Glimpses IV

Nikkor 24-70/2.8 S @24mm, f7.1, Nikon Z 6 Morning calm at first light https://tinyurl.com/Down-The-Stream Meghalaya

Intermediate Egret

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700 mm, f8, Nikon D750 Late morning sun, crop (APS-C), some heat shimmer; the catch is swallowed in about 15 seconds as the continued sequence reveals https://tinyurl.com/InAnOpenLandscape Rajasthan

Openbill Stork III

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700 mm, f8, Nikon Z 6 Late afternoon; a parent feeding chicks, there are younger, not breeding birds at the side. The openbills specialise in foraging for snails though their diet is more varied. Their bill that formes with age likely helps them to exert more pressure and accuracy at the tips. Recently we saw a rare footage of Sir D. Attenborough’s crew showing an openbill foraging filmed with a kit older than ourselves. This is the bird in an https://tinyurl.com/openLandscape Rajasthan

Openbill Stork II

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700 mm, f8, Nikon Z 6 Slight crop, a parent at the nest during a feeding session Rajasthan

Foraging

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700 mm, f8, Nikon Z 6 Late afternoon, changing sunlight Rajasthan

Wild Boar III

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700 mm, f8, ISO 110, Nikon Z 6 Late afternoon, changing sunlight; foraging in the wetland Rajasthan

Wild Boar II

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700 mm, f8, ISO 550, Nikon Z 6 Slight crop, diffuse warm sunlight; piglets on an early morning search for food around a periodic lake (not long after the rains) Rajasthan

Marsh Harrier II

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700 mm, f8, Nikon Z 6 Noon, low cloud; a recently arrived female spends winter in a more favourable climate with enough food. This shot of a https://tinyurl.com/different-female resting includes a wider landscape setting. We feel the natural environment conveys as much about the creatures as a portrait or a detail close-up, if not more. Rajasthan

Precious

Sigma 100-400 OS C @155mm, f6.3, Nikon D750 Two sets the stuff is arranged in. The small things that look big. And the big things that look small. Diwali, Varanasi

Mangrove Forest III

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @280mm, f8, ISO 360, Nikon Z 6 Morning sun; white-breasted waterhen at the edge of a pool. Odisha

On the Tops II

Nikkor 24-70/2.8 S @38mm, f7.1, ND filter, Nikon Z 6 View of the escarpment where the river carves its way through the rock. Meghalaya

On the Tops

Nikkor 24-70/2.8 S @38mm, f7.1, NDG filter, Nikon Z 6 Cropped compression; raw and subtle. Watching the sun painting different scenes before it slid over the escarpment’s top and the veil of the evening dulled the forest. There was conspicuously less rainfall for the time of year, elders noted. Powerful and tranquil places to spend a day are hard to find. It’s not too difficult to descent down to the river. Meghalaya

Marsh Harrier

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700mm, f8, ISO 140 (+1EV), Nikon Z 6 Early morning, low cloud mist; a female resting near colony sites in the ancient forest. Unlike other raptors, Harriers nest on the ground, hunt both birds and rodents, search for prey in their typical flight and have a highly evolved sense of hearing (convergent features with owls such as facial disc and ruff). Molecular data suggest three distinct (sub)groups within the genus. We have been lucky to observe species of all three groups in our lives (marsh, hen and Montagu's harriers). Eyles's harrier, reaching a weight of 3 kg, was driven to extinction just as the largest known eagle (almost double the weight of the harpy eagle) before it. Rajasthan

Grey-headed Swamphen II

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700mm, f8, ISO 320, Nikon Z 6 Midday, low cloud; this early after the rains, the wetland is still extensive and lush. The decisive contributing factor to this, however, comes from the park’s management. Rajasthan

Grey-headed Swamphen

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700mm, ISO 125, f8, Nikon Z 6 Late afternoon, crop (between APS-H and C); a warning call as a marsh harrier flies four metres above checking the birds. Flicking the shots of the sequence shows the shadow moving across the marsh. The swamphens were barely visible in the grass near water before they reacted. Rajasthan

Oriental White Ibis II

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @450mm, f8, ISO 500, Nikon Z 6 Twilight of the forest edge. Lucky to get the focus right here. Before any firmware upgrade, the autofocus made you very busy in these scenarios, trying every trick to get the focus fast enough. The bright, high contrast background and low contrast subject bring out the AF limits we experienced with our first 135 format EVF camera. The combination of a larger single focus point, contrast detection behaviour and the viewfinder limitations was responsible for it. Things got better in later cameras, including effective AF modes for moving subjects. Rajasthan

Oriental White Ibis

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @460mm, f8, Nikon Z 6 Late afternoon; three birds in the top right part are in (crisp) focus; the ibis’ symbolic role in cultures is widely known. It helped the northern bald ibis (or hermit ibis) survive until the early ‘90s in southern Turkey where ornithologists from Europe used to visit to see them. The last stronghold for this species was Central Europe where an abrupt climate change event and continued hunting wiped them out in the 17th century. Extensive efforts are made to get the wild populations back in Europe today, with motorised paragliders guiding the birds into wintering areas across the mountain saddles. A recent campaign against poaching in Italy led to a 50% reduction in losses... The current conditions seem to favour the project in Spain, which may well mimic the start and course of the species return should it attempt to reestablish its populations naturally in our times. If people want to hunt ethically, they may want to play a part in restoring the environment for it first. How does it feel to “hunt” in pockets of nature’s wasteland where everything screams devastation? The skill can be needed for rangers or hired hunters for all sorts of reasons, but that in corresponding environments. An entirely different experience, even if you return without success. Rajasthan

Indian Flying Fox II

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @650mm, f8, ISO 450, Nikon Z 6 Late morning; resting in the forest canopy Rajasthan

Greater Spotted Eagle

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700mm, f8, ISO 220, Nikon Z 6 Slight crop, early morning; more https://tinyurl.com/AboutThisEagle (280mm) and the location. Rajasthan

Indian Peafowl III

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700mm, f8, ISO 280, Nikon Z 6 Early morning (some heat shimmer) in fragmented forest and scrubland, further from the fluctuating wetland. It’s easy to see why the female is a far less frequent sight (or why we struggled to get a good shot of jackal away from a track). The evolution is forming and testing both sexes specifically for the species success. They are (equally) essential for it straight from the basal level. We can see a range of setups in nature in this sense. For humans, cultures nuance this schema further with finer, faster-forming subsets (custom and traditions) that answer their societies paths, highly evolved, complex psychology, and interrelations, as we see it today, with the environment they live in. Rajasthan

Grey Heron

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700mm, f8, ISO 160, Nikon Z 6 Late morning, Rajasthan

Indian Peafowl II

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @280mm, f8, ISO 125, Nikon Z 6 Sunrise haze; a new day of the endless cycle of light and life. Rajasthan

Grazing Nilgai

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700mm, f8, ISO 280, Nikon Z 6 Diffuse sunlight; a doe browsing foliage in an ancient mosaic forest. https://tinyurl.com/A-buck-In-A-Similar light days earlier. Rajasthan

Grazing Chital

Nikkor 200-500 VR/TC 14 III @700mm, f8, Nikon Z 6 Late hazy afternoon; diffuse sunlight with a subtle contre-jour effect add canvas painting feel to the scene and the photo. Not that it defines any general preference over photographic attributes to us, unique in their own right, but some of our favourite photographs were shot in the flat light. The deer grazing on fresh grass. Rajasthan