A beautiful home where our friends used to live, now torn down by the property-owners to make way for yet another condo, is the lot next to ours. After the house was pulled-down, the lovely trees all chopped-down, and the ground dug up to start the new foundation, the rain water has stagnated and little «islands» have formed with the rubble, bricks and mortar. Grasses, shrubs and weeds abound. Tadpoles and tiny fish in the water pools. Birds in the shrubs. Dragon flies and butterflies.... this place has turned into a tiny little haven for these creatures. The caretaker tells me that a small Kingfisher visits every early morning and sometimes again in the evenings... I have yet to spot it. Today being a holiday, prefect to visit the little sanctuary and spend a few hours looking at the birds, and photographing them. A Magpie Robin came to take a dip, then dry out on the warm rocks.... a couple of stray cats were lurking too - hoping to find a tasty meal! They went hungry.

Seen above are White Wagtail - Motacilla alba [the one with the 'heart' shaped marking on chest]; White-Browed Wagtail - Motacilla maderaspatensis; Oriental Magpie Robin - Copsychus saularis; House Sparrow - Passer domesticus.

Article also posted at GlobalBirdTrekkers

Mannat - pensive.

Ah, the lovely old Nikkor manual-focus 50mm f/1.2 AI-s lens: I decided to dust mine off and start using it again... especially to take advantage of a FF sensor - this lens is just perfect for portrait use again. Though the plane-of-focus is so shallow from f/1.2 to f/4 - critical focus is an absolute must else the photo looks soft overall whereas this lens is not soft - when used properly, that is. Not easy, because of the shallow depth of focus!  The sharpness of this lens is different to the newer lenses - this one has lovely «soft-sharpness» which I just love.  This lens is outstanding used wide-open and up to f/8... beyond f/8 not so good... but then why use this very special f/1.2 lens if one needs to have «every thing in focus»?  Oh, and one more thing - just the heft and feel of this metal body smooth [manual] focus lens - a real pleasure in itself!

Birding trip around Jahangirnagar University in Savar, Bangladesh.
We had planned to head out 5:30AM today, but a massive thunder-storm delayed us to 7. We had a great trip  watching the wide variety of birds around Jahingirnagar University in Savar just around 30km from Dhaka.... it turned out to be a very hot day and with most of the group fasting during this month of Ramadan - dehydration became a big concern and so we called it a day by 10:30 AM. Met some great guys, avid birders and photographers. A special thanks to Z. Faisal for inviting me to the trip and to Samiul for being our guide - he has an extensive knowledge of the eco-system of the area and the flora and fauna of the surrounds. Thanks also, to Saud A Faisal the group leader of «Through The Lens: Bangladesh».

A group photo, by Sharif, is here.