Posts in Category: India
Our first Sarus Cranes
Sarus Crane: along the road from Saltanpur to Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Obviously, one of the primary “target” birds for our trip to India was the endangered Sarus Crane. The Sarus is the tallest of the flying birds today, standing over 5 feet tall, and among the largest of the Crane family, with a wingspan of over 90 inches. It is also considered by many in India to be sacred…is often not only tolerated, but encoutraged and protected by local farmers when they build nests in rice paddies and adjacent wetlands, and is often seen as a symbol for marital fidelity (young couples are sometimes taken to see Sarus Cranes as part of the courtship). The story is that they mate for life, and the surviving partner when one dies, often morns to point of starving. They certainly live in and maintain family groups, each with its own territory. There are maybe 10,000 Sarus Cranes left in the wild, most of them in India, with the remainder in Southeast Asia and Australia. The Cranes have made somewhat of a comeback in India, following the Green Revolution, when irrigation canals were built and new lands put under rice cultivation, but they are still on the endangered list. Conventional wisdom is that today there are only 2.5 to 10% of number Sarus Cranes that inhabited India in the 1850s. So, we were excited to see this family….dad, mom, and this year’s colt…on a dike in the flooded fields from our road-birding stop…and I was blessed to catch this moment of display. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Road birding….
Wooley-necked Stork, Red-naped Ibis, Pheasant-tailed Jacana, Black-winged Stilt, Glossy-Ibis: Along the road from Saltanpur to Bharatpur. Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Classic road birding. The kind birders love and photographers hate. I mean, the birds are all a mile away…poor views even in binoculars, sometimes at the far reach for a scope…and way beyond hope for a decent photo…the Indian traffic with blarring horns is zipping by inches from your back, and boys on motorbikes (well young men…what is it with these groups of young men on motorbikes in India, three or four to a bike, who apparently have nothing to do but zip around roads and stare at tourists?) gathering to stare, And I suppose we were a spectacle huddled there against the guard rails in the questionable shelter of our bus with our binoculars and cameras up looking out across the flooded fields. Personally I was not sorting shore birds at the far edge…I was looking for closer birds and things I might not see again to photograph. The Wooley-necked Stork (our first sighting), Glossy Ibis, and Black-winged Stilt, we would encounter many times again in our travels (and much closer), but these are my only shots of Pheasant-tailed Jacana and Red-naped Ibis. That is often the way it goes with road-side birding. And we made it safely back into the bus and continued our journey to Bharatpur. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. ISO as needed, f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Red-breasted Flycatcher
Red-breasted Flycatcher: Saltanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — I spent way too much time chasing this common little flycatcher of India, found pretty much everywhere south of the mountains, through the heavy brush where it likes to skulk, trying for a clear shot. This will have to do. It is a perky little active bird, and males past the second year mostly have the distinctive redish breast. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Green Bee-eater
Green Bee-eater: Saltanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — The most common bee-eater we saw in Rajasthan was by far the Green Bee-eater. They were pretty much everywhere there were standing trees, even in the hedgerows between cultivated fields. Bee-eaters are ever active birds…never still a moment…even when perched, and with their attractive blends of greens and blues (and occasional reds) they are stand-out photographic subjects. I came back with way too many photos of Green Bee-eaters. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Oriental Honey Buzzard?
Oriental Honey Buzzard (?): Saltanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — We saw way more raptors than I somehow expected in India…most were way far and soaring, but we did see a significant number perched closer. This one on one of the small islands in the marsh at Saltanpur. Someday I will develop a method of associating the ids our guides are making with the photos I am taking that works better than my memory…someday…but I did not have one in place for this trip. Merlin says this is an Oriental Honey Buzzard, but it also gives several other choices, and I can not honestly remember what the guide said. If anyone can say more definitely I would appreciate it. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/1000th.
India! Spotted Owlet
Spotted Owlet: Saltanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — I was surprised to find this little Spotted Owlet sitting right out in plain sight a few yards in from the busy trail at Saltanpur, but the Spotted Owlet was to become one of the constant themes of the trip. We found them just about everywhere in Rajasthan we had a chance to look for them. This one was near a nest box provided for its convenience, but as cavity nesters they are common wherever there are mature trees. And their diurnal habits and apparent lack of any fear of man at all make them easy to see. In hindsight, we probably could have seen a lot more of them, if we had taken the time to look. It got so it was “just another Spotted Owlet”…and that should not be, as it is certainly an engaging little bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Peacock
Indian Peafowl: Saltanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — I grew up in eastern up-state New York, on a rural farm, with Peacocks. My grandfather, who was maybe a bit odd in many ways, but a wonderful man, kept, as a hobby, “fancy birds”, for no particular reason other than he liked them. He had a pair of Peafowl, and about 50 Guineefowl, a barn full of fancy bantam roosters and hens, ducks, and a huge bully goose that ruled the barnyard. (I still have scars, emotional if not physical, from that goose.) A Peacock in full display was then a common sight in my youth. I have since been places where escaped birds frequent the rooftops, but, of course, there is no where quite like India for Peafowl. It is the Indian Peafowl after all. In Rajasthan at least, they are everywhere. And since they seem to like to live in close proximity to humans, and they are so large, and so gaudy, they are seen everywhere too. This male was in full display in a broken lot off the circuit trail at Saltanpur. Pretty impressive. Even more impressive, I suppose, if I had not grown up with them. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Grey Heron and Great Egret with lots of ducks and others at Saltanpur
Grey Heron, Great Egret: Saltanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Despite being often shrouded in the mirk of greater Delhi, the wetlands at Saltanpur are a vital resource for ducks, waterfowl, waders and other water birds, and home to a large herd of Nilgai antelope. I am always amazed at the resilience of nature. In this one image you can see three large waders, Black-necked Stilt, Painted Crane, Swamp-hen, and at least a few species of ducks. And the back end of a Nilgai. I had to work on it to draw the content out of the haze, but it certainly demonstrates how rich an area Saltanpur is for birds. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Indian Pond Heron
Indian Pond Heron: Sultanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — This was not the first, but my first good shot, of what seems, in hindsight, like at least 30,000 Indian Pond Herons we saw in Rajasthan. The Indian Pond Heron is very like the Squacco Heron of Africa and a few places on the Iberian Peninsula. The white wings in flight are very distinctive. Turns out they are a very common bird in India! Sony Rx10iv at 591mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Purple Sunbird
Purple Sunbird: Sultanpur National Park, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — When I visit Africa one of my favorite groups of birds to collect is sunbirds…so bright and so present, and so many kinds. There appear to be almost as many different kinds in India, but only a few have wide distribution, and only one of those is in Rajasthan where we spent our time…and, in fact, the second most common sunbird in India looks almost identical, in the males, to the Purple. So Purple it is for Indian Sunbirds. We did see them frequently. This was our first encounter, and closest, at Sultanpur National Park. We have here a male and a female. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. Male: ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Female: ISO 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.