November 13, 2014 -- Birds etc.

Hi all

Since Hansi is covering off most of what's happening, I'll focus on the bird side of things this time. In the past couple of weeks we've seen several new (to us, of course) ones. Two weekends ago we hired a cab to take us to Sukhna Lake here in Chandigarh. Last weekend we managed to hire our favourite driver mit car (Johnny) to take us out to the Ropar Dam area, an earthen dam nearer in to Chandigarh and thence to Sukhna Lake. Johnny qualifies as a favourite because his English is pretty good and he is very sharp-eyed birder - he drove for a military guy who was a birder, go figure the odds! With the naked eye he can spot birds way faster than we can with binoculars and his eyesight is astounding - obviously our driver of choice.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves - the telephoto range of my camera does limit things but, by and large, I manage to get shots of all of the new birds we see. Now that the rice paddies have been harvested and the weather has cooled, we've begun to see peacocks/peahens ever more frequently - the day I took the photos we were on our way back to Mohali from CGI and pulled off on a side road. Saw 19 peacocks/peahens in one small field and I finally got some shots! The kingfisher is one of our favourites - colourful and the beak looks like it was meant for a different bird. Also finally managed to catch a coucal (lesser) - they're secretive and like cover.

Life continues apace, the Tim Horton's coffee looks to be good for a few more weeks, the newspaper continues to rail about corrupt politicians, shabby policework and the like, the mornings are brisk, the days sunny and warm, the local markets are vibrant and choc-a-bloc with fresh fruit and veggies, spices, popcorn, biscuits . . . ah, this is the life (and I'm getting paid).

Rob

Peacock