Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
The relevant city’s metropolitan population is approximately “Brisbane’s plus Adelaide’s” – well in excess of four million humans.
It is a safe bet that its “other large mammals’ combined population” would comfortably exceed that of all Australian cities.
What you are looking at would be “inconceivable” within an Australian CBD, but to those who reside in Rajasthan’s capital (and largest) city, this would be an unremarkable sight.
Comments closedWhat is a “quirky moment”?
The answer is largely a matter of the relevant human observer’s/participant’s experience, sensibility, attitude.
One person’s “surprising” or “bizarre” or “amusing” is another’s “to be expected, in this particular context”, “prosaic”, or “unremarkable”
What is happening in the featured image is a case in point.
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…only in India!
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A heron (or egret) in hunting mode delivers a fascinating, repeating sequence of events.
For unpredictably short or long periods the heron is a study in concentration and stillness, until that stillness is suddenly shattered by the bird’s speargun-like attack.
The prey – usually a small fish, crustacean, mollusc, amphibian or insect – is swallowed, rapidly.
The sequence then repeats…
For obvious reasons, a photographer cannot “capture” this behaviour from a very close vantage point, directly in front of the heron’s beak/“speargun”.
However, one can sometimes get surprisingly close, “from behind”.
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Two questions arise when considering all three birds in today’s featured image.
The obvious one: “clearly, their wings are not black, so how do they merit their name?”
The other one: “why is Himantopus himantopus in the Guinness Book of Records?”
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Funambulus pennanti is a very, very much smaller mammal than is Oryx gazella.
Nonetheless, whereas yesterday’s large African antelopes occupied a tiny portion of the featured image, today’s Asian rodents dominate it.
Many people regard this widespread, very adaptable squirrel species as “particularly cute”.
From an agricultural/human food production/storage point of view, however, five-striped palm squirrels are a serious pest; in Elmer Fudd-speak, these are “weally wascally wodents”.
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One very rarely sees a reptilian troika.
Unsurprisingly, Batagur dhongoka – this post’s critically endangered species – is this little series’ sole reptile.
The behaviour depicted is characteristic…and it greatly boosts a human’s chances of enjoying a proper look, even taking a reasonable photo…
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Imagine the image above, devoid of context, and subjected to a “caption this photo” contest.
A suitably cornball “winner”:
a quiet drink with a few mates.
The featured image was taken with a long lens (560 mm) at 11.12 am on 20 February 2020.
The photo immediately below was taken just a few seconds later, from almost exactly the same vantage point, overlooking a pond/reservoir, a few minutes away from Khichan…
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Cranes: in this case, Demoiselle cranes, the world’s smallest crane species,
Jains: adherents of Jainism, an Indian religion which is older than Christianity and Islam.
The practical application of Jainism’s central principle/vow has produced an astounding result.
For Demoiselle cranes (and for human admirers of one of the world’s more elegant birds) Khichan – a modest village in the Thar Desert – is now the world’s most rewarding destination.
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Q: why did many expensive lenses cross oceans, and the lenses’ owners then get up so very early on a crisp Rajasthan winter morning?
A: they wanted to secure a “good” position on a rooftop in an unassuming Thar Desert village.
The more meaningful answer has to be seen to be believed…as you will see in Pelican Yoga’s next two, lavishly-illustrated posts.
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