Weekend Assignment - The Urban Wildlife: Photologue!


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Wildlife photography means capturing animals in their natural habitats. Capturing those special moments in the ‘wild’ !.
I do would hope to see myself, in the future,going on trips to Rain forests or Grass lands far away from man, in the real ‘wild’, shooting away various forms of wildlife in their natural habitats. Now that I am totally confined to a concrete jungle in a called Chongqing in China, I hardly get to explore the ‘wildlife’ or ‘Nature’ that are completely untouched my human. Also that, the itch in me to see my favourite subjects through my Lens getting more serious off late, I am left with exploring the backyard, the gardens, those small little lakes and green parks in my city, hence terming it ‘Urban wildlife’. Urban wildlife is that can live or thrive in urban environments.

I have had a couple of hours of photo-walk through the city in the last couple of weekends, all in search of some wildlife action in the urban setting. I have a few captures that I thought worth sharing here, hence this thread.[:)]
A Sparrow and wildlife ?
Captured while getting wet !![:)]
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Re: Weekend Assignment - The Urban Wildlife: Photologue !

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It was during the last weekend, I visited this abandoned lake in the outskirts of the city of Chongqing in China. I have observed most of the water bodies in this part of the world affected by eutrophication facing an early death.
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It was a surprising moment to spot these beauties emerging out of the waters through the green cover. These are Little Grebe, if I am not wrong.
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There were three of them. I spent around an hour watching them swimming around, feeding, diving and then emerging elsewhere. Though the weather wasn’t great, it was fun capturing these little water birds in action.
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The face-off !

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Re: Weekend Assignment - The Urban Wildlife: Photologue !

The other day I found these Eurasian Coots in a similar action. There were two actually, looked a bit aggressive at times. A couple of shots taken in some good evening light, hence nice colours.
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Earlier I had found them feeding these little babies. Note the nest and you could see some plastic in there.
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Re: Weekend Assignment - The Urban Wildlife: Photologue !

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I was happy to see the Sun coming out of the cloud cover for a while, that afternoon. All of a sudden, I could spot this Pelican landing for a quick shower. I immediately leaned down on to the ground and captured this beautiful moment.
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I was lucky that I positioned myself such that my subject was backlit. I normally shoot in the Aperture priority mode wide open. Since I had set shutter priority mode at 1/2000s, I could easily switch and capture some beautiful action moments. I could have tried a faster shutter speed, but by then all the action was over.
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Quite a while back, I was watching these Cranes quietly in a hide for some time, from a distance. Suddenly they started to cry very loudly and that continued for about 10 seconds or so before getting back to normal. Seemed to have heard a fellow-being calling from a distance. Looked like some sort of response or warning to an incoming threat.
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This looks like a species of ‘Robin’ to me. Please correct me if I am wrong. This beautiful small bird was found making some serious calling just outside my apartment the other weekend.
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This black Swan was captured from a scenic park in the city. There were a couple of these and many species of ducks swimming around in a non-captive environment inside the park.
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I had visited the place earlier and found way too many birds, but did not find many this time around. Looks like some winter migration.
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This is what I do when I get time during weekends. If any of these photos touches you positively or pleases you at least, the intend behind this post of mine is justified.

Thanks
Manoj
 
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Just Wow! that's what comes to my mind. Photos of pelican are nat geo stuff Manoj. Superb and Fantabulous (if I may use that word). Please continue sharing. 500mm! man you got a bazooka there. Third picture from the first is amazing and if I may suggest, please crop only the bird on left with its wing open and edit it so that twigs in the background are removed and it looks fantastic. Please post more photos; I am hooked to this thread.


Rated this five *****
 
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Superb friend . I used to do birding every weekend during my stay in H.P. Now, staying in a city 'jungle' where I find only crows .
I understand. But a couple of hours of dedicated photo-walk even through the city jungle will yield fruits.

Just Wow! that's what comes to my mind. Photos of pelican are nat geo stuff Manoj. Superb and Fantabulous (if I may use that word). Please continue sharing. 500mm! man you got a bazooka there. Third picture from the first is amazing and if I may suggest, please crop only the bird on left with its wing open and edit it so that twigs in the background are removed and it looks fantastic. Please post more photos; I am hooked to this thread.
Rated this five *****
Thanks. Those are already close to 100% crop. Thanks for the suggestion, appreciated. [:)]

Awesome clicksThe pelican picture looks stunning....
Thanks. Different subjects or subjects in different situations = more excitement and fun = better product. Tired of seeing the same similar blurry images even of the perched birds around.

Though I left China after a 9 year stint, I do have a few birds to share which I will do eventually, time permitted.

This colorful bird [Robin ??] used to be around during cold weather. Very shy and difficult to capture but definitely fun [:)]
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