Monday 28 November 2016

PokemanGo - the birder's way of the game...

It was about six months ago that we were sitting spending some family time with my wife and my two kids. Suddenly my son - half immersed in his mobile went out of the room only to return after fifteen odd minutes. His return was with a smile on his face and mobile in his hand. He spoke to his sister in hushed but excited tones. She too showed signs of great excitement and my casual enquiry to it was dismissed by both of them simultaneously replying - brother-sister talk - out of your syllabi. My raised eyebrows were not even acknowledged by either and I thought it was the end of the matter.
My target bird vs PokemonGo dragons...

My children's target Pokemon
A few days later one night after dinner once again as we were sitting chatting - my brother and his kids too in our house. Once again I saw the same hushed talk and excited look in all of the kids eyes. Suddenly my daughter asked for my car keys. Well she is an adult so as to say and owns a drivers licence so I just handed over the keys with a question - where too ? It's almost midnight - once again a simultaneous reply was - we will be back soon by all four kids. To hell with it I thought and let it slip. They returned after about an hour and were jumping up and down as if they have achieved something of great significance - my reaction was that of a father and an uncle - guys you are grounded if I do not understand why and where you went now. They did not skip a heartbeat and all were jumping around me and shouting all at the same time. They have captured 'Charizard' - and as expected I had no idea what they are talking about. After the party ended - before dropping down dead in bed I did some research. Well PokemanGo was a virtual reality game where in characters appear on random places overlaid on google like maps and you have to go and capture the virtual characters. 

Bloody - like hell I realised I have done that my entire life... scanning bird reports, web logs to see what bird has been sighted where and then rush to take snaps and log the sightings. Well there was a basic difference between my child and myself in the same game we were playing with different names. I hit bed early - rise early and am in the womb of nature savouring the fresh air, appreciating nature and God's creation. That led me to be more responsible towards mother nature and sometimes am ashamed when I am given more than one napkin in a restaurant that I have to throw in the dustbin without using, or forgetting to tell the retail that I do not want a copy of the credit card slip - lest I throw it in the dustbin without even glancing at it. Birding has taught me to respect nature, be careful in wasting resources - be it paper, gas, or anything else. I do not litter the country side and carry my own waste bag to dispose off the garbage I create while out of house. Then ofcourse - there is this one little thing more about the difference between my kids game and mine - I have struck with it for better of 25 odd years nurturing it - my kids have already moved on after playing this game for a month.

I am sure that there will be things we can do to coax our kids towards nature and respecting nature. I wonder what will happen to this world with kids who have no exposure to nature and are living lives with no connect with their surroundings. After all it will will be they who inherit this planet and take decisions to protect it for their siblings and generations to come. I wonder if we are doing all we can to pass on the batton to our kids and telling them that winnings are not in a virtual world with PokemanGo but the very world we live and inherit.

And here's the game I played...

Slept at 9 pm sharp. Got up at 3 am, brushed my teeth, took a shower had a cup of tea and hit the road.



Sighted this wonderful sight with a breath of fresh air and blessings of orange lit morning sky...

you can run - but cannot hide - Lesser Yellownape

Would not have let this fiery dragon of the pokemon go scot free...
White-capped Redstart
Greeted the Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker that started to peck for the Breakfast

Heard the Rusty-cheeked Scimitar Babbler calling a hundred yards away - tracked it down and bagged it...
Caught a Common Tailorbird that was calling another kilometre away...
...another two km down the road captured these Chestnut-eared Buntings resting and sitting hidden beneath a bush...
...captured this pokemon dragon that had kept an eye on my movements from the top of the hill another 5 km ahead...
Asian-Barred Owlet
Caught another pokemon flirting with me - coming in sight and out another few km down the road...
Finally reached home from in the evening from a very satisfying game - took a bath and sipped on my favourite Single malt,,, satisfied and tired like hell...

Saturday 19 November 2016

The joy of Birding...

It has been slow birding for me. Birding and blogging in last few weeks have been minimal due to many reasons and one of the most hard-hitting was - my son ran away with my trusted laptop. Umm - ran away may not be technically correct as he did ask for it and I had some very ulterior reasons for handing over that to him. Well - I had a trusted 2012 model MacBook pro and have been addicted to apple. Now with the new MacBook pro around the corner - and him asking for my laptop gave me a certified reason to upgrade. What I did not anticipate was the one month delay between handing over the device to him and me getting my dream machine.

Other than that - I did do four birding days in Oct and the winter birds that I was so badly looking forward to had not arrived and I was getting mad with every passing day. Well today when I woke up to chilly morning - I had a feeling that I am going to have a rocking day - and rocking day it turned out to be...

The sunrise was 6:53, the travel time to Chakki Modh (one of my favourite birding spots near my city) was about an hour. I was up at 4:45 am and hit the road at 5:30. The chill was great, I rolled down the car windows and took a long whiff of the north Indian chilly winter morning, - the traffic lights were still blinking yellow and sun was yet to light up the horizon. I was hitting the hills when orange started filling in the sky. At sunrise was standing at the closed tea shop and the movement of the birds were as ecstatic as I was trying to look and identify the warblers flirting with me and the thick bushes. I identified two of them, the Grey-hooded Warbler and the Sulpher-bellied Warbler before I saw another two varieties but had to give up as they were hardly giving me sightings to click a picture for ID or for me to notice the markings on the wings in the detail I wanted.

The light still not too great - but I ramped up the auto iso to 6400 on my Nikon D500. I had started getting some very acceptable shots at 3200 iso so decided to test it at higher. Well I ramped it up in a manner that the camera will go up only if the conditions so deserve. As I picked up the camera and put it to my eyes - there were three birds a Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher, a Red-billed Leiothrix and Indian Tit (renamed Cinereous Tit). I was in a fix, I did not have a worthwhile picture of the flycatcher, but the Leiothrix and the Tit were on a perch too good the miss. I quickly focused on the Lieothrix and let go - swung the camera to shoot the other two - the Flycatcher was upset and disappeared in the thicket never to be seen again and the Tit too flew off and was nowhere as great a setting that I hoped for. All the same no regrets, this is the way with the birds. You only get what you deserve, nothing less, nothing more. I moved on to get great sightings of the warblers and decided to move on. The plan was simple - keep the windows rolled down and hit the brakes hard if I see or hear anything. I was virtually hitting brakes every few yards.

Eventually, I reached a small stream littered with great Indian past-time of mucking up the countryside. Before I could curse anyone a White-capped Redstart sat in front of me. I parked the car and stared at the beauty. It is one bird that I have seen so very often but cannot help but admire the beauty. Finally when I did pick up the camera to capture it - it decided to fly off - but not before a record shot. As I lowered the camera a Plumbeous Water Redstart took its place on the same perch. It did not give me time to reach out once again for the camera - I was determined and followed it along the stream where it gave up and posed for me to my heart's content.

I went another 5 km and evey yard was a bird to admire. Spotted Forktail that gave me great opportunity to really observe the forks and the spots, the Whiskered Yuhina, the Fuvolous Woodpecker pair that was playing with each other that sounded like a tap-dance, the Striated Prinia that was deep in bush but surprisingly when I whistled it came to the top branch to investigate. Oh I really can go on and on with this story telling but had to sadly turn back home and 11 was my time I had set for myself. 5min to 11 I reversed the car on the narrow road that once almost gave me a heart attack when a tyre went off road and the car sensor was shouting on top its voice to behave myself...

I sighted 37 species that I identified and another two warblers I will hunt on my next visit. Oh - the Birding and Indian winters - God's gift to birders...

The first click of the day - Red-billed Leiothrix @3200 iso
Grey-hooded Warbler
...the unidentified warbler
Great Barbet
Grey Bushchat
White-capped Redstart... 
Plumbeous Water Redstart
Russet Sparrow

Verditer Flycatcher
The tap dancing Fulvous Woodpecker

White-throated Fantail
Striated Prinia that responded to my whistle... what a dope
Finally on top of the view point to investigate my whistle
Spotted Forktail that showed its spots and the forked tail... what a sight...