Kabini the Magical Land

Starting early in the morning of 8th June 2013 and stopping at Ranganathittu (Read Here) and having a blast of a time, Manjunath and I continued our journey to Kabini, a part of Nagarahole National Park. My first entry to the land of Tigers and Leopards and Elephants and Deer and....

On our way we stopped at a lake before HD Kote Handpost and spotted a few Birds, I was more keen on photographing the Pied Kingfisher. I took some time and approached a closely perched one and began shooting. And wow, I got my best shot of the bird.

Pied Kingfisher - My best shot so far..

Manjunath works for BBMP at the Head-office and has a lot of contacts, and was able to book the Irrigation department IB at Beechanahalli, a decent place with very basic - simple food. The nearest shop is at the Hand Post about 20KM away.

  

We reached on Q after a simple lunch at the Hand-post and dumped our luggage in our room, and started for the RFO's office at Dammanakatte, this is where the Forest Department - safari bus starts from this side of the park. One needs to get there before 3PM to book the safari. The safari is done only in the evening and they use only one bus, about 25 people in the bus.

Soon the Safari bus started and I was entering the Forest- I was living my dream...

The safari bus goes to both A and B sectors of the Park, and keeps moving and stops only on spotting a carnivorous or a raptor. Although you could ask the driver to stop if you spot something but not a very good option for photographers.

My first ride in the forest was full of Ungulates, a few birds, and a pack of wild dogs.

Sambar Deer - He welcomed me to the forest

We returned back to the RFO's office and then to the IB hoping for better luck the following day.

Since there is no "morning safari" with the Forest Department, we had spoken to the JLR manager and we were "walk-in guests" for the safari.

The IB is about 40KM from JLR and the road is bad. We started by 5AM for the 6.15 Safari.

Due to more "walk-in guests" from another resort from across the backwater, Manjunath and I were not in the same safari vehicle. JLR vehicles can go only to A sector or B sector. And he went to A and I went to B. I was the only photographer in the vehicle and got the first seat, the guest from the other resort were also in the same vehicle and there was a Naturalist with them.

Indian Roller - Juvenile 

Tusker with interlocking tusks 

The safari started and we were all excited, a lot of Langoors, Spotted Deer, Elephants and my first Malabar Pied Hornbill. And then there was silence, the kids in the vehicle were suppressed by there mothers after the naturalist told them to. Outside the vehicle there was a strong-long alarm call - Spotted deer around us, tension was in the air. We waited and waited but nothing, we were all looking in the same direction. Suddenly there was a sound, and frighting at that, almost like roaring... very close to me. It took a few seconds for me to realize that one of the people in the vehicle was now in deep sleep. The whole vehicle burst into laughter and decided to leave as it was nearing time.

Crested Serpent Eagle -CSE

We were now coming back and were on the main road and I spotted a raptor in the A sector of the park, we stopped on the road to have a better look at it, It was the Changeable Hawk Eagle another lifer for me.

Changeable Hawk Eagle 

We were now nearing the JLR property and I was wonder how Manjunath's safari was...

Langoor 

When I reached drop off point I saw Manjunath sitting on the chair, the look on his face said it all. No CATS...

We then spoke to the manager and booked another safari for the evening. We were asked to stay for the following day but Manjunath had some office work to attend. The JLR manager was kind enough to give us a complementary breakfast. The food at JLR was amazing as always.

Same Tusker shot on day 2

We went back to our room at the IB and packed our bags, once that was done and ready. We went to wards the dam, a 300M walk straight out of our room door. That too was great, river terns, spot billed duck,black kite etc...

We had a light biscuit lunch and started to wards JLR. This time we both were in the same vehicle and headed to sector B again. It was a smaller vehicle and had four others. We saw a tusker crossing the road as we entered the forest. The first few minutes was uneventful. Suddenly our drive-naturalist Prem was speeding and I was wondering and looking around, then I saw two more vehicles at a jeep track junction, there were alarm calls all around, everyone thought it was a leopard. I was looking on to the right side and I saw some thing move... I saw orange,white,black... Tiger Tiger I said. A huge male, rather skinny just crossed the road and I bust frames as fast as I/camera could. I was the only one in three vehicles who got a frame. We followed the same for some distance and found a small heard of elephants with a new born calf. We guessed the tiger was after the calf.

Tiger - My first in the wild

After the high action with the Tiger, we headed to the sunset point to catch another glimpses of him but he never came out of the bushes.

The rest of the safari was dull with a few elephants, deer and langoor. As we were coming back to the main road we heard another alarm call and went in that direction, but only found Indian Rollers. Light was almost gone and the time was almost up. My heart sank, it was over.

Indian Roller

We came back to JLR and thanked the JLR staff and started back to Bangalore.

My first visit to the forest and I had seen a Tiger...I was high... But somewhere there was pain, My heart said leopard,leopard,leopard...

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Reaching Kabini side of Nagarahole      

We used a car to reach Kabini and is the best way. Personal transport is what is required.

If you are staying at JLR-Kabini River Lodge and if you require transport you can contact the resort for a pick up or take a bus from HD Kote to Karapura. This bus is to hard to find.

From Bangalore-Mysore-Take the right at the ring road junction and continue in the same direction and take the 3rd right ie at PARASAIYYANA HUNDI- Follow the road till HD Kote Handpost- From there the JLR boards should be able to lead you.

RFO's office is on the same road and is on the left side of the road.

CSE

                                                  

Madikeri Mangalore and around Part 2

Read Part one here

As you know, I was in Madikeri district capital of Coorg and was getting ready to go to Mangalore.

Day 2 Saturday :

I was up and ready by 6am, picked up my backpack and headed towards the KSRTC bus stand. Mangalore is a 6hr bus ride from Madikeri, but the road was bad for a stretch of 40km. I boarded a Suvarna Sarige more commonly know as the  red bus to Mangalore.

Rufous Treepie

I had checked for the tide timings and found that the best time was  from 1 pm to 4 pm. But thanks to a breakdown I reached Mangalore only by 1.15 pm.  Mulki, which is about 22km away from the bus stand in M'lore was the best spot for birding but decided to go to Panambur Beach hoping to find something on the beach.

Busy Day

I alighted at the Panambur bus stop right after the New Mangalore Port on the West Coast Road. The beach is a 15min walk from there. The road had many trucks waiting to get clearance for entry in to the port as the transport vehicle entry is only a few meters away from the beach entrance.

Green Shank with catch

I was guessing that the beach would be relatively empty as it was a Saturday afternoon. Only a few life guards and security guards were seen apart from a handful of tourists.
The beach is open on the right side of the main entrance for public and a small stretch of beach which is to the left which also has a watch tower (red color) is restricted as it adjoining the port.
I saw a few birds at a distance on the restricted side and spoke to one of the guards. He said no with out evening listening to what I had to say. A few mins late another guard came, he seemed to be in-charge, and tried to speak to him, and he agreed, but I was too come back before other tourists come to the beach. I was happy. ( permit can be obtained at the office which in on the main road ~2km away.)

Close-up 

The sand acted like a reflector as the Sun was shining brightly. At a distance I saw two birds and headed towards them( I had never photographer or seen shore birds before). My approach was very slow and stealthy, I was flat on the sand. After some time I was as close as I could get and started photographing.

Common Sandpiper 

After having  clicked a few photographs, I looked for more birds around, but there was nothing. I slowly got back on to my feet and started back. When I reached the red watch tower, I saw a few bee eaters exactly behind the tower. It was a small woody place, I waited there for some time and found the bee eaters again, it was the Blue Tailed Bee-eater.

Blue Tailed Bee-Eater

After  clicking the blue tailed, I ventured a little more, I spotted a small little light brown bird, it was cute. It was the Asian Brown Flycatcher.

Asian Brown Flycatcher 

There were many birds there drongos, bulbuls, laughing doves, black kites, and a nesting brahminy kite.

I spent a lot of time there and then returned to the main entrance of the beach. Which was now seeing a great in flow of tourist and localities, and many 'make shift' stalls were up and running.

A few water rides were also set up including the water scooter, there were two ATV zooming around on the beach as-well.

I headed to a relatives place for the night and gear up for the next day.

Day 3 Sunday :

It was 6.30AM and my mobile phone rang, It was my friend Pavan Calling, I answer the call and he asks where should I get down. I took a moment to realize that he was now in Mangalore and will join me for the next few days. I told him to get down at KSRTC Bus stand and wait there.

First Light

After thanking and saying good bye to my relatives, by 7.15AM I reached the Bus Stop and looked around, he was sitting on a bench and half asleep. I woke him up and we left his luggage at the cloak room . At about 8.30 we reached Bunts Hostel bus stop. We were heading to Pilikula. We had a tough time getting the right bus thanks to the confusing directions people gave us, we went to three different bus stops which were close by and finally found a bus going back to State Bank-( the starting point of most local buses). It was a '3c' if I remember it right. We reached the zoo by 9.45 AM after all the confusion.

The zoo is quite ok for what it was,  I don't think many people will fancy revisiting the place many times.
That day was one of those very hot days and being a coastal city, the humidity was very high. Dehydration was on. By the time we reached the end, we found out that the zoo is not a circle like most zoos and had to walk back all the way.

The Lion Twins

We manged to walk back to the main entrance bordered a bus that was waiting for people. We got down in front of KSRTC bus stand and went into Bharath Mall for a nice lunch. We had a few things on our menu and it was good.

A Visitor - White Bellied Sea Eagle found near an enclosure.

After the meal , we decided to go to the beach again and reached the beach. That day unlike the previous day the beach was full of people. I was pretty sure that looking for birds with so many people around was a wast of time and we decided to walk on the right side.

Sunset Time

We spent some time there photographing the Sun slowly set and disappear and a few crazy photos of each other. By 6.30PM we started from the beach and got down near the KSRTC bus stand by 7.15PM.

We took the luggage from the cloak room and waited for a bus to Madikeri...

Lesson Learnt : Never travel on a Sunday with no bookings, we had to leave 7-8 buses because all seats were booked. At about 11.30 in the night a bus, red bus from Udupi came and had a few seats, the conductor first filled the seats to Mysore and finally 1 seat left. We grabbed it and took turns until we reached Madikeri.

Headless  Pavan

 
                

   

           

                           Part 3 coming soon...

( Wishing  All of you a Very Happy 2014)

Ranganathittu the Avian Heaven

Once again, right after my exam I was travelling, this time to Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary. The planning  was quick and fast. Manjunath, my birding friend was more keen and it was his brain child. So it was set that we start from Bangalore on June 8th at midnight.  Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary in the Mandya District of Karnataka is a two and a half hour drive from Bangalore, about 125KM. Taking the State Highway-17 to Mysore, the bird sanctuary is 8KM ahead of the town of Srirangapatna, about 5KM from the town is a big circle where the SH takes a sharp left, this is where we need to take a Right turn, there is a small sign board on the right side which can be easily missed. The road leads to Ilavala by-passing Mysore. 3KM on this rather bumpy road we get to the main entrance to the avian heaven. There is a small entry fee of Rs 50/person.

 Baya weaver collecting for nest building. 

  

We parked the car next to canal right after the main entrance and reclined the seats and tried to sleep, we were there at 2.20AM but I couldn't sleep, excitement had its toll. But I managed to remain in the car for some time and then I had to venture out, I took my flashlight and went around. I saw a few snakes move but not for long to put an ID on them(  probably I was too noisy in my approach). I walked around for a bit and then came back to the car.

Small Blue Kingfisher

At dawn we started towards the ticket counted and were in for a shock, the board said the park opens only at 9AM and a gate to prevent vehicles from entering. We were figuring out what to do and we saw someone inside brushing his teeth. We called out to him and he turned out to be a boatman. After speaking to him and paying him the entry fee for which he gave the tickets when the counter opened.

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher juvenile

We went to the parking area and started birding right from the car, I was the spotter as I was the more experienced birder, we saw Pale-billed & Plain flowerpecker, white cheeked barbet along with a few sunbirds in the parking lot. Light was not with us, over cast condition lurked above.

                                   

Great Thick Knee

Open Billed Stock

We walked around for some time and the Sun rising, gave us a ray of hope for a good birding session. The small pond next the parking lot caught our attention and we were there and looked for bird activity and then there were Baya weavers busy building their nests on the other-side of the pond. I set my tripod and began shooting. And then I heard the call of a Common Kingfisher, I looked around but could not locate it. I returned to the viewfinder and heard the call again, and this time it I saw it just a few meters away from me. I was thrilled, I had never photographed one of them before. We had a good time shooting him at different places around the pond. When we were happy with our images, we moved on. We saw a lot of garden birds and one juvenile Tickell's Blue Flycatcher gave me a tough time IDing it, but was brave enough to sit only 5 feet away from us and give us different poses. 

Darter 

                                                                                                                         

The boatman came to us with the tickets and asked if we wanted to take the boat ride, Hell yes. We followed him towards the boats. We saw the rates for the boat ride, there were 2 options : 1.  Rs 50/ person in a big boat , for 25 people and a small ride. 2. Rs 1000/ boat, a small boat for a max of 4 people + the boat man for half an hour. We wanted the small boat but it seemed too expensive so we bargained, and after about 5mins he agreed for a one and a half hour ride for the same amount, plus no official to check on him. 

 Cattle Egret 

So we took positions and started, we saw the open billed stocks, bats, and many more. And then we saw marsh crocodile only a feet away from the boat, I was thrilled. The boat man then asked if we want to go behind the islands where the water is shallow and sharp rocks underneath. Putting our faith in him, we told him to take us there if he was confident. And am glad we did so, That is when I saw the Stock billed Kingfisher a lifer for both Manjunath and I. We went closer and the paddle hit a rock underwater and the bird was gone. 

Female Oriental Magpie Robin 

Later that day after the boat ride we spend some more time in the garden area spotting more birds.By 10.30 AM we reached back to the parking lot with a lot of photographs.

Pied Kingfisher

Excitement was running high, our next destination KABINI... 

( Bird List: Plain Billed Flower Pecker, Pale billed flower pecker, White cheeked Barbet, Baya weaver, Asian Koel, Small Blue Kingfisher, Tickell's Blue Flycatcher adult and juvenile, Red Vented Bulbul, Red Whiskered Bulbul, Spotted Munia, White Browed Wagtail, Brahminy Starling, Oriental Magpie Robin ( female),Tailorbird, Great Tit, Purple Rumped Sunbird, Indian Peafowl, Open Billed Stock( nesting with young ones) , Painted Stock, Pond Heron, Black Capped Night Heron, Stockbilled Kingfisher,Cattle Egret, Little Egret, Great Egret, Indian Cliff Swallow, White Throated Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Spot Bellied Pelican, Great Thick Knee, Indian Grey Hornbill. 

Marsh Crocodile only 1 spotted, Rat snake,

Bonnet Macaque. )       

               

Madikeri Mangalore and around Part 1

Sun Set

I was done with my exams and wanted to do things I love, Friday the 30th of November 2012, just after doing my first Hessarghatta birding trip. I boarded KSRTC's Rajahamsa to Madikeri. My grandparents place, I reached there at about 6.30am. A 5-min walk from the bus stand were my grandparents awaiting my arrival. Madikeri the capital of Coorg is a 7hr bus ride from Bangalore.  Had my favorite Ajji's special  dosa, and then a quick nap. By 2.30 PM I was preparing to go to Raja (raja's)Seat right in the center of the town. The place where the Kings of the day would enjoy their evening viewing the sunset, now a park. There is another story, that this is the place where prisoners given death penalty were thrown down the edge of the mountain to death! and the king would be the witness! 

View point 

Anyway I was not there as a tourist, I was there to do some bird watching. The park ends at the view point, then there is some lantana to the extreme left, right there is a small path way which leads to a thickly wooded area. A great place for a 30 min hike/trek, following the path is simple and easy but if you choose to be adventurous you can go off the path, but be careful, for loose rock, steep falls and snakes. 

The 'Drop Point'!

Birding there is a different experience, you will have to first select a spot which shows signs of bird activity and wait patiently for them to show up while the mosquitoes will feast. Both mornings and evenings are good for sighting birds but photography point of view evenings are not great as you will have the setting sun  for your background most of the time.

A lot of birds can be seen , Oriental White eye,Tickell's Blue Flycatcher,Indian Peafowl,Spotted Dove,Rose Ringed Parakeet,Plum-headed Parakeet,Asian Koel,Spotted Owlet,Common Indian Nightjar, House Swift,Small Green Bee-eater, IndianGrey Hornbill, White-cheeked Barbet, Coppersmith Barbet, Rufous-backed Shrike, Black Headed Oriole, Brahminy Starling, Common Myna, Small Minivet,Common Iora,Red-whiskered Bulbul,Red-vented Bulbul, Black Kite are some of the birds that I sighted that evening but could not get good images...

 

Just After Sun Set

Just at sun down I made my way back to the park area for the musical fountain synchronised to the track 'dhoom machale' and A R Rahman's 'Vande Mataram' a thrilling sight to see water shoot up into the air and then a sudden lamina flow to meet the music. When 'Vande Mataram' was played am sure every one felt very patriotic. If it was a holiday that day, the show would have extended to at-least three more tracks. Damn I miss it. 

Musical Fountain

Once the show was over everyone was in a hurry to leave the park, I waited for all the commotion to end and peace soon followed. I stayed back for some time enjoying the peace, cool breeze and the dark hill side. But then the security guards blew their whistles to signal that it was time to leave. That is when I realized that it was 8:45 pm, very late for a town that closes down by 9pm.   






I headed back home, had a good meal, packed my back-pack for the next two days. I was heading to the coastal capital of Karnataka, Mangalore. Bird watching, sunset at the beach and  Pilikula was on my mind....