ATR - Day 75: Friends and Mummy Khurana left, found blue-eared kingfisher in South Goa, hope to see Geminid meteor shower
I decided to exceed the Goa stay for some birding and found the blue-eared kingfisher, in dim light though. Planning to watch the Genimid meteor shower.
December 14, 2023
Thursday, 11:30 PM
Nature’s Nest,
Village Sancordem,
Taluka Sanguem,
District South Goa,
Goa, India
Friends who had been visiting me from Delhi as well as Mummy Khurana and her friends had to leave for Delhi today, so I saw them off, and moved to a different location in Goa because we did not need as much space any longer. That means this is the third location I am staying at in Goa since I arrived here on December 9, 2023.
After shifting to a different location, which was Silverwood Apartments in the Siolim locality of North Goa, I decided to do some birding though as per our schedule, we had to leave Goa today for our next destination on ATR, which is Kali Tiger Reserve in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. But since not much work had been done in the past four days or so, I thought it better to give a day or two more to Goa to see and show what Goa has to offer other than its variously beautiful beaches, impressive churches and grand forts. Goa, not many know, is rich in other ways, too, even for a wildlife photographer like me.
One of my two favourite subject birds is the kingfisher, the other being the owl. So while I was open to finding any birds in photogenic poses, I was hoping to find the Blue-eared Kingfisher in particular, which bird I hadn’t seen. And with that intent, we proceeded to a place called Nature’s Nest, which is a property many stay at while they look for birds in and around Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary in South Goa.
Nature’s Nest was some two and half hour from Siolim, and since we had shifted to the new place in Siolim only in the afternoon, we were running late already. We reached Nature’s Nest in the evening at about 4:45 PM and by then the light had already started fading and the location where the blue-eared kingfisher could be seen was still a short distance away. So we had only about an hour and half to find the kingfisher.
We entered the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary at around 4:55 PM and went straight to the location of the kingfisher. We did find the kingfisher even though it was a bit too dark for any good shots. However, we still managed to click a few pictures and record a short video.
We returned to Nature’s Nest, but it looks like we are going to stay here because I came across an old friend here, who told me that the Geminid meteor shower was going to happen tonight. So I am planning to witness and shoot the Geminid meteor shower, which is an annual event that occurs between November 19 and December 24 with the best viewing opportunity occurring on the night of December 13 and the early hours of December 14. And it is December 14 today, and although I might have missed the best view of it, I might still catch a decent view of it. And in today’s Vlog, we learn some beach backlit photography. Do watch!