Blue-cheeked Bee-eater Merops persicus CORACIIFORMES: Meropidae
80-400 nikon lens with D800 camera
Thursday Morning Koshy and I decided to visit Basai in the evening at 4:45pm. I reached Basai at the time when the dust storm hit Basai with mild drizzle. Visibility went down to less than few hundred yrds. A visit wasted-wait, in the next 10 min things changed, the dust had cleared and the visibilty was more than a KM with the defused light. The dust storm had cooled the place.
Started with the bushchat Pied Juv, some weavers, then a lone Painted Snipe, Black winged stilts and lapwings nesting in the shallow pool of water in the fields. Mating of the Black winged Stilts. On the 1 Jun we had seen the chicks of the red wattled Lapwing-non on this visit. The Pond Heron in Breading Plumage with red legs posed for the photo session. Followed by the sighting of one pair of Painted Snipe followed by another pair close by. Both the pairs were out in the open. One male was busy bathing while the female was busy foraging. Watched the show for about 10 min had snacks and started on the way back. On the left we saw a number of Cattle egret and some in full breading plumage with red beak and red feet.
A large number of Green Bee eaters and Blue checked Bee Eaters. They were all on the dirt road feeding. One pair sitting in the middle of the road with the car just a few feet away gave a fine display. One would stay while the other would take off and be back in a min and feed the first one, This was repeated a number of times for the next 5 min. Streaked Weavers and a flock of Red Munias in the tall grass.
Finally we decided to call off and head home when to our surprise we saw the Pied cuckoo (Pied Crested Cuckoo) then another. There were two of them on the bank of the nalla feeding on caterpillars which seen to be in plenty on the small bushes growing all along the embankment. This is the first sighting of the Cuckoo this year. They were on the ground and were not bothered with self and Koshy just a few feet away.
A great trip with surprises thrown in.
Vijay
wingco@icon.co.in
veena@icon.co.in
Wg Cdr Vijay K Sethi (Retd)
Director
PH 011-26491538
FAX 011-26490105
Mob 9810134504
No comments:
Post a Comment