The Brown Accentor is a widespread resident of the Himalayas and along with the Robin Accentor was one of the few species of birds that seemed to be braving the harsh winter climate that the Ladakh region has to offer. And again like the Robin Accentor, we saw these birds almost everywhere in Leh and Ladakh, but we got our best opportunity to observe one along the Husing Nalla trail.
Along with Khenrub, our guide, I headed out to Husing Nalla, in the Hemis national park, to try and spot another Snow Leopard. As we were taking the turn into the Nalla, I spotted a movement on the ground ahead of us and I stopped immediately and requested Khenrub to do so as well. It took us a few seconds to spot the tiny Brown Accentor foraging for food. I walked a little closer to the bird and then stood motionless with my D300 mounted on a tripod with the 600mm f4 lens with the 1.4x TC. My next objective was to photograph the bird sitting on a perch with a clear background and by practice I knew this opportunity would come up when the bird takes a breather from its forage and preen itself sitting on a clear perch. I was grateful to the Brown Accentor since it did not keep me waiting for long and in about 20 minutes I got all the pictures I wanted and more.
Khenrub pointed out that I was one of the few photographers that he had met who had an enormous amount of patience and if I were to spend more time in Ladakh, I should have great success in photography in the Ladakh region. I thanked him for the compliment and we continued our search for Snow Leopards.
