The plain prinia, also known as the plain wren-warbler or white-browed wren-warbler, is a small cisticolid warbler found in southeast Asia. It is a resident breeder from Pakistan and India to south China and southeast Asia. It was formerly included in the tawny-flanked prinia, resident in Africa south of the Sahara. The two are now usually considered to be separate species.
Andrew Harvey is a British author, religious scholar and teacher of mystic traditions, known primarily for his popular nonfiction books on spiritual or mystical themes, beginning with his 1983 A Journey in Ladakh. He is the author of over 30 books, including, The Hope, A Guide to Sacred Activism, The Direct Path, the critically acclaimed Way of Passion: A Celebration of Rumi, The Return of the Mother and Son of Man. He was the subject of the 1993 BBC documentary "The Making of a Modern Mystic" and is the founder of the Sacred Activism movement.
The hamsa is an aquatic bird of passage, such as a goose or a swan. Its icon is used in Indian and Southeast Asian culture as a spiritual symbol and a decorative element. It is believed by Hindus to be the vahana of Brahma, Gayatri, Saraswati, and Vishvakarma.
The black-necked crane is a medium-sized crane in Asia that breeds on the Tibetan Plateau and remote parts of India and Bhutan. It is 139 cm (55 in) long with a 235 cm (7.8 ft) wingspan, and it weighs 5.5 kg (12 lbs). It is whitish-gray, with a black head, red crown patch, black upper neck and legs, and white patch to the rear of the eye. It has black primaries and secondaries. Both sexes are similar. Some populations are known to make seasonal movements. It is revered in Buddhist traditions and culturally protected across much of its range. A festival in Bhutan celebrates the bird while the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir considers it as the state bird.
Hemis National Park is a high altitude national park in the eastern Ladakh region of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India. Globally famous for its snow leopards, it is believed to have the highest density of them in any protected area in the world. It is the only national park in India that is north of the Himalayas, the largest notified protected area in India and is the second largest contiguous protected area, after the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve and surrounding protected areas. The park is home to a number of species of endangered mammals, including the snow leopard. Hemis National Park is India's protected area inside the Palearctic ecozone, outside the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary northeast of Hemis, and the proposed Tso Lhamo Cold Desert Conservation Area in North Sikkim.
The black-winged cuckooshrike or lesser grey cuckooshrike or dark grey cuckooshrike is a species of cuckooshrike found in South to Southeast Asia. Despite the name, they are unrelated to shrikes or cuckoos. They have broad based bills with grey upper parts, black wings, white vent, graduated white-tipped tails, black bills and legs. Females are overall lighter in all taxa.
Otto Martin Pfister is a German football manager and one of Germany's most successful coaching exports, voted Africa's Manager of the Year in 1992. He is formerly the manager of the Afghanistan national team.
The flora and fauna of [Ladakh] was first studied by [Ferdinand Stoliczka], an [Austria]n[Czech people|Czech][palaeontologist], who carried out a massive expedition in the region in the 1870s. The fauna of Ladakh have much in common with that of Central Asia generally, and especially those of the Tibetan Plateau. An exception to this are the birds, many of which migrate from the warmer parts of India to spend the summer in Ladakh. For such an arid area, Ladakh has a great diversity of birds — a total of 318 species have been recorded. Many of these birds reside or breed at high-altitude wetlands such as Tso Moriri.
Graham Martin Pizzey AM was a noted Australian author, photographer and ornithologist. He was born and grew up in Melbourne and was educated at Geelong Grammar School. After leaving school he worked in his family's leather business, while studying part-time and publishing articles and photographs on natural history. In 1960 he resigned from the family business to become a full-time freelance writer and photographer.
Charles "Chuck" O'Rear is an American photographer. His image, Bliss, was used as the default desktop wallpaper of Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. O'Rear started his career with the daily newspapers Emporia Gazette, The Kansas City Star, and Los Angeles Times, worked for National Geographic magazine, and was part of the Environmental Protection Agency's DOCUMERICA project. He began photographing winemaking in 1978.
Ira Spring (1918–2003) was an American photographer, author, mountaineer and hiking advocate. He was the photographer and co-author, with Harvey Manning and his brother Bob Spring, of the "100 Hikes" series of books published by The Mountaineers. He co-founded the trails advocacy and maintenance organization Washington Trails Association (WTA) along with fellow trails advocate Louise Marshall. In 1998 he published an autobiography entitled "An Ice Axe, a Camera, and a jar of Peanut Butter" detailing his long photographic career on several continents. In recognition of this work in conservation and wilderness-preservation, he was presented with the Roosevelt Conservation Award by President George H. W. Bush in 1992. Spring was born in Jamestown, New York with a twin, Bob, and grew up in Shelton, Washington. He was an army aerial photographer in World War II. He died on June 5, 2003 in Edmonds, Washington of prostate cancer.
Geoffrey James Harwood "Geoff" Moon, OBE MRCVS ARPS Hon FPSNZ MACVs., was a New Zealand naturalist an ornithologist, conservationist, veterinary surgeon and photographer. He is the author and photographer of many books on New Zealand birds and landscape. Moon was the Patron of the Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust, was patron of the Photographic Society of New Zealand, a Waitakere Arts Laureate, a distinguished life member of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, an Honorary Fellow of the Photographic Society of New Zealand and an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain.
Piet Hamberg is a former Dutch footballer and manager. He worked at Liverpool as technical manager for their academy. On 22 December 2009, he became the general manager of Tunisian club Etoile Sportive du Sahel.
The barred cuckoo-dove is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is native to South and Southeast Asia. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
The robin accentor is a species of bird in the Prunellidae family. It is found in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and China, at altitudes between about 3,000 and 5,500 m. It is a brown bird with a grey head and an orange-red breast. It is common in parts of its range and its conservation status has been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of "least concern".
David Tipling is a professional wildlife photographer with an international reputation. His highly distinctive images have earned him many awards and accolades. Sir David Bellamy described Tipling's photographs in The National Parks and other Wild Places of Britain and Ireland as "windows of wonder". He has won the documentary award for the European Nature Photographer of the Year for his work on emperor penguins. He is the author or commissioned photographer for more than 30 books that include Collins Top Birding Spots in Britain & Ireland, The National Parks and Other Wild Places of Britain & Ireland, Attracting Wildlife to your Garden, and most recently The RSPB Guide to Digital Wildlife Photography.
Morten Strange is a Danish-born, Singapore-based independent financial analyst. He is a former bird photographer, author and publisher. Strange was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and studied economics at Aarhus University 1971-73; he served in the Danish army as a sergeant in the field artillery. From 1974, Strange worked in the offshore oil industry in the North Sea and later in South-east Asia and China as a field services engineer; he retired from the oil business in 1986 as a field services supervisor. Since then, Strange has worked for the Danish Ornithological Society, for Nature's Niche Pte Ltd and for Draco Publishing and Distribution Pte Ltd. Strange was based in Singapore from 1980 to 1993 and again from 1999 onwards, and is now a Singapore permanent resident; he is the father of four sons from two marriages.
Aditya Arya is an Indian photographer. He is also known for collecting, curating and archiving rare collections of photographs through the Aditya Arya Archive and the India Photo Archive Foundation of which he is the chairmanperson and trustee. He is known for curating the Kulwant Roy collection. His own photographic ventures include works within India in areas like Nagaland, Leh, Ladakh, Jaipur, Bihar etc. and outside India like in Germany. He is also teaches at Academy for Photographic Excellence or APEX in Delhi. Aditya Arya has had exhibitions India and abroad. Aditya Arya is one of the leading photographers in Project 365, a public photo art project initiated by EtP that creates and preserves photographic visuals of the fast changing ancient culture and lifestyle of Tiruvannamalai, an ancient town in Tamil Nadu.
