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.

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.

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.