The European Roller - in Oman

Coracias garrulus - a buch of them visited Rig 33 today. At first when I saw one flying past with it's flashy blue and brown I thought it was a kingfisher and I was thinking, man! this bird is right out of it's element. Later I saw the bunch of birds sitting near the water pit and had a closer look at them and realized that it didn't look like the kingfisher on a bottle of 'Kingfisher Beer' and so it couldn't be a kingfisher. Just goes to show that drinking beer can be such a good source of information.

So anyhow, I looked it up and found out that this is the European Roller (scientific name: Coracias garrulus) which is native to Oman but sadly - let me quote from Wikipedia - "hundreds, perhaps thousands, are shot for food in Oman every spring".

Kerala Wildlife - Grey Headed Fish Eagle

This majestic bird (Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus) was hanging around the resort we stayed at in Alleppy. Saw it on two occasions. As the name suggests this bird lives on fish and the back waters surrounding Alleppy provide all its food requirements.

Also available in the back waters of Kerala is the currymeen fish that we ate on three occasions - very, very tasty and apparently not readily available in other parts of the world except in Lulu Supermarkets where it is available frozen to serve the Malayali populace of the gulf.

It's a bird...., it's a plane....No! it's MUNDU-MAN

Max and I in traditional wear - The Mundu (lungi). The warmer the climate, the higher it gets