Such weather isn't exactly conducive to birding, because mostly at the very first hint of rain, the birds shut shop...and take refuge from the deluge -- in whatever shelter they can find.
Then again, there is the light (or lack of it)...shooting under grey skies not only means that the background is blown out, but for some weird reason, somehow rain-wet birds don't look that great either!
So, I was home-bound for most of the day, and then, in the evening, finally the downpour I was expecting materialized.
It mayn't have rained cats and dogs, but it did seem to have rained a Shikra!
To recount the story the right way, I happened to glance at the little bit of greenery that is still left around my place and spied a bird that looked like a cross between a dove and a cattle egret perched on a wall, and barely 30 metres away.
A dash downstairs to grab the lens, and another careful dash through the slush and puddles on the road got me to the wall, while a fine drizzle fell all around me.
But there was no sign of the bird.
Then I spotted it again, another 30 metres or so, away.
Surprisingly this time it was perched in a Neem that grew right at the edge of the main road...a main road that sees quite a bit of traffic, rain or shine!
Then again, that isn't that surprising, considering that this was a Shikra.
And perfectly understandable, considering that this was a Juvenile.
Some quick and careful lens work gave me a bunch of keepers, then while I was trying to get into a position that got me a better background, the bird took off.
To perch even closer to where I had seen it first, this time, on an pole meant for the power lines that criss-cross the colony.
So, I had some more quick lens work to do.
As expected, the bird stayed put even when I was some 12-15 metres from it.
As I turned homewards, it was still there -- wet and bedraggled, a juvenile bird making sense of its first Monsoons.
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