Monthly Archives: April 2023
India! Rhesus Macaque
Rhesus Macaque: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Probably the most common, and certainly the most often seen, of India’s primates, the Rhesus Macaque likes to live around humans. You find them at temples, at railway and bus stations, city parks, along busy village streets, mixing with the dogs, cattle, and motorbikes…anywhere they might get a handout. They are not, at least to my eye, very cute…and they can be quite aggressive. You do not want to be bitten by one. Large family groups, or troops of mixed matrilineal families are common. This is a male, though perhaps not a mature one, sitting on the boundary wall of Keoladeo National Park. The Rhesus has the largest range of any primate except humans…across India, China, and all of southeast Asia. For better or worse, it has been used extensively in medical research, especially in the development of vaccines and viral treatments. (Maybe “better” for us, maybe not so great for the Rhesus.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 640 and 1000 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1 EV (left over from adjacent bird shots).
India! Coppersmith Barbet
Coppersmith Barbet: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — The Coopersmith Barbet was certainly one of the Indian Birds on my list to see and photograph. This small, colorful, Barbet is relatively common, but worth looking at whenever you see one. This one was in low vegetation because it had a nest hole in a nearby snag. 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. Plus 1.7EV.
India! Indian Grey Hornbill
Indian Grey Hornbill: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, india, March 2023 — While India is home to 10 species of Hornbills, most of them much more colorful, the only common and widespread one is the Grey…and certainly the only one in Rajasthan is the Grey. We saw them quite often on our travels…generally high in a tree. They certainly live up to their name…they are Indian, they are hornbills (though some other hornbills have more elaborate horns), and they are grey…grey, grey, grey…with just a hint of brown in the wings in certain light. On a grey morning in Keoladeo, they are certainly very grey. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 160 and 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Close up and right profile plus 1.7EV.
Costa Rica! Talamanca Hummingbird
Talamanca Hummingbird: Batsu Gardens, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — The Talamanca Hummingbird used to be the Magnificant Hummingbird with a range from South-East Arizona to Panama…but they split it a few years ago now, into the Rivoli’s and Talamanca…with the birds of Costa Rica and Panama being the Talamancas. It is one of the larger hummingbirds and certainly can dominate the higher elevations of the mountains. It is also one of the most colorful…and in my experience, one of the most likely to flash it gorget and cap. There are always good numbers of them around Batsu Gardens, on the mountainside above Savegre Mountain Resort. Always a treat to see and to photograph. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Keoladeo National Park: Greater Coucal
Greater Coucal: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Birding Keoladeo National Park is a unique experience. Pedal Rickshaws pick you up from your hotel (if your hotel is close enough to the park entrance, and most are) and you spend the day in and out of the rickshaw as you penetrate deep into the park along the dyke roads. You might get out and hike back on roads and trails where the rickshaws can’t go, but they are always there waiting to take you the next location when you get back to the “main” road. The drivers do this every day, year round, and enough of their customers are birders so that they know the English names of all the birds (though they may speak very little English beyond that), and have developed sharp eyes for spotting, and good instincts for positioning the rickshaw for the best views, often without even getting out. Luxurious birding indeed…if only the rickshaw was not always trying to shake your bones apart. 🙂 Still we covered much more of the park than we ever could have on foot…and motorized traffic is forbidden in much of the park. This is one of the first birds we encountered, just inside the main park gates, still in the dry area of the park. The Greater Coucal is, of course, reminiscent of the Coucals of Africa, but it is “greater” in every way. It is huge! And it is loud. Its calls carry across the dry scrubland like a horn. And it is relatively common so we did see several of them in our three days at Bharatpur (and elsewhere in our journeys). A shot to set the scene taken with the Sony A5100 and the ultra wide combo lens…and then the Coucal with the Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Sarus Cranes again!
Sarus Cranes: On the road from Saltanpur to Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — Of course, not long after we saw our first Sarus Cranes in the distance from the roadside, our guide had the bus pull over at the edge of a small village almost to Bharatpur and took us off on as field road to the second and third fields in, where, unseen from the road, a large group of Sarus Cranes was feeding. There were 13 birds…obviously from several families (perhaps the adult children of a single pair and their colts) all feeding together at the end of a long field. Others have said, when I posted my first image from the this set, while still in India, that this many Sarus Cranes in a group is a rare site. It turns out that this group has been fostered by our guide and the local farmers. The guide pays the farmers a small fee to leave the Cranes alone and to leave a bit of extra folder in the fields where they feed. (It is quite possible that the famers would do this without being paid…but the guide relies on this group of Cranes for his photography tours, and is willing to make sure they are protected. Besides it is just a good thing to do. 🙂 We were able to approach within a couple of hundred feet…taking our hats off before we tried, as, for some reason, western style hats alarm the birds. ?? Anyway, we were there just as the light of the day was fading…with just enough light for photography. Quite an experience…but it certainly spoiled us for the distant shots of Cranes we would get at Bharatpur and Chambal. Sony Rx10iv at 320 and 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
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.
Costa Rica! Scintillant Hummingbird
Scintillant Hummingbird: Batsu Gardens, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — I have known Marino, the son of one of the original brothers who settled the Savegre Valley, for several years. He was our guide at Savegre the on our vary first trip, when just I an one other couple extended our trip for a visit to the mountains, and I have seen him there every trip since. He met my daughter on one of those trips and never fails to ask after her. We bumped into him while looking for Quetzals on the road above Trogon Lodge on our first morning in the valley, and he said he would see us at Batsu later in the week. Sure enough he had arranged to be our guide (though Batsu belongs to his son), driving us up the gardens and spending the whole afternoon with us. Marino is one of those people who is never happier than when showing folks birds and when he was not chasing down hummers for us in the larger gardens, he was setting up flower feeders where we could sit comfortably and watch hummers come and go. It was one of my best afternoons ever at Batsu, and that is saying quite a lot! This male Scintillant Hummer was one he chased down in the rain. We took turns following him out to its perch for photographs, doing our best to keep our gear dry. The Scintillant is one of two small hummers endemic to the high volcanos and the Talamanca Mountains of Costa Rica and Panama. The other is the Volcano, but in the Talamancas at least, the Volcano has a bright purple gorget. When their gorgets are not lit, or with female birds, they are very difficult to tell apart. Sony Rx10iv at 580mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ 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.