Mostly Indian Birds

This is my first field testing of my 600mm F4 lens.  After 6 years of using my 300mm f2.8 I am trying to get used to this monster 😉

What could be a better place to try out the same than a morning trip to Ameenpur lake. I was told Flamingos were flocking in dozens. Though to our disappointment the lake was full to its brim and there were no flamingos.

 We started the morning with a common kingfisher




Ameenpur is the best place to shoot a kingfisher as the reeds are the same height as your tripod. In comparison this was my earlier Common Kingfisher shot from Ameenpur with my 300mm F2.8 couple of years back. Leave it for you to decide which one is better 😊



 Next saw a common coot walk on water..




A greenish warbler



A purple sunbird female









A little cormorant....




and a Grey heron in light


...and in the morning mist



A few more from the Gandipet lake area.

Green Bee-eater




snugged together in a wintry morning

While staying at the Club Mahindra resorts, Munnar for a family vacation during Oct we did some birding in and around the property. The location was among tea gardens and had a lovely view





Most of the birding was during morning walks. The first one was an Indian Yellow Tit just outside of our balcony




A while later a Vernal hanging parrot dropping it's food... oops !!


The first lifer was a Hill Swallow ( Hirundo (tahitica) Domicola) again similar to the Pacific swallow found only in the Nilgiri belt and Sri Lanka




A juvenile Blue rock thrush female ( ID To be confirmed)




and another lifer, the Nilgiri Flowerpecker!! It is now treated as a separate species than Plain flower pecker






While we went for a day long trip to Chinnar wildlife sanctuary the timing as well as the availability of wildlife was a disappointment. We just spotted a wild elephant and a  Grey-backed shrike.



Good to see a few lifers. Not an exhaustive birding trip though I understand that Munnar has good potential.

Here is a sneak peek of some of the bird pictures from different regions of India. Usually these are shot during my vacations and occasionally some birding tours.



If you are keen to see more interesting birds from different regions read more and click on the posts below.

Happy viewing and do write your comments !!

A Malabar Trogon and Brahminy Kites from Goa 






A little spider hunter from Goa.




This is a shot of Streaked Spider hunter from my trip to Eaglenest



A green tailed sunbird from my trip to Eaglenest



A vernal hanging parrot from my trip to Coorg and Ooty 




Not exactly a bird but a Nilgai against the mist in Bharatpur



Himalayan Bulbul at Sat Taal, Uttarakhand.




Oriental white eye, available across India. This one is from Dehradun, Uttarakhand.


Baya weavers shot near Hyderabad



A Common Kestrel (juv) near a lake in Hyderabad



Fire tailed sun bird shot at Pangot, Uttarakhand.




Ruby throated bulbul shot at Goa

A short family vacation in Kalimpong, West Bengal in May, 2016. A few captures from the trip

Common green magpie ( though not very common !!)




Short billed minivet




Grey Bush Chat



Blue-capped Rock Thrush


Can somebody remove this leaf? ( Greater yellownape)





Common green magpie

It was on my bucket list for a while to visit Eaglenest Wildlife sanctuary. Eaglenest is a stretch of abandoned road that connects Tenga valley in the north and Telamara in the south. This is in the western part of Arunachal pradesh and is known for some of the rare species that are endemic to the region.



Finally I could manage some time to visit in March,2016 with Toehold Photography. Thanks a lot to Sachin Rai and Santosh Saligram  of Toehold cortsey whom we we had a wonderful week.

The place is one of the most pristine jungles that I have ever visited with trees which I am sure would be 300 years old. Just to give you sense of the forest



We started our birding after crossing Bhalukpong. The first one to greet us was a Streaked spider hunter. What a start with a lifer !!



This was followed by a Blue throated barbet



Black bulbuls and Hodgson's redstart ( female)







Near the Army cantonment at Tenga valley we saw some brown dippers frolicking in a river.




We reached Eaglenest sanctuar…

After almost a year long hiatus, I was back with some birding action over the new year holidays.

First, I was very excited to try this new lens , the Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 . My initial thinking was that this will be a lighter and more versatile version instead of my Nikkor 300mm f2.8 which usually required convertors and tripods.

All the images below are captured with the Nikkor 200-500mm. To test the lens,  I went to the Gandipet lake area in Hyderabad.




To our disappointment the lake has receded significantly as Hyderabad did not receive much rains this year. The year before last, we saw Flamingoes and gulls here. None of them were around. We saw some Black drongos, Common Hoopoe, Swift and Paddy field pippit.



There were tall grass/ reeds growing on the lake bed and we saw a lot of Zitting Cisticolas doing their amazing movements up in the air.






With not much action, we aborted our visit and got this parting shot of a Juvenile Common Kestrel.




Coorg:
We went to southern part of the Kod…