In our last blog (posted a lifetime ago), we showed you some glimpses of our visit to India. We thought that it would be nice to look back at the rest of that trip. So here it is assuming you are ready for many many photos that we enjoyed capturing during the second part of the trip! We were surprised how many different bird species we could photograph within a span of just a few days without going for any longer hikes as Sreemala was in her second trimester of pregnancy. Our rule for this India trip was that we would bird only within a 10 minute radius from wherever we were staying. However, we had several different places where we stayed, and that resulted in a nice variety of habitats and colorful assortment of birds… The new year started with us visiting Pratyay’s hometown Santiniketan for a whole week. We hopped on to the train from Howrah Railway Station (one of the oldest, largest & busiest in Eastern India). We were already seeing so many birds through the window of the train as we kept going towards our destination. After we reached Santiniketan, the rooftop terrace quickly became our favorite spot to watch, listen and photograph some of the beautiful birds without going too far. Winter in India is not too cold. Afternoons can be especially pleasing to be outside and just enjoy the time with our feathered friends.

Common Tailorbird from our rooftop.

One of our neighborhood Purple sunbirds.

Purple sunbird up close. They might not look very attractive from a distance, but they do have some amazing colors.

Female and male purple sunbird.

Selfie from our rooftop garden.

Blue throated barbet on out mango tree, showing off its color.

Red-vented bulbul.

Black-hooded Orioles are always gorgeous.

Common Iora posing for us after jumping around on the guava tree.

Shikra flying by just before dusk.

Purple rumped sunbird.

Female purple rumped sunbird.

Another male purple rumped sunbird.

Scaly breasted munia from the rooftop.

These are flowers of the mango tree. Seemed like the it flowered pretty early.

Sunbird trying to catch some flying insects under the overarching bamboo tree. I normally don’t convert my bird photos to grayscale, but this one looked like a good candidate. These birds have a wide range of diet from nectar to insects.

Another grayscale… Asian Palm Swift soaring the grey sky.

Asok jethu, one of our neighbors, has big trees on their property and the birds love visiting the trees. One tree that attracted so many birds was an ‘amra’ (hog palm) tree. The ripe yellow fruits can be attractive to both birds and humans alike! Our telephoto lenses were exactly the Instrument we needed to photograph them from our terrace.

“Amra” are favorites for the Black-hooded Orioles.

Soft landing by the Rose-ringed Parakeet on the amra tree.

Rose-ringed Parakeets chasing each other for the best fruit.

Asok jethu and Shyamali jethima were our birding buddies when they took us for a morning stroll and shared their hotspots for some neighborhood birds. A Stork-billed Kingfisher was a nice surprise to add to the list of other common species we saw out there.

Black Drongo pair chasing in one of the fields around Baganpara.

Stork-billed Kingfisher was a nice surprise.

Stork-billed Kingfisher taking off.

Yellow-footed Green Pigeon.

The big fields around Baganpara where Pratyay used to spend his childhood afternoons playing soccer or cricket are now all walled up and it’s hard to access them. This land belongs to Visva Bharati who decided to put up these walls several years ago. We managed to sneak in and spend time around the field and the Binay Bhavana area to find some more interesting birds.

Rufous tree pie aiming the ventilator of a house searching for some insects.

Brown shrike looking out for food.

Eurasian hoopoe flew in while we were photographing the shrike.

Taiga flycatcher puffed up like a ball.

Pratyay was happy exploring his childhood playgrounds.

Growing up, he played soccer many times on this very field. Seemed like it would be hard to score a goal now. Not just because of all the tall grasses near the abandoned goalposts, but the defense line also seemed to be pretty strong.

Spectators were also there for this imaginary game of soccer!

Sreemala could not join Pratyay during his last India trip and she was jealous looking at some of the bee-eater photos taken by him during that trip. These fast little birds are quite common around Santiniketan, but it’s not always easy to catch them in flight. Getting some nice photos of this bird was big in her bucket list. However, we were not really well-prepared when we got to spend some time with them. For example, we didn’t have the right attire bird photography. Spending hours wearing a saree on the agricultural land divider was quite the way to photograph these birds in action!

Assortment of Bee-eater photos… Flexing and eating.

Just after catching a meal.

Toss before the gulp!

They look so elegant in flight.

Dinner coming right at the green bee eater.

The couple on the lookout.

Looks like in agreement with each other!

Green bee eater calling for a bee perhaps.

It was actually directed to the other Bee-eater flying in!

He did’t want to give up the favorite perch!

Arial acrobatics of the green bee eaters.

Going after a bee… for the n-th time!

Happy after getting some good Bee-eater images. Sreemala decked up to photograph the beautiful birds!.

When the bee-eaters took a break, Asian Palm Swifts kept us busy. These fast birds are super challenging to catch in flight as they flew over the paddy fields. But we managed to get some wing positions. The pond herns were relatively more cooperative, and obviously less erratic.

Asian palm swift circling the paddy fields!

Pond herons were quite common.

Who knew banana tree would be a fun landing for the pond heron!

Pond herons everywhere around the paddy fields.

This one trying to sneak into the field before the farmer.

Might be common but looks bautiful in flight.

Sreemala photobombing Pratyay’s photo!.

The lush green and mustard flowers made the perfect backdrop .

White-breasted kingfisher. The pink (Kanchan) floweres were the best backdrop one could ask.

Taiga flycatcher in the same tree.

And a common iora too!

Gray heron flying from one pond to another.

Stork-billed Kingfisher with a fresh catch.

Paddyfield Pipit sneaking its way. Most of these birds including the pipit were lifers for us.

A lonely butterfly in the paddy field.

Other critters with little wings we found around.

This spider juggled with this stick for a while… Not sure why.

Common Hawk Cuckoo and a Black Drongo.

A Green Bee-eater chasing flying insects on a foggy morning.

Pond heron flying over the field.

Asian palm swift, swiftly passing by. The fog made the scenery quite pleasing to the eye on this morning.

As we wrapped up our days in Santiniketan we went out for a leisurely stroll in Ballavpur wildlife sanctuary and deer park to spot and photograph some more orioles, kingfishers, and parakeets. A Gray Wagtail, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Tickel’s Leaf Warbler, and Black-winged Cuckooshrike were some nice finds. All of them were lifers for both of us.

A quiet encounter with a spotted deer.

Immature Black-hooded Oriole.

Indian Golden orioles are beautiful.

Gray wagtail searching for a bug or two….

Got one!

Rose-ringed parakeet portrait.

Rose ringed parakeet looking out for its partner.

And the partner is in the nest… in a hole on that crooked branch in the previous photo.

Common kingfisher. This one was unbelievable cooperative!

It eventually took off for fishing.

Who is the the odd one out?

As we headed back to Kolkata, only a week was left before we headed back home to Stillwater. Our last adventure together was to visit a somewhat famous birding spot very close to our apartment. Chintamani Kar bird sanctuary which was quite famous in the past for some extraordinary bird sightings. It’s probably not as good as it used to be in the past, but it still resulted in some exciting new species such as Black-headed Cuckooshrike, Cinereous Tit, Orange-headed Thrush, Bronzed as well as Ashy Drongo, Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker and large-tailed Nightjar. But the best part was the White-throated Fantails singing from inside thick vegetation throughout the park.

Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker and a Red-whiskered Bulbul.

White-throated Fantail without a fan display.

Bronzed Drongo, yet another lifer.

Orange-headed Thrush foraging on the ground.

Large-tailed Nightjar was a great find for us.

Cinereous Tit dangling from the branch.

A commoner… Oriental Magpie Robin showing of its elegance.

Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker was successful in digging up a fat worm.

Red-whiskered Bulbul with a wild berry.

After spending a nice time in India, it was time to come back to Stillwater. The return flight was quite exhausting as Indigo and Turkish Airlines provided a pretty poor service. After being back home to Stillwater, we stayed at home as we needed some rest, and we were perfectly happy doing some window birding watching our common backyard species visiting the feeders. We had snow one day. Snow always makes Sreemala happy! I doubt if the birds were very happy with the colder weather. We especially felt bad for the Cardinal without feathers. It did not look like regular molt. Perhaps some kind of disease? Not sure if it made through the winter. All we could make sure was to have enough food for it and it seemed to make full use of that.

Red-bellied Woodpecker in the snow.

Downy Woodpecker in the snow.

Wintering Yellow-rumped Warbler in a chilly morning.

Messed up female Northern Cardinal.

So long from Stillwater. We will come back with the next chapter of Oklahoma Diaries soon!