SLITHERING BEAUTY

In the context of wildlife sightings, often chance plays a big role. I was spending an early morning walking around a lake, clicking the birds perched on trees and on some of the rocks jutting about in the lake, when all of a sudden I saw a different type of movement in the water.

There were some ripples causing a wonderful pattern on the water surface and yet there was hardly any sound. Eyes had to be focussed more closely and ditto was the case with the camera lens.

Suddenly a sharp and clear picture emerged ……a snake silently slithering through just below the water surface ! Took several pictures, but the one which stood out for me was this one, with the head just above the water, the eye seen clearly and the colourful skin combining with the contrasting water ripples and the weeds with a mild glow of early morning light, all together giving me a beautiful composition.

For me, it was my first click of a snake and that too in water, and just as in case of so many joys which you get for the first time, a euphoric feeling, to remain in memory for long !

THE LORD GOD MADE THEM ALL

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all !

Sometimes simple creatures bring out so many wonderful perspectives.

Came across this dragon fly, while doing one of my early morning rounds. It continued hovering all over the place, jumping from one bush to another, and making me follow it and not allowing me the opportunity to aim the camera.

After sometime it probably realised that it had a fan following in me and offered me a few moments to take some snaps.

Zoomed the lens a bit, played around with the focus, looked for a suitable setting for the composition, click, click, click and waited for the picture to emerge……

…..the light blue coloured head perched atop a helicopter modelled body, finely detailed black patterns creating wonderful designs on the wings and, all this, contrasting with the green leafy background…..

…….I get more and more hooked to the wonders of photography with each passing day !

MEGA DUEL

What do you do when you see two huge hulks having a big fight in full intensity ? First, you think of your own safety.

I did that. Ensured that I was a safe distance away, safely tucked in my safari jeep.

And then ?

Then you absorb yourself into watching this great spectacle of two male Indian bisons (gaurs) hurling into each other, massive horns jutting out and then getting locked with those of the adversary.

It is all about brute force generated by the tonnes of weight of their massive bodies. The weaker ones in the herd stay away and watch the ongoing battle royale. It is nothing less than royale, for the winner gets the courtship of the female bison. She is nearby, and raises her head just once in a while to see the bull fight, but then she carries on with her munching.

Meanwhile, the fight continues. There are no half measures. No inch is given, none conceded.

I stand there enchanted. Capturing a rare moment in my wildlife sojourn.

Chalo bulawa aaya hai !

Chalo bulawa aaya hai !  

This literally came true for me last week. Not in the generally understood religious context, but in a more contemporary context of the call from the wild !

Our office had planned an outing to Goa, and being a relatively leaner season, I thought of trying out some photography detours on the way to Goa. And suddenly in course of my googling, I stumbled upon a peculiar type of name – OLD MAGAZINE HOUSE (OMH). On going through the almost reverential reviews for this place in Ganeshgudi, the mind was made up in an instant. The bulawa had come !

Walked across to the desk of Mahendra, who is a keen birder and photography enthusiast and broached the idea to him. We could leave a day in advance, spend one day at OMH and then proceed to Goa. As they say, when the bulawa comes, everything falls in place. He agreed in an instant. Next few minutes, the hotel and train reservations were done.

For some unavoidable reasons however, it so happened that I had to miss the journey that night and had to join a day later. Reached OMH at Ganeshgudi at around 9 am in the morning. Immediately on reaching there, Mahendra showed me the awesome clicks that he had captured the earlier evening – the reds and the blues and the yellows and the whites, all types of amazing birds ! Boy, I missed big time. The next instant however, heard excited screams all around. Shh, shh…there is a woodpecker on a nearby tree and the clicking sessions started for me.

The great thing about OMH is that you need not go out to find the birds. Rather the birds come around to a sighting set up, which consists of a few strategically placed bath trays filled with water, and the birds come about to drink and bath, and in the process you get the chance to click them at close quarters. The next hour or so, there were many more birds which made their morning show appearance, and I started feeling better. 

                                                                        

                                                                           Orange capped Thrush

Brown fulveta

                                                                     Yellow browed bulbul

Around 11.00 am it was stage wrap up time, and Joma, our experienced JLR guide suggested that we walk down a few kilometres down the road to a place where there could be other sightings. The walk down the forest road was quite refreshing and we reached a road crossing where there were already some cars lined up and excited photographers all around. Everyone was pointing towards a fruiting tree and the cameras were rolling to capture Malabar barbets, vernal hanging parrots, starlings and hill mynas. Managed a few clicks myself.

Malabar Barbets (up and down)

Around lunch time, we were back towards the lodge. Trudged along on the pathway in the shining sun and just as we reached, saw the manager running down the office and telling us that Joma had sighted a Malabar trogon near the main road. The excitement in the crowd was palpable. Malabar Trogon seems to be a rare bird and everyone started running in that direction. On reaching the spot, Joma pointed to some trees in the distance where the Trogon was last seen. It seemed to have fled the scene leaving us disappointed. We were going back and hardly had taken a few steps when Joma was back in action.  “There it is!” And strained necks tried sighting the bird. Only the back portion was visible. 

More clickings but the bird remained still. Someone, suggested a different viewpoint and then lo and behold, a frontal view emerged.

Proceeded for lunch on a happy note. Post lunch, it was time to check out and move to Bison resort. After seeing all the excitement at OMH, I decided to extend my stay till late evening and Mahendra moved on.

It turned out to be a great decision. The evening show was the centerpiece of the entire visit and it was a literal parade of colourful birds which ensued in the next few hours. Will let the pictures do the talking.

Red whiskered bulbul

Crimson sunbird

Dark fronted warbler

Dark fronted warbler

Emerald dove

Flame throated bulbul

Forest wagtail

Grey wagtail with yellow rump

Indian yellow lored tit

Black headed munia

Oriental white eye

Paradise flycatcher Female

Blythe starling, or is it Rosy starling

Blythe starling, or is it Rosy starling

White rumped Shama

Tickle's blue flycatcher

Verditer Flycatcher

Blue flycatcher Female

blue flycatcher male

  

The only remaining desire was to be able to see the “king”. The male Asian Paradise Flycatcher is virtually considered as a the King catch amongst photographers. It was 6.00 pm by now and we were about to pack up. And suddenly, there was a whirr and a white silky bird floated into the scene.  The angel had made its appearance. Frenetic clicking followed and here is my dream come true!

A fantastic evening.

Awesome ! Amazing ! Fantastic ! all superlatives came to mind about my experience at OMH. Need to be back here again.

The night was spent at Bison resort and the next morning, it was the hornbill show. Walked around the property with Muthu, a local guide, who tried his best to spot the pied hornbills. Sighted a few, but they were in low lights and clicked some record shots. The grey hornbills, however, more than made up and provided some lovely shots.  

All in all, it was a wonderful experience in and around Ganeshgudi, with Old Magazine House clearly being the icing on the cake.

Off to Goa later in the day. It was now party mood and yet within all the teaming and other activities over the next couple of days, I still managed to sneak out for a few hours and got some Goa birds, especially the Goan kingfisher.

More than enough for one trip, isnt’t it ? Afterall, when the bulawa comes, it is has to be something special !


Logistics - Old magazine House is a property owned by Jungle Lodges. It is situated at Ganeshgudi, which is approx 30 kms from Londa junction on the Bangalore Kolhapur line. The property has 5 cottages and 1 dormitory with 20 beds. Decent and clean rooms. Good food and more importantly very helpful and courteous  staff who have great knowledge of birds.

Nagarhole and Irpu falls

My photography sorties into places like Hesaraghtta, Valley School etc. led me to wish for more....and like any other newbie snapper, I was also getting drawn towards capturing forests and wildlife.

As they say, there is a lot of power in thought. Within a month of this thought getting into my mind, an opportunity came along to make a trip to Nagarhole. Have heard a lot about this wildlife sanctuary from my friends who are into photography.

Coaxed my wife and son to join me on the trip and I was on my way on a Friday afternoon. Drove for about 7 hours at a reasonable pace and reached Kutta by about 10.30 at night. Kutta is a small place about 5 kms from the Nagarhole sanctuary and offers a good variety of homestay options, which are quite clean, decent, and real value for money. Compared to a per person cost of about Rs 5000 plus at the Jungle Lodge, you pay about Rs 2000 per person for an even better stay. And you get personalised service.

Got up in the morning at 6.00 am and reached the Nagarhole sanctuary for the safari trip. The drive upto the safari starting point was a good starter for the trip. The forest is quite beautiful and especially the early morning ambience, with the chill in the air and mistiness  all around, is really refreshing,

At the safari start point, they have a few noisy buses to take you around. I got to know that there are some jeeps as well but most of the times, they are busy on duty for visiting officials and general public does not get this option. The safari trip is always a game of chance, and my luck was probably left behind in Bangalore. My quest to see elephants and tigers remained unfulfilled. However, there were deers and stags, and a few wild boars, which sort of made up the safari to some extent.

It is human nature that we love something which is partially seen and partially hidden, and it was no different for me when I could manage this click of the animal half hidden behind a tree.

Another boar, and this time a close up.

Sighted a vulture which was sitting near the carcass of a buffalo.

It was now time for us to head for breakfast, which turned out to be a typical coorgi affair with rice rotis and sagoo. A fresh breakfast is always welcome and we ate to our hearts content. With our stomach full, it was time for the next item on the agenda. Irpu falls, which was about 10 kms from Kutta.

I had read a lot about shooting waterfall pics with slow shutter speed and hence had brought a tripod from Bangalore especially for this purpose. Reached the base of Irpu falls and then walked up with my gear on the stony stairpath for about 10 minutes to reach the waterfall. Once I saw the beautiful waterfall, realised that the uphill climb was well worth it.

While my wife and son got about enjoying the scenery, I got busy into setting up the tripod. This was my first experience with a tripod, and after juggling around the nuts and screws for sometime, finally managed to set it up. Started clicking the waterfalls with different shutterspeeds and from different angles.

This was the first one.

The next one was at a slower shutterspeed.

Felt happy with the result and this time tried a different perspective.

Overall I felt happy with my first waterfall clicks and that too with a tripod.

On our way back to the homestay for lunch, saw an old man sitting near the road. The man was lost in his thoughts, looking quite haggard and something in his appearance and the setting made me reach out to my camera for a quick snap.

Had a simple lunch at a roadside joint. Post lunch started out for Tholpetta sanctuary, which is quite nearby, in the quest for a sighting for elephants. On the way to Tholpetta, got a couple of interesting clicks.

My luck still eluded me at Tholpetta as well. The safari at Tholpetta was boring and uneventful. In fact there was hardly any sighting of any animal in the entire hourlong journey. Felt disappointed and contemplated another safari trip back at Nagarhole sanctuary. A local guy however, advised us to simply drive through the Nagarhole road instead of taking the safari. Decided to take that route and drove down in my own car.  More sightings of deer and peafowl followed but that was not what I was looking for. It was getting dark by now and reluctantly started back towards the homestay. Just as we were reaching the exit gate, saw a group of people staring towards the bushes on one side of the road. Stopped my vehicle, and suddenly lo and behold, this is what I got to see ....

The elephant emerged from behind some trees, gave me about a few seconds to click and before I could try different other angles, it quickly disappeared behind the bushes. From the sounds we could make out that it was walking parallel to us in the thick bushes. In a few minutes, there were more sounds and we realised that there was in fact a large herd of about 10-12 elephants which was walking in the bushes about 100 feet from us. It was quite scary, and yet a very exciting feeling. We could catch fleeting glimpses of the large elephants but by now it was very dark and we were in a lonely track. The elephants were becoming quite noisy and we decided to exit the scene quickly. Anyway our day was made and the objective of the trip was now achieved.

The next day morning, we were on our way back, after breakfast. Just as we started, saw a beautiful sunbird perched high atop a litchi tree.

On our way back to Bangalore, we stopped for sometime at Karanji lake in Mysore. Some more clicks.

Reached Bangalore late in the evening with great memories of a a very enjoyable trip.

Nagarhole, Irpu falls and Karanji lake are lovely places and well recommended, for photographers as well as a nature lovers.