Baya Weaver

 A male Baya weaver above, stares at me. I spotted his nest on a branch over hanging a well. As the name suggests, the male weaver bird, builds an elaborate 3 room nest, by weaving reeds and branches. A nest is then inspected by a female weaver bird ( photographed below) and if it likes the work, mates with the male and lays its eggs in the nest.

The male weaver then starts constructing another nest, for other females. He barely takes part in any upbringing of the fledglings, which is handled by the single mother.

A male above, proudly guarding his incomplete nest. Lots of work still remains.

Yellow Legged Gulls

Continuing from my Previous post. Cant write much in todays post because of severe time crunch on my side. I enjoyed clicking these photographs, hope you enjoy viewing them.

Yellow Legged Gulls

As we were departing a Greek port, my ship was surrounded by hundreds of gulls. They were trying to catch fish, which were pushed up by the ships wake. Most of the Gulls were these Yellow Legged Gulls (Larus michahellis) and found it a great opportunity to photograph these flying beauties.
Will feature 3 more photographs in the next post too.These birds were formerly considered a part of the Herring gull family and they do look similar to Herring Gulls. Adults have darker grey backs and wings than herring gulls and have more black in the wing tips than herring gulls.

Black Headed gull

Nearly a year ago I had put a post on the Black headed gull ( Larus ridibundus )at Fujairah, now these are from England. Like I said then, when in breeding plumage the bird acquires a brown hood. Now the bird in the second second is a young one and facing its first winter, unlike the first photograph, which is of an adult. You can see the difference in the beak and the dark brown carpal bar. Here in India it is a winter visitor and prior to every migration at the end of March they acquire the brown hood.

For the next 10 posts I'll posts 1 mistake each that I have knowingly made in photography. There are probably many more, but these still tend to happen
Mistake 1: Forgetting camera shake: I had the perfectly framed photograph, well exposed and well balanced. It looks good on the cameras 3 inch preview screen but when I uploaded it on my computer, I get the shocking news of the camera shake. In spite of the Image stabilization and all precautions to hold the camera sturdy, its very difficult to get a steady shot hand held especially when using telephoto lenses. Now I try to use a tripod as much as possible but if I cannot use one then the following tips can help.
1. Use a shutter speed of " 1/your camera focal length" or faster. Ex. if you are using a 300mm lense use a shutter speed of 1/300 sec or faster.
2. Hold the camera firmly with both hands, with hands close to the body and the camera touching your face.
3. Use any strong structure the lean on to or let the camera touch any sturdy structure and that will partly help.
4. Breath slowly and steadily.
For both the photographs above I could not use a tripod but the light was sufficient to use a faster shutter speed. the 1st one used a 1/250 sec and the 2nd one 1/200 sec shutter speed and I used a 200mm lens and achieved a relatively sharp image.

Baya Weaver

Found this colony of Baya Weaver birds at Vasai in Western India. The nests were strongly woven from grass and were shaped like bulbs hanging from a small chord as apparent in the first photograph. Inside the nest runs a partition which divides the spout from the chamber ( in the last photograph; featuring a half constructed nest, this is evident.) in which eggs are laid. The spout helps to keep out the enemies. These birds do not make any attempt to hide their nests as they are built en groups which are built generally on palm trees over water bodies. This particular coconut tree was overhanging a marshland. Only the male bird is visible in these photographs the females lack the yellow crown and resemble a common sparrow. Will try to post a female bird when the opportunity arises.
The male bird builts the nest and invites a female to inspect it, by flapping its wings and calling while the nest is being constructed ( 2nd photograph). If the female approves it then the male will go ahead and complete the nest and the female may assist him in giving the finishing touches.
The male after mating will go on to build more nests are attract more females ( upto 2-3 at a time), while the female incubates the eggs and brings up the brood.

P.s. Please do comment on the photographs; they are very valuable to me.

Black headed Gull

Black headed gull in breeding plumage.These brave birds let me photograph them in all possible places,from the water level all the way up to the ships mast. These gull probably like a certain amount of personal space around them. Like in the fourth photograph, the gull with the open beak is quite irritated when another gull tried to land too close to it.