"Where the most beautiful wild flowers grow, there mans spirit is fed and poets grow."- Henry David Thoreau.
The Amur falcon is a small raptor of the falcon family that gets its name from its breeding grounds in the Amur river basin (south east Russia and north east China) where it spends its summer before its trans-equatorial migration south west to get to its wintering grounds near South Africa- a journey of 22,000 km including the longest regular overwater migration of any bird of prey, crossing over the Indian Ocean between western India and tropical east Africa, a journey of more than 4,000 km. This falcon is an “elliptical migrant” because its route back home is largely overland to the northwest of its southbound route.
Its flight path cuts diagonally across peninsular India with some individuals making a stop at the Lonavala lake feasting on a protein rich diet of insects amidst the carpet of purple wildflowers of Jambhli manjiri (Pogostemon deccanensis).
Amur falcon (F)
(Falco amurensis)
Sony A77ii
Tamron 150-600
f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO320, 230mm
Lonavala (India)
Jan 2022
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