Summer Archives: એક ડાળના પંખી 2/2

It was not, as never is, about best frames and perfect pictures. Uncommon behaviours, interactions between them, sometime factoring in your presence were the moments where photo quality becomes secondary.

Treepie - who, usually tries to take nearly all benefits that species which are much less shy of humans take, given a chance, will stay away from humans. i.e. they wont increase proximity / ignore humans if doing so doesn't come with matching reward.

One day, a treepie comes, sits on the perch in front of camera and goes to sleep. It was evident that for whatever reasons, it was unable to stay awake and even when disturbed (by crows - but who were however restrained by me sitting only few feet away.), it quickly faded back to sleep. At first, I thought it was strange that she chose a place as near as possible to human presence to come and sleep (when usually she wouldn't sit there for long for no reason even in alert mode), but later thought it was probably using me as a shield against those annoying crows who wouldn't let her sleep at all otherwise.

Extra ordinary heat takes extra ordinary resources to survive and sleep is a wonderful way to save resources. Some took nap voluntarily, others who tried staying active still dozed off anyways.

ok, in above, it was probably enjoying water with closed eyes but on another occasion - one of its kind sighting - when it suffered a major major yawing attack. for nearly 20-25 mins it kept on repeating this every one min or so..

btw, dynamic elevation of your status due to your utility as a shield against another species is what I have experienced many times now. yet, you admire their strategy and execution efficiency every-time a new specie does it. The parrots wouldn't come and drink water if I was visible behind the window but when crows became bigger problem, I was suddenly a plus rather than a risk. She walked with amazing confidence even as the crow looked on - somewhat baffled by parrot's confidence and somewhat aware that its source was my presence - so conscious of my displeasure if he stopped the parrot, crow just couldn't react. Parrot came, drank and left without a problem.

If there was something most rewarding between all of these, it was.. incomparable joy of getting those ugly little ones making an appearance and before you even realise, they transforming themselves from so very vulnerable looking infants to smart, confident youngsters.

Above barbet baby, when came was unimaginably little - first shots are only after two three days of its arrival as it was very shy initially. it grew up slowly and was at the center of attention for days. There were other babies too.. babler, koel, oriole, crow, some came as soon as they left the nest, some were already on their own when I first saw them.

Let me end story of this summer with an episode, as short duration as an hour and few mins, yet, its intensity was such that if I compare weight of that hour with whole of rest of summer, that hour may still win easily.
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Growing up

We know that growth and learning are rarely linear process when viewed hour by hour. but still, witnessing the rapid learning can be a special experience. I heard this fledgling's voice and spotted it after a while. After few seconds of observation, I was feeling extremely miserable. the fledgling appeared very weak or even sick even unable to control his body to steadiness and constantly calling, clueless about what he should be doing and helpless as his heartless father sat next to him motionless even as so very vulnerable baby kept looking at him for help. He didn't even give encouraging look to him. After an eternity, the head shaking slowed, his calls become less frequent and after few more minutes, he stopped looking at his father only and started to explore. a non confident step and then somewhat confident. Curiosity and alertness started appearing with better control of his body. and after a gap of 15 mins when I tried to locate him, he was sitting at a branch a bit far and as I watched, flew and landed on a perch in front of camera with fluency as if he had done it a dozen times before.

All this time, that is if I believe timestamps on the captures was one hour and five minutes, the father sat there almost motionless, looking perfectly calm and I am sure determined to attack and defeat any danger that may come to the baby.


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He kept coming for few days, usually sat in front of the window. I even tried to teach him some words - to which he showed absolutely no interest, leaving me very very annoyed.

Summer Archives: એક ડાળના પંખી

Getting some more shots to blogger from flickr which is no longer used. This set of shots are taken in those 46 days of summer of 2012 which were one of its kind - once in a lifetime experience. The worst summer I experienced - each passing moment felt like a battle to stay alive and yet, what it will be remembered for are those countless wonderful moments lived right in the middle of that battlefield. Some of those moments below.

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એક ડાળના પંખી - 1 - Indian Grey Hornbill

May 15: Monsoon is still far away and ever worsening heat, ever reducing time and distance window in which one can venture out to watch birds and, visiting species having long left, all these may sound like coming days are worst for the birding. However, I find this the best time to watch them. World outside the window gets completely transformed. a dozen or two species showing no signs of any suffering from the heat keep the scene busy throughout the day. lots of them also call same piece of land home as I do and some others visit regularly for water or simply to enjoy their favourite perches. and best part is, they are no longer individual birds or pairs, they all melt as an integrated family with continuous interaction with others. a birdwatcher would not realise how hours flyby watching them. They however dont present best photo opportunities with all the activity happening under same few trees, under cluttered and shadowed setting and no unobstructed view for the camera in most cases. Despite these, I hope to capture a series presenting world outside the window this North Indian summer. and this upload is first in the series. This hornbill has been coming for an afternoon nap here for last couple of days but when it came today, there was a squirrel at his preferred place. he perched on lower branch and kept looking at the squirrel for more than 15 minutes. Even the squirrel seem to have understood his lack of confidence and after giving a glancing look, closed his eyes again. Hornbill left in the end. I must say it was an incredibly polite Hornbill. P.S. literal translation of the heading which is in Gujarati is 'Birds of the same branch'. I would like to have a more commonly understood heading in English but dont have one right now. and first language offered one more readily.

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Okay, in complete contrast to what I had thought while taking above first shot of the series, not withstanding 'poor' photo conditions, I managed to get quite good/clear views of them and some decent shots.

and btw, our hornbill did get to enjoy a nap at his preferred perch on other days.

I managed to see some of them, always around but never on ground, coming up for water. and some even got equally interested in me as I was in them :-).

After a few days I had managed to tie a small fallen branch piece just above the water. Result was, my friends loved it (that was nearest perch to the water) and it gave me some nice frames they sitting straight in front of my camera barely 10 ft away. I even had to use the least used feature of my lens - that of zooming out. say, below two shots are just at ~200 mm.

Rest in Next post..

Its Summer again

Summer is the season that has scored most in context of bird watching joy for me. Year after year, it is the harsh North Indian summer which outshines both the winter when you get to see many visiting birds and the spring where wonderful weather combines with lots of colours and breeding activities (okay.. spring is equally or even more interesting but you need to be looking then). It is the season when birds come to you and you don't have option not to notice, and, you don't have option of doing anything else anyway once the heat starts.

This Oriole was enjoying beautiful view of water and didn't fly away even as I stood right in the front and took shots.

The Owlet below however was not content with enjoying view of the water. Showing no respect for the human standing few feet away, it sat in there for quite some time.

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Blogger feed behaves in unpredictable ways when you do anything but simply publish new post. I knew strange things happen if you go and add/remove label in old post, but seems rolling back a published post also triggers unpredictable behaviour. If you are wondering why you received email for some random old post - that's because I rolled back my 'away note' (I was anyway back and that too cutting short the visit - review of which may follow some day if I manage to write.).