: Western Wood-Pewee
Tacacori, Costa Rica
Bird of the Day: Lilac-breasted Roller
Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
An Ingenious Method for Deterring Elephants
Hanging beehives create a natural deterrent fence around crops in Kenya. Via ThisIsColossal
In Africa and India, elephants can be huge–literally–agricultural pests. Stomping casually through plantations, plowing over fences and crushing or devouring crops, these nearly unstoppable giants are often shot by farmers not for any ivory-related avarice, but rather out of a desire to protect their livelihood that lives in the form of fruits and vegetables.
A more pacific method of keeping elephants out of agricultural areas that I have seen in southern India is deep and wide trenches surrounding the plantation, which elephants are loath to cross since they are likely to get stuck. Of course, these moats are understandably impossible to replicate everywhere, and biologist Lucy King has been studying the possibility of creating another sort of fence since 2006.
As you can see from the photo above, Dr. King’s idea was Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Black-naped Monarch
Dandeli, Karnataka
Bird Behavior at Xandari III
For the first two installments of this video series, please click here and here.
With footage filmed between late October and early December of this year, the compilation video below features twelve different families of birds, not including the domesticated chickens we have as egg-suppliers on property.
First, a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird scans its territory for trespassers; next, a female Yellow-throated Euphonia eats some tiny fruit from a local tree, and a male of the same species sings his bubbly song, which includes a mimicked phrase from the Rufous-breasted Wren toward the Continue reading
Insect Behavior at Xandari
Over the last month or so, I’ve been recording videos of animal behavior at Xandari, and I finally have enough to share a small compilation of insects doing their thing on property. Sometime during the next week, I’ll also upload a video of new bird behavior observed here.
In the video above, you’ll see a small colony of leaf-cutter ants Continue reading
Bird of the Day: Rufous-bellied Niltava
Bhimtal, Uttarakhand
Earthships
Photo via ThisIsColossal
In New Mexico, a community of ecologically-conscious citizens have built homes that are almost completely made out of recycled materials, and their utilities come from the sky: solar and wind power, and rain collection gutters. We’ve featured a series on straw bale construction, a slightly similar idea, in the past, but, as you can see in the video below, these “earthships” have even more going for them.
Bird of the Day: Crab Plover
Mandvi, Gujarat
Bird of the Day: Lesson’s Motmot
Tacacori, Costa Rica
Bird of the Day: Indian Pitta
Pudukkottai, Tamil Nadu
The Evolution of the Cleanest Continent
In addition to the successful planting of millions of trees and bushes in parts of Tigray, Ethiopia, and elsewhere in Africa as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), the announcement of another ambitious initiative by several African countries during the United Nations’ summit of climate change in Paris could spearhead the continent to becoming the world’s cleanest in the following decades.
Bird of the Day: Crimson-backed Sunbird
Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, Goa
Bird of the Day: Ashy Bulbul
Pangot, Uttarakhand
Bird of the Day: Sarus Crane
Bharatpur National Park, Rajasthan
Bird of the Day: Steely-vented Hummingbird
Tacacori, Costa Rica
Organikos 