Tale of the Grassland

Rajarhat is a very famous place among birders and nature photographers in Kolkata and it's outskirts. It is located near the Eco Park. Great pictures taken here flood the social media, and most famous among them is the Red Munia, the Prince of Rajarhat. My wife was more energetic than me, and arranged a visit to that place on a gloomy day. I have never been there before, but, on my first visit, I was rather disappointed,  neither because I didn't find the Prince there, nor lack of adequate light to get good photos, but due to the fact that, people don't care..they simply are too ignorant. These very few remaining grasslands serve as the lungs of this city of joy, but people?? They do their job of littering and spreading garbage everywhere, and they do it quite well actually. My birder friends who are regular visitors there, can identify the spot where little grebes are found. The space between their habitat and the road is full of discarded plastic bottles and other stuff. Discarded bottles are floating in the water, which is supposed to be the habitat of the bitterns. If we don't be proactive about the conservation of these little pockets of greenery, the future is looking quite gloomy, I must say. 

Okay, my first visit didn't have that lasting first impression. Now that I'm done with all the gloom and doom, lets look at the beauty of the place.

 

This beautiful long tailed shrike greeted us upon arrival

Bronze winged zacana busy with business

The road goes straight up to a dead end where these tall reeds are found, which is the habitat of numerous types of birds.

A group of Baya weavers fly by

Gloomy day is not quite good for birds, so lets look at the landscapes. A view from the right side

No pre Durga puja upload is complete without the mandatory Kaash ful

Open billed storks and black crowned night herons have made themselves quite comfortable within the heart of urbanization

Little grebe and chick busy finding food, they were at the far end of the marsh, not good for photographs, so, only habitat type shots

But where are the Munias?????? It looked like, the royals were too busy to grace me with their appearance, and not being so sad, I looked elsewhere to photograph.

 

 

Black drongo sitting on a grazing cow makes for an interesting shot through the grass

This bold little prinia was asking to be photographed

 

It even came to flaunt it's catch, the background is a building

A familiar whistling sound drew my attention towards the reeds and I was some birds flying. It was very hard to identify them but the calls gave them away.

 

A flock of lesser whistling ducks

I was busy photographing the ducks, hoping that they would come a little closer for a detailed shot, but that never happened. Then suddenly some activities caught my eye, and.....they were here..

Tricolored munias, adults on the right, juveniles on the left

The munias were there for a very brief moment, and most that time I looked for a way to get closer to them, but, being unfamiliar to the place, I couldn't, and they had already left. Although not very good of an image, but , It still made me very happy.

I took a few more shots here and there, barn swallows and other birds, that I'll share in the upcoming posts.

Suddenly, my wife drew my attention as the little grebes were now very close to where she was standing. She urged me to run to that place, but, I decided against that. It took a significant amount of time for me to reach there and the grebes were already moving away. Although, I managed to grab a few shots, but they were not as good as I would like them to be. My wife was very disappointed with my lack of enthusiasm to run, and I think she may be right this time.

the good bye shot

The weather turned gloomier by the minute, and the threat of rain was looming, so it was time to say good bye. The first impression of the place was not good enough, but still the grassland managed to charm both of us with it's beauty and all the unexplored mysteries beyond the tall reeds. We will be back for more, very soon.

the last shot of the day

This blog post of mine is not only show the beauty of this place, but also to make people aware that we need be proactive about conservation these places. Urbanization has pushed a lot of species to the brink of extinction, and we need to be very careful about the future. There is still a little time left, so we must use it to device ways that would make the earth a better place for humans, along with other inhabitants. Photographing nature and animals is not merely a way to get applauded in the social media, but also a medium to spread awareness among people that we must preserve what we have, the natural treasures, so that, the future generations can enjoy them for times to come.