White browed wagtail

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Hello everybody, feels nice to be back in Indiawilds after a long hiatus. Even though I don't live in India, my connect with the wild continues in other regions. Waiting to make a jungle trip to India, been 3 years now.

I was in Haridwar this April and while spending hours by the Ganga river, couldn't help notice this interesting bird frolic around. Much to my disappointment, save ganga and clean ganga projects have not stopped people from throwing trash into the river. However, birds like these do manage to get some tidbits from the river.

Since this bird is naturally in shades of black and white it helped make this image in b&w. The b&w feel has also tried to somewhat diffuse the structures on the other side of the river.

Nikon D7k, f/5.6,ISO1250,105mm, cropped to remove unwanted structures.

[Mrudul Godbole]

I liked the pose and the eye contact. It would have been great to have it on a natural perch, but I think the whole ghat area is cemented, with hardly any trees around :(. Which lens were you using? There is a slight loss of details. Any wildlife sightings in that area? Thanks for sharing.

[Murugan Anantharaman]

I liked the pose and the eye contact. It would have been great to have it on a natural perch, but I think the whole ghat area is cemented, with hardly any trees around :(. Which lens were you using? There is a slight loss of details. Any wildlife sightings in that area? Thanks for sharing.

Mrudul- My intention was not to click the picture of the bird. My daughter forced me to click it as it was completely not bothered by our presence. It was clicked from our hotel private ghat. I used the kit lens 18-105 nikkor. When we went to Rishikesh we crossed the Rajaji N.P gate, and I could see jeep safaris being organized for people. The forest department is providing 2-3 hr safari from the Rishikesh road gate of Rajaji N.P. (near Raiwala rail station) for interested people on an adhoc basis for an amount. No prior booking is required. We didn't do the safari though.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I remember driving along the ganga a few years ago and it was highly polluted. Human interventions have dealt a mortal blow to a once mighty river.

Like this image. This image would have been super if there was light falling from behind your shoulders so that the eye of the bird would have got the catchlight. I agree that the colouration of the bird is such that a monochrome conversion hardly impacts it. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi