Showing posts with label kite. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kite. Show all posts

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Black Shouldered Kite


While on road, I instinctively look at birds on wires. Most of the time they turn out to be common birds like, crows, sparrows, and pigeons.  But once in a while, I come across not so commonly sighted bird, like this specialist rodent hunter- The black Shouldered Kite. Found all the way from Australia, Eurasia to Africa, it is quite a wide spread bird.
I was lucky enough to see a hunting sortie of this bird too. It hovered mid air for a considerable period of time , and probably when it felt the time was right, it swooped down on the prey. I could not witness what happened next. The bird came up and went on its merry way- leaving me wondering if it ended up with a prey or not.
Spotted on Mumbai-Nashik highway.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Black Kite



Black Kite ( Milvus migrans) is as large brown hawk and can be easily distinguished from similar birds by its forked tail. This is India's commonest raptor and found in most cities and towns. The bird is a masterful flier and scoops down of food scraps even in traffic congested roads avoiding the mess of telephone and electricity wires with ease. From earthworm to young disabled birds, from termites to lizards it eats it all and generally engages in regular tiffs with the local crow population. The bird spends a lot of time in air, circling in the sky and makes effective use of thermals for soaring.

Continuing from the previous post:
Mistake 3 : Not Shading my lense: Lense flare occurs when light hits the lense at an angle and starts bouncing around the inside of the lense. This causes light to do weird tricks including reducing contrast and making the photograph look hazy or sometimes even creating halos. Use the lense hood to prevent this , in a compact camera you can even use your hand to shade the lense. Just hold your hand cupped around the lense, in the direction of the strongest light source.
Ex. Both the photographs above were taken on the same day, from the same place and nearly at the same location. The first photograph was clicked as soon as I reached the spot and started to click, forgetting to fit in the hood. I fitted it once I noticed my mistake. Its only when I uploaded the photograph on the computer did I realise the difference the hood could make and felt it would be a nice example to put it up.
Sony A350 , 300mm , f/5.6 ,ISO 100 ,spot metering,