Three hours with Green Bee Eater

Date: 03-Nov-2012

Time: 6.45 am – 9.45 am

On a Saturday morning I was sitting along the coast of river Mula studding Green Bee Eaters for three hours. Made some observations. Documented them with photographs, videos and notes.


Observations: 

• Every Bee Eater has a set of 3-4 perches, he keeps on shuffling around.

• Some perches are shared by more than one Bee Eater during the peak time.

• If the entire perch is available they fine tune their position on the perch.

• The perch is selected depending upon the insects flying nearby. It also depends upon the availability of the perch and the hierarchy.

• General tendency is to pluck Bees/insects from the air, near their perch.

• Their attempts are calculated and decisive. They don’t take a flight if they are unsure about it.

• The success rate varies depending upon individuals. On an average the success rate appeared to be more than 50%, a quantitative analysis is yet to be done.

• An unsuccessful attempt is often followed by another attempt. Second attempt more successful on many occasions.

• They scratch with their legs and clean the feathers with their beaks

• Once the Bee Eaters higher up in the hierarchy had feed themselves, they move away to rest. The younger ones get more opportunities and better positions on the perch then.

• Their long tail helps them to maintain balance while landing.

• They often smash their catch on the branch maybe to kill it. Sometimes this also helps to disorient the bees that are holding tight to its beak.

• They toss up the catch quite often during the process of gulping.

• Bees are more frequent catch compared to dragonflies and other insects

• They take longer time to eat dragonflies as compared to bees.

• Rare behavior seen – Green Bee Eaters plucked up Bees from the water surface. In the below image you can see the wet feathers.

Behavior traits observed:

• Very decisive and calculated 

• Overambitious at times

• Restlessness after a failed attempt

Here is a video of the Bee Eater eating a bee

Cormorants using their tail feathers to feel water

I was out to photograph birds along the coast of river Mula, my favorite hangout location. It was morning time and I could find couple of little cormorants out there. I kept observing them and simultaneously setting up my camera.

I began to look through the viewfinder to observe closely and take some pictures. It was observed that, when they are about land they fly very low touching their tail to the water surface.

It appeared to me that they use their tail feathers to get the feel of water to decide the exact position to land. Hence the trail made varies; short on some occasions while long otherwise. A short trail can be seen below.

Unfortunately, lost all my images from that session.

Images shared here are of Indian Cormorant captured in a different session. Have currently observed this among Indian and little cormorant, expect great cormorant as well to do the same, but yet to document it.  A long trail can be seen below.

Little Egrets fighting for a fovorable perch

Date: 15-July-2012
Time: 7.41 a.m.
Location: River Mula, Pune

I was sitting along the coast of river Mula observing the action around. I found 2 little egrets fighting for a favorable perch. This perch would have certainly increased their chances to catch the fish.

Both of them looked almost of same age and were determined to get the perch.

The challenger chose to overpower from the above.

That gave him a distinct advantage over his counterpart.

The challenger landing on his counterpart.

A little fight back from the one below.

The fight back wasn't good enough as the challenger sent the fellow competitor crashing down on the water surface.

The perch holder accepts defeat and is trying to get back up.

The challenger moved in to occupy the perch.

The challenger winning the battle watches his counterpart move on

Black Kite eating in flight

A fine Sunday morning and I was photographing birds at Sangamwadi, Pune. There were some Painted Storks, Grey Herons, Cormorants, Kingfishers and Black Kites.

I was shooting Eurasian kingfisher in it natural habitat. Something in the air drew my attention; it appeared like a black kite was flying with a catch. I quickly released my lens from the tripod and started tracking the action.

What I happen to observe did surprise me a bit as I was not aware about this behavior of the black kite. The black kite was eating in the flight. As the kite was flying 77m away, I had to crop my images to get a closer look to the action.

It was fascinating to watch it do that. Days later I observed another black kite eating in flight. On this occasion three other black kites and a  house crow were trying to steal the catch. Wasting no time this fellow started eating in flight, he was able to grab some pieces of fish. Finally after a bit of circling around and with continuous pressure from fellow challengers he dropped the  catch.

No sooner he dropped another black kite picked it up. It was a pleasure to watch the action.

Last few breaths

I was conducting a photography workshop along the coast of river Mula in Pune on a beautiful Saturday morning.

As I look up to watch the birds flying around, the sound of water draws my attention towards something I didn’t expect. I see a huge fish right on the coast trying to breath.

As I try to understand the situation, the answers to my questions are right in front of me.

The river has been covered by floating vegetation, causing this fish to come to the coast in search of oxygen and sunlight.

There were over hundred of such fishes breathing their last breaths along the coast.

This turned out to be a fortune for the local fishermen (mainly young boys) to get their bags full without much effort.

As they happily return home to make the most.

Here is a video of this fish breathing its last few breaths Last few breaths

Grey Heron eating fish caught by Indian Cormorant

It was around 10.30 in the morning on a beautiful Sunday morning. I was shooting along the coast of river Mula with my bag lying on the ground, tripod set-up and the camera mounted on it. I was observing and waiting for some action to unfold.

Suddenly far away, I saw an Indian Cormorant with a fish. It was barely visible through naked eyes, an awkward angle to shoot and literally no time in hand.

As I tried to understand what’s happening, a Grey heron resting on the nearby perch attacked the Cormorant ferociously. It appeared as if it waiting for this moment, thus creating an opportunity to feed itself. The Cormorant was caught unaware had to let go off the fish. 

The victorious Grey Heron managed to fetch the fish from the water surface in very first go. It then flew around with the fish and perched on its favorite perch. Now that’s what I wanted. It was right in front of me, just a river in between the two of us.

As I tracked the action, I managed to take some decent flight shots. It was a big catch and the patience of the Heron had paid off.

After a series of images with continuous shooting, I quickly set the camera to video mode with 3x digital zoom. This allowed me considerable reach (1200mm) to closely document the action. I wanted to study how this bird eats such a big fish.

Video graphed the action for 1 minute and 36 seconds. Was challenging to get shake free video with ball head and 1200mm focal length combination on the a 1.6 crop factor camera.

Footage was shaky in start and in the end as my fingertips touched the camera, but fortunately the key 20 seconds were without any shake.

Had to let go some dramatic images for the sake of the footage, but the output was satisfactory.

It felt amazing to watch the Heron balance itself while attempting to eat the catch. Initial moments were a struggle for the heron to balance itself, but then it stabilized, paused for a moment and then slowly changed the angle of the fish in jerks from 90 degrees to its beak to 60...to 30 and finally to zero making it parallel to the beak.

Once this was accomplished, swallowing was a routine. As soon as the fish goes in, the neck gets elongated and thick, you can almost feel the fish inside. It took another couple of minutes to swallow it completely. It had to move its neck back and forth in order to get this done.

As it swallowed the fish its elongated neck moved out of the frame of the video.

It was a pleasurable experience to witness this action and document it. After the session ended, had a satisfactory walk back home thinking about what could have been done better.

Check out the video of this Heron eating fish Grey Heron eating Fish