Monday 30 September 2013

My Struggles to win attention of owlets

There was a pair in a tree I passed by and they made so much noise for so long that I had to walk back. but then, seeing me, one of them flew away and this individual was left kind of confused. All it understood was to move away from where it was (it flew from a well hidden position inside leaves and perched on here) and try to locate the reason why other flew away. Now, I am standing below focusing on him, expecting him to turn his head towards camera and he is searching in all the directions including in the sky except where I was. after thoroughly searching all other directions, at last, it looked in my direction.

Spotted Owlet (Athene brama)
Above owlet however, was still making an effort and therefore not very disappointing given my even worse track record with Owlets. for example, below individual had made it quite difficult to take a shot. He had seen me coming and had already gave a glance to find me utterly non interesting subject. Now, I was standing below him, positioning myself carefully between two dogs so as not to disturb their sleep, keeping him in the frame and he kept looking away from the camera. After some waiting, I finally whispered to him, 'pls give a look'. he didn't listen but a dog made a movement to make me feel guilty of disturbing him. so I had to wait until the Owlet looked at the camera on its own. btw, after taking the shot and moving on, I noticed he was too close and I hadn't zoomed out so he was too tight in the frame. for below shot, had to repeat the whole waiting process.

At other times, they give pose where I feel like clarifying that it wasn't due to boredom of my company but the heat why it was yawning.


Actually first two shots apart, I usually find being ignored quite flattering. It says that I am accepted and trusted as non harming part of their environment. Like in the below one. He is sitting on a small sweet-neem tree (curry tree), hardly 5 ft above the ground on this branch, and trying to find some prey on ground below. only, the ground is perfectly clean. there isn't anything at all, leave alone possible pray. After exhausting all possible directions only, he spared some attention for me.





Thursday 26 September 2013

Black-hooded Oriole

Today morning on a walk, I hear bulbuls happily playing and making noises as usual. I slow down to pass more silently without disturbing them much. and as look up to check if any other bird was hitchhiking with bulbuls, see a flash of bright yellow. Have seen Golden oriole pair spend their mornings chasing each other energetically there before, but this wasn't one. to my surprise, it was a black hooded immature. They are not seen here year around but only few days a year as they pass by in some local migration like movement, so wasn't expecting to see one. It was an extremely lovely Juv (ok, as all the Juvs in the world are). He did see me, but it didnt occur to him that he should be wary of the most dangerous species on the planet and continued his playful movements on the branches in his very endearing style. Makes a perfect morning. isnt it?

Black-hooded Oriole (Oriolus xanthornus)































Wednesday 18 September 2013

Damselfly

Damselflies are showing up again! ok, so far have found them only in very low light (and with lots of mosquitoes. Each attempt at taking their shot costs some half a dozen mosquito bites at least), but I hope to catch them soon in better light.

For now, here is a shot with pose I wanted for some time.




Tuesday 17 September 2013

Ant mimicking spiders and Ants

As I already posted on my previous post Spiders, I had seen an ant mimicking spider not much after acquiring macro range. First sighting was simple one in the sense that the spider I saw was mimicking one of the most abundant type of ants around. Few days later however I saw another different looking ant mimicking spider and wondered why it is trying to look like so weird looking ant (I had never seen any such ant whom that spider was apparently mimicking). Soon after, I also found an Ant that looked like the second spider. Or, I should say, ant that spider was mimicking.



In hindsight, I find my reaction 'why is it mimicking so weird ant' appears so unintelligent! If there is someone mimicking an ant, the ant must (most likely) be there and I should have thought, 'I am yet to see kind of ant it mimics'. A good observer sees what is in front of his/her eyes and also what it (probably) implies. Lot of room for improvement in my observations..

Saturday 14 September 2013

Common Sailor pair dance

Post Paradise flycatcher sighting I have restarted my morning walks with camera. While birds are nowhere yet as expected, butterflies have started showing up in good numbers. Yesterday among them, I noticed a common sailor, sailing. No, there were two. Initially I thought one was chasing away the other but after a while it become apparent that they were dancing around each other. Pair oscillated in all three directions as well with respect to each other with typical butterfly flight pattern and soon I realised there was no point in hoping for a photo while they were in flight. I kept watching them expecting to take a shot once they stopped and perched somewhere. but they went on and on and on and on... and somewhere down the line, I forgot that I wanted to take a shot and just started enjoying the live performance of two involved dancers for whom nothing other than dancing with his/her partner mattered. 

As I was walking away after some 10-15 mins of watching the show, I realised what separated an enjoyable experience from a frustrating one. What I had just found so enjoyable could have been really frustrating with just one difference. If my focus was getting a Shot. but with the 'Want' removed, it was all just fun.

While I enjoyed the performance, though I no longer was focused on wanting the shot, did press shutter while keeping the camera pre-focused somewhere in the range they oscillated. and I actually got them in half a dozon frames (out of some 100+ shots). with two best shots as below. I am quite pleased with the second one. 

Common Sailor (Neptis hylas)
Common Sailor (Neptis hylas)

Today morning, I thought the Common sailor was a yesterday story. but to my surprise, as I reach same place, the pair is still dancing. Did they dance all the day? or was it this particular time of the day? Anyhow, I noticed an obvious thing. their co-ordination had improved drastically. their movement was much more smooth and graceful around each other. I dont know why (if there is a why in first place) they worked towards achieving that perfection, but I would guess they enjoyed it.

Below is a small video. first eight seconds is yesterday's dance, later its today's. quality of the video is absolutely bad. frame, focus, small size/quality to keep file size small (around 700kb) but i think it gives fair idea of pair's movement.



Before I end, this small moth that is commonly seen. Dont know its ID.

Thursday 12 September 2013

Tawny Coster and Common Jay

Seeing this beautiful butterfly for the first time for last few days. Much scope to improve on photographs as such, so hope I continue to see them around. Its much smaller than most butterflies.

Tawny Coster (Acraea terpsicore)


























Tawny Coster (Acraea terpsicore)


























In complete contrast to above, Common Jay below is neither seen first time, nor as beautiful. Its seen frequently but it keeps flying and doesn't feed on those decorative flowers. it seem to prefer feeding on bushes at some height and I never manage a shot, leave alone good shot. here is the first shot, and now that I got first one, hopefully better will follow.

Common Jay (Graphium doson)

Tuesday 3 September 2013

Leafhoppers, Weevils

I started encountering these tiny bugs as I started my macro experiments but they are very near to smallest subjects I can photograph with my photography technique - only natural light, always handheld and I usually dont show much patience, be it a bird or a bug. so didn't manage a usable shot for long. (ok, once I did get a white nymph with two bright red parasitic bugs on it, each one nearly 20 percent or more of the size of host. I initially thought the nymph must be dead but it started moving after few minutes. I managed few shots, not good picture quality but knew that it was a rare sighting. I however deleted the captures as it was very painful to see the shots.)

I finally managed to take a shot of below individual and then looked up on Google for ID. These are called leafhoppers and guess what, like every new type of insect I find these days, there are some few thousand of species of them. btw, the creature somewhat looks like a fish, isnt it? Actually, I would guess your answer is it doesnt look like a fish. for, no one seem to think it does. As I tried to search for ID, had no clue how to find it and thinking that many others would have thought it looks like a fish, asked google about a tiny insect that looks like a fish - with no luck. Disappointed and clueless, after a while remembered google has image search too. (and wondered why I dont use it more often). and.. as I upload a tight crop of below shot, google came up with 'similar looking photos'. All the results were of fish :-(.

One in the second shot is a nymph of leafhopper I think.


Leafhopper


Leafhopper Nymph


























Talking about small subjects, I find I enjoy shooting weevils. Dont see them in abundance but when find one, it usually poses well.