Just another post

No fresh shots or story to share so thought of sharing some unrelated old shots not covered earlier. that way I will be able to keep up with my usual post frequency in this lean period too..

Last year this time, I was only thinking of getting a macro lens and was reading reviews, looking at other's macro shots to understand both what macro world is actually and which lens is good. One subject I came across often (by non macro photographers, but I didn't realise it then) was a fly shot and looking at those photos I had promised myself that I will never take a fly shot if I get macro lens. However, to my surprise, I found that flies come in not so ugly forms too. I am not very confident of telling flies from bees always though.

 

Something else that I had found sometime back.

I wonder if someday I will be able to witness a snake shedding its skin or at least an insect coming out of its exoskeleton.. till now, best exoskeleton I saw with no hint of emergent insect anywhere was this.

When I had shifted here (to blogger), I had thought most of my posts would be just collection of not necessarily related photos. Now, I find writing this post difficult - for, I don't have any story to tell, its just some random shots and that too unconnected. Anyways, last of the unconnected dots is the tree below, actually its fruits. Haven't managed to find ID of the tree so far.

As I keep saying, I am unfortunately an urban person, who is fortunate enough to be near to nature at present. Now, I do find Babblers to Butterflies and Green Pigeon to spiders to talk to and also manage doing it quite effectively at times, my urban background still gives itself away very easily when it comes to flora. I think someone who has grown up with nature would have developed sense of caution and fear of eating unknown fruits. finding a new fruit, he/she wouldn't think of tasting it right away... but for me, I had to struggle hard to remind myself to be cautious when I saw this fruit. I saw some fruits fallen on ground and noticed the tree. Fruits appeared very attractive but weightless and hollow inside. and they indeed were almost weightless.. but not exactly hollow. they were filled with pink sponge like thing.

I was very tempted to taste one.. and I found one local person passing by who assured me that though people don't eat them, it was ok to eat one if I was curious enough. It was somewhat sour. . not bad actually. Not sure what exactly made me so interested in them but I thoroughly enjoyed finding this new and strange fruit and even taste it :-)

Asking for a Sun

After what looked like monsoon in extended winter's disguise, last month weather caught up with calendar, filling nearly month and a half lag in matter of few days. It meant that my reactions to Sun didn't go through usual transformations like - No Sun :-(  -  Wow, Sun!  -  ok, Sun.  -  Oh! Sun :-(  -  Sun? forget it, I have regained wisdom to stay in shadows instead of trying to blame Sun. 

No, this post is not about complaining about Sun rather, its time to witness euphoria with which nature is celebrating grand comeback of the fiery God. In last month, trees completed shedding their old leaves, mostly last few remaining but if some were holding to most of theirs, they had to really hurry, and that process covered the ground with dry leaves, walking on which I quite enjoy. Actually, ground covered with dry leaves also help to understand how much of world we perceive through ears - in most cases you don't need to look to know what species is walking outside your window and if its just passing by, searching for food or stopping for water or standing there wanting to get noticed. 

With Sun on its side, life doesn't waste even a moment. Trees starts renewing themselves with all new leaves or show off by briefly substituting flowers for leaves. insects start showing up again but even before you see them, you can tell they are there with thousands of spiders everywhere where none were seen before. One after the other, different coloured butterflies start filling the scene. 

Staying in shade, somewhat struggling to keep up with sudden 10-15 degree rise in shade temperature - now almost touching 40 degrees Celsius, as I look at the surrounding suddenly turned so vibrant, I try to think - which is better strategy? Become strong enough to carry on in all weathers like we do or make best of a niche climate and don't bother about existing (or existing in full force) in others. Sure there are advantages and drawbacks in both strategies, some I can imagine and there will be many others too - possibly a topic I can google some day in detail. at present, my personal preference however goes to latter. I prefer second option not for any scientific reasons but just because I like it more. life around us that chose the second approach has many strategies like migrating, overwintering or waiting in form of a seed when climate is adverse. I was however by now not exactly thinking about existence and activity of life forms in different seasons..

I have been spending much less time watching birds and bugs as lot of attention had been diverted to human world over past some time. However, now I have reached that point where I wish 16th May comes as soon as possible. Yes, I too have hopes and wishes for what I want from that day, but at the same time, when I wish we get what to me looks like we don't deserve, I don't sound too proud to myself. and, is it even possible to get what we don't deserve? Few days back, I was talking to a friend and this point comes up. I am offered help to come out of this not being able to proudly ask for a good government - "don't we become deserving if we vote for it? If we vote a good government in power, we deserve a good government. Right?" I disagreed with that argument very strongly but somehow failed to explain my reaction at that time.

It wasn't that difficult to see later why I didn't think that being intelligent enough to know which government is good and being clever enough to vote for it isn't enough to make one deserving. Don't we need to be non corrupt to deserve an honest government? Don't we have to stop refusing to maintain healthy lifestyle, stop being examples of shortcut seekers to next generation, stop asking for free lunches, be willing to work sincerely for what we get paid and pay taxes, not make our momentary conveniences most important deciding criteria for our activities and need to care about environment, pollution, rules and regulations etc etc, to deserve an honest, corruption free, efficient government that tries to provide excellent healthcare facilities, rich education, excellent law and order conditions, clean air and water and preserves biodiversity, natural heritage.. ? Can we opt to do none of these and still become deserving just by casting a clever vote? No, I am not undermining importance of Vote, my argument is, Vote is tool to exercise power, not create it. Power must be created first within the voters by they being what they want to see in government. Democracy is about getting representative government, isn't it? It is this point that doesn't allow me to be proud about my wish from 16th May. 

Not being very happy with Points faced while thinking about human world, my mind migrates to thinking about Nature again. Nature thankfully doesn't have ANY point. It appears to have patterns though. We see oscillations, cycles, cascading effects, phase transitions, and above all, what looks completely opposite to concept of patterns - Randomness everywhere. Vibrant life in front of my eyes was there because Sun was there, and, many of the Nature’s patterns had contributed in Sun being there. I never thought in terms of Sun being there because insects, plants, ..everyone rejoicing Sun's presence ‘deserved’ it. Also, while nature appears to love multiplications, it doesn't seem to like summations much. If I cant always talk about whole by summing its parts, specially for living things, should I look at society as purely sum of individuals? and even if I want some crude simplification as approximately equating society to Sum of individuals, shouldn't it be weighted Sum at least? weights changing with climate in which the society exists. Some individuals and ideas existing in full force and others overwintering at certain time and opposite being true for different climate. Can’t a strong, good and able government along with right cocktail of other factors including chance factor be like change of season or even a climate change to society akin to Sun in the sky for life on earth? 

And, good point is, with this way of looking at things, waiting for 16th May becomes a game of judging probabilities - if a whole cycle has completed or not, if its time for next oscillation or not or just waiting to see which random number turns up. No difficult psychology involved there - except that there will be a sense of happiness or otherwise. for, I do wish for a specific outcome. I want a Sun in my sky.

An adventurous and adamant butterfly

Have you experienced a mood like wanting to do something adventurous (and playful)? You probably can understand the butterfly here well then. I saw an Eggfly butterfly sitting. I wasn't holding a camera or for that matter there wasn't a shot too (it was a very worn out butterfly and sitting in cluttered setting), I anyway stopped and tried to see what kind of shot it would be if I use mobile camera. but before I do much, butterfly noticed me and flew in. yes, it did not fly away, it flew in. wanted to sit on my head, shoulder. I am not totally unfamiliar to butterflies wanting to do that and I make slight backing off movement indicating that I am not a very welcoming perch.

It however flew around me searching for another opportunity to land and even when it did go and sat on some plant, it launched itself in my direction every few seconds. and then, I gave up to its persistence and extended my hand in its direction saying, ok, come and sit. It actually turned midair and sat on my extended hand! I was quite surprised and reacting to my surprise it flew away but came back happily when I extended the offer again. It then sat proudly on my hand as first I stood still like a plant and then moved carefully to adjust orientation of hand to take a photo. after all, it knew it was on a moving animal so it was ok for me to move somewhat. It sat for few minutes, moved around on hand and after what I think it was enough time, we said goodbye to each other.

I feel butterflies have grown more friendly towards me even though I cant actually be sure about it – probably I wasn't spending enough time around them earlier? but that doesn't stop me from wondering if they indeed have become more friendly, what might be the reason? those probable reasons ranges from my movements becoming less hurried and more mindful of nature around, better connection with nature etc. I even thought about things like it wanting minerals from my skin to it being infected with some parasite that wanted to transfer itself on to me. (ok, it neither tried to probe skin and cant bite – but anyways, I didn't claim my guesses were educated or even sensible.)

and probably there was no deeper meaning to it other than that it wanted to spend few moments with someone and I came across. Probably it wanted to ride a human just for sake of doing something unusual?

No matter what was butterfly's reason, I still cant get over how it responded to my extended hand..

Are you looking?

Around a year back, as I got interested in small subjects, apart from excitement of seeing so many new things, I was also relieved that it saved me from inevitable void I must have faced had I stood outside my home holding a 400mm lens. After all, if you have been watching attentively two-three-four seasons passing by, its natural that surprises die down ultimately..  Indeed, I didn't see many interesting surprises suitable for 400mm as I spent most of last year holding 18-55mm, reversed. (well, those 'not many' sightings still total to 9 brand new species and some in-flight and other shots I quite like..) However two days back, like on those old days, I picked up 400mm.

I was scanning trees without having anything in mind what I am looking for. and.. was that a bright flash of red? What I saw was very high, very small, but there was no scope of doubt. then, I was caught in that sentiment I thought I had overcome to large extent. An almost guaranteed to be only sighting of some very attractive species makes me nervous. and, I usually end up with below average shots with almost shaky hands and nervous mind. ok, so I recognise that I am caught in non helping state of mind, but before I even react to that red bird, notice a flash of yellow, slightly nearer. I point the camera to yellow bird, it poses for me, and yes, as expected, I couldn't get the bird in focus. Long tailed Minivet female didn't give that nice pose again.

Pair stayed high above, difficult to get clear view, but still, I did get few shots, in focus at least :-). Not very far from hundred percent crops below cant be match for actually seeing that magical flame red, still, some shots below. It was simply amazing in real life.

Uncropped frames looked like below.

Female at times came few feet closer.

They appeared to be feeding mostly on large larva rather than catching flying insects.

After they were gone, I continued my bird watching and this Common Hawk Cuckoo came from behind and sat in front of me. It copies Shikra's look and is often feared by other birds like one.

Yesterday, I saw for the first time Shikra hovering high in the sky like Kites. Got some shots too. This season I think its first time I understood why its called Shikra. (from Shikari- the Hunter). 

So, I rarely saw 400mm shots in last year as I held macro lens in my hand and yet non everyday sightings were there with what looked like disproportionate probability when I walked out with 400mm. I remembered something from long back. I was around 11 or so. Don't remember how - if I heard someone or if that question was created by my mind, but most likely former, that the world exists only when you are looking. Probably its one of those thoughts/teaser that every child thinks about. I remember thinking about it and reaching to conclusion that 1) It may not be possible to prove that argument incorrect 2) I still 'knew' world existed even when I wasn't looking.
Switching between Macro and 400mm lenses have taught me something else. Existence of things may not be dependent on if I am looking at them, but even when things exist in front of me, to see them I need to be looking.

Mantises

Few months back I saw some red things - they were praying mantises it seemed. They would sit in curled up position and move only once light conditions are poor enough which meant for long I couldnt manage any shot. but still, watching them when they walked was very enjoyable - body length increasing by few folds and each step preceded by action that looked like he was punching air and preempting any danger. There were just too many of them around but all I could get was few average shots on couple of occasions as below. Second individual was kind enough to walk while light was still good.

Then with winter, insects were not seen as much and so above red or any other mantises. and after the winter break, first one that I managed to notice was this below individual. He sat on this flowers for days and days and days.. I was really surprised how long that flower stayed there!
In the background, there is a crab spider - you can see if you make great attempt at seeing it and then just believe me when I say its there. Mantis was standing with its back to the crab spider and only recently had noticed that someone else was sharing the flower. Here, Mantis is interrupting his attempt to ask crab spider what's his business here to pose for me.

Then one day, I notice that an ant on the yellow flower was actually a tiny mantis! I was very excited to finally find an ant mimicking mantis. so I took some shots.

I kept visiting that flowers for next few days and while I didn't notice any change in that Mantis (nor I was expecting any change), when I started uploading shots for this post, notice that it had changed, probably grew bigger too. Wikipedia told me that my ant mimicking mantis was actually a mantis nymph that was mimicking ant only while it was small. 

yes, I felt very uneducated, but seriously, for someone who really is as uneducated like me, it was probably ok to misjudge. See the next image how it looked when you looked at flower with your eyes, not macro lens.

Don't know what these are called, but probably they would grow to become something like below ones. I had encountered them last summer/monsoon.

I am still new to insect world and sure there are many strange ones around, but in what I have seen so far, I find mantises one of the more interesting looking. Specifically, how their bodies are folded and how they predictably stay at same place for days together. Few others below. I had shared them at previously but listing them out again to make this post as a complete collections of all Mantises I have found so far.

With Nature, if you make a generic statement, next thing you find is, retracting yourself. Happens with me at least. Below types were actually hyperactive. let alone finding them at one place for days, it was almost impossible to judge where you should try to focus as it ran with fantastic speed.

and not too many folds here. Unless, its something else altogether. This was very big. I have a full shot too but preferred this as other has white/yellow wall in background.

This post turns out mostly a photo listing one and I think another of same kind may follow soon. It probably is appearing unbalanced, but I guess amount of text in previous post was enough to counter at least ten photo-only posts :-)

A 'Good' bye

It was past mid December and winter cold was due but still almost absent. yet, Sun was surely enjoyable if not most wanted thing. As I stood at one of my favourite spots, enjoying Sun and looking for birds, heard some movement behind leaves on a nearby tree. I point camera and see this.

I thought it was hiding from me and that I should back off few steps to leave it alone - after all, my attention must be nuisance for it. but before I start looking for birds again, it made an unexpected move. Instead of hiding, it moved up, in clear sight, at eye level and then stayed there. probably I was wrong that it was hiding from me. probably it didn't even notice me or factored my presence while moving..

Now that it was there in clear sight, in good light, not afraid of me, I thought I can take a shot or two. Surprisingly it allowed me very close without any reaction.

I took few shots but there was that feeling of missing something. I had come across them at few times before and barring one previous experience when I was ignored, I was almost always told that my company wasn't very appreciated. Why this individual was so kind to me then? Anyhow, as I started moving away, saw a crow sitting only few feet above on tree from where the lizard, which was enjoying Sun could be easy target. Crow flew away as I looked at him. So, was that the missing explanation? Did lizard bet that it was likely that crow would avoid me and I was manageable risk compared to value of Sunshine? I don't know but as I walked off, did make a point to tell the lizard that I am now off and she could be more vigilant against the crow.

As usual, it was again a case where I could neither ask nor prove by any means if my speculation was right or not but it reminded me of similar experience, that time more human friendly subject, a young squirrel coming down to a branch very close to me to feed and using me as shield against a large group of rosy starling. I had shared it earlier, but don't mind repeating same shot again here.

ok, the point I want to stress here is not so much how other species turn us in asset if and when they can - all my feathered friends - everyday babblers, mynas, doves, crows.. that live around home and recruit me for tasks of giving some food to them, ensuring they have water to drink and to bath and that those things are shared in equitable manner etc etc with so much ease that idea of other species interacting with/adjusting theit behaviour due to humans doesn't sound special enough to talk about. but then, those individuals know me. they have learned to interact with me over a longer period of time, sometime with first step taken by me, sometime by observing other birds and joining the bandwagon. but in cases of lizard and squirrel, there was no personal touch. it was a purely their tactical decision to make best of few minutes of altered risk profile of environment. It was presence of mind that I find worth admiring.

Talking about presence of mind, again, as such I have been often left impressed or even outsmarted by individuals of many species- more often those experiences were with bigger animals - Dog/Cow/Monkey.. A recent experience I am sharing below is however somewhat different. its not with one of those bigger species who often deal with humans and neither its only about display of intelligence.

Some two weeks back, around 11 AM, after first ignoring and then paying attention to some activity, I see a Shikra was sitting on ground holding... a very big yellow fruit??. ok, i knew I didn't understand what I was seeing and go near the Shikra, Shikra flies off. A yellow footed green pigeon is sitting on the ground now. He didn't try to fly off even as I stood next to it nor did he resist when I picked it up, took inside and put it in a way that I thought it will feel secure. Pigeon was injured yet appeared in good shape. but he was very scared. He was also fully water socked due to rain that had continued for most of previous night.

I thought best thing to do for initial some time was to leave it alone to calm down. I put some water and some puffed rice in front of him and leave him alone. He sat there, facing wall with eyes closed. Once or so I tried to encourage it to drink some water only to find it pushing itself towards wall not looking in my direction at all. When I left it alone, it appeared to be sleeping so didn't disturb it much except for cleaning the droppings and sprinkling some turmeric powder around where it was injured.

After some 3 hours he was still facing wall, sleeping and had shown no interest in even water. He still appeared somewhat scared, but I think he had got used to me talking to him by then. I remember then what I should have done much before. check what do they eat. with hindsight now it sounds stupid not to do it before but somehow I didn't imagine a pigeon not eating puffed rice. plus, reason behind offering it wasn't as much to feed it rather, it was to make it comfortable by signaling that 'look, I am offering food to you, I am your friend'. Anyhow, I now offer a piece of orange and back off again. Still facing the wall, he looks at the orange piece from the corner of his eyes. There is a sudden change of expression - he appears surprised, pleasantly surprised. He looks at the orange, looks at me, looks at orange, and sits there but with his head no longer tucked in or trying to stay near the wall and his eyes are now not only wide open, appears fully awake and active. after another 60 seconds or so, he was facing me, not the wall. He still wouldn't eat or drink.

After few minutes, he tries to fly but strange little enclosed place in which we humans live beats him completely. He flies into wall, kind of panics but finally manages to perch at height of few feet with a pipe to hold on. that was a set back to his moral - he went back to his facing wall posture. but a real boost to my moral, not only his eyes, legs and general health was okay, wings were largely unhurt too. and so far as reigniting the sense of trust, hint of which I had seen just few mins back, it had happened once, so I was confident we will be able to establish communication once more too. Offering banana fails, Guava fails, water too has no impact either as before. Confidence however is good thing and I know what to do next. I open the window (it has mosquito net so pigeon is still protected from outside threats), invite my daily friends babblers outside window. As they excitedly feed on Roti making a lot of happy noise, Pigeon has no option but to take notice. He turns his back to wall again and I knew it wont choose to face the wall after this.

Then, routine sets in like this. I go to him with each of the fruits and water one by one, hold it in front of his beak, he shows non interest. I persist. he turns his head 15 degrees to the left, 15 degrees to the right, left, right.. with moderate to fast speed, also opens and closes his beak sometimes. I still don't back off and continue to talk requesting to eat or drink. he turns his head, tucks in on his back, closes eyes and ignores me completely. I finally give up - for next hour or two.

Next morning. Pigeon still haven't had even a drop of water, or eat anything. I decide to move him to a small room leading to front door. He didn't want me to hold it but accepted my fingers as perch more readily. I wondered what he must be thinking as he crossed home sitting on my hand, looking at it with tourist like interest. Could it be thinking that these land-confined creatures are strange, impossible to understand and quite stupid, but probably not as bad as their reputation goes? Anyways, we reach desired destination and I want it to sit there. He doesn't want to leave my hand and responds to my attempts of reclaiming my hand by climbing sideways on to my arm, pushing its body to upper arm. Anyways, I somehow persuade him to sit there, repeat my babbler trick, this time they come inside from the front door, spend a minute with Pigeon, even think if they should consider fruit platter in front of Pigeon their own, but leave without doing so in the end. Front door is open, Pigeon however doesn't show any interest in following babblers to the world under open sky.

He doesn't show any interest in fruits or water too. I was worried now. ok, not wasting energy in digestion and using it for recovery may be a right choice and I trusted his decision with respect to his recovery more than my wish that he eats something, but not even a drop of water? was that ok? he was looking better and better in last 22 hours, but still. As the last attempt, I find trees with ripe figs, yellow footed green pigeon's favourite food, bring two varieties of them (trees were actually very near) and add to the fruit platter. He doesn't eat them either. just calmly sits there looking outside window.

At almost same time when Shikra caught him 24 hours before, it suddenly becomes restless. He wants to go out. Immediately. attempts going out through window, but there is mosquito net. Main door is closed and after running to the wall, ceiling, he settles above the main door. I open the door, offer him my hand to shift to. He doesn't refuse. I lower the hand and he is facing open world now. but doesn't fly away at first opportunity. I walk few steps and now we are out in the open. I tell the Pigeon that I would love to see him flying off to his world but its up to him to take a call. if he isn't yet confident, there is no compulsion to go. He can stay back as long as he wishes. and then wait for his decision. He looks up, surveys trees around, looks at me for a long, calm, unhurried moment, and, takes off. Selects the same Neem tree from which he had fallen.

Story telling is difficult from this point onward. Its not easy to describe that happiness of seeing him flying combined with a sudden realisation that the only thing that occupied mind till previous moment has left for its own world. With some difficulty I located it inside similar coloured leaves. and remembered - a photo? Yes, I had not taken a single shot of him so far. so rush to pick up camera and take below shot.

I notice in this shot what I might not have noticed otherwise. sharp edged claws. No wonder his each step on my arm had left 3 inches long scratches that had swollen instantly.

He was sitting there alone on tree, I stood below. He stayed there for almost five ten minutes and took off again. He gains height, crosses me overhead, I watch extremely nervously, is he flying fine?, oh he is not aiming for next tree, continues his flight and lands on a leafless tall tree far off. I couldn't believe what I saw. He had joined a group of his kind! He was neither vulnerable nor alone any more.

He was no more than small dot far away but I point my lens to him for one last time anyway. I would have found even a picture where I knew one dot was my Pigeon a valuable one and the shot I got was this..

As rest of the group sat on that tree facing featureless sky, my pigeon had turned its head and was looking back. with chocked voice I tried to speak 'Don't worry about me, I will be fine'.

What makes you happy?

Few days back, I came across this article that says, “... ordinary experiences become increasingly associated with happiness as people get older...”. Not taking any position on what it said, I anyway asked myself which experiences made me most happy. I immediately recollected something.  Some two years back, I woke up at around 2 - 3 AM with some unexplained noises outside. Probably I woke up from somewhat deeper sleep and brain wasn’t fully functional for few moments - it had not yet made sense of source of sounds and quickly decided to invoke fear - a good amount of it. I walk to the window and glance outside to find out source of sounds and.. state of my mind changed INSTANTLY. It felt like definition of beauty to the eyes and wonderful tranquility and happiness to the mind. brain swings into action in a moment or two later asking - what is that I am looking at? Right under the tree few feet away, those were two beautiful Antelopes. I knew I shouldn't be seeing them if it was not a dream. few more moments and my brain finally caught up with the reality. Antelopes they were, but not of the size I thought a moment ago. They were near infant age twins of largest Asian antelope - Nilgai and they were those four big, innocent eyes that replaced fear and anxiety with peace and happiness in my mind. for the impact it generated, I would anytime argue it was an extra-ordinary experience, but looking at it objectively, sighting of a Nilgai may not be regarded as that extra-ordinary. So, if what the article said was right, I am getting older, or probably I was born older? Wouldn't I have been equally happy seeing them some twenty years ago too?

Anyways, recently I again had a chance to be in beautiful surroundings that had somewhat similar effect. Standing between bright yellow of mustard flowers, looking at water reflecting yellows and greens and mixed flock of birds adding more life.. All these almost as non pre-planned, unexpected as seeing those Nilgai youngs. As I stood there, I wouldn’t have objected if time stopped and didn’t realise if it was flowing or not. Some shots below, I hope they convey some of the beauty out there.