Sighting the Shaheen Falcon
Sometimes, things can be very unpredictable. Last saturday, when we went to Nandi Hills we hardly saw any regulars. Until a few weeks ago, we had kept wondering on why the warblers and the Indian Blue Robins were still around. But this time, they had all gone back. There were Indian Scimitar-babblers in groups calling out loudly, the active Oriental White-eyes and of course, the Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher. Other than these, there wasn’t much to see. We decided to head back early and we just decided to stop at a point to see if there were any birds. We were just generally chatting around that place when we saw a raptor sitting on top of a rock and watching us. We quickly reached out to our binocs and looked carefully. It was a Shaheen Falcon, the fastest bird of India. I couldn’t believe that I was seeing a Shaheen Falcon that close, but it didn’t look anything other than the Falcon.
After a while, we observed something creeping in the back of this bird. It was another Shaheen Falcon. This time, it was the female. We were thrilled now. Both the male and the female sitting on the rock and while we were watching these two excitedly, we see the baby falcon coming out again. I will probably never get to see this bird like this again. It is certainly one of the best birding moments. The baby falcon went back and hid itself again, while the adults just flew out to nearby rocks. We observed them for a while and headed back.
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