Visit to MORNI / TIKKAR TAAL 22 Dec 14

Mondays trip to morni - Rima Dhillon, Self, Jasbir Randhawa,

7am to 5pm (phew... a marathon birding session)

Report by Mrs Rima Dhillon.

7 am on Monday saw us headed out to morni in cold and fog. However soon after we passed berwala the mist cleared away and we were greeted by troops of monkeys and watery sunshine-better than none at all.

Between three stops for tea and sandwiches, cookies and my ever popular mathis we were able to sight 63 species though we could only hear the Great barbet and the Grey francolin.

The shutterbugs got some great pictures including those of the Asian barred owlets which were sighted thrice at different locations. Himalayan bulbul, red-vented bulbuls and grey-breasted prinia (in non breeding plumage) were seen in abundance, the sky was quite bereft of any raptors-just a few griffons searching for thermals in the far distance.

This trip we decided to give a miss to the Badi Sher area and instead go all the way to Tikkar Taal. It was a good decision as we came upon a pair of Black storks in the lake. Braving the aggressive bull in the field near the lake we tried to get closer to the storks for better fotos but alas jasbir was quickly tagged by them and they took flight.

The return to Chandigarh was via a different route.Just before the fork that bifurcates towards Badisher, there is another road leading down to chandimandir- it is marked by a number of teastalls under a huge banyan tree. Earlier this road was not motorable but now it is properly metalled and much shorter. It is about 14 km to the kalka-zirakpur highway and comes out 200 yards ahead of the toll plaza-the only drawback as you end up paying at the toll plaza!!

We discovered that Haryana tourism has an eco tourism setup with huts etc for staying and nice lawns at Thapla just 5km from the highway.

It was a marathon day as we got home at 5pm but well worth it. (List of Birds is after the photographs)

Rufous Sibia

White Browed Fantail

Black-throated Accentor

Asian Barred Owlet

Common GreenShank

Black Strok

Grey-hooded Warbler

Long Tailed Minivet

Russet Sparrow

White-browed Wagtail

1. Blue whistling thrush
2. Hoopoe
3. Indian silverbill
4. Oriental white-eye
5.  Common sandpiper
6. Grey wagtail
7. White wagtail
8. Laughing dove
9. Rufous treepie
10.  Himalayan bulbul
11.  Redvented bulbul
12. Black drongo
13.  Ashy drongo
14.  Grey bushchat
15.  Jungler babbler
16. Black-chinned babbler
17. Indian roller
18. Black redstart
19. Brown rockchat
20.  Indian peafowl
21. Ashy prinia
22.  Grey-breasted prinia
23.  Himalayan griffon
24. Yellow-breasted greenfinch
25. Black-throated accentor
26. Siberian chiffchaff
27. Streaked laughingthrush
28.  Asian barred owlet
29. Large-billed crow
30. Common myna
31. Great cormorant
32. Common greenshank
33. White-browed wagtail
34. Greater coucal
35. Rose-ringed parakeet
36. Little grebe
37. Common pochard
38. White-breasted waterhen
39. Black stork
40. Little cormorant
41. Little egret
42. Blue rock pigeon
43. Lesser whitethroat
44. Humes leaf warbler
45. Long-tailed minivet
46. Grey-fronted pygmy woodpecker
47. Fulvous breasted woodpecker
48. Rock bunting
49. White-capped bunting
50. Bar-tailed treecreeper
51. Rusty-cheeked scimitar babbler
52. Crested bunting
53. Rufous sibia
54. White throated fantail
55. White-browed fantail
56. Pond heron
57. Rosy pipit
58. Verditer blue flycatcher
59. House sparrow
60. Russet sparrow
61. Grey-hooded warbler
62. Red wattled lapwing
63. Black bulbul
64. Great barbet (heard)
65. Grey francolin (heard)
66. Lark (unidentified)

Canon 7D Mark II - a sincere review...

Let me put my this article in perspective by giving it a little bit perspective. I am a birder, a hobbyist at that but a serious one. I do not mind kicking the road whenever I can spare some time and be out photographing them. I am not a commercial photographer in the sense that I have not sold a picture - not that I have not tried. 

There were two reasons that I bought this camera. First was - I followed the rumours since last year that a new crop sensor upgrade to Canon 7D was on its way. I did buy a stop gap camera, Canon 70D and was quite sure about it that the purchase is stop gap only. Then I followed all the reviews that I could get my hands on and was convinced that this camera is for me and would be my companion for some time to come. Since I purchased one of those Tony Northrup's books - I was following him what he had to say for the camera. Well then the camera fell in my hands.

Now the question - is is worth it ?

Let me give a run up of the good part first. It is a good camera to feel in your hands, a solid one to be precise. The picture quality on the look of it is same as 70D but ramp up the ISO a bit and then there is the discernable difference. The much talked about Auto Focus is GOOD as in GOOD - it does have a wow factor - for the first time I got some pictures of flying birds those were acceptable. Not very good perhaps but then far better that I got with the previous cameras I held. The 10 FPS is again a WOW, the firing up does not create noise that I have seen in the older cameras and I did feel that the vibrations produced by shutter firing is far less. That should show in pictures and I might be able to fire up without IS perhaps.

There is no negatives per se - but then there are steps taken backwards. WiFi is one that I missed the first day, the touch screen that I came to like in 70 D is another. That I feel is what I will miss the most perhaps. Though I did like the GPS - I noticed that it remains on even with  the camera switched off - the GPS keeps blinking. There was also a noticeable additional drain in the battery. It also took more time to get a GPS lock than that I expected. I did click quite a few pictures with GPS turned on and am still exploring what more I can achieve with GPS turned on. The location by the way displays seamlessly in Lightroom I use.

Should anyone else upgrade - Well a personal choice per se, I would have and have - because I was waiting for this upgrade for more than a year (when the definite rumours had surfaced regarding 7D upgrade) and was sure that 70D is just a fill-up. 
Well that's that...

Two pictures of flying birds taken today (02 Nov 14) for all. Both pictures are cropped, No reduction of noise etc in Post processing.

Short-eared owl, Mohali, India

Black Shouldered Kite, Mohali, India

I intend to keep adding pictures for some time to come so that you can get better impressions as and when I click them.

Birding in Chakki Modh 24 Dec 13.

I went for a Bird Photography walk to Chakki Modh. I was introduced to the place by Mrs Rima Dhillon and have been a fairly regular visitor there. With the winters on us a lot of birds that are otherwise in the higher reaches of Himalayas come down to the lower hills and this place gives some wonderful opportunities to see them and photograph them. 

Well the plan was simple - get up in the morning and drive down to the place (30 - 45 min drive from Chandigarh). 

The day started well - even before I turned on to the road where we usually start birding - we saw a family of Khalij Pheasant (2 Males and one female) crossing the road. I stopped the car and struggled to take out my camera - it gave one of the lessons that I have refused to learn in the past - be prepared at all times with camera - opportunity does not follow your planning. By the time I shot a poorly composed shot out of the front the birds had already run away leaving me with tears in my eyes for the lost opportunity.

 

I then turned on to our birding road and were rewarded by White-Crested Laughing Thrush and Red Billed Leiothrix. The sun was still not up so the pictures were no go. All the same the on our way back we stopped again and could get some descent pictures of the Leiothrix - sadly the White-Crested Thrushes were not there.

All in all the place just does not stop to amaze with the variety and the beauty of mother nature. For the birders it is a dream come true.

The list of birds that I saw is as given under, there are a lot of variety that I did not recognise - I have a few pictures of them as well that I will list separately.

1.   Ashy Prinia

2.   Blue Fronted Redstart

3.   Black Bulbul

4.   Black Throated Tit

5.   Red Junglefowl

6.   Chestnut Bellied Nuthatch

7.   Common Myna

8.   Common Tailorbird

9.   Crimson Sunbird

10.  Great Tit

11.  Blue Fronted Redstart

12.  Grey Treepie

13.  Himalayan Bulbul

14.  House Sparrow

15.   Indian Robin

16.   Jungle Babbler

17.   Khalij Pheasant

18.   Large Billed Crow

19.   Oriental Magpie Robin

20.   Pied Bushchat

21.   Red Billed Blue Magpie

22.   Red Billed Leiothrix

23.   Himalayan Bluetail

24.   Red Vented Bulbul

25.   Rufous Bellied Woodpecker

26.   Rufous Chinned Laughingthrush

27.   Rufous Treepie

28.   Russet Sparrow

29.   Streaked Laughingthrush

30.   White Capped Water Redstart

31.   White Crested Laughingthrush

32.   Common Hoopoe

33.   XX____XX Bunting

34.   Crested Serpent Eagle

35.   Oriental White eye

36.   Grey Headed Woodpecker

This is in no way the complete list. Since I do not write down as I see the birds - this is what I remember/recollect from the photographs. There is a fairly wide variety that I did not recollect the names and the Stalwarts were not there to prompt me/tell me. The book was taking just too long to refer to.
...I also have to remember to take more tea and snacks with me next time.

And then there were those days.....

Those were the days I would fondly remember throughout my life. Sitting in the nights staring in the freezing skys and wishing sometimes that we remain in those beautiful surroundings through out our lives and at other times wishing that we run back homes from being isolated and sitting there. Now it all seems like our college days. What days were those. We had powerful telescopes to see the activity at the enemy posts and I thought -- why can't I click some photographs of moon through it? It took me so long to finally get the photographs -- first there were problems to align the camera lens and the telescope. Then was the problem to keep the camera steady with so much of zoom. The light was so less that I could not increase the exposure speed beyond a certain setting. After so many trials and misses -- finally got some good shots. Three by night and two by day to be precise. Hope you like the shots.

I love animals.....

Route down from my post

A group of mountain goats on route to my post

A closeup of one mountain goat.

Infact my love for wildlife is so much that when I was a kid I never wanted to join army as a profession as first choice. I wanted to be a naturalist. I wanted to be part of conservation and be near to nature. I was once advised by my father that if you do not settle first and do not earn a living -- it will be very difficult to establish in this field -- till you have an identity of your own. You have to earn, be independent and then take up a social cause once you have established your self in any sphere.

I took heed to his advise and never ever debated this point. To bring it out today is again not with a sense to debate it. I/he may have been wrong or right. the point is that my life took a turn and I went to NDA. After four years of whatever I became an officer.

My mother side of the family were very found of hunting. I used to join them off and on. It was there I learnt how to track animals, recognise birds. They were not the kind of hunters that you find in everyday life now-a-day (like some people walk with a gun in hand and shoot the first thing you come across) -- they were a kind of royals who hunted and were very strict about how and what they hunted. I remember they went on a deer hunt and the first deer they came across I pointed out. I was promptly told that it was a female and that was not to be touched in this season. After some while a big group of wild boars came in our view and when I once again pointed out -- once again I was told politely that -- they were out only for deer. It did confuse me a lot at that age and time -- especially so when we came home without a bag.

Today I look around and realise -- we are not going to loose our wildlife to hunting with such principles -- but to the senless so called hunting where in just the lust to kill womething is so great that we don't give a damn to age, sex, season and whole lot of other things associated.

Anyhow what I have talked about was a very long time back and I was very young. Then I hunted myself - a lot of birds, rabbits, deer, wild boar and so on. Then I started flying -- I have now flown in helicopters over the entire country. You cannot imagine what India I have seen from above. Miles and miles and miles of endless towns, villages with nothing that you can call forests. I have seen logging in so called hearts of national sancturies. I seen people I could not influence gun down the first thing they see on four legs and then throw that carcass -- lest they are caught. It was all senseless.

Then I decided that I will start shooting of a different kind. Unfortunately on my salary I could only dream of the kind of eqpt I dream't about. A Digital canon or nikon SLR with good telephoto lens -- however the fire burns and whenever I can -- I do not permit killing of wild animals any more. I look at a wild snake - a bird - and animal with the same kind of pity -- If someone or all of us do not do something fast we will not have wildlife to show to our next generation.

There was a time just 10 years back that I flew over areas of bathinda and saw herds of deer and bluebull. Today I do not see such concentration in the deepest of rajasthan -- and mind you no one is bothered. We sleep and eat and be merry -- we are too busy to live our lives that we no longer seem to care about anyone or anything for that matter.

I have another outlook that is not shared by many (Meneka Gandhi to start with). Another major cause of this is stray dogs and cats. The amount of wildlife that they have destroyed is phenomenal. They life on the periphery of human population. They grow with the human population and they push out the wild life even further than humans as they roam miles and miles. Maul and kill deer, fox, patridges, and what not. I feel that if we eliminate stray dogs and cats then the wildlife will be closer to us even in cities and towns. If we go a step further and teach our population not to chase - kill wild life just for the heck of it we have a chance to save them for our next generation to live with peacefully.

Please do leave your experiences and share your views with me. Today I post photographs of mountain goat that I clicked in my last posting in the Himalayas.

Some more flowers.......

Thanks for such encouraging words. I am now going to bore you to death with my collection of photographs of flowers. Just by the way -- the photograph of the first flower in the last post is barely a few milimeters across. The flowers bloomed on moss on the stones.

Insignificant life.... or .... is it?

Sorry for such along time since my last update.

Okay today I would like to talk about something that I noticed -- once again when I was on my post in the Northern tip of our country. It was summer time and the entire place was lush green with so many colours floating in the sea of green. One of those days when I had nothing particular to do when I was sitting on the grass after a gruelling patrol that had lasted the entire night -- I noticed a very small fluorescent flower. I noticed that the flower had been tramped upon so many times but it refused to smile. Infact the flower was so small that I really would not have noticed it had I not been sitting down and looking closely.

I wondered -- there in front of me were thousands of colours that were floating in front of my eyes and I never had time in my routine to sit down and admire these small wonders. I was also sure that once my tour of duty that would last for 2years in that place -- I would never on my own climb a mountain for 11 hours to admire flowers. I then stared to photograph the flowers of the valley. In all I counted 100+ varieties and a total of 190+ colours (probably varients of the same types) I tried to photograph and keep a tally/record but unfortunately as was destined probably, one of my memory card (I am talking of a time when I had to save for two months to buy 128mb mem card) gave up. I hunted for some software to retrieve the photographs - but was unfortunate. I am now posting a few of those photographs. Hope you like them.