Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) contd.........

Day 3....1st Feb 2013

Today we decided to be early at the gate for the entry, the gypsy arrives at 5-30am its chilling cold. We got the second position in the Que.. we decided to visit the Jamun jarra water hole, where we sighted all the tigers on 30th Jan but we were not sure because they din't show up on 31st Jan...... we went there and waited for 10mins no movements or alarm call also, so we discussed between two gypsy and all had different opinions :) then Vijay Gangolli comes up with an idea & said we will toss a coin, heads we move from here tails we stay here at the water hole. Ok now who has the coin because everybody is in safari dress code, Pranam found a coin, Mahesh tossed ...it was heads, without any further talks just left the place drove to Tadoba from Moharli range(Jamun jarra) because we had heard that a mating pair tigers were sighted.

It was so cold I was frozen, but Mahesh had his nightmare, thinking we would stay in Jamun jarra he was not prepared for cold. Literally he placed himself between two seats of the gypsy telling me & pranam, if you guys sight anything pull me up..... :) we were a bit disappointed because we only sighted Indian Guar. Our luck changed while driving back we spotted  

       Wild Dog (Dhole)

After photographing these, few hundred meters we heard an alarm call from the deer, we were confused whether its for wild dogs or something else. We could not figure it out so left the spot to an one more entry gate & also a rest room place, we stopped there got down & went to rest room I had almost unzipped, our friend Aadi Nagaraj Gowda who was on the other gyspy in front of us saw a tiger crossing the road & there I also got the glimpse.. zipped & ran & jumped into the gypsy even our driver & guide were fast drove to the next jeep track where we expected the Tiger to cross the track from the road....... here he comes in front of our gypsy. Wow what a 

walk, super hulk just emerges out of the bushes on the jeep track & gives us a stare. I just took 8 frames and kept my camera aside & enjoyed his cat walk, an awesome experience.... ooooff even now I get goosebumps.   

                   Wagdho the huge guy

He has a scar on his right eye may be in a fight he has damaged himself.

Meanwhile our friends in the other gypsy missed the whole scene in fact even they were caught up with the wild dogs. We met them back at the entry point because we had not yet entered our gypsy so we had to come back make the entry, and our safari time was up we had to return to the main gate, ended our morning safari. 

Afternoon safari started, again first come first entry so by 1-30pm we were at the gate. We had lots of time to meet other photographers like Mr.Mohan Thomas & Mr.Thomas Vijayan (brothers) then Mr.Aadi Nagraj Gowda and lots of them from bangalore.... again this time same but decided to go to Tadoba its 20kms approx from the main gate, but no sign of anything. We were waiting near a water hole & one gypsy guy told us they sighted Tellia cubs near Tellia lake, immediately without any second thought just turn back on the way we spotted Leopard but not a great pic, it shied away. We reached the entrance of the lake to see this grown cub walking across the road marking its territory. Thus the tiger show came to an end with total five safaris....Six Tigers, Wild dogs, Sambar Deer, Indian Gaur & lots of birds.

L to R : Vasu Bellur, Pranam A Tilakam, Shyam Prakash RP, Kumar Pal, Vijay Gangolli, Mahesh Chand & Myself....... 

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR)

It all started because of Mr.Vasu Bellur a friend of mine, few months back we sighted & photographed a huge Tiger in Nagarhole NP which din't satisfy because it was inside the bush. Later after some days Vasu called me and asked are you game for Tadoba, I said yes from there it started then came in Vijay Gangolli, Shyam Prakash, Pranam A Tilakam, Mahesh Chand and Kumar Pal. We got our bookings & reservations done through Kumar Pal's cousin who stays in chandrapur. 

Day 1.... 30th Jan 2013

We reached Balharsh at 12-30pm by Rajdhani express train, then to Mohrali Range by road, on the way we had lunch and we were on the right time for our afternoon safari 2-30pm. Our gypsy were ready, we split into two teams. Got up our gears Nikons & Canons ready, there we gooooo......... And here comes the first one with loud roar then the second

 

                     The Tellia cubs ....... 






It was so exiting to see two tigers & photographing them was an awesome experience, but it did not end there, we were blessed with the third one, a life time frame for me.....

and then the mother, but was not lucky enough to make a frame of the mother and the cubs. Another friend of mine Mr. Mohan Thomas has got that frame all four in one... 

They started playing for almost one hour and could hear only the shutter sounds from all the safari gypsy parked around. Everybody like click click click.......... including me..  :) what best one can get than this..... Then they disappear to the woods... we move out....

We drove the other areas and sighting was not much or may be we had done with so many tigers, we would have ignored other sightings but could not miss this huge 

                       Neelgai...... 

 End of the day one...... because the reserve timing is 2-30pm to 5-30pm.



Day 2.....31st Jan 2013

This day was a bit bad for us, we decided to stay & watch the same water hole the entire morning because the tigres had made a kill just behind this water hole but they dint show up. But we had other visitors to the water ...

                       Indian Gaur

An unique pic of calf & mother Gaur along with cattle egrets ......

We continued our safari sighted Sambar deer, Barking deer, wild boar but saw a Magpie robin trying to do something which was strange, went close wow look at this, the bird had a lizard as feed and was trying to swallow......... with this our day 2 comes to an end.....

Day 3 ....to be continued shortly.....

Glimpse of Hessarghatta Birds - DSLR Video

This video is made using Nikon D300s camera and Sigma 150-500mm lens at Hessarghatta , Bangalore, India

Birds in Minutes - DSLR.wmv

Thattekad - Day 3 (Last Day)

Day - 3

The day started as usual at 6am, Girish took us to the same place near the hillock. Today the birds were very less compared to yesterday, may be because of previous day's movement. First we could see Oriental Honey Buzzard then followed many, yesterday i could not make good images, as they were so many species today I was clear which bird to shoot but decided to make some HD videos so started to take first few good pics then start video. This idea went well I could make pretty good videos of some species.

I will share those after editing the videos in my next blog. Today we could see the Heart spotted woodpecker but it was female yesterday was male. Then around 8 am Girish changed his plan and took us to a rubber plantation near by which was very good to see and photograph few more new species to the kitty.

              

It was a good morning session, after the sun became harsh we returned to the cottage. After lunch again 3pm we left but this time no guide with us, myself and Sanjoy went around the lake did some birding & photography. We returned back early because we had catch our bus from Aluva (50kms) from Thattekad.

The trip comes to an end with lots of new experience, new species of birds overall Thattekad is a fantastic place to visit again...... 

Sighting of the Day...

1. Oriental Honey Buzzard
2. Heart spotted woodpecker female
3. Drongo Cuckoo
4. Grey Headed Bulbul
5. Yellow browed Bulbul
6. Racket tailed Drongo
7. Oriole
8. Malabar wood Shrike
9. Golden flame-back woodpecker
10. Cuckoo shrike
11. Darter

For more pics :https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2320078901923.85466.1848085033&type=1

Video clip of Orange Headed Thrush http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7vD-oi3fko

Thattekad - Day 2

Day -2 ...

We started at 6 am this time Girish joined us,  he took us in a car around 6kms and from there we had to walk to a place where the birds come to eat the berries. So the idea was like before the sunrise we should put our gears for photography so that the birds should not get disturbed. Everything went well we could reach in time, its about a km and a hillock. We had one more friend Mr.Nick he is wildlife book writer from UK.



The sun started raising and birds started their usual singing and calls. It was an excellent experience of so many birds calling around you. Today's first sighting was Fairy Blue Bird. What a bird to see amazing color. Then followed so many of them,  we got confused to shoot which one first because there were plenty of different species of birds to eat those berries.
      
Malabar Parakeet, Fairy Blue Bird & Unknown

Then all of a sudden we hear Girish calling us look look its Heart Spotted Woodpecker the bird was so small & so fast jumping from branch to branch i decided no to shoot that instead see & enjoy after some time it gave me an opportunity to shoot but i could only get a record shot of the beautiful bird. Thought of better luck next time. By then the sun was becoming harsh so we had to return back. Morning session was over we decided to start the afternoon session at 3-00pm.

As usual came back had very good food, relaxed for a while and started at 3pm this time it was towards Bhoothankatte Dam, the locals believe that the dam is built by demons. Girish could call a pair of Stork Billed Kingfisher but we could not shoot it. Then we went in search of Thattekad's famous resident bird The  Srilankan Frog mouth. To find this really hats off to Girish we had to trek atleast 3kms inside the forest & this pair were sitting inside a bush. After taking some photographs decided not to disturb these. We trekked for another km where there was a small water hole where all other birds were coming for bath. After a long wait i could make a HD video of Orange Headed Thrush having bath in the water, will be posting it in my next blog. It was becoming dark we left from there as we need to trek back 3kms we had good tea near the dam & returned back to cottage. Day 2 ends here.

Sightings of Day 2

1. Fairy Blue Bird
2. Crimson Throated Barbet
3. Coppersmith Barbet
4. Heart Spotted Woodpecker
5. Ruby Throated Bulbul
6. Golden Flameback woodpecker
7. Malabar grey Hornbill
8. Grey headed bulbul
9. Yellow browed bulbul
10. Pied Kingfisher
11. Stork billed Kingfisher
12. Srilankan Frog mouth
13. Rusty tailed flycatcher
14. White Bellied Tree pie
15. Orange Headed Thrush
16. Emerald Dove
17. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
18. Oriental Honey Buzzard
19. Cuckoo Shrike  
20. Oriole
21. Malabar Parakeet

For more Pics : https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2320078901923.85466.1848085033&type=1

Thattekad - Day 1

I had heard and visualized about Thattedad (Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary ) but never been there. One of my friend Mr.Sanjoy Adak had visited my farm near Nagarhole National Park, he had scheduled his trip to Thattekad on 20th Jan to 23rd Jan 2012. We were discussing about his last year's trip to Thattekad, i was getting more interested but in fact last year I had missed the opportunity so this time no miss. He had his train tickets, I booked by bus to Aluva and we met at Aluva on 21st Jan 2012 morning. We hired a taxi to Thattekad its about an hour journey. Sanjoy had spoken to Girish who is our bird guide and also he owns a home stay inside the sanctuary. We reached the gate of Salim Ali Bird sanctuary by 11am. We checked in to home stay got fresh and had beautiful Kerala style home made brunch as we had not had our breakfast.

Sanjoy had a wish list of 30 species of birds (Lifers) to see & photograph.......It was decided that afternoon 3pm we will start our photography session, Girish arranged one more guide with us & promised to join all the remaining sessions for next two days. I was thinking a gypsy or a car will come to pick us up.... Sanjoy tells me, no sir we need to walk. OMG I was tired hearing that because carrying a tripod with big camera & lens & that too trekking in humid condition as it is a tropical forest it was like a blow for me... :( We started off from the Periyar river side, We saw our first bird of the trip Thick billed Flower pecker.


Then the real birding started, it was a bit difficult to carry all the camera gears but had to. After trekking for a while we started seeing good number of birds out of which my eyes locked on some movement inside the canopy it was orange in color, I called the guide who was ahead of me he was like wow sir its
Malabar Trogon     

   

It was so difficult to shoot because of very low light condition, even though there was good sun light it was not enough for our camera due to thick jungle. After shooting this bird i said to Sanjoy, my day is done with this. We continued and sighted more birds which i will list it later. With this our 1st day photo session comes to an end. Back to cottage with reviewing our images and discussing we could have taken a shot like this like that all those...... but in nature birds gives only one chance to shoot, if you shoot you have the best or else wait for one more chance...........with a great dinner at Girish's home, day 1 comes to an end.

Day 1 sightings :

1. Thick Billed Flower Pecker
2. Racket tailed Drongo
3. Bronzed Drongo
4. Orange headed Thrush
5. Jungle Owlet
6. Malabar Trogon
7. Golden Flame back wood pecker
8. Pompadour Green Pigeon
9. White Breasted King fisher
10. Oriole 
11. Wiskerd Tern
12. Red vented Bulbul

 for more Pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2320078901923.85466.1848085033&type=1