Lucifer Morningstar
Ever since I saw the photos of the Peregrine Falcon, posted by my friends, particularly when it’s so much in the proximity, I longed to see it; this is special to me, as I haven’t exclusively set to photograph birds in a very long time, and also I discovered a health condition, in the process.
An Eagle is the king of skies. It is strong and robust, and it kills its prey by crushing the prey with the powerful talons. Falcons on the other hand are masters of ambush hunting, swiftly attacking the prey in the mid-sky. Death, however, by a Peregrine Falcon is swifter and like being stuck by a lightning bolt; a diving Peregrine Falcon is theorized to reach speeds of upto 600 KMPH.
A dried lakebed in the metropolis of Hyderabad became a hunting ground for a couple of Peregrine Falcons, and one of them obliged to giving us some fantastic shots, over a few months.
Like any other day, I reached the dried lakebed of Osmansagar by sunrise. We know the specific timings when the Peregrine Falcon hunts or is sighted, as we have been following it since quite a while.
The sun slowly started to rise from behind the cover of January mist. The lake was a source of drinking water for the city of Hyderabad (it still is), for a long time. But it dried due to poor inflows from the catchment areas. With the moisture retaining in the clay bed, tufts of grass grew all over the place, and the entire place looked like a green sea.
Wherever the grass was dense and greener, the lakebed was moist, and vehicles could get stuck in the mud. Even if the bird was visible diametrically opposite, we had to traverse the circumference of the lake to get closer.
A few friends would scour opposite side of the lake for the bird, while a few of us would scour the other side and would share the bird sightings over the phone. I just received a phone saying that the Peregrine was sighted on the other end, with a kill.
I immediately dashed to the mentioned location. There were a couple of friends who were already laying low on the ground and photographing the bird. I parked my (red) car behind other vehicles to not distract the bird.
And then I engaged in a Leopard Crawl. This is like the crawl employed by military personnel in trenches; it reduces the silhouette profile and keeping us close to the ground. The bird sits at around 50cms of height, actively scanning the horizon and the skies for potential prey. In a proper camouflaged clothing and non-threatening approach, the bird seemed to be comfortable (even as we approached much closer, as we observed in our previous stints with it).
Only problem was to crawl faster holding a heavy camera-lens setup as well, occasionally doing a roll-over to adjust for the direction of sun-light (to get a tinge of blue skies) and not disturb the people photographing from behind me. Sometimes, I had to crawl for over 200 meters to get close to the bird.
As I approached close, I rested the camera and lens on the ground and started to fire the shots. The bird was busy chomping through its prized kill, a rock dove, occasionally looking at us or the sounds of the camera shutters.
I had taken the Nikon Z7 (V1) to the field to test the AF-speed and accuracy. The advantage I had was to look at the screen and fire the shots. The focus had to be tack sharp owing to the proximity of the subject and the wide-open aperture. The shallow depth of field is evident from the picture.
I unfortunately could not pursue the bird further, as I realized that I had grass allergy. I would develop wheezing cough and shortness of breath for a day or two which ease down with time. Despite wearing a mask/scarf, because I was probably too close to grass, the symptoms always remained the same, after every sighting. I had already seen the bird too many times with different kills and poses that I decided to call it quits.
On many occasions, I would be the lone person on the lakebed tracking the bird and even photographing it. This year, we probably might not get the same kind of fabulous sightings, due to the flooding of the city and the lake getting filled with water. So, I am glad that I could make it to photograph the bird in the previous season.
It was around the same time that I was watching Lucifer on Netflix, and hence the title (the Peregrine representing Lucifer and the Dove representing Amenadiel.