Water Hen

White breasted water hen is greyish black bird with white face, throat, breast and part of abdomen.  It is has a very short tail.  The body part under the tail is brownish red.  The bird usually lives in the marshy areas.  It is generally silent except in rainy season, the breeding season, it becomes noisy.  During breeding season it is crepescular in activity.   It makes loud noise; the repetitive croaking calls are something between the quack of duck and a newborn’s cry.

It mostly feeds on insects and worms and shoots of paddy and marsh plants.  This bird is mostly seen in Asian countries Pakistan, Maldives India, Srilanka China and Indonesia.

The pictures of this bird are taken from my neighbouring miniforest (open plot covered with wild trees and bushes).  The area is marshy in rainy season.  During this season I regularly hear the noises these birds make.  In the beginning I would wonder some newborn is crying nonstop.  Soon I realized that it was some birds.  These birds are rarely seen outside the bushes. Twice I have seen young birds flying on to low branches but disappeared immediately.  They are uniformly greyish black with yellow beak.  This is the first time I spotted the adult birds and could take pictures and a short video.  I had to search the net for identification of this bird. 

Though I hear it regularly in the rainy season, only this season I could see the bird and was happy to know about it.  

Digital Photography

My brought up is in a city.  I have visited my uncle’s village just twice in my childhood.  Those days were spent mostly roaming about to relatives in the village and playing with cousins.  I have never been to any forest.  The only place I visited to see animals is Nehru Zoological park in Hyderabad and Tarapur acquarium, Tarapur in Maharashtra in my teens.  I remember the beings seen here vaguely.  In my childhood days we would regularly see sparrows, crows and pigeons regularly around our home.  Now I rarely see sparrows.   I read that they have become almost extinct.  Even crows have become a rare sight in the place I live. 

For the past 3 – 4 years I am having more leisure time.  This time I spend either reading books or roaming around my home, watching plants and trees and the beings that are sheltered by the trees.  As I was gifted a digital camera (Kodak easy share M753) by my daughter it has become my habit to photograph things I found interesting.  I love to take photos as I feel that it is a way of keeping pleasurable memories treasured.  My brother-in-law, who knew my interest in photography had presented me a camera in 2002.  But then I had to spend money for the film, I had to be choosy in taking pictures.  But owning a digital camera made me click whatever I wanted without restraint and programming.  It costs me nothing, and I can take and delete pictures as many as I want to.  The disadvantage with digital camera was I had very few prints of the pictures, just stored them in CDs, few posted online in my blogs.  With the old camera every picture that was good was printed out in the studio and I have an album of those events.

Since two years I have become a bit serious about pursuing photography as a hobby.  Two years ago my other half has presented me with Samsung galaxy camera EK-GC 100.   This is a tiny beautiful camera with good picture quality and multiple options.  I experiment all the stuff I learn in digital photography lessons.  Capable of capturing few awesome pictures (as per my standards) I became more passionate to capture photos every day. I keep my camera handy always.  If I have no other work and lighting is good I try to click everything interesting in different modes. Then one day I sit and load them into my computer and edit.  I have very few options to edit, MS photo editor and picasa.  I used photostage for some time.  Now I am trying online editor, Pixlr.  Next I should try Adobe photo shop. 

My interest in photography had led me to capture few birds that would perch on the trees around my house.  These I posted in my blogs “Beings around my home”.  My interest led me to always have a keen eye on my surroundings (at home).  I was lucky to catch glimpse of birds which I have not seen previously and do not know the names. 

Last month with rains plants have grown in the open plot beside my house.  The flowers attracted butterflies of different colors and sizes.  I have become obsessed with photographing as many pictures of these beautiful creatures and could obtain a few good one.  I would sit watching their flight and behavior. That made me interested to know more about these lively creatures.  Wikipedia has given details of different stages of butterfly and its life style. 

In childhood I remember reading the life cycle of butterfly.  Then I remember reading that a butterfly in its final form will live for 24 hours only.  I used to feel bad that such beauty of nature had such short life.  Now I came to know that depending on species a butterfly in its adult form will live from a week to a year.  It is also surprising to know that Monarch butterflies live for more than a year and they migrate from Canada to Mexico (about 2000 miles).  It is believed that direction of sun rays will lead its way to Mexico.  The sense of taste is 200 times stronger than that of human.  Many species of butterflies maintain territories and actively chase other species, individuals that may stray into them.  Each group will have its own host plant range, some restrict to just one species while few others use a range of plant species. As I was watching butterflies for the past few days I could observe this behavior, but I was doubtful.  Wikipedia had confirmed my observation.

I used to sit for hours (when possible) focusing one area where I thought certain butterflies frequented.  The moment I want to click they would fly off.  But still my perseverance gifted me  few good pictures of butterflies. 

Now and then I would suddenly find a bird or any other being and if I am lucky I would get a picture or two of the same.

I have seen this bird first time in my life.  I have checked the web for images of similar bird, couldn't find one.  I think it could be a species of  heron.  May be it is a migratory bird.

Digital camera had sparked my interest in photography as I can experiment a lot without spending much money.  In fact digital photography is making everybody to treasure their all special moments and share with world.

 

I have seen only the pictures of owl.  The common picture we see is different.  But this is also owl.  Again it was a surprise sight and chance click.

Sultanpur National Park - Gurgaon

Gurgaon in Haryana is a fast developing area in India.  The urbanization was at rapid pace since the establishment of automobile industry Maruti Suzuki Private Limited.  The city and district is of historical importance; it is believed that the village Gurgaon – “village of Guru” is donated to Dronacharya for imparting warfare training to Pandavas and Kauravas. 

Recently when I visited this place and enquired about local places of tourist interest everybody talked about those seen in Delhi which is about 35 KM from Gurgaon.  As I have already visited places in Delhi, I asked for those specifically present in Gurgaon, in particular about Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary.  Many could not give any information about it.  The taxi driver we were traveling with initially took us to Sultanpur in NCR region and from there to Chattarapur temple.  After explaining him that I want to see birds park at Sultanpur he finally understood and took us to Sultanpur National Park. 

Sultanpur National park is about 15 Km from Gurgaon.  It is actually a jheel (lake) where many resident and migratory birds visit.  Peter Jackson a famous ornithologist who had seen the birds wrote to the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi to protect and accord it the bird sanctuary status.  Accordingly was done in 1971.  Later in the year 1991 it was upgraded to National park by including some areas in the surrounding villages and increasing that jheel area from 1.21 Sq. KM to 1.42 Sq. KM.  People in this area are more familiar with name Sultanpur Jheel, rather than Bird Sanctuary or National Park. 

Since it is upgraded to National Park it is developed to attract and maintain the resident and migratory birds.

  Mounds and pitches are built for the birds.  Bore wells are dug to maintain water levels.  When there are no rains water is supplied from nearby canals or bore wells.  There are four watch towers to watch birds.

When a visit is planned to this place, binoculars are a must.  I couldn’t find any binoculars being provided for charges at ticket counter.  One young boy approached us with his binoculars and said he will show us all the birds with his binoculars and will be our guide in the Park.  He wanted us to pay two hundred per head for the two hour tour.  As true Indians we bargained and settled for Rs.150/- .

  He took us around the Park and showed different birds and explained what little he knows about the bird and its habitat.

In this park there are also nilgai and some abandoned bulls. 

Sultanpur National Park is a beautiful place which has more than 250 species of local birds and also hosts migratory birds from Siberia, Europe and Afghanistan.

  There is also a library and museum which educates visitors about different birds and their habitats.

Here are few pictures of the birds seen at Sultanpur National Park, Gurgaon. 

Beings around my home

Here are few birds spotted around my home but I do not know the names for sure.

Beings around my home

Bulbul

Bulbul is commonly seen around my home.  They often try to build nest inside our home.  I strongly discourage.  

 The bulbul is generally seen in twos.
 The birds courtship and coquetty behaviour is great fun to watch.
 These birds are monogamous.

Beings around my home

Crow Pheasant

This bird also belongs to the order of cuckoo.  But it is not a parasitic brooder.

  It generally survives on insects, caterpillars, small vertebrates.  It also eats bird eggs, nestlings, fruits and seeds.

 It is considered as avian pest in oil palm cultivation as it eats the fleshy mesocarp of the ripe palm fruit.

Beings around my home

Cuckoo

I read and thought that cuckoo will look black like a crow.  When I saw it I found it to be darker than crow and looks mean.  It is a parasitic brooder.  It stealthily removes and destroys crow's eggs and lays its own eggs in the crow's nest.  Crow hatches the eggs thinking its own. The nature of cuckoo is apparent in its appearance, I feel.

Here is a spotted bird.  It looks beautiful.  I did not think it is cuckoo.  But checked in the net and confirmed it.

This is also a type of Indian cuckoo.

Birds around my home

Green Bee Eater:  Spotted twice or thrice.  Never seen before.  Glowing green color makes it attractive.    

 

Birds around my home

To the north of our home is an open plot.  This is more than a thousand square yards and is in litigation (I think so).  The land being unoccupied, trees grow wild.  When our locality was not developed, about 15-20 years ago there would be snakes and once I spotted even a mongoose in this area.  In rainy season there would be constant croaking of frogs which would even enjoy our premises and feast on insects.  Even snakes would come into our compound across the branches of trees in our premises that are projecting and intertwining with those in the open plot.  Even now we occasionally see green snakes or some other small snakes that are non-poisonous.  Poisonous or non-poisonous, the appearance of snake creates intense fear in all of us.  

As wildly grown trees with its residents is a constant threat for us, we spend money to get the trees cut down and burn all the dried leaves.  But the land is so fertile with one shower of rain all the trees start growing with lively verdant branches.  Squirrels are ever running on the trees and many birds come and perch on the branches.  Many types of birds come here.  It will be interesting to watch these beings and their activity.

As a child I have seen sparrows, crows and pigeons around my home.  I have seen parrots which were caged to predict fortunes.  I have also seen parrots and peacocks in Zoo.  Frankly speaking I can recognise these birds and ducks and cranes.  Other birds, as a child if I had seen in Zoo, I don’t remember now.  As I see different birds around our house I try to check out the net to know the names of these birds. I miss the sparrows and crows which for seen regularly as a child.

At this house, few years ago, we had almond trees and flock of parrots would come and crush all the fruits within minutes and make the compound dirty.  The honeybees also swarming to it and building honeycomb made us cut down the tree.  We still have few trees of mango, guava, papaya and teak.  Monkeys are our most troublesome visitors.

Now I want to present few birds that are seen around my home.  A few I may not able to name.

Kingfisher:  I heard of it, might have seen a picture.  But when I first saw I felt awed at its beautiful plumage.  In the month of March and April for a few days I have seen this coming and perching on the branches in the early of hours of the day and in the evening.

One day as I was inside the home I heard a strange chucking sound.  I came out to see what it is, is it squirrel or any bird.  After inspection of all the trees for a few moments, I noticed the kingfisher with a lizard in its mouth.  I was astounded.  I haven’t seen such a scene before in my life.  I immediately got my camera and clicked.  I thought the bird will fly away as usual when it notices me.  But it did not move at all.  The sound I heard was that of the dying lizard.  In a short time the lizard became limp; the bird swallowed and flew away.

This looks like a dwarf  Kingfisher?

I thought Kingfishers will stay near lakes and ponds and eat fishes only.  As it is summer lakes and ponds are dry kingfisher has come into city and surviving on different prey! But generally kingfisher also eats frogs and other vertebrates including snakes.  It crushes the vertebrates, immobilises and kills before gulping it.  Here it is very clear how it has held the neck of the lizard and crushed to make it immobile before feasting on it.

I will post few more pictures of other birds soon.