Marshes perhaps make up for more than half the area of Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur. Naturally, the park has a lot of birds that rely on the abundance of this water. Cormorants and darters come here to fish and so do grey herons and egrets. Black Necked Storks and Painted Storks take pleasure in filtering out algae in the water and consuming them for breakfast. The storks are voracious eaters who seem to be always in a hurry to eat more, as if fearing that their neighbours may take away a portion of the food. Grey Herons stand perfectly still until an unsuspecting fish passes next to them. A microsecond later, the fish is struggling between the beaks of the heron and a few second later disappears in its throat.
I once saw a Grey Heron catch a huge fish almost six inches long and about three inches wide. The heron tried hard to consume it, but it turned out too big and eventually had to put it away. As it tried hard to gulp the fish, a greedy pond heron and a night heron walked up to it without daring to get too close, staring at the fish with a hopeful look!
The large birds were too wary of anyone and preferred to sit as far from land as possible. Even the ones that came closer to edge of the marsh kept a careful look and flew away at the first sight of someone approaching. Some pictures here.
Little Cormorant
darter
Black Necked Stork
Grey Heron
Pond Heron
Painted Stork
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
I spent a few days in McLeodganj or Upper Dharamsala in November, walking on its narrow roads and gazing at the mountains, trees, birds and Tibetan Buddhists. Being the home of HH Dalai Lama, you see Buddhist Monks and Buddhist symbols in every corner of McLeodGanj. Before I arrived at Dharamsala, I had made plenty of plans about places to see and things to photograph. I was getting a feeling that my three days would be so packed that I will hardly manage to get the feel of the place. But there was a sudden change the moment I arrived in town. I kept my camera away and spent most of my time in Dharamsala walking in the beautiful hills, often aimlessly and randomly. I did not find the need for a schedule. I did not find the need to go see all things that must be seen. I did not wish to get busy with the camera. I simply let the days pass from moment to moment and spent most of my time walking in the hills. Only on my last day in McLeodganj did I spend a few hours taking pictures. Here are some of the images of the Buddhist world in Dharamsala captures in those few hours.
Prayers wheels on the way to Dalai Lama Temple in Dharamsala
Prayer wheels – handheld ones.
Prayer flags fluttering near Dalai Lama Temple
A stupa or chorten with prayer flags in the background
A Buddhist Monk carving mani stones. Mani stones are tablets bearing the sacred mantra – Om Mani Padmehum
A mani stone
Devout Buddhists prostrating at the Dalailama Temple
A monk on the streets of McLeodganj
Finally.. an elderly lady with rosaries in hand, walking on the circumambulation path around Dalailama Temple
Prints of all the images available. Request for prints.
I have been travelling a lot in the last fifteen days, which explains the absence of posts in the last few days. Before I head out again to Bharatpur tomorrow, some images from Sikkim.
On the first morning at Gangtok during my recent trip to Sikkim, I saw the view from my balcony and immediately went back to fetch the camera. I tweeted later in the day saying “Seen outside the window of Club Mahindra Royal Demazong is a landscape photographer’s dream come true.” The play of sun and clouds offered completely different perspectives from the same balcony during the three days of my stay. I wish I could post bigger images, but my blog template is limiting me doing so. You can see larger version of some of the images on paintedstork facebook page.
On the first day, I woke up later than I would like to, thanks to the tiring day-long journey that took most of the previous day. It was about 7.30am, but being the eastern part of the country, sunrise happens early and the light was already harsh. Sun rays were strong, but were just touching the tall trees on the ridges.
It was more cloudy on the second day when sun rays filtered through the clouds and fell on the slopes. Picture below is courtesy of Arun Nair.
On the third day, clouds had settled down on the hills and had brought a completely different character to the slopes. The scattering of fog along the slopes made the whole place appear mysteriously beautiful.
And finally, here is an image of a stupa, again shot from the balcony.
Prints of all the images available. Request for prints. Some images can be seen at a higher resolution onpaintedstork facebook page.