Photo of the month

We started this section post one-year anniversary of ‘Wingmates’. We hope you will like our favorites from each month. See our recent photos of the months below. Older photos will be archived as we move forward…

Photo of June, 2024

‘Moth Monday!’ photographed by Pratyay: My old friend, White-winged Sphinx, nectaring on Common Vetch.

Photo of May, 2024

‘A classic view’ photographed by Pratyay: Spring in Stillwater must include a scissortail image!

Photo of April, 2024

‘Festival of colors’ photographed by Pratyay: We photographed Painted Buntings up close after a very long time. These birds are unbelievably colorful!

Photo of March, 2024

‘Red-bellied Takeoff’ photographed by Pratyay: Had fun photographing our reliable Red-bellied Woodpeckers in the backyard.

Photo of February, 2024

‘Red-shafted Flicker’ photographed by Pratyay: An uncommon visitor to the yard, a female Northern Flicker!

Photo of January, 2024

‘The beautiful Cedar Waxwing’ photographed by Pratyay: These birds may look like dull brownish birds from a distance. But look closer, and you will see all these beautiful colors.

Photo of December, 2023

‘Short-eared Owl at dusk’ photographed by Pratyay: We went out looking for Short-eared Owls after a long time and we founds some!. We would have loved more of a natural perch, but this close encounter after the sunset was still worth it!

Photo of November, 2023

‘The dawn takeoff’ photographed by Pratyay: This unfolded as I came out of the tent at sunrise after camping by a nearby lake. The Franklin’s Gulls (in the background, near the dam) usually take off after a good night’s rest on the water as the first ray of sun hits them. So did the Great Blue Heron. The pink sky and water and the fog made the scene more beautiful.

Photo of October, 2023

‘Little scissors!’ photographed by Pratyay: The females and immature scissortails don’t have a tail as long as the male birds, but these shorter-tailed ones are more abundant during the fall before the migrate South (mostly due to all the new ones born this year). Here is one from this fall.

Photo of September, 2023

‘A giant beauty!’ photographed by Pratyay: We recently photographed some beautiful Giant Swallowtails nectaring on these native thistles. These butterflies are bold and beautiful… and large! They happen to be the largest butterfly in North America.

Photo of August, 2023

‘A sunset composition’ photographed by Pratyay: I was composing this nice sunset at our favorite lakeside, and I was hoping that a bird would fly in the scene. Speaking about composition, I loved how the flowers over the grasses looked against the purple sky and the scene asymmetrically framed by the tree and its leaves. The only thing missing was something flying in from the right. While it was definitely a possibility that a Purple Martin or a flycatcher would fly in, the execution is easier said than done because the bird may not be at the same distance where I wanted my focus to be. It took a bit of patience, but finally it did work out with this Common Grackle appearing in the scene.

Photo of July, 2023

‘Light and shadows’ photographed by Sreemala: A scissor-tailed Flycatcher takes off after feeding on the grassy field. I always like when I can catch the bird in nice light against a darker backdrop. The sidelight on the front part of the bird was a bonus!

Photo of June, 2023

‘The usual “Scissor-tailed” pose’ photographed by Pratyay: A classic scissortail photo at sunset. The golden light always makes this beautiful bird look even more beautiful!

Photo of May, 2023

‘Sreeja’s first bird on her life list!’ photographed by Pratyay: We went out to the lake for the first time after Sreeja’s birth, and this beautiful Orchard Oriole welcomed us with its complicated song.

Photo of April, 2023

‘The beautiful Sphinx’ Always so much fun to see the White-lined Sphinx moths hovering over the wildflowers in our yard! I was glad to get this image of the back of its wings in full display!

Photo of March, 2023

‘Henbit and the Sulphur’ photographed by Pratyay: Pollinators arrived soon to our yard full of common henbits including this first of the season Orange Sulphur butterfly.

Photo of February, 2023

‘The elusive fox’ photographed by Sreemala: Or, not so elusive after all. This is an Island Fox that we recently photographed in the Channel Islands National Park, CA. A relative of the Grey Fox of the mainlands, these little guys evolved to become smaller (and cuter). Their numbers dwindled really badly at one point, but thanks to conservation efforts, they are now not very difficult to find on the island. This particular fox didn’t care too much about the humans, and they even vocalized quite a bit during their photoshoot.

Photo of January, 2023

‘Dance of the bee-eater’ photographed by Pratyay: We spent some time during our trip to India photographing Asian Green Bee-eaters. These elegant birds were quite fast for us to catch in action consistenty, but we were able to get some areal action thanks to improved autofocus of modern mirrorless cameras. We have shared some photos from the series on social media. This is one that we haven’t shared, but really like as a contender for ‘photo of the month’.

Photo of December, 2022

‘Black-rumped Flameback’ photographed by Pratyay: Woodpeckers are Pratyay’s favorite kind of birds, but somehow he tends to miss the good photo opportunities of these birds. So, he was glad to finally get a good look at this handsome woodpecker, a common bird in India.

Photo of November, 2022

‘That tree’ photographed by Sreemala: Some of you who follow our photography may remember an image of this tree I took three years ago. It was a favorite of mine. This November, we went to this park again. It’s typical of this spot to have some nice fog at dawn and the colorful leaves create a wonderful contrast. This time around it was a cloudy morning, and unfortunately, the leaves had already turned brown. So, it wasn’t looking very photogenic. As were about to leave, the sun peaked through the cloud and suddenly the leaves that looked brown a few minutes ago turned vibrant orange lit by the golden light of the sun! We captured several photos, me with the longer lens and Pratyay with the wider one. I was quite happy with the outcome. The cormorant flying by was a nice bonus!

Photo of October, 2022

Gulf Fritillary photographed by Pratyay: My favorite butterfly from our area. The bright orange of the dorsal side of the wings is nice enough, but the beautiful colors and patterns under the wing are too good to ignore. Sreemala is the butterfly in flight expert, but she has been really busy with other things this fall. So, I tried to get some decent flight shots this time around. Hope you like this one.

Photo of September, 2022

Ruby-throated Hummingbird photographed by Pratyay: September is the hummingbird month as the little ones come to the feeder very frequently to gather all the energy they need before they migrate. We call this bird “One Ruby” since this immature bird is just starting to get the ruby colored feathers on its throat. He is quite territorial and would attack and chase away all the adult males from the feeder area. Then it would come back to its favorite twig and do some stretching and preening. I was very happy to get this backlit photo of One Ruby stretching its tail feathers.

Photo of August, 2022

Nine-banded Armadillo photographed by Pratyay: This was one of those rare days when I was out taking photos alone since Sreemala has some work. She dropped me at the lake and was supposed to pick me up after sunset. It was a really good day. The sunset was amazing! After having a good time with scissortails and Purple Martins, I was finally planning to end the day with some sunset silhouettes when I noticed something unexpected in my frame. An armadillo right against the colorful sky!

I had photographed Nine-banded Armadillos several times at this park, but never close to the lake or with sunset clouds in the background. I was far away frtom the animal when I saw it. So, I silently moved towards it. These animals don’t see well, and unless the wind is blowing the wrong way, it’s not difficult to have them cooperate for photography. Once I was close enough, I got low and captured some images that I liked. I enjoyed this session while lying on the ground trying to be as low as possible while the armadillo kept doing its thing. I hope you like the outcome. The conditions needed that I process the image in this HDR-ish fashion which I typically don’t do, but I think it gives the photo an even more prehistoric feel. Check out our social media pages for some other photos where I created a different silhouetted look.

Photo of July, 2022

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher photographed by Pratyay: When we moved to North-central Oklahoma four years ago, Sreemala and I, both birders and photographers, were not very hopeful about the bird photography opportunities in this part of the country. Given the fact that we had stayed in places with amazing photo ops in both the Eastern and Western part of the US, there were very little new things we could get, except, of course, the chance to photograph inarguably the best state bird of all states on its breeding ground. Over the last couple years we have got many photos of these Scissor-tailed Flycatchers that we liked. It gives me great joy to look back at their photos and videos (all are not even edited yet) and think about the enjoyable time we spent with them.

This year, one of our goals was to capture them in flight against backgrounds different from the boring blue sky and capture some more photos/videos showing their behaviors. It needs quite a bit of patience, but I think we are getting there. Hope you like this view in front of our local lake.