bird-watching in ICRISAT

-
I went to the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) headquarters in Patancheru (industrial area), Hyderabad (state capital), Telangana State, India. I was very surprised to learn that there is winter in this part of the world because I come from a tropical region where there are only two seasons: wet and dry. In contrast, Hyderabad has three: summer, monsoon, and winter. It just so happened that I came in winter, which the travel guidebooks say is the best time to visit the city.

Since it is winter, it is an opportune time for me to see migratory birds... and ICRISAT is a perfect place to go bird-watching. Things started off promising when I saw a vase full of peacock tail feathers on an desk at the IRRI-South Asia Hub office. But because of the season, the days were pretty short. If I wanted to do some bird-watching, I had to do it over a free day because after office hours, it's too dark outside to take photos.


So on my free day, I went with a few women (from different states in India) and walked along the fields, stopped to see the sights on a lake near the administration buildings, and visited some of the farms for a closer look at the crops. While they were engrossed with the pulses, I was trying my best to capture bird images. I wasn't using an SLR, though; instead, I was using a Canon Powershot SX720 HS. I'm happy with how the photos turned out. I mean, I finally worked out how the "P" setting worked.

Here are some of the bird shots. I wasn't as productive as the real bird-watchers are because I am really not one of them. And I'm not an ornithologist. Meaning, I was trying to balance bird-watching with sightseeing and socialising with my fellow ICRISAT guests so I couldn't go all-out quiet mode.

I identified the birds the best I can but in case the designations are wrong, I'll edit them later. This is the closest I approached bird taxonomy. Finally, a course I took in college came into use.

black drongo

cattle egret

black kite

Eurasian sparrow

red-naped ibis

rock dove

common babbler

spot-billed duck

Indian blue peafowl

rose-ringed parakeet

laughing dove

Until this point, I really didn't realise that I'm somewhat doing this bird-watching gig as a hobby. A really casual hobby... inspired by IRRI bird-watchers. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for dropping by!

Before moving on, please share your thoughts or comments about the post. :)

Thanks again!

Popular posts from this blog

Skyflakes

-
One of the more famous Philippine exports is Skyflakes , a wheat-based, salty cracker. It is one of my emergency food items: I typically have some stocked at home and in my handbag in case I become hungry (like in traffic jams). When there's no electricity and it's impractical to cook rice (because the leftover would spoil), I'd open a pack of Skyflakes and generously coat each cracker with Cheez Whiz... if I had a bottle of it within reach. Anyway, each time I spent more than two weeks outside the Philippines, I'd be elated to see boxes of Skyflakes inside Asian stores (particularly when in I was Australia and in the USA). Back then, I took it as a sign of homesickness. When I moved to California, I didn't miss Skyflakes because Mommy made sure that there's a steady supply in the house. Skyflakes is embedded in Filipino gastronomy as a snack, a panawid-gutom , that anyone who reacts positively upon seeing Skyflakes outside the Philippines must have spe...
Read more

10 things I learned while driving on Marcos Highway to Baguio City

-
I went on a day trip to the City of Pines, which was around a 700-km drive from my house. I drove  going up there and then from the city to Victoria, Tarlac. After that, my dad took over the driving duties. It was day trip with Tita Ising and Tito Sibing with us. Anyway, this trip was my first time to go to Baguio City with me behind the wheel. As everyone who drives up knows, there are three main routes to Baguio from the lowlands: Kennon Road, which ascends from Rosario, La Union. It was out of my options because it's too dangerous to use that road in the rainy season. The second route is via Naguilian Road, which makes my trip a lot longer because the beginning of the ascent is in Bauang, La Union (further north). The last route, and the one I took, was the Marcos Highway, now known as the Aspiras-Palispis Highway. This 47-km road starts from Agoo, La Union and is touted as the safest route among the three.  As I drove up and then down (on the same day; we were in...
Read more

Surat Mangyan

-
Image
In high school, part of the Filipino curriculum was learning about one of the country's ancient native scripts called Baybayin . I learned back then that this script was eventually abandoned because the Spanish, and eventually the Americans, encouraged the use of the Latin script for written communications. But that's in the lowlands; the rules were different up in the mountains. In the lush mountains of Mindoro, groups of indigenous people called Mangyans  live largely in isolation away from the Christianised Filipinos. This isolation has led to the continuous development of the Mangyans' old script, Surat Mangyan . As I walked inside the Ayala Museum , I saw this bamboo tube (I'm not sure if it's an instrument) with Mangyan script written all over it. I suppose that this was equivalent to a book or a song. But I haven't figured out what's written yet, despite the translation guide provided. What I can do, however, is write my name in Ma...
Read more