A Kitchen with a View

To Scratch is a fundamental right!

I am lucky to have a kitchen with a view, where I spot quite a few rarely-seen birds in the mornings! Among the most unique photographs are those of a Barbet bird enjoying its early morning scratch! Its closed eyes suggest a great sense of relief, a pleasure in scratching itself! There have been times when I cleared the slab of all the accoutrements and sat on it photographing some of the unique birds that frequent the huge tree right next to my flat in Palam Vihar, Gurgaon. However, spotting a Honey-buzzard can be understandingly amazing, trust me!

A Crested Honey Buzzard looks Terrific!

For a self-acclaimed wildlife photographer, it is a joy to be able to photograph birds that are rarely seen. To spot a raptor, or even a Crested honey buzzard provides great happiness and satisfaction. Green Pigeons are frugivores and they feast on fruits that grow on trees. To spot a single Green Pigeon is amazing to spot a pair can be most rewarding! Green Pigeons are frugivores and they feed on fruits. 

A Pair of Green Pigeons warm up in the sun.

 

A Raptor, or a Shikra is a hunter; spotting it is a joy that speaks volumes! In the early times, Shikras were used to capture small rodents to be fed to the larger falcons.

A Shikra scans the sky for food.

Sometimes, it seems like nature has its own way, and when one looks at birds, one learns a lesson for life: Everything connects, in small ways and big ways! I would like to share a few more photographs that I could take from my kitchen window! The Green pigeons look so great. They afforded me some time to photograph them.

Barbets are amongst the most attractive birds I have photographed. To spot one, that too from one's kitchen window is so satisfying! The bird would have wanted a better image of it rather than one in which it is scratching itself. Thus I have shared a photograph that flatters its amazing beauty.

A Barbet Bird in all its colours

A Barbet and a Roller Bird share a tree!

Yesterday when I once again visited the Sultanpur National Park it was to spot a Barbet and a Roller Bird sharing the same tree although different branches! I had at first thought that the Barbet was a Bee-eater, but then when I zoomed in, I realised that it was a Barbet!

I was also able to capture a fight taking place between two Egrets, possibly over nesting rights! I was barely able to turn around to capture the fight, it happened so fast and then it was over in the blink of an eye!

Of the Sarus Crane Pair, well they were definitely there, however, I did spot what appeared to be a solitary Sarus Crane a little way off in the dried up scrub. I did hear someone say that there are no less than twenty Sarus Cranes in the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary though I doubt this to be true.

One of my favourite snaps of the day is the one above, Cranes, Antelope and an Egret foraging for food. This inter-species tolerance of each other is a lesson for all of us! 

The solitary Sarus Crane was a bit elusive though we were able to follow it into the brush. Hidden behind the scrub, the Crane kept glancing towards us. We advanced each time it poked its head into the underbrush.

During this visit, I was also able to spot a Shikra and a White-throated Kingfisher enter into a verbal fight and then settle on the same branch quietly looking into the water for a possible breakfast. I didn't bother too much about the Kingfisher as I have already seen it so many times!

The Shikra was difficult to spot in the branches, but then I had to play with the settings to get an acceptable exposure!

Shikra spotted perched on a transmission line in the middle of Gurugram

It is rarely that you see a Shikra and definitely not in the middle of the city! You would be more likely to see a Shikra on the outskirts of the city, out in the open fields farms and forests. The sighting of the Shikra surprising though it might be, could be a sign about the impact of development and population explosion on the environment. Wildlife, birds and animals are being forced to move to the cities in search of food. 

While the sparrows have disappeared from the middle of the city, they can be still found in the outskirts of Gurugram, especially sector 57 and sector 62. Their place conveniently has been taken up by the thousands of pigeons that perch on the power lines. Strangely enough, the sparrows have been replaced by Tailor-birds, Kingfishers birds and now Shikras. This, in itself, could be as a result of the shortage of insects and grains for the sparrows. The arrival of the Shikras and Kites could be as a result of the presence of rodents.

All of these birds are forest or wetland dwellers and to see them in the middle of a bustling city is certainly surprising. Shikras are hunters and they can be seen diving for rodents and frogs. The Kingfisher too is a hunter that hunts if not fishes for fish. They probably can't find fish in the middle of the city, so they have probably switched to eating insects and small rodents instead of fish. The Shikra too must have been drawn to the cities in search of small rodents. The only other possibility is even more frightening, however! The increasing piles of garbage in the city could also have enticed these forest dwellers to easy food. If they are drawn to the garbage then there can be only one conclusion- these magnificent hunters have turned scavengers!