Amur Falcon - A Positive Migration

Amur Falcon – A Positive Migration

We know birds migrate to distant places every year , its part of their yearly ritual. Some birds have specialized themselves in the migration. Amur Falcon is one of them.Travelling from its breeding grounds of Amurland in northern part of china , mangolia and russia to reach somalia, kenya , & south africa , it travels around 22000 km each year.
They do it every year without fail . Every year they stop over in different parts of india to fed themselves and make them suitable for further non stop journey over arabian sea to reach their winter location in africa. They migrated in year 2020 too, irrespective of covid pandemic. Pandemic didn’t hampered their schedules. They stopped over parts of Doyang region in northern nagaland ..spent a month there ..but hardly any shutter bug was there to capture them in camera . All were at home , staying safe from pandemic.
They migrated down to western ghats to make stop over in Pune region , Hilly mountain scapes of lonavala in December 2020. Abundance of food and water made them stop over there. By this time shutterbugs have started roaming around , trying to fufill huger of photography.
Photographers dont only capture images but they capture fuel of positivity which nature keeps on pouring in abundance all the time 24 x 7.
First images of Amur falcon from lonavala were seen on social media , and soon after that shutter bugs started their migration to lonavala from almost every part of india. Every day vehicles packed with photographers started showing up around the spot. They were few in number initially but later it went upto as much as 100 per day. The Amur was settled down in such scenic set up that no one can resist to visit the spot. I was there for two sessions, and captured its beauty . Its lifer for me . Going there all the way managing through tight schedules was very difficult but i had to make it .
I witnessed photographers from all ages , right from teenage upto age of 76-78. For many of them its a lifer , for majority of them its just another bird they captured , for some , they were just following what others are doing . There were tutions of photography going on . On field experience sharing , the whole grassland is looking like a conference venue . Every one has resson to capture amur …But the common reson was to find way out of negativity that kept surrounded for so many months.
Everyone was capturing the same species may be in same way or different way , but the most common thing amongst all was the broad smile . Thats what missing for all these months of pandemic. That made it very clear that Amur is the reason to put smile back on thousands of photographers who are clicking it and the viewers who are enjoying images on social media.
Everyone Feeling is such that Struggle to find happiness has ended. One species being photographed, video graphed by almost 100 shutterbugs at a time , the viewers , conservationists, birders, ornithologist might find this particular scene very disturbing but when your soul feels happiness it means a lot for everyone who did that effort to ignite happy , positive thoughts which everyone will cherish for long long time and help themselves to sail through hard times.
This time Amur migration was not only part of its ritual but it was the reason of migration from negativity towards positivity. The congregation of photographers was a blissful sight , as so many happy moments were created just from one spot.
Amur You are the Chosen One this year to spread positivity and happiness among many souls .