GREEN VINE

    Green vine, the most beautiful snake i have ever seen. Green vines are mildly venomous and active during day. It highly depends on the camouflage,as they uses it as transport medium. The snake stretches its whole body to reach the highest point and it can almost stretch up straight without any support. The snake is least seen on the ground which makes very difficult to find out.

One day we were out in the jungle searching for birds, we noticed some unusual moments in a low level tree and we kept observing it for a while ( its really hard to find out) and we noticed something moving around  and we went there to check in. We saw a beautiful snake which was stretching its whole body to move around.

                                                               green vine

They are very thin and it can grow upto 1.5 to 2 meters. The body is aerodynamic. The snake feeds on Frogs,lizards and even birds sometimes. It goes to the highest point and uses its binocular vision to hunt. And almost i cannot forget this one because that was a first snake bite in my life. My friend told its not venomous( actually he meant slightly venomous), I was like too much excited about it.  I took some photos for a while. And i wanted to take some macro shots, so i leaned towards it and started to take snaps, suddenly it got annoyed and gave a nasty bite. and then it started itching, we went back to see doctor, that was another story to remember.

There is a stupid myth in parts of southern India, that the species uses its pointed head to blind its human victims. Actually its behaviour towards humans are neutral. I got to say it can surely scare you by opening the mouth as widely as possible.
More story about green vine in next post.
© srivathsa.s

These wildlife photos that i publish in this blog are copyrighted.
contact me for full resolution pictures. srivathsaaa@gmail.com

Coppersmith Barbet

  Coppersmith Barbet  is a bright colored sparrow sized bird,which is more heard than seen. It has a gorgeous green plumage which serves as an effective camaflouge in greenery. Barbet's call is very familiar for any one lucky enough to have a fig tree around their neighbourhood. The call is a loud monotonous ringing. The barbet gets its name because the call resembles a coppersmith hitting a piece of metal constantly at a distance.It is ventriloquistic in nature . So the bird is hard to locate when it perches high above in a fig tree and makes this peculiar sound for hours at once. Most of my friends told they have never seen it(Funny thing->I have seen like 6 to 7 barbets which are regular to fig trees in our campus)
 

                                      Male coppersmit.
Captured it when it was feeding on a tree.

                                     Barbet entering the nest to feed.

The parents bring back figs, insects as regularly as possible. The nest will be usually in a fig tree and other berry trees.

 

                                This moment is the best.

The Barbet coming out of the hole makes the shot beautiful, all u need is some patience(another word for wildlife photography) and a decent camera. Nest is a cylindrical hole with horizontal entrance made in a dead log of tree. Male and female both share the domestic duties. Sometimes the old abandoned nest will be renovated by them.

 

                                

This pic seems like they are kissing eh? The scenario is actually one parent is leaving the nest, another is waiting to get in.

In photography, sometimes, things are not always what they seem. . Atleast the chances are less in wildlife photography unlike artistic and other photography.. I remember Calvin telling Hobbes " thats what i love in photography, people always think the photos tell the truth".

© srivathsa.s

These wildlife and artistic photographs that i publish in this blog are copyrighted.
contact me for full resolution pictures. srivathsaaa@gmail.com

sun bird family

One day we were roaming around a village to take photos of a peacock (needless to say a villager misguided us). After sometime we were disappointed n planning to leave the place. We found a nest which was hanging to a lantena in a shrubby area. Our faces were lit and we wanted to check out the nest.

 

Sunbird chick

I touched the nest gently n we heard some faint sounds and we saw the hatchling(chick) opening its beak . At this moment i took some snaps, n my camera was too close to the nest,So with limited light the image came out less sharper










Male sunbird

 The male is a beauty. Male helps in feeding the young .The male was very careful when it was around the nest, it used to take 2 min to approach the nest.

It was metal glossy and dark purple,it was spectacular.Sadly there was much shade around the nest. So we couldn't do much.

  






Female sunbird
 Female builds and incubates. Female alone builds the nest.Breeding season mainly from March to May.
mainly it feeds spiders and small insects to its chick. You can see the spider in the beak if u observe properly.











Male feeding
The frequency of feeding in the day time is too high. We noticed the . birds returning to the nest within 5 to 6 min. You can see the shiny body of the male,its just gorgeous.










Female feeding
 I could see only 2 hatchlings, i guess  there was another. I decided to take the  shot close since i had 72mm digital  camera. The optical zoom was not  enough to frame the birds.













The way i took these shots

We planned to make some hide using surrounding natural stuff, we collected some arecanut leaves . I sat down on the ground with dried foliage all over me. Bird did not recognize any of the changes.

© srivathsa.s

These wildlife photos that i publish in this blog are copyrighted.
contact me for full resolution pictures. srivathsaaa@gmail.com