Pallas's fish eagle: Haliaeetus leucoryphus

 Let me begin with an admission – I’m not particularly good yet at instant identification of birds of prey in the field. I look for silhouettes in the shadows of trees and for profiles in grasslands, and, shoot first and ask questions later. I don’t wait as far as photography is concerned for raptors can be terribly skittish. Rarely do birds of prey allow me sufficient time or permit me audience close enough for my meek lenses to capture their majesty. Meek lenses are the bane. Therefore, when I spotted a large, pale-headed silhouette towards a distant corner of Aasan Lake, I knew I had something special waiting. It was too distant for even my upgraded camera lens. Quickly I assessed the area for paths leading to that corner of the lake. I spotted a room…kind of a guard room in the forests thataway…surely there would be a path, even a motorable one perhaps on that bank of the lake…I dumped the chakotra I was eating into a nearbytrash bin, summoned Suresh who was driving me around, and we made haste down the sloping road towards where a path might branch off. Sure enough, there were two worn wheel tracks cutting straight into that neck of woods. We boarded the wheel tracks with our own transportation and drove as quietly as we could, all the time keeping a keen eye on the eagle in the middle.

The Pallas’s fish eagle – by this time I had plucked out my edition of Grimmett and Inskipps and furiously flipped the pages to hone in on the identification while Suresh drove – was probably surveying, or secure in its isolation, or sunbathing after an wholesome meal made out of any one of the teeming waterfowl varieties surrounding it, or merely displaying its comparatively sedentary trait. Whatever the reason, it was all good for us. Precious time was gained to get as close as we practically could.

But the trail ended abruptly at the forest edge. I leapt out, my equipment in hand and jogged carefully towards the lake. One couldn’t be too obvious lest one disturbed birds – that would give me away - and one had to feel for solid footholds in what was fast becoming marshy gloop among the lakeside reeds. I crept through the slush and reeds without kicking up a fuss, found a firm muddy high point barely larger than the palm of my hand, which, even though quite distant, was as close as I could get; set up my monopod and carefully inserted my toes alongside onto that high-point, praying I wouldn’t come down in a splash equipment and all, and went on to click as many photos as I could. Multiple shots, simply because I was trembling all the time with all the excitement and attempt to keep balance on that small piece of firm ground; and fully zoomed out photos, sensitive as they are to movement, were bound to be affected by my trembling.

Anyway, I recorded a few decent shots of this eagle listed as Vulnerable in IUCN Red List.

Pallas’s fish eagle: Haliaeetus leucoryphus

IUCN Status: Vulnerable

Main Features:

1.      Pale head and neck in adults.

2.    Dark brown upperwings.

3.    Underwings also dark brown.

4.    Tail is mainly white (not visible in this shot) with a terminal dark band.

5.     Soars and glides with flat wings.

6.    Flying silhouette, in addition, reveals long, broad wings, with protruding head and neck.

7.     Sharp talons.

8.    Almost 3/4ths to a full metre in size.

9.    Call is mainly a hoarse bark – kvo kvok kvok.

Photographed at Aasan Barrage, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India on 8.11.2014

Camera used: Nikon D5100 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm Lens