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Oriental Darter

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We are planning to arrange a formal get together of our WhatsApp group ‘Birds watchers of Gujarat’. With the help of Haresh Pandya and Pratik Bhatt we finalize our meeting on 28th Febarury 2016. Early morning 7 am, we all meet at the gate of Thol Wildlife Sanctuary. We headed towards the campus site for having breakfast arranged by Anand Varde. We divided other birders in small groups for birdwatching. We started preparation for lecture. Once we finished the preparation, we also started our birdwatching. On that day, our mood was more in birdwatching than photography. We note down the name of species in the notebook. We saw this darter perched grandly on tree. It was sunning at that time. It looks beautiful. We like it much particularly due to its slender sexy neck.                                                                                                    Anhinga melanogaster


It has a long and slender neck with a straight, pointed bill and, like the cormorant, it hunts for fish while its body submerged is in water. It spears a fish underwater, bringing it above the surface, tossing and juggling it before swallowing the fish head first. The body remains submerged as it swims, and the slender neck alone is visible above the water, which accounts for the colloquial name of snakebird. Like the cormorants, it has wettable feathers and it is often found perched on a rock or branch with its wings held open to dry.
28th Febuary 2016
Thol Wildlife Sanctuary, near Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Nikon D7100
AF-S Nikkor 300mm F/4D IF-ED + AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E
f/8, 1/1250, iso-500

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