2022 has almost come to end. After a relatively warm fall, it’s finally getting cold. After a very productive year photographically, Wingmates decided to stay back at home and prepare for the upcoming trip to India, our home country. It would be a trip to India after seven and a half years for Sreemala. She was really looking forward to it. There was no shortage of work before taking off for a month. So, birding and photography were limited to the backyard only.
Downy Woodpecker searching for insects.
Red-bellied Woodpecker on our pecan tree.
We filled in our bird feeders with winter-special seeds and suet. Soon, the Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers showed up. While they love the suet, they also tend to take advantage of the few available insects from our pecan tree. The Red-bellies in particular love to store acorns and smaller seeds for unforeseen future. They even take seeds from the feeders and store them. I doubt they will ever need that the much stored food over the winter, but who knows? Maybe the squirrels will find some of those.
Squirrel enjoying a nice afternoon snack.
Yellow-rumped Warbler back again!
One morning, we were glad to see our old friend; the Yellow-rumped Warbler had returned to the yard. Not in its brighter spring plumage, but these little ones never fail to make us smile. This year was a good year for the Cardinal family as they seemed to have successfully brought up several new young ones. So, the backyard was unusually full of bright red ‘angry birds’. I am somehow more fond of the coloration of the females, and didn’t miss the opportunity to take a few shots of this lovely lady.
Lady Cardinal in nice morning light.
White-breasted Nuthatch, a common backyard bird in the winter.
Berries in the backyard attracted several different kinds of birds including a large flock of Cedar Waxwings. These berry lovers always seem to find the winter berries and quickly gulp them down. Bird photographers love to catch them while tossing the berries up in the air. While I got some photos like that, it was funny how many times they couldn’t catch the berry after tossing them and lost it. But there were still enough left for all of them.
Cedar Waxwing feasting on the berries.
We flew to India at the end of the second week. It might seem surprising, but we had never seriously birded together in India. One advantage of this fact was that many common birds were still lifers for us. We decided to take it slow this time and only birded close to home. We are not talking about a single ‘home’ though. We stayed in several different places that we can call ‘home’, a concept that might be hard to understand for our Western friends, but you know what I mean if you are familiar with the Indian culture.
Old structures in Taki… And a fallen shiuli flower.
Afternoon at the pond.
Our first stop was in Taki, a town near the India-Bangladesh border. We spent two nights there, and of course, looked for some backyard birds. This is an old house with a pond and there is a nice view of the trees around the pond from the rooftop. Soon, a brilliantly colored Black-hooded Oriole stopped by. Red-vented Bulbuls, Tailorbirds, Oriental Magpie Robins, and Black-rumped Flameback woodpeckers were abundant. Woodpeckers are my favorites, but as always, Sreemala was able to get the better shot. I caught a little, brightly colored Common Kingfisher. I was happy since it was the first time I photographed one. Some nice-looking butterflies kept us entertained when birding got slow.
Black-hooded Oriole, the yellow is too bright!
Black-rumped Flameback looking for food.
Common Kingfisher at the pond.
An elegant Butterfly.
Of course, birding was not the only thing we did while staying in Taki. But I won’t make you jealous by describing all the great food that we had there. It appeared that we were not the only ones feasting though. The ripe papayas in the garden attracted some colorful feathered friends. We caught a Blue-throated Barbet red-handed with papaya juice on its moustache. The barbet didn’t seem to mind us photographing it while it kept filling itself with the juicy stuff.
Blue-throated Barbet eyeing the ripe papaya.
Blue-throated Barbet close up. Look at all the colors!
In December, I took off for a conference in Bangalore for a few days. While in Banglaroe, I went out to find some urban birds on a couple of occasions. It wasn’t super productive, but I got to see one new bird – Brahminy Kite, among many many Black Kites.
Miscellaneous scenes from an outing at Bangalore (IISC campus). Do you like the nice textures on the first image? Well, don’t you dare disturb the residents of that nest! The hornets can kill you if they want.
Brahminy Kite hovering over a water body.
Black Kites.
Black Kite with a piece of brown paper. Not sure what it intended to do with it.
Back at our Kolkata home, we didn’t expect to see much wildlife, but to our surprise, the window birding turned out to be quite productive. Two tailorbirds kept chirping all day, but was hard to catch still for more than a second. I managed to get a nice look after trying for a while. Meanwhile, a flameback decided to give us some excellent photo ops as it went up the betel tree right next to the window.
The cute fella! Common Tailorbird.
Finally a good photo of a Black-rumped Flameback!
Spotted Dove during preening session.
The goofy Jungle Babblers.
Overall, the 10 feet by 10 feet green patch next to our window ended up being full of all kinds of common birds. But, not everything is green in Kolkata. Rather it’s very little is green. Some birds like the Black Kite manage to adapt well with the concrete jungle, and the fight for their place in that jungle is often on. This image of a Black Drongo harassing a Black Kite may not be beautiful to a nature lover’s eye, but I consider it a decent ‘habitat shot’. Oh well!
Black Kite being harrassed by a Black Drongo.
The view from the apartment rooftop mostly consists of miles of this concrete jungle, although someone might argue that you can’t possibly see a mile away when the air quality index is at a level that we typically have in Kolkata. Every image needed some pushing of the dehaze slider in Lightroom. Wish we had a dehaze filter for our breathing!
Rufous Treepie, on top of the world.
Taiga Flycatcher against an old house at Taki.
A Rufous Treepie was seen sitting there overlooking the nice set of apartments behind it. One can see the difference in the housing landscape when you compare with the backdrop of this Taiga Flycatcher in front of its favorite house in Taki. Perhaps the Ichhamati river will devour these old houses in the coming decades. The top of the high-rises of Kolkata may seem relatively safer for now. But, for how long?