My attempts to get a good photograph of the Verditer Flycatcher (tVF) began at Binsar and continued, albeit unsuccessfully, in Sitla and Mukteswar. These attempts were hampered by two constraints – one, the bird is small and hardly stays in one place for more than a few seconds, and two, my limited photography skills. On the few occasions when I focussed the camera on the bird quickly enough, a combination of my excitement and the stress of clicking quickly lest the bird fly away would result in a shaking hand and a blurred photograph.
Like this snap, for instance - notice the small blue blob in the top left quadrant of the pic ?
And what of my friends-and-fellow-travellers that could have taken good photographs but didn’t, you wonder. One was equally enthusiastic but only marginally better than me at photography, and the second possessed photography skills but not enthusiasm for bird-watching. (In the interests of confidentiality, I was going to refer to them as Pappu and Sadu, but they have objected vociferously to the negative names and shall therefore be known only as Poppy and Soppy in the rest of this post.)
Soppy and I spotted our first VF on the very first morning in Binsar. Our guide Purna had conscientiously cajoled us into the planned bird-watching session rather than the snooze we felt like taking after waking up early to see the sun rise over the mountains. After a short walk and many disappointing non-sightings where the bird that was calling was frustratingly close by but hidden in thick foliage, we saw a flash of blue apparating on a branch nearby. With much excitement, Soppy and I focussed our cameras, but all we got was a blue blur with trees in the background.
It took Soppy a day and over 50 wasted snaps (a slightly better defined blur, as seen here) to get used to focussing the camera quickly, while I only got the hang of it after much practise at Sitla.
Day 3 saw us driving to Sitla. From the garden at Sitla Estate, the mountains covered with snow were visible in the distance. The bungalow and garden themselves were perched on top of a hill whose slopes were covered with orchards and lower reaches with forest. Wind-chimes hanging from a tree in the garden added their notes to the rustle of trees-leaves in the wind. Poppy had spent less than ten minutes here when he complained about being in such a beautiful romantic place with only friends for company, a comment that earned him a well-deserved glare from me, the tireless organiser of the trip.
After lunch, while Soppy and Poppy grabbed a siesta, I ventured out into the garden. I selected a bench under a leafy tree that would shelter me from the intermittent drizzle and settled on it with my book and binocs. That afternoon the drizzle had scrubbed the trees clean, and the recent-rain-wet-mud fresh smell was everywhere. Grey clouds hung low in the sky and the mist was rising up to greet them. It was so beautiful and idyllic that I was reminded of this Persian quote about Kashmir, ’Agar Firdaus bar ruye zamin-ast hamin-asto, hamin-asto, hamin-ast’ (If there is heaven of Earth, it is this, it is this, it is this)
Every so often, I would look up from my book and feast my eyes on the mist weaving smoky white trails on the green hills. I could hear the chirruping and chattering of birds around me and occasionally saw them soaring across the valley or quickly flitting from one tree to another. On one such occasion, a blur of blue caught my eye, and I turned to find a Verditer Flycatcher perched on a branch on a tree nearby. The rainy weather brought out the vibrant blue of its wings and I would have loved to capture it on film, but I didn’t have a camera with me. Once again, I had to be content with gazing at it.
We finally got a snap of this bird on Day6, at Mukteswar. This time, it helpfully perched on an exposed electric wire high up in the sky. Luckily, we had cameras with us. Luckily, P’s camera had both batteries and sufficient memory. Luckily, he managed to focus on it. Unluckily, the camera did not have sufficient zoom.
tVF - One more item on my to-do list for whenever I next visit Kumaon.
Another chase is more successful
Due to the aforementioned lack of photography skills, I was soon relegated to role of bird-spotter-cum-camera-carrier, with Soppy or Poppy essaying the key role of photographer. Not content to play a supporting role, I resolved to improve and spent one rainy day in Sitla taking snaps of birds on a tree near Poppy’s room. The tree had a red flower / fruit that attracted them all – common Himlayan bulbuls in droves, a pair of shy green jackdaws and many others I could not identify.
For every four blurred photos I clicked, one came out clear. I got a lot of clear pictures of the Himalayan bulbuls though. Bulbuls were so common that there was no excitement and no hurry to click, even if 2-3 had flown away, there would still be only 20-30 of them on the tree.
Though normally not very attractive birds, they looked really cute in the rain with ruffled puffed-up feathers.
Suddenly a pair of Red Billed Blue Magpie (RBBM) were there too. The cool demeanour and steady hands I thought I had cultivated over the morning just fell apart. The first few snaps I clicked in an excited hurry were blurred as usual due to my shaking hands.
The pair flew away, but returned in a few minutes. Once I realised that I had enough time, my hand steadied and I took some snaps in which you could actually identify the bird. Though some were a bit random as I clicked at any angle, just so I got a snap, no matter what.
Finally I got some good snaps – notice the RBBM’s magnificent tail in these.
These are some links for information on and snaps of this bird. Please note that ahem ahem my snaps are not too bad. Maybe I will get the Verditer Flycatcher too on my next vacation.
By,
Zen
