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It is a white bird adorned with buff plumes in the breeding season. It nests in colonies, usually near bodies of water and often with other wading birds. The nest is a platform of sticks in trees or shrubs. Unlike most other herons, it feeds in relatively dry grassy habitats, often accompanying cattle or other large mammals, since it catches insect and small vertebrate prey disturbed by these animals. Some populations of the Cattle Egret are migratory and others show post-breeding dispersal.-----This Picture bagged a Notable Mention in CANON INDIA PHOTO CONTEST 2011.
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Climbers struggling the last few steps to the peak of Makalu in the Himalayas have long marveled at the sight of bar-headed geese flying high above to their winter refuge in India. The birds cruise at an altitude of 29,500 feet, nearly as high as commercial aircraft.

For years scientists believed that strong tailwinds and updrafts aided the geese on their journey. A team of researchers led by Charles Bishop of Bangor University in North Wales tested this theory by tracking more than a dozen bar-headed geese harnessed with small backpacks containing satellite transmitters that established their location, speed and altitude.

To their surprise, the researchers discovered that instead of flying in the early afternoon, when heat from the earth can create 12-mile-per-hour updrafts, bar-headed geese consistently fly at night or during early-morning hours, when there is actually a slight downdraft. In a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, the team theorizes that because air is cooler and denser at these times, it allows the geese to generate greater lift. Cooler air also helps to regulate body heat and contains more oxygen, enabling geese to fly even as the air thins at higher levels.

Bishop and his colleagues also were amazed to find that the geese cross the Himalayas in a single day. To fly so far at such a great height, the bar-headed geese must sustain a 10- to 20-fold increase in oxygen consumption. By comparison, lower-altitude birds such as the Canada goose cannot sustain resting levels of metabolism at 30,000 feet. Bigger wings, bigger lungs, a dense network of capillaries surrounding the flight muscle, and hemoglobin that more tightly binds oxygen to the lungs work together to sustain oxygen flow throughout the bird’s circulatory system, including its flight muscle. Improving the understanding of why tissues in bar-headed geese are so adept at taking up oxygen might elucidate human respiration as well.

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Trans-Himalaya

The watershed between rivers flowing south into the Ganges or Indus and rivers flowing north into the Brahmaputra or mainstem Indus that flow around the ends of the entire range often follows somewhat lower, less rugged mountains tens of kilometers north of the highest ranges. South-flowing rivers form valleys in this region, often semi-arid due to rainshadow effects. These valleys hold some of the highest permanent villages on earth
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Kinnaur a trible region of Himachal Pradesh . T his place has the highiest Himalayan mountain peaks in the state ( REO PURGYIL. -6816 mts ) ; Huge n giants ( 18000 - 20000 ft )
Most scenic but lesser known places are here . The area is dominaed by Budhist community and has the oldest monestries / Nunneries of the world '( 1200 years ) The eastern part borders Tibet . Due to proximity of Kinnaur to Tibet , the life style and religion of its inhabitants have been influenced by Budhism ,
Kinnaur is a land of legends and mythology . The most ancient inhabitants of this land were KINNERS a distinct race ; some where human beings and birds or with a human body and the head of a horse or vice versa . The epics describe them heavenly musicians or celetsial choisters . Such creatures are supposed to inhabit a region high in the Himalayas where saints who have attained a perfection consort with super human beings .

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when god created first man he took him and led him around all trees of garden of Eden and Said to him ‘ ‘ Look at my works , how beautiful they are ,, Take care that you do not corrupt and destroy my universe . For if you destroy it , no one will repair it .---- Bible
Copyright © –Ashwani kaul
The reproduction, publication, modification, transmission or exploitation of any work contained herein for any use, personal or commercial, without my prior written permission is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved."