The Painted Snipe Couple

While at the park in Bharatpur, I had hired the services of a guide on Day 2 since roaming around by yourself in the park isn't always very productive, especially if you're a first timer to the place. End of the day, I was pretty happy with my decision since it did help me in spotting some of the beautiful birdies that I wouldn't easily find here. One of them was the Greater Painted Snipe!

The guide asked me a couple of times if I really was interested in seeing the Painted Snipes since we'd have to travel a bit away from the park and the location wasn't going to be all that great to talk about. So off we went through the streets of Bharatpur and onto this canal by the roadside. Now the canal isn't exactly a pretty place, it's quite filthy around and you'd need to step carefully to avoid getting your shoes with muck. But the painted snipes were there and I was happy about that. The only issue was getting a better angle to shoot, given the inaccessibility of the place, I had limited flexibility to choose my position. The only option was to wait for the birds to come to a better place so that I could get a clear shot. So we waited for them, and they obliged!

Inspite of the constraints, I was pretty happy with a couple of shots from there. Here's one of them where the couple posed together in a frame.

Tech Specs:

Canon 1D Mark IV + Canon 600mm F4 L IS with 1.4x TC
Shot at 840mm, 1/500s, F11 and ISO 800