Birding at native village - Beautiful skies and elusive birds

There come clouds, birds are absent. The birds predict rains in event of overcast skies and hence don't come out of dwellings. Even if they do, hard to catch due to darkness. Here is how morning sky looked that day.

And there was faint rainbow just before the troposphere evening sun descended.

Plenty of rains overnight and colourful sky ensued next evening. The art work was worth beholding both from real eyes and camera sensor. We had literally artistic colourful sky late in evening and it was worth capturing. The only drawback of such clouds are backing off birds.

The morning walks wakes up the green landscape with soft sunlight glittering the nature. That's a mesmerizing sight to watch. The sunlight seeping through coconut or rather any trees fans out the rays in various direction. Their impression on the ground is memorable one for any landscape enthusiasts. The day before, I took some of those moments in my mobile camera and enjoyed it later. Here are some. Despite the elusive birds, the nature show is always present to ward off disappointment. I like how the sunlight was exclusively illuminating the bunch of green grass thanks to the gap between coconut trees.

Back to birding!

The early morning birding started with black hooded oriole. The bird was perched on top of mango tree with subdued sunlight. Hence this was the max clarity I could get.

I saw small minivets too but they were elusive. I captured a rough image of the male for record. Not sure where they dwell but it looked like they arrived for a short visit near our backyard.

The apathetic great egret seems to be tired of my photo session. It had pale look when I photographed it. Later I moved on and it continued its breakfast mission

The loten's sunbird is common in our backyard. They are plenty in numbers but still elusive captures. Their agility is unmatched even when they are feeding. I have tried umpteen times but they move out of sight before camera gets focus.

The white rumped munias are no more difficult to grab. I find them everywhere nowadays and in quite proximity too!

Good thing is some birds are not difficult to spot, like this red-wattled lapwing.

This juvenile purple heron was guarding my move. As soon as it heard the first shutter sound and saw my immobility, it flew a bit distant area from me. The bright sun helped me to catch the glimpse of bird landing over different area.

I spotted it again squatting over tree-top

On a cloudy evening, this white throated kingfisher found some dinner

The juvenile pond heron was perched over unusual location

The Indian peafowl was screaming and at the same time probing for food in uncultivated field.

The egret was perched alone initially watching the surroundings.

Later peafowl joined the same perched point from beneath and seemed threatening egret. The egret was nervously perched later. The situation thawed after a while.

The blue tailed bee-eaters seemed to be enjoying rare clear skies next day. It was crisp clear sky next day for a while before clouds marked attendance. The beautiful light enabled me to grab some crisp shots.

The little cormorant was drying as usual at same perch

I cautiously walked through the nearby dense canopy along the human trails and finally managed to grab this Greater Racket tailed drongo with difficulty. They are not so receptive to humans and generally perch high in canopy. Their tune is quite conspicuous and easy to identify. Photographing them need good natural light though due to dark plumage. Here are pictures for record.

On the way back, White cheeked barbet was seen perched on electric line. Its quite rare to see them in open but often I am seeing them in open at my village. That may be due to subdued human presence or presence of nest nearby?

There are plenty more to share. Till then goodbye!

Check out my Bird Series blogs here : NKBirdSeries