The Morning Sky ...

Does this happen to everyone?

Its been a long time I haven't really written any random stuff here and donno why, but today I am feeling like I should do it. And as I sat down to write, I was met with a strange revelation, I am at a loss as to what to write. They say, on an average, a human has about Sixty thousand thoughts a day, then why isn't even a single one of them giving me the liberty to write?

Guess its about the famous writers block that people talk about. I've heard a lot about it but I think today is the right time to know more about it, so I went to Wikipedia, and it gave me a very dipressing feeling. This is what it had to say.

WIKIPEDIA : Writer's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked" writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers.

The causes, it said, varied from being as basic as the authors lack of creativity, lack or loss of inspiration or even because the work is beyond the authors experience or ability. Hmm, Writers block, but is it really going to hold me back? I'm really not sure. I hope not.

I'll make sure that the creativity stays with me, I'll fight hard to keep my inspiration stay and as far as bloging is concerned, I really don't think that its beyond my ability. So, I'll surely keep trying to write and I hope that you'll surely see a new post soon.

Where are all my friends?

This one was flying around with a group and while the others flew to a nearby tree this one landed up on the wire in front of my window. I just managed to take thi shot before it flew away.

In the Sun and Rain

These are two photos of the hibiscus flower from my garden. They were taken on a Sunny winter morning about a week back.




And this one was taken after a couple of days. It had rained heavily here in Nagpur for those two days and the flower had taken quite a bit. But the hibiscus still looked beautiful despite of it being an overcast day and it had just stopped raining when I took this picture.

Some more birds ...

I found these small cuties on 14th Jan, while flying kites, please manage with the quality of the pics coz these birds were very small ... Please keep the comments flowing ...



And if there are any bird watchers coming in here ... please do enlighten me with the names of these two birds ... the black one and the one with the purple neck ...



Happy Blogging ...

American Goldfinch

This bright yellow bird played hide-n-seek with me for about an hour before I got a clear glimpse of it(well, almost clear ... ;-)). I was flying some kites on 14th Jan, Sankranti, when I happened to spot this one on a tree.


Wikipedia:

The American Goldfinch is a granivore and adapted for the consumption of seedheads, with a conical beak to remove the seeds and agile feet to grip the stems of seedheads while feeding. It is a social bird, and will gather in large flocks while feeding and migrating.



Human activity has generally benefited the American Goldfinch. It is often found in residential areas, attracted to bird feeders installed by humans, which increases its survival rate in these areas. Deforestation by humans also creates open meadow areas which are the preferred habitat of the American Goldfinch.




The American Goldfinch is a small finch, 11–13 centimeters (4–5 in) in length, with a wingspan of 19–22 centimeters (7–9 in). It weighs between 11–20 grams (0.39–0.71 oz). The beak is small, conical, and pink for most of the year, but turns bright orange with the spring molt in both sexes.

Basking in the evening Sun

I caught this one on sunday, when I was having my evening tea.

Click on the picture to see the full size.

Where am I ?

Everything around me was blurry and my head ached as I tried to strain my eyes to see who was around me. I could see a couple of outlines of people but couldn't really make out who they were.


"Where am I ?" I thought.


It sure looked like a hospital as the only color I could see all around was white.


"But how did I get here?"


I tried to concentrate but the constant beep from a nearby instrument combined with the thumping headache, which ironically, seemed to match the rhythm of the instrument beep, kept me from thinking anything at all. I closed my eyes again and tried to sleep but I felt an urge to itch on my left hand.


"Maybe a mosquito bite."


I tried to reach out to scratch it but my other hand didn't seem to respond to my mind. I tried to lift my hand again but still no response. I started getting desperate.


"Why was I not able to move my hand?"


"Was I paralysed?"


I tried moving the other body parts one by one. I could only try it on my limbs and my mind started to give away, concentrating more on the headache rather than on the orders I was giving it. I concluded that my right body parts were not responding to my orders.


The itch had started to get me desperate and I couldn't control it any longer. I tried to use the same hand to relieve myself but in the process I disturbed a cord attached to my hand, which seemed to open the pandora's box.


The bedside instrument started to beep wildly and I could feel a sudden commotion around me. Between the beeps I could feel someone touching me. Suddenly, the beeping stopped and I thought I've digged my grave by trying to itch. I could faintly hear someone calling my name.


'Sunny ... Sunny' and I felt a light jerk too.


Then suddenly, I felt a surge of adrenaline pass thru my body, I heard the voice clearly, I felt the commotion , I felt the nudge too.


Startled, I opened my eyes.


Nothing made sense for a moment until I glanced around me only to notice my bedside alarm and my wife saying, 'Get up. You are already late for office.'

Little Green Bee-eater

The first bird that I spotted on my window was the Little Green Bee-eater, a very colorful and pleasant bird. I'm adding a little more information about it below.



This species is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is about 9 inches (16-18 cm) long with about 2 inches made up by the elongated central tail-feathers. The crown and upper back are tinged with golden rufous. The flight feathers are rufous washed with green and tipped blackish. A fine black line runs in front of and behind the eye. The iris is crimson and the bill is black while the legs are dark grey.

We can see the Golden Crown clearly in the image below.



The neck can be seen in this image, asian green bee-eaters usually dont have a prominent blue neck like their Arabian counterparts, but the shade of blue can be noticed.




Just as the name suggests, bee-eaters predominantly eat insects, especially bees, wasps and ants, which are caught in the air by sorties from an open perch.






Ref: Wikipedia, Google.
Motivation by: http://klishmaklaver.blogspot.com/

The New Year's Moon

We had such a hype of the blue moon on the new years eve, that I couldn't fight the urge to stay inside, and despite of the eclipse and I found myself out on my terrace clicking pictures of the moon. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when I saw that the moon was not "Blue". A bit of research told me that the moon is not really blue but then the eclipse occurs twice so its called a blue moon. I still clicked the "Blue Moon". And I clicked a half moon too a couple of days back, so thought I'll post both of them.

I personally like the half moon, how about u ?

Birds from my window

Its been a while I got a new SLR and I've been experimenting a lot with it lately but most of the pics that i had clicked were of family only. But only in the new year I started to click random stuff. The very first ones were the cutie pie birds that I clicked from my window, which reminds me of my Director Mr. Nishikant Mukherjee, who was clicking pictures for his book, 'Birds from my window', I hope I can be half that lucky to find enough birds on my window too.

These are some from the first week.

P.S. :I'm really very new to photography, please feel free to criticize or applaud.