Birding and Photography on Christmas!

Ever since I had gone birding at Sundarban, I had been wanting and waiting to do it again. I had been brooding over this for a while and I finally bit the bullet – I purchased a Canon 400 mm f/5.6 lens to pair with my 2013 Canon EOS 70D to photograph birds and wildlife. I already had the excellent Zeiss Terra ED 10×42 binoculars for observing birds and wildlife. The recent lens purchase made the itch to go birding even more persistent. So when the Christmas holiday arrived, it presented a perfect opportunity to visit the Okhla Bird Sanctuary in Noida. It is a good time of the year to visit the sanctuary as it is usually teeming with winter migrants at this time of the year. I requested the company of a friend and a fellow nature enthusiast who graciously agreed. Armed with our photography and spotting gear we embarked upon this endeavour.

While it is easy to get carried away with photography gear, photography as an art has a steep learning curve. I watched a few YouTube videos on shooting manual and with no practical field experience set out to photograph birds – a notoriously difficult genre to master. What makes this more complex with bird photography is that one doesn’t only need to be good with gear and the technical and artistic aspects of composing a picture, it also requires one to understand the behaviour of birds. Birds are diverse and highly unpredictable to a novice in terms of movement and behaviour. I only had my enthusiasm to rely upon as I am a novice birder and photographer. Needless to say, I came back humbled and with a stronger realization that I have a long way to go before I call myself a birder or a photographer!

On the brighter side, I really enjoyed my time spent in the sanctuary and did see a few birds. I was able click a few too. Here we go!