The Birdman!!

During the week I normally wake up at 06:30 ... work an average of about 8~9hrs, sometimes longer. During the weekends, I usually wake up at 5am ... and work from dawn to dusk. Sometimes, I spend the nights and evenings traveling to and from my 'place of work'. During the weekdays, I have breakfast and lunch at the office cafeteria and on many occassions dinner as well. On the weekends, I'd be lucky to find a warm meal!! During the week, I'm a research engineer. During the weekend, I'm the Birdman!

They say that journey of a thousand miles, start with a single photograph. Well, I've covered many thousands of miles within a country thats about 500miles from north to south in search of birds. Most people cannot comphrehend why I'd take so much trouble for such a 'trivial thing'. I make no effort to explain ... insanity and obsession has a very thin line in between and it shifts widely depending on how you look at it :)
Even though I travel solo on all my birding trips, I often meet locals who, like most other people are unable to comprehend why would someone take so much trouble to watch birds. Sometimes I get invited by completely random people to have coffee! Sometimes, they'd give me a lot of useful information about the local topography and where I might birds. But inspite of these interesting encounters, nothing matches the feeling of spotting a species of bird I've not seen before or managing to capture a good image. With the onset of spring, I could leave behind my gloves and enjoy the flexibility of photography with bare hands. Some images and the stories associated with them.

Many months ago, at the beginning of my birding days, I stumbled upon a nameless creek in the rice fields bordering the Yellow Sea. Many a trips later, I made the 3.5hr journey and went back to what I've come to call my 'secret shooting grounds' in search of waders. The weather was amazing and inspite of the chilly winds, it was an absolute pleasure to photograph under such idyllic conditions. Though began my search for the birds scanning the coastline, I finally found the first of them in that nameless creek. For a long time I observed a group of 3 Common Redshanks from behind a reed bed. This shot was taken when one of them took off. The full resolution of the picture shows the drops of water flying off from the legs of the bird.

Surprise is one of the best feelings associated with birding. On the same day, as the sun was sinking towards the horizon, I walked along the beach exposed by the low tide. I was approaching another group of shorebirds busy picking insects from the exposed wet sand. I was looking through the view finder of the camera when a bright orange 'thing' appeared from behind some rocks. The setting sun intensifies the saturation of warm colors and the beak of this Oystercatcher was absolutely mindblowing.

I found this Tristram's Bunting in the woodlands of the Nakdong estuary in Busan. I was sitting in a sandbag lined pit in the woods searching for passerines. The trees around me showed tremendous activity with birds darting all around. I found this bunting feeding on seeds on the forest floor. Unlike other buntings that are spooked easily, I found this to be remarkably tolerant and allowed me to get within about 10m from it.

A shot from the same woodland of Nakdong estuary. A Japanese Pygmie woodpecker taking off. Because small birds are so agile and stay concealed in vegetation, it is extremely difficult to get a pic of them in action. Of the 7000 or so photos that I've taken so far, only about 10 are of small birds in flight. It takes some patience and a lot of luck!!

This one shows a Siberian Stonechat in a place called Uiwang. Its the closest birding spot to my home in Suwon. I found a pair of them nesting in a orchard close to the Uiwang reservoir. I've spotted them on multiple occassions and they always oblige me with some decent shots :)

Bar-tailed Godwits ... no other bird fills me with such admiration. They have nothing remarkable in appearance, except perhaps for their slightly upturend beaks. But what they lack in appearance, more than makes up in their endurance. They can fly non-stop for as long as 7000miles .... yes, 7000miles without stopping!! An average airplane can make about 6000 miles without refeuling (apart from the ultra-long haul ones like 747 or A380). I found a group them feeding on the beaches of the western coast of Korea.