The Indian cormorant or Indian shag is a member of the cormorant family. It is found mainly along the inland waters of the Indian Subcontinent but extending west to Sind and east to Thailand and Cambodia. It is a gregarious species that can be easily distinguished from the similar sized little cormorant by its blue eye, small head with a sloping forehead and a long narrow bill ending in a hooked tip. This medium-sized bronze brown cormorant is scalloped in black on the upper plumage, lacks a crest and has a small and slightly peaked head with a long narrow bill that ends in a hooked tip. The eye is blue and bare yellow facial skin during the non-breeding season. Breeding birds have a short white ear tuft. In some plumages it has a white throat but the white is restricted below the gape unlike in the much larger great cormorant. Sexes are similar, but non-breeding adults and juveniles are browner.

Jumping spider with kill

Kadhai Chicken

Dramatic sunset among basalt rocks in Goa.

Dramatic sunset of monsoon on our beautiful Goan coastline.

canon EOS 550D with 100mm lens

Lesser whitethroat Curruca curruca The warblers had begun to arrive Lesser whitethroat is a compact little warbler and one of our most skulking and elusive winter visitors from Europe to the southern parts of Karnataka Like most warblers it is insectivorous but rarely also eats berries Mysore Karnataka India

Love was in the air

Solitary bees of the genus Megachile are known as leafcutter bees because of their unique ability of cutting leaves and then rolling them into a cute cylindrical structure to lay their eggs in. Like other solitary bees, they forage alone, seek out honey and pollen during the day and rest during the night. Only a female when she's ready to lay her eggs, she'll start her work of cutting leaves and making nest for her babies and then loading the nest with food for the baby bees. When she's not in motherhood duty, she'll just casually roam around alone and then after dark, find a secure place and rest. Sometimes they are like other solitary bees can be observed resting together in small groups as seen in the picture.