Wordless Wednesday ....

Wordless Wednesday .....

Happy Birding 

Laments of a bird photographer ....

When did you decide to take on to birding ???

Expression on the persons face clearly spelled  out...what an oddball she is !!!

 I don't even remember when my love affair with birds began .
So,how did I get interested in nature in the first place .

Daughter of a army officer and thereafter,married to one.
I have always lived in wilderness.

Chasing butterflies around our tiled cottage in Gangtok,

 spotting partriges in the desert of Suratgarh to admiring a pair of minivet

in Chakrata.

A flash of red ....

I gradually began enjoying being in the lap of nature .

 Listening to the chirping of birds and spotting them in the bushes from there my focus shifted to not just admiring these avian delights but to capturing them between frames.

After the first timer's cough and splutter I began clicking with my 100-400 mm lens with a lot of ease.

 Only chirping of birds can pull me put of my  bed at 5.30 am  in the cold  morning .What excites me the most about bird photography are the challenges involved in it Bird photography is one of the greatest photographic pursuits. You need knowledge, patience and skill, but those challenges make the rewards that much greater.
.Birds don't stand still ,nor can you get very close to them . They would tend to be in the bushes and not come out in the light.Still, I am always ready with my gear to head to the wild to click my feathered friends .
The beauty of bird photography is .......it's an humbling experience 

Wordless Wednesday .....

Happy Birding 

Wordless wednesday...

hAPPY bIRDING 

Wordless wednesday ....

Happy birding 

A morning jog with a peacock .....

Happy Birding 

A chat with the silver bills ....

Another darling little munia is getting featured on the blog today .

As the name clearly suggests it has a conical silver grey bill.

They are generally spotted near dry open scrub lands close to a water body.

Generally, found in flocks feeding on ground or low shrubs .

They constantly utter a low chirping .......

but this dosen't seem to be a some low cheeping contact call to me at all ....

The whole week is ahead of you guys ....and have a real happy one .

Jacana....

Jacanas

sometimes referred to as Jesus bird or Lily trotters .

They are uniquely equipped with long straight claws for walking on floating vegetation .

There are about seven to eight species .

Well, I'll be covering two of them :

Pheasant -tailed jacana 

Bronze- winged Jacana 

They are a group of tropical waders found worldwide in the tropical zone .

Will be back soon with my clicks of pheasant-tailed jacana which happens to be one of my favorite bird ....

Date with a scaly-breasted munia ....

Small sparrow- sized birds called munia .
The name munia includes six species of small, seed eating birds .
They are generally found around meadows,  farmlands ....
I spotted this munia in the balcony of a high rise apartment .

One lazy morning I decided to drop by at my friends place . And as luck would have it spotted a bird flitting in and out of the ficus plant  in the balcony .On close observation it was a small bird building its nest with loads of hard work .

The nest is an untidy globe made out of grass and bamboo leaves. The nesting material is pushed together not woven .The nest is hidden at a height 4-5 m in  bushes ,trees or creepers . The male bird gets the nesting material and female builds the nest form inside .

Agile ,little social bird .
with small conical beak,
designed for feeding on seeds of grass and sedge .

Will be back soon with another munia ....

Birds which are found so abundantly yet so inconspicuous .

Egrets all the way ....

This is the little egret.....plumage is all white . It has long black legs with yellow feet .This is the breeding plumage of this bird .

This is the great egret also commonly known as the common egret ,large egret or the great white heron . The great egret is all white plumage . It can be distinguished from the other egrets apart from its size is because of its yellow bill ,black legs and feet .

Western Reef Heron is also commonly known as western reef egret . This is a medium sized bird with a slaty grey plumage .

Will be back again with another bird ...

Happy Birding .

Birds with the white plumes ....

I have decided to cover a different bird every week  . It's going to give me insights into whatever I have done so far and share it with all you guys over there. I will start my post with'' Egrets '' ....birds with a white plumage which develop long ornamental plumes during breeding season . When I started  bird photography would go about clicking the birds around my place  . Egrets are generally found around habitation especially the cattle egret but the backdrop is not too appealing  .Then I happened to chance upon a place called Talave in Navi Mumbai . During high tide the low lying areas get filled up ,making it an ideal joint for photographing  these waders .

Egrets are generally found around marshes ,lakes and wetland areas .They are wading birds and feed on small fishes , amphibians ,reptiles and crustaceans in shallow waters.

Different species of egrets are  found ....

Great white egret ,intermediate egret, little egret and western reef egret .

Though the clicks  are very noisy but they are very close to my heart .

 I find all these clicks very serene .

I will be back again with some more clicks of the egrets ....till then .

Happy Birding ...

I -spy a bird ....

Tall dried reeds all around ,could hear a lot of twittering of birds . But could hardly see any , so perfectly camouflaged .I quietly sat on a mound of mud and spotted .........

I spy: ''Ashy crowned sparrow lark''

Sparrow sized birds with a finch like bill , 

 sandy brown  overall with a black belly..

extending to a band in the neck  and a black eye stripe .
Foraging  on the ground for seeds and insects ....

Happy Monday morning .

Birding during Monsoon ....

 I enjoy backyard birding during monsoons . 

You land up capturing some beautiful moments of the avian world . It  poured heavily and sun god was peeping out ...right time to pick your camera and step out .What I witnessed was pure delight .

 Sparrow chicks enjoying a dip in a pothole .

Who says that potholes are bad .... the birds were having some much fun . 

Will be back soon with some more clicks . Hope you all are having loads of fun over the weekend .

Happy Birding ...

A Regal bird .....

A bird from the pheasant family .

Train of tail feathers adds to the grandeur .

All dressed in metallic blue-green colors with a fan shaped crest on its head ...The Peacock

Behind the stunningly beautiful plumage there lies a complex structure that changes color with the angle of incident light . In general the diversity in the birds feathers can be explained just by two factors pigments and simple structures in the feathers that interfere with the incident light.

This bird is celebrated in Indian and Greek mythology .The folklore associated with the  eyes in the tail of the peacock exists in Greek mythology. It is also known as'' bird with a hundred eyes''

A bird that is hard to miss....

Where the Tiger rules ....

From rejuvenating bird songs to exploring miles of  forests,tracking the pug marks of tigers to chasing deer in grasslands  ,smell of wet earth and the  intoxicating fragrance of Kamini flowers  in the wide expanses of grassland ....welcome to Jim Corbett national park .I have always seen tigers in zoos but when got an offer to visit a national park just grabbed this opportunity.This trip to Jim Corbett National Park  was rather unplanned but everything started falling in place .Quick trip to the foothills of the Himalayas in the month of march  ....The air was crisp in the evening and it was around 8pm when I stepped out of my cottage to grab  a bite after the  long drive .The moon was just a night from full and visibility was very good . That is when I noticed a family of wild boars in the close vicinity .

The stripes I managed to capture 

''Tiger spotting ''can be done by jeep or on the elephant back . We opted for the former as we were a group of six .Drove through the tall grasslands perfect camouflage for the big cat , saw herds of deer (commonly spotted ) ,dancing peacocks and also got glimpse of wild elephants from our speeding jeeps in the outskirts of the forests .The drive through the jungle was filled with lots of suspense and exictment . My ears were trying to pick up calls from the deer and monkeys that alert us about the'' jungle of the forest ''.

It was a very cloudy day .... as we entered the park sun rays had started filtering in .

Woodpecker knocking on the tree with full  gusto ....building its nest .

Enjoying the rainy day ....

Grriffon perched on the top of the tree trying to spot some breakfast .

Though I did not spot the tiger but was the least disappointed .....as very soon will be back in tiger country .
Though the numbers of the tigers are dwindling by the day but I still  wish....

''May there always be tigers .

In the jungle and tall grass.

May the tiger's roar be heard ,

May his thunder 

Be known in the land. ''

Written by Ruskin bond

Is it possible for us to develop a sense that this rich flora ,fauna and wildlife has been handed over to us by the primitive man .

Tiny gems of the Forests.....

Only twittering of  birds can pull me out the bed at 5.30 am in the cold morning .I'm obsessed with photographing small songbirds .They are generally  heard more than seen  . It is not a very easy task in the dense forest and thick foliage to spot these birds espically, when they are so busy playing hide and seek .Ok I'm talking about tiny song birds which can be spotted hopping from one branch to another to glean caterpillars and other insects .

Grey hooded warbler

is a species of leaf warbler .There are about 20 species of leaf warblers . They are most famous for the way it ''warbles ''.They are So Small and flit So much making it an impossible task to click these birds .

To click these birds you should have a ''never say die attitude '' quite evident from the video.

And then they grace you with one shot before taking off into the tangled vegetation .....

Will be back soon .Till then ..

Happy Birding  .

Birdie with a cap ......

Grey days have begun to disappear...

my spirits actually soared felt really vibrant and refreshed

 as if after a long hibernation .

So, I decided to pop in to say Hi!!!!

A birdie with a white crown representative of the Himalayan stream avifauna .Rest of the body parts are a glossy black and a chestnut orange .I spotted this bird on the rocks of river Ramganga dashing among the rocks or wading in shallow waters to catch its prey .

Will be back soon with more clicks ...

Happy Birding .