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..
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