Sunday, March 23, 2008

Mumbai Bird Race - Feb 2008

This year i was fortunate enough to participate in the Mumbai Bird Race on 17th of feb. Our team had Dr Tarin and Mr Krishna as senior birders. We started at 7:00 AM from Khargar Hills and continued upto 3:00 PM with Talawe being the final destination.

Teams - Dr Tarin mithel, Mr. Krishna Durbha, Umesh, Chadan, Anupama, Maurlene, Parag

Areas Covered - Khargar Hills, CIDCO Valley Park Belapur, Uran, Jasai, JNPT, JNPT Watch Tower, Kilegaothan, Talawe

>Beautiful Gliricidia - Tree originally from South America

>Yeh Kadamb Ka Ped

>A shining Small Green Beeater

>Unidentified Bird on a Unidentified Flower

>Bhavare kee gunjan...

>A wader just passed by.... Talawe

>A view from JNPT watch Tower


Checklist of Birds - Feb 17, 2008

  1. Common Myna
  2. Blue Rock Piegon
  3. Common Crow
  4. House Sparrow
  5. Ashy Prinia
  6. Magpie Robin
  7. Red Vented Bulbul
  8. Black Drongo
  9. Asian Pied Myna
  10. Long Tailed Shrike
  11. Purple Sunbird
  12. Indian Robin
  13. Rose Ringed Parakeet
  14. White Breasted Kingfisher
  15. Red Whiskered Bulbul
  16. Asian Koel
  17. Small Green Beeater
  18. Golden Oriole
  19. Coppersmith Barbet
  20. Jungle Babbler
  21. Jungle Crow
  22. Unidentified SparrowHawk
  23. Crimson sunbird
  24. Indian Treepie
  25. Common Tailorbird
  26. Greenish Leaf Warbler
  27. Spotted Dove
  28. Laughing Dove
  29. Little Cormorant
  30. Pond Heron
  31. Black Shouldered Kite
  32. Baya Weaver
  33. Cattle Egret
  34. Black Winged Stilt
  35. Little Egret
  36. Large Egret
  37. Marsh Sandpiper
  38. Pied Avocet
  39. Karsh Harrier
  40. Eurasian Spoonbill
  41. Common Sandpiper
  42. Small Blue Kingfisher
  43. Gull Billed Tern
  44. White Ibis
  45. Western Reef Egret
  46. Median Egret
  47. Oriental Honey Buzzard
  48. Little Greb
  49. Northern Pintail
  50. Northern Showeller
  51. Common Teal
  52. Gargany
  53. Kentish Plover
  54. Rosy Starling
  55. Black Tailed Godwit
  56. Lesser Flemingo
  57. Purple Moorhen
  58. Red Wattled Lapwing
  59. Brahminy Shelduck
  60. Glossy Ibis
  61. Paddyfield Pippit
  62. Common Stonechat
  63. Little Ringed Plover
  64. Open Bill Stork
  65. Brahminy Kite
  66. Pariah Kite
  67. Bronze Winged Jacana
  68. Asian palm Swift
  69. Common Coot
  70. Black Headed Gulls
  71. Greater Coucal
  72. Common Hoopoe
  73. Barn Swallow

>Bird Searching in Khargar Hills

Friday, March 7, 2008

Make Thaali Peeth (in 89 easy steps) hmmm

Place : A Chat Room
Initial Subject : Undisclosed (Eventually Turned to food)
Final Subject : How to make Thaali Peeth (*)
Total Cast : 2
Roles : A Teacher, A Student (any resemblance is purely coincidential)
Note : No animals were harmed while chatting for this topic.
*. If you dont know what is Thaali Peeth.....then then THIS IS JUST FOR YOU.

1. # teacher: thaali peeth and paratha are easy to make. learn them (I can guess..... how they are made at home)
2. # student: ok (still... I will try)
3. teacher: rice flour (can be made with mixed flour...special tip only for bright students........better not to tell this party.........will get confused)
4. teacher: cut and add some onion
5. student: ok
6. teacher: then haldi, masala
7. student: ok
8. teacher: salt. little water. make dough (student, is this too much?)
9. student: ok (I think I can do it)
10. # teacher: divide it into 2-3 smaller doughs
11. then like bhakri
12. student: oh no.. thats was terrible.....(I had tried bhaakri once)
13. teacher: press that dough to make it flat
14. student: ok
15. # teacher: shall i continue the process ?
16. or u got frightened
17. ? (probabaly overburdened with the process??)
18. student: ya go ahead (still alive)
19. no i remebered bhaakri thats why
20. teacher: put platic sheet on flat surface
21. then keep dough
22. student: okhay(plastic sheet....will hav to search for, something or the other is kept everywhere)
23. teacher: press it with hand
24. make it flat
25. as thick as bhakri
26. # then with fingers make holes in it
27. student: ok
28. teacher: ooo i forgot
29. on plastic sheet apply little water
30. student: ya i used to eat it like that only (refer line 26. its fun to eat thaali peeth like that)
31. teacher: otherwise it will stick to it
32. student: ok
33. teacher: keep tava on gas (also lite up the gas)
34. little oil
35. # student: ok that i didnt know (refer line 33)
36. teacher: heat it
37. student: keep tava on gas (just a repetation)
38. carry on
39. ha ha
40. teacher: tava is used to make chapattis
41. pan kind of (punishment : write tava and its meaning 100 times in your notebook)
42. student: now tava is hot (coz the gas burner is on maximum)
43. # teacher: then
44. with plastic sheet on upperside put thalipeet on tava
45. student: arey jaldi karo (tava is bocoming red hot)
46. teacher: kachcha khana padega (for line 45. OK OK the previous line)
47. student: naahi...
48. # teacher: be patient then
49. i mean pick it up with plastic sheet to keep on tava (for line 44)
50. student: ok got it
51. teacher: then detach plastic sheet with the help of little water
52. student: ok
53. # teacher: if needed put some oil again
54. student: ok
55. teacher: then eat it ( and finish it peacefully )
56. student: wow....(seems easy. To eat not to make)
57. teacher: let it get ready frm both the sides (whatever it becomes, name it – THALIPEETH -hahha!)
58. # student: after eating...(just kidding)
59. teacher: and dont curse me tomorrow
60. # student: i have copied this valuable data and taken print out....stilll....
61. teacher: if u have a proof in black and white u gonna curse me a lot
62. # oooo
63. make one correction
64. student: wat??
65. # teacher: instead of water on plastic sheet
66. apply oil on it before pressing the dough (just in time.......saved)
67. student: ok
68. teacher: thank god i remembered it (ya. Otherwise plastic on tava and water on gas with oil nowhere to be seen)(well...i could have named it plastc thalipeeth)
69. # student: ya i changed it in the print out. (*remember to do it while making*)
70. # teacher: i suggest u to make puri sized thlipeeths to avoid wastage
71. student: ok....(sounds interesting)
72. # wat should be the thickness...coz my aaji used to make they were properly paklele astat.....(didnt know eng for that)
73. # teacher: as thick as bhakri (that wud be too much)
74. student: ok
75. teacher: 3mm (lot of research has been done)
76. student: pixel perfection (expert comments)
77. # teacher: i had just removed a scale (an extention, on comments)
78. student: mean??
79. # teacher: to tell u thickness of thalipeeth
80. it is 3mm
81. # student: ok i will need vernier calliper... i think its about one fourth of the first line of ur finger..... now ur turn (smart huh)
82. # teacher: exactly 3mm (no more physics and maths in cookery class)
83. less than that or more than that..........it will be a wastage
84. # student: oh ok i know i know.... 3mm to be precise
85. teacher: if u go wrong it will be a huge wastage of my energy in typing.
# student: ya i understand...(frankly I did not)
86. # teacher: u will better understand it at 10 (its 10 o clock I will prepare)
87. student: ur typing will not go waste....cant say about thaali peeth...
88. # student: chalo see u later. .....
89. teacher: dont see me tomorrow if ur thalipeeth goes wrong (no more comments)

The End

Credits : Internet Service Provide, Chat Software.
Special Thanks to Tim burners Lee for creating WWW World Wide Web and Internet