Another morning with the Orange headed Thrush

Light I was so happy about lasted only a day after previous post and even if fog was expected, I certainly didnt expect it as much as one sees only towards end of December. World suddenly became small and whatever visible, was also mostly seen as outlines. This illustration mode of black headed gull captures how much you could see in that fog. 

Unlike last year, this year they arrived on time. were here by mid Nov I think. This year however, so far I haven't managed to walk up to Ganga and so along with other river birds, haven't taken their photos so far this season.

Fog was too early indeed and didnt manage to last long. Light returned in some two three days with bonus of cleaner air. I returned to watch the Orange headed thrush and as I sat on the ground, knew that I will have nice time. The spot actually belongs to an Indian Robin family. Its their favourite spot to feed when they are around and now they were back. So I guessed there will be some not very friendly interaction with smaller long time owners of territory and new, larger, temporary visitor. Indeed there were signs of dissatisfaction but it was not permanent vs temporary criteria but large vs small that had upper hand. The Thrush ran after Robins on couple of occasions only to push them few feet away for a while, on the other hand Robins expoited their better comfort level with me to feed nearer to me than the Thrush could. All in all it was very enjoyable session of sitting on the ground till of course leg and back muscles raised their voice louder than brain's capacity to ignore them that they were not happy with twisted position to accommodate camera at ground level to track three happy individuals.

A tailor bird too joined briefly.

At far end, there was some movement and see this Francolins checking out who was sitting at other end.

and, some shots of the Orange headed Thrush for whom I was there. they are no different from last time but who says you cant indulge in repeating similar shots on a blog once in a while.

Lots of light but not many subjects

This year, most of migrants who come here for winter are either hard to find or not there at all, but sightings of passing migrants fortunately has not been that bad. While I was shooting butterflies in previous post, had come across a group of energetic Minivets. Some 6-8 of them I think and many of them Juvs probably. There were there for some 10-15 minutes.

Highlight of this November I think was not presence of any species or any shots taken rather it was absence of them, specially insects - as it was this month that got me interested in insects in first place. This year however I noticed almost nothing. towards the last days of the month, not having taken any insect shot appeared too odd to me and I thought I must find something even if as a token. Found this nice looking moth and a grasshopper. Nothing much about grasshopper except that I find its eyes interesting - looks like watermelon design.

Back to migrating birds, I am seeing one off examples for last two three years where I see an isolated individual for a day or so (passing migrant) and next year see it spending lager part of the season here. This year I think spotted thrush was the first such example. Now, a second thrush species has joined. Had seen a single individual of Orange headed thrush stopping over for one morning some two/three years back. and now, one individual is here to spend full or part of winter. I am quite surprised to see that its not much shy.

One thing however that is both puzzling and frustrating is that it somehow evades giving sharp shot. After blaming my photo taking skills, low light, its tendency to keep moving etc etc, now I am starting to suspect something to do with nature of its feathers. I intend to catch it in those sunlit spots few times to see if its really me or its feathers that comes in way of a crisp shot. Absence of other attractions may give me enough time to spend on this individual too.

if light situation in above doesnt look too bad, here is the context why I complain of low light. in above shots. I underexposed the thrush in all shots in shade at ISO 1600, f5.6, 1/160s whereas I somewhat overexposed this Ashy prinia shot standing at same spot at ISO 400, f8, 1/640s.

So, light is at its best right now. I hope to get some birds too while the light lasts as fog may start setting in anytime now.

Butterflies in flight

I should be trying for better shots but for now, some results out of attempts so far. Almost all of below shots are sharpened quite harshly and in third shot have removed a flower just left of the butterfly.

Scaly thrush and more

Scaly thrush is one of those birds that you are always thrilled to sight. Stays on the ground, under dense bushes and loves to stay hidden. I had seen it here once two years back – had assumed it was on her way back to summer home. This season, a week ago as I was walking by around where I had seen it previously, something took off from ground and gone in a fraction of second. I was sure it was a Scaly thrush. Was it here on its way to South or was here for the winter? In few days I got the answer. Same place, I was careful this time and stopped as soon as heard the thrush walking on the ground. It watched me for a while from inside those plants that hid it nicely, and then flew off. landed on a tree not far, on a branch at eye level. (tree was at lower height then ground I was standing on). too good to be true? Well, I wasn't carrying right equipment. Here is a crop from what I got using smaller cam. (it was on Aperture priority and I clicked without noticing what shutter speed cam had selected. I was surprised that I got at least one shot steady enough at 50x zoom at shutter speed of 1/50.) 

After above shot, I thought ‘How lucky to get it on a tree in clear sight’. While indeed for a bird that spends almost all its time on ground and hiding I was lucky to see it on the tree, what stuck me as odd fact that it was my third photograph of the bird so far and in all three it was on a tree. I remembered term for this that I had learned more than 15 years ago in context of performance measurement of portfolios - its called Survivorship bias.

Some couple of hundred meters from where I saw the thrush, is a spot that was favourite get-together place for many birds last week (they seemed to have moved elsewhere this week), mostly resident and some local migrants (i.e. those who are technically resident but appear during some season and disappear in other). Essence of being there can be best captured by capturing sound, which I haven't done so far. for now, a black hooded Oriole Juv there while it was playing with other Oriole.

Another day. I saw below flycatcher at low and clear perch. Now, I was supposed to take as good picture as possible, as fast as possible. and flycatcher was supposed to notice me and fly off. but, for the reasons I did not try to understand, my camera kept refusing to focus on the bird - probably it was underexposed or bird was too small to focus on but whatever it was, I stubbornly refused to apply mind and kept pressing shutter hoping I will get a shot. (for the fear that bird will fly off by the time I correct settings / move closer.) the bird too refused to play its part well and gave me unreasonably long time to shoot. In the end, however, being anxious about getting result, doing same thing and expecting different result policies didn't work and I was left with this below shot losing excellent opportunity. - I think I am falling back in that trap of getting anxious seeing a shot I want where probability doesn't favour me getting it. for the first time last year I had managed to get out of this trick mind plays with me and stay calm and enjoy what I see no matter how rare the shot may appear. I had managed to stop wanting to grab it. It had, as expected increased success rate, but more than that, feeling of winning over mind's trick was more enjoyable. I guess, this flycatcher reminds me that less time I am spending with nature in last few months is not a development in right direction.

Lastly, an encounter with this inquisitive butterfly. It was flying with what looked like intention to reach some flowers, suddenly notices the other butterfly on ground, alters its flight path in typical 3 dimensional unpredictable zigzag pattern to move near the butterfly on the ground, with two three dips it appeared to have understood what it wanted to and was back on its way. 

I was watching the episode and to me the butterfly on the ground appeared dead - and therefore the other one more of a concerned individual rather than just a curious creature. I thought to keep dead butterfly away from this walking path so someone doesn't step on it / cause stress to other butterflies around. I took a step towards it and it flew away :-)

Managed to get a shot of above because I was already trying for some in-flight butterfly shots. no good shots so far, but flying butterflies appear most interesting subjects right now. hope will get a post with them soon.

More migrants

Of all passing migrants I get to see every year, most reliable are chestnut headed bee eaters. They show up both on their way south and back. This time it was a nice group of some 10+. Although smog has started showing up, these energetic bee eaters encouraged me for some shots.

Meanwhile, the Black Redstart I could not capture a week ago again came and Posed for me.

Back at the Human world, it was Diwali this week. I am not good at celebrating festivals, so all I did was to light up diya.

btw, Diwali is the last day of our year and New year starts next day. (Its a lunisolar calendar where months are lunar-Synodic and year is Sidereal.).

I wish Happy New Year to friends here or, as we greet traditionally, Saal Mubarak.