Bell

Bell came into my life on 10th April this year, as a weak and dying baby bird. My dad had spotted him falling from another bird's claws and onto the ground. Not wanting him to die, he brought the baby bird home, hoping that my sister and I would take care of him. The initial stages of feeding were difficult; we couldn't tell what species he was, and what he actually fed on. We later managed to identify him as a Rufous Treepie, a very common bird in the area. However, over the days, he slowly started to recover, and soon became really active. He would stand on his toes, chirp out loudly with his mouth open wide, and flap his tender wings whenever we came to feed him. He was so adorable! On 19th April, something miraculous happened: When I placed him next to a line of moving ants, he slowly turned his attention towards them, and even tried pecking at the ants! His natural instincts seemed to start kicking! I was overjoyed; it seemed to me like the dream I had, of one day letting him fly off into the wild, would come true after all. But alas, the very next day, that dream was shattered. He was gasping for air, and unable to stand when I went to feed him that morning. My sister started crying. How could this have happened! He was so active and healthy the previous day! We held him in our palms for a while, and soon, he closed his eyes and stopped breathing. He was gone. I have no explanation for this; I believe I fed him the right food, and followed all necessary precautions. Maybe he was just destined to die? I mourn over his death, but yet, am glad that I managed to keep him alive for 9 more days. These days with Bell have taught me how to be responsible, and how to sacrifice time that I could have spent out there enjoying.

We had Bell buried in one of our plots. Here's a video I took of him, as my sister cleaned him with a warm, damp cloth.

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R.I.P Bell(??/4/12 - 20/4/12)

Just The Perfect Couple

My pet dogs Titu and Tiky leashed together and made to look like a newly wed couple with a red flower on each of their chests! Aren't they the loveliest couple ever!

Titu's just so darn happy.

Cats, Dogs and Cows

Took these photographs during the past few weeks. It's not always easy to photograph cats here as they usually scuttle off upon seeing humans.

This is my dog Titu in motion, behind him you see the crib and christmas tree.



And this little fellow was photographed near my friend's house. He's a calf, probably just a few years old.



Yeah, so that was Cats, Dogs and Cows! Forgive me for that silly title! Couldn't think of anything.

Doggie Smiles

I love my dogs, and they love me the same. Here are some recent shots of them. Tiky is rather shy in front of the camera, and tries best to avoid it.

Titu on the other hand, will pose for you. He's really photogenic as well!



I just love that smile of his!



Happy New Year everyone!

Dog Portraits

My dogs are undoubtedly my best friends here. Here are some portraits of them I took over a few months. Titu, my white male dog, snoring away...

A black-and-white shot of Tiky, my black female dog, after a bath.

Here's one shot I took of Titu where I asked him to sit on the mat and stay while I took a shot. I was trying something artistic (?), and this was what I got.

Chicks

We had chickens in our home in India for a long while, but it had been months, or years, since I saw some chicks. My mum decided to keep eight fertilized eggs for hatching. And one day, all eight hatched, and out came these cute little furry creatures. Here's a shot with the old mommy hen with her newly hatched chicks.

Out of the eight, seven were either black or dark brown. But one, my favourite, was a beautiful yellow and cream. However, with time, he too grew darker feathers and became black!

Turns out I'm a Nikon Guy

So..... On December 5th, 2010, at around 9.15PM, I became a proud owner of a Nikon D3100. After 3 years of pleading, my dad finally decided to get me a DSLR. Well yes, I preferred Canon much more, in fact I wanted to get a 550D, but well, my dad quickly jumped and bought this Nikon. At first I was devastated, but then I thought, Hey, maybe I got it for a reason. Maybe the Nikon chose me (or my dad chose the Nikon for me) for a reason. Maybe I'll be far better of with this D3100 than the Canon EOS 550D. Anyway, here are some shots of my new gear.

Of course, the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens.

Apart from the basic 18-55mm, I also got a zoom lens, the 55-200mm f/4-5.6. It sure looks great on the camera body!

When fully extended:

Here are some sample shots I took on the first day.

So, I was glad I finally got my DSLR. And what about my old Casio EX-Z1200? It sure has served me really well for all these years, but it won't be going anywhere! Whenever I'm to go out for a shoot, I always keep it in my pocket, just in case. In some situations, believe it or not, its more useful and easy to use.

A Captive Brahminy Kite

Walked to one of my relative's house to hang out with him for a day. He brought me to a house where they kept many pet birds like chickens, ducks, geese and... a Brahminy Kite! I was wondering why the had to keep a kite with them. According to some, these birds are not allowed to be kept here in houses, unless they have permission from the authorities. I took a shot as it looked at my relative curiously.

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It then started to call out loudly.

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I once had read in the news that a person was fined for keeping two pet owls that he bought illegally from a stranger. The owner of this kite also says that he bought it from a person for Rs. 25,000! That's about S$745! This man is most likely to end up in the same situation. Without further ado, I left the place with my relative. I pitied the poor kite. If it wasn't for some poachers, it would have been flying its life out like these two individuals.

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Say Hi!

Well as you know me, whenever I am going to start posting about India, I always start with my pictures of my dogs. Well That's it! During the June Holidays I travelled to my home in India with my dad for two weeks. Here's Titu giving me a good pose with one ear down and one ear up.

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Tiky lying down with her nose right infront of the camera.

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This is the look that Tiky gives when she needs more attention from others. I find it really cute, especially the way she swishes her tail and her whole body.

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Another portrait of Titu. Titu's much more wise and innocent than Tiky. That's probably because he's a year older and is a male.

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The Dragonflies have Emerged!

As you know I had been keeping dragonfly nymphs for our school project. A few of the dragonfly nymphs that I were keeping eventually emerged out as adult dragonflies very soon. I woke up one morning to hear a buzzing sound from one of the containers. Upon checking it out, it was an adult dragonfly. I did, however, manage to shoot the dragonfly before it flew away.

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I brought it to school by placing it inside a paper bag. Once I reached the CTW, I opened the bag and released it. It was too fast that I lost sight of the dragonfly as soon as it flew. Here's a shot of the moulted skin of the dragonfly nymph.

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Just a few days after the first, a second dragonfly emerged. This time, it was out of the container and flying around my room. Lucky the dragonfly didn't fly out. But it would not have been too bad if it did.

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A side view of the dragonfly that I took by placing the camera parallel to the wall.

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And finally another shot of the new dragonfly's moulted skin.

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I took this one too in a paper bag to school and released it near the School's CTW. So far a success.

Exotic Pets- Dragonfly Nymphs

Ever kept any exotic pets like insects or other creepy crawlies? Due to our dragonfly project at school, I was given five dragonfly nymphs to take care of. They were very tiny, about 2 centimetres in length. I brought them home to take a few snaps. Here's the biggest one in the group.

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It may be rather difficult to spot them as these nymphs were caught from our school pond's filter, and the filtered substance is also in the container so as the nymphs feel safe. I had a hard time photographing these tiny nymphs as they would always dig into the substrate once they were exposed. Hence most of my pictures here may not be very clear. Here's two of them together in a single shot. Notice their colour differences. The brown one is older than the yellowish-green one.

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I soon moved two of the small ones into two different containers. One container held the water from our school pond, and the other contained the water from our school's Constructed Treatment Wetland. Here's the nymph from the pond water.

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A few days after I first brough them, the nymph in the tank with the water from our school's CTW actually moulted and became a light green. This showed that the living conditions in the tank were suitable for the nymph to live in. Here's a shot of the newly emerged Dragonfly Nymph.

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To add more life into the water, I placed some tiny water snails and some tadpoles into the water. The water snails were collected from the pond and the tadpoles from the CTW. Although I feed the dragonfly nymphs tubifex worms, I could observe and see if the nymphs attempt to catch and feed on the snails or tadpoles. Here are few shots of the snails.

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And here's one of the tadpole.

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And sometimes, these creatures may get together for a small talk. Well, by now you should have noticed that the environment in the tank is somwhat similar to that of a mangrove habitat when high tide. This allows the nymphs to climb up the twigs when it is time for them to emerge as an adult dragonfly.

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A House filled with Pets

We were on our way to a small house on the top of a mountain that belonged to a cousin of ours. It was an extremely tiring journey, but still enjoyable. Our vehicle was an old Jeep that was climbing extremely steep slopes with no road at all. The road was full of huge rocks and Dust. It was about 30 minutes long, so we stopped on the way to have some rest and make ourselves stable after all the shaking of our bodies. We stopped at a house that belonged to on of our relatives.

My sisters and I went around the house and were amazed to see how many pets they had. This included two puppies, 8 young rabbits, 2 adult rabbits, 17 newborn bunnies, a kitten, and an injured Stork that they were taking care of. Of these, the first ones that we decided to have a proper look at were the puppies. They were extremely cuddly and sweet to the touch. It was absolutely amazing to see them run around with their tiny tails shaking here and there.

Here's a picture of one of them in my sister's arms:

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And here is the other puppy that they had.

In the first picture it is being held by my cousin sister,

and in the second it was in its small wooden cage.

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As my sister was holding the other puppy, I noticed that it was about to lick its nose, so I immediately took a shot of him with his whole toungue covering its nose.

What a cute shot!

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The next wooden cage was occupied by none other than 8 baby rabbits. Most of them were grey but one was white. I took these two shots of a number of these rabbits sitting together waiting anxiously to know what was going to happen. When I looked at them, my mind suddenly recalled to the past, making me think about my rabbit Snowy.

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I noticed one of those cute looking ones munching on a small leaf from below.

I moved in my camera to take a photograph of that cute little bunny.

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Only after meeting these bunnies did they tell me about the kitten and the stork. We moved intot the house to check them out. The kitten was hiding deep below the sofa where it felt more secure. It was very curious and always tried to go back under when we moved any closer. It was rather hard for me to at least get this shot of it. You can see from the picture that it was extremely scared and nervous.

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At the back of the house was where they kept the injured stork. It was recently caught by a dog and had nearly broken its leg but the people chased the dog away and rescued the stork. They are hoping that it could heal soon and release it back to the wild as soon as possible. I too ust one photograph of it.

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We left for the worst: Into the jeep once more for the even worse roller coaster ride...

Oh No.....!