Bird Race 2015

A bird race is an event where birders fan out across a region, from dawn to dusk, and try and record as many species of birds as possible.  Then in the evening all meet and submit their bird lists to be published like a census of all the birds in an area.   Following is an account of what happened when I participated in the 2015 Mumbai Bird Race.


HOW I MISSED THE MOTHER LODE AT MUMBAI BIRDRACE 2015!

It was a blazing hot summer afternoon by the time Salil turned his red Getz onto a small mud road off the service road at Seawoods, Navi Mumbai. The full might of the indian summer was still months away but the afternoon was already hot, calm, with no inkling of the drama to unfold before us in minutes.

We had arrived here after exploring the Uran coastline for Mumbai Birdrace 2015. Dr. Salil Choksi was in the first car along with Dr. Molina Khanna, Yogita Prabhu and Shriya Laxminarayan. In the second car were Dr. Abhay and Dr. Sadhana Deshpande, Dr. Chandra Choksi and me.

Salil's attention was constantly on the outside, spotting and identifying birds while giving a continuous running commentary on bird behaviour. 

We had started in the early hours, leaving Mumbai at 6 a.m. for Karnala, a bird sanctuary in Raigad. Having spotted and identified nearly thirty birds at Karnala, we left for Uran after having a heavy breakfast, as lunch was expected to be late at a mall in Vashi.

By the time we arrived at Seawoods we were a tired, dishevelled lot, except for Salil who was driving the lead car. For the last five hours this indefatigable man had been driving with one hand, binoculars in the other. 

On spotting a bird Salil would stop the car, get out, identify it, allow the photographers to get their clicks and then get back in and drive........ only to repeat the whole process. This had taken it's toll on us lesser mortals.

So it was a drowsy, hypoglycemic bunch that arrived at the Seawoods site that afternoon.

We had just turned off onto a mud road flanking a small pond of brackish water. There was nothing to see. 

No birds in the water. No birds on the banks. Far up in the sky a raptor circled lazily in the hot afternoon, a speck of dust in the light azure sky.

Salil stopped the lead car and bounded out, binoculars in hand. Something had stirred his instincts, deeply honed out of years of birding.

Seeing Salil get out, Abhay also stopped and got out, camera in hand. Abhay is our Bird Photographer Extraordinaire and together with wife Sadhana who is an expert bird spotter and identifier, they make a synergistic team of birders.

I could see no reason why I should get out of Abhay's swanky new air conditioned automatic as there were no birds to be seen. Reluctantly I got out and joined Salil who was examining the raptor through his binoculars. 

"A kite? No! No! It is an Osprey!" whispered Salil excitedly. No birder ever raises his voice for fear of frightening away the birds.

The raptor started losing height as it came down. It had seen something in the water below.

Hearing the word 'Osprey' I turned to get my camera out of the car. The osprey had started to wheel around in a circle. It came to a hovering halt about hundred meters from us, some thirty feet above the calm waters. Abhay had already aimed his camera on the osprey and was clicking madly.

Just prior to this we had shot at Uran where the birds were mere white blobs on the horizon. To get sharp pictures I had closed down the aperture. This had decreased the amount of light entering the lens and I had to slow the shutter to compensate. Since the Uran birds were stationary in the hot afternoon this was of no matter. However it would prove to be a fatal mistake when shooting a fast moving bird like the osprey. 

The hovering osprey stretched itself to it's maximum height and dived vertically feet first into the water below. Below the water his talons closed around a big fat fish even as his wings beat strongly for take off.

I aimed my lens at the osprey just at this time, focused the lens and kept my finger pressed for continuous clicking. The fish below water started to struggle to get away and this dragged the osprey half into the water. The osprey then used the full might of his wings to lift the writhing fish clear off the water and started to rise. With a steady continuous beat of his wings the osprey rose and flew off with the prey firmly clutched in his talons. The whole thing was over in less than a minute!

In the sudden excitement of capturing the osprey I had totally forgotten to increase the shutter speed to freeze the bird in midair. The slow shutter speed I had set at Uran caused the fast moving bird to blur up in the shots. Never again, I resolved, would I shoot birds in manual mode!

See all the pictures at :  https://www.facebook.com/vinbhat/media_set…