When plans fail don’t worry, you’ll still be happy.

Over the years I have learned two things

Things never ever happen the way we plan.
and Thus we end up with beautiful memories.

HubbynMe had a bird watching weekend trip in mind for which we travelled to Sangameshwar last Friday well equipped with a Nikon Binocular and our Canon XS Rebel intending to capture our chirpy mates. My instagram buddies know that the bird-watching activity did not happen the way ‘we thought it would’ through the microblog post.

Do follow me on Instagram for such impromptu microblogs.

Anyways it was mid of November and it rained like it was just begining of the monsoons. It poured down for almost ten hours straight thus shooing away the birds into their hideouts. Otherwise at this time of the year when the winter breeze is cuddling in and the morning sun kisses warmly the birds are in a good mood. They’d chirp around the trees basking in the glorious light which makes them an easy spot and great posers for the camera.

Rain subsides eventually but no sunshine thus no chirping. Thankfully we carried few really good books to read and then we happily realised that we couldnt have asked for a better environment to have a reading date. No television, no intervention, no chores. Just snuggle up on the couch and read and read till your eyes exhaust. Then look up to the refreshing view and get back to more reading.

Next day, the sun smiled and we did spot a few of our regular-colorful friends through our binocular like

Clockwise: Cattle Egret in flight, Rose ringed Parakeet, Kingfisher & Common
Hawk Cuckoo

Scarlet Minivet Pair
Shrike
Common Hawk Cuckoo
Rose Ringed Parakeet
Chestnut Shouldered Petronia
Cattle Egrets
Magpie Robin
Tailor Bird
Some Warblers
Thick Billed Flower pecker
Purple-rumped Sunbird
Black Bird
Greater Coucal
Kingfisher

We actually did capture few them but we accidentally messed up with the camera settings and kept rolling in low resolution. We did not realise the mistake till we checked the snaps on our laptop.
The low light and low resolution settings of our telescopic lense did not yield the desirable high quality images. Duhh! I know. thus the plan to capture great pics also failed but we spotted more than ten birds even in a unfavourable climate. So, again we were happy.

And then we were really ecstatic when we had unexpected visitor from the North of India. The Red-Throated Flycatcher. Hubby had spotted this guy on day one but the rains did not give us a good look. It is a passage migrant bird who migrates to the south of India but takes a pit stop somewhere in the west like Maharashtra. Almost the size of a common sparrow, this bird chirps very sweetly but on a very high volume. One who understands bird anatomy or is a keen bird watcher (like Hubby) can determine if it is his or hers first migration to south.

Really disappointed with the cloudy atmosphere we were convinced that we wouldn’t be able to see more of the rare visitor. Fortunately on the last day of our trip, the first time migrator understood our feelings and flew almost at a our doorstep. We got a close look at the bird and despite of the messed up low resolution settings we achieved decent clicks to share with you guys. What more could I ask for, then?

Hope you have a good weekend ahead, like the way you have planned but just incase things don’t go according to “the plan” trust me you still do end up in beautiful memories, you just need to be an opportunist with the right attitude.