Blue tailed bee eater

Nagunvina halli is such a magnificent place shoot these birds!! It's the breeding season now. Here is a starter!

Kestrel Male

I've not had a chance to process my earlier images. This was from our last trip to Hesaraghatta before the Kestrels chose to return to their original home! By far this was the trip that I got the best images of all the major raptors. This Kestrel male was spotted by Rakesh & did give us few poses before it flew away.

LBV - Early Morning

One of the good things about Ramadevara betta is that it offers lot of possibilities for creating interesting compositions. This Long Billed Vulture gave us a quite a lot of options. I liked this one in the morning light with beautiful winter's blue sky and the grass in the background. Let me know what you think.

Early morning conversation!

Me, Raks & prema visited Ramanagar today morning. It was really eventful. We spotted Peregrine Falcon which was a lifer. There were 13 Long billed Vultures (& perhaps more) on a single rock bed. Though I couldn't get any decent flight shots, I did like this shot. A myna seem to having a conversation with the LBV. ACtually myna flew very close the LBV and picked something that was close to LBV and before it flew off, they seem to have had a conversation. It was interesting to see Myna sitting close it. I've seen (in photos/videos) Mynas being hunted by Peregrine Falcon & other raptors; and here it seemed unperturbed by its presence!!

Tawny Eagle

This was a lifer on the day when it rained raptors! Truly, Hesaraghatta is a paradise

Kestrel in its world

Early morning light had lit up Hesaraghatta and I was intrigued by the mesmerizing fog & the golden light. This juvenile Kestrel which had made the tree its home for the night, was waiting for the sunrise so that it can resume its daily routine.

Jackals & Misty morning

I've not had time to process images since I went to Ombatttu Gudda trek for 3 days and work had been hectic post Republic day! These images are a week prior to Republic day when me, Raks & Nagesh went to Hesaraghatta.
The day opened with Marsh Harrier and later we saw a Jackal pair. The morning was completely misty and the golden light added to the drama. It was a sight to behold. This happened to be great day for Raptors since we sighted Marsh Harrier, Steppe Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Montagu Harrier (female), Pallid Harrier (female) and also the usual Kestrel (male, female & juvenile).

Post processing differently

Rakesh commented on one of the other Kestrel images about the light. He said if the Kestrel was in front light, the effect could have been better!! I couldn't have agreed with him more. However I couldn't have changed the light at that time as I was positioned inside Manoj's scorpio and was fairly cramped too. Changing the position of the Scorpio meant loosing those crucial moments of Kestrel feeding.

However I thought about it and decided to post process the image differently. I've processed this image twice in different white balances one in day light and the other in slightly cooler color temperature. Since the Kestrel was getting good light I had to process it in day light white balance. The background was however was with a cooler WB. I've blended both the images to get a better frontal light and over all a much better effect that my earlier image. Let me know which one do you like.

Montagu Harriers

Spotting Montagu Harriers was a lifer last Sunday. The male is really more colorful. However it was too shy and wasn't comfortable to our presence. Hence we had to shoot from a distance.

A day with Birds of Prey

Hesaraghatta is teeming with Birds of Prey this winter. We'd a fantastic Sunday morning with Harriers, Black Shouldered Kites and Kestrels. Montagu Harrier was a lifer for me. The male Montagu Harrier is so beautiful! We sighted Pallid Harrier (female), both the Montagu Harriers and Kestrel. The Kestrel (Juvenile) was in great mood & gave us ample opportunity to shoot. It hovered in air & picked up a grasshopper and started feeding on it. Here are couple of shots from yesterday morning.