I’m back in Bangalore, after spending two incredible weeks at Jungle Lodges and Resorts, Bandipur, where i worked as volunteer Naturalist. If you were following me on twitter, you would have seen my live updates from safaris.
I’ll write more about my experience in the weeks to come. Too many things to catch up now. More later, bye!
Posted in Life, adventure, photography, travel, wildlife | Tagged bandipur, JLR, naturalist, volunteer | 7 Comments »
I joined Shreeram, Vineet, and Gopal from NTP for a quick trip to GKVK campus for bird watching today morning. Prem also accompanied us. It turned out to be a great outing with some excellent sightings.
I reached the GKVK/UAS campus by 6:30am, parked my car near Ganesha temple and started looking for birds. All i could hear was the squirrels. I looked around for about half an hour without any good luck, and i was disappointed. Called Vineet and joined them near the Eucalyptus tree patch, and there we saw a Shikra family. Soon, Gopal joined us.
We walked to the uncultivated/forest land hoping for better sightings. We sighted lots of Barbets along the way. A Copper-Smith Barbett was feeding its chick and i could manage to get this shot:
There was a patch next to the road, and a faint trail. I walked into that and sat down to check the undergrowth wishing for a Pitta to hop by. I was scanning the undergrowth, with squirrels about 2-3ft from me and few Ashy Prinias hopping around, and suddenly a heard a galloping burst and saw some dark thing run past in front of me. Then i hear Shreeram shouting ‘Wild Boar!‘ Some 10mtr to the right, i would have been run over by a Wild boar.
Saw a nest of Oriental Magpie Robin. Heard close calls of Partridges, which at one point got really loud, and then got faint. They must have walked towards us, and then ran away. On to a more open area further, we sighted two pairs of Yellow-Wattled Lapwings, first time for me. There were chicks i suppose since the birds were calling and flying frequently to threaten us away. We didn’t get sight of the chicks.
As we walked back to the parking lot, we sighted a Common Grey Mongoose go past us across the road. As we walked further down, we heard something in the bush and we turned back to see another Mongoose run across. It was a great to watch them, but couldn’t get a shot.
After breakfast, sponsored by Gopal, Vineet, Shreeram, Prem and I went to Jakkur Lake. The lake was a treat to bird watchers. We weren’t expecting to see so many different species. Spot-Billed Pelicans, three types of Cormorants (including the white headed sub-species of Great Cormorant), Coots, Grebs, Purple Moorhens, and Common Moorhens. We were hearing calls of White-throated Kingfiher for some time and finally spotted it. A Pied Kingfisher came hovering into frame as i was focussing on a Brahminy Kite. I got a hovering shot of Pied Kingfisher here after many failed attempts elsewhere.
List of Birds:
Route to GKVK/UAS campus (courtesy Gopal):
a.. On Bellary road, NH-7, go past Mekhir circle to Hebbal flyover
b.. Go on the flyover without taking any deviations.
c.. 3kms from the flyover you will find L&T Komatsu office on your left, take the service road.
d.. GKVK/UAS campus is next to L&T Komatsu, and has a Mahatma Gandhi statue at the entrance.
Get inside the campus, going past two big playgrounds and a basket ball court to your left. Ample parking space is available. Walk some distance on the right side, going past student hostels, to reach uncultivated land for good bird sightings.
Route to Jakkur Lake:
- Take a right turn on Bellary Road, NH-7, just before Jakkur flying school.
- Go along the fencing of the flying school. Down the road, take the road which takes a natural right. Furthur down, take a left turn. Take right on a small Circle. 1km from there you will see the lake on your left.
Posted in Birding, bangalore, bird photography, bird watching, photography, wildlife | Tagged bangalore, bird watching, Birding, copper smith barbett chick, GKVK campus, jakkur lake, pied kingfisher, pied kingfisher hovering, UAS campus, yellow wattled lapwing | 26 Comments »
Sunfeast 10k marathon on Sunday morning meant, all roads around Cubbon Park, and MG road blocked for vehicular movement. I had registered for Kalyan Varma’s workshop in association with National geographic channel at the British Council. Took an auto till Minsk Square and started walking a distance of 2km from Minsk square to British Library. Shot a few images of marathoners on Cubbon road and Kasturba road.
Tabebuia Rosea was on bloom, though not fully, and the clear blue sky provided a nice opportunity to take this image:
The enthusiasm of the runners was really exciting. Though many were tired and were just strolling, there were enough people to encourage the runners. There were many groups and organizations running for fun and some causes. There were disabled people, and many who supported their cause for equal opportunity for disabled. There were people running to save trees. There were few who ran to save the Sparrows. :)
It was an exhilarating experience for me as i walked on those roads i’ve traveled million times. I had never seen those roads without motor vehicles.
At Minsk square, i shot this image hand held at 1/6s shutter speed. Did selective coloring on Photoshop to get the image below. I feel, just the desaturated image would have been better after seeing on the blog.
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As huge fan and admirer of Kalyan’s work, i was a little disappointed with the workshop. I think it would have been lot better if it wasn’t for so much stress on National Geographic photographs, which undoubtedly are top class. Anyway, it was a great opportunity to meet guys like Kalyan, who provide immense inspiration to many aspiring wildlife photographers.
Posted in bangalore, people, photography | Tagged bangalore, Kalyan Varma, Marathon, national geographic channel, Photography workshop, Sunfeast Marathon | 15 Comments »
Trip to valley school today morning was a great one. Since i don’t have enough time right now to write more, i’ll leave with few images showing the creatures i enjoyed watching and photographing.
Plants – use sun to tap energy
Bougainvillea
Birds – live on these plants and tress
Red Vented Bulbul
Birds - young ones are born and brought up on plants
Red Vented Bulbul chick
Was photographing the adult from the car in close range. Didn’t know there was a nest nearby. This young one got disturbed, and flew out of the nest a few feet and landed on the ground. Shot this image and left the spot feeling bad for disturbing the little one.
Molluscs - Crawling their way through
African Giant Snail
This was a co-operative one. Shot this at various angles, with and without flash.
Insects – Beetle rolling it up
This beetle was putting in a lot of effort in rolling up a ball. Don’t know the identity of this beetle. Beetles constitute about 50% of insects species.
Arachnids – Your friendly neighborhood hero
Araneus Mitifica
This pretty looking spider was hanging from a tree. I guess, she got disturbed as we were around and started ascending. Got this shot on Manual focus as AF was struggling to lock this tiny creature in the frame.
That’s all folks for now, off to watch IPL finals. Go RCB!
P.S.: Will update this post with more info on each of these images, do come back if interested.
Update done. (29/05/09 11:49PM)
Posted in photography, wildlife | Tagged arachnid, beetle, birds, mollusc, spider, wildlife | 12 Comments »
I have really been sweating this summer, more so at work. Still, I did manage to attend NTP on the last weekend of March. Three weeks later, made a trip to a village near Hassan for a wedding. Wedding trip turned out to be a great one, for birding and visiting historical monuments.
Anyone driving to Nelamangala from Bangalore would know the pain to drive on the under construction, rather under expansion road. It took about one and half hours get going past Nelamangala.
Route: Bangalore –> Nelamangala –> Kunigal -> Adichunchanagiri–> Channarayapatna –> Hassan
Distance: 185km
A deviation on the Hassan – Sakaleshpur highway got us into the village roads. As we drove down a pond near to the village, i sighted a couple of Pied Kingfishers, and a Paradise Flycatcher. Told myself to come back to the place later some time.
Spend about half an hour the next day biding on an alley, along one side of which is a lake and a arecanut plantation on the other side. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of birds i could readily see around that place. There were plenty of Purple Moorhens, and Common Coots. Pied Kingfishers flew from one end of the lake to another as they saw us walking. The day was cloudy, and the birds were at a distance. Couldn’t manage to get a decent shot of any bird.
Lakshmi temple at Dodda Gaddavalli is not a very well known one, but i learned that it is the first Hoysala temple. Having visited Belur and Somnathpur earlier, i wanted to have a look at this Hoysala temple too. Hoysala temples are known for their intricate stone carvings. Hoysala craftsmen made this temple as a practice prior to the ones constructed at Belur and Halebidu.
The temple is also the only Bethala temple in the world. Bethala is a deamon, guarding the MahaKali, a Hindu goddess, who shares the temple with Lakshmi.
Bethala, the deamon standing guard to Maha Kali
The ceiling of the temple has carvings of 8 Hindu deities, one each in 8 directions of North, South, East, West, North East, South East, South West and North West.
The image on left shows Indra, in one of the directions, on his vahana (vehicle), a white Elephant, along with his wife Suchidevi.
The image on the right shows Vastu purusha, the god of Vaastu Shastra. Vastu Purusha does not have a vahana. He uses his own body, which is very evident from the beautifully carved structure.
The rocky temple proved to be an excellent habitat for Rock Agamas. I could readily see brightly colored males, basking in the sun. I managed to get close to one of them for a good shot. Click on the image for a larger and sharper view.
I saw a Common Hoopoe on the fence of the temple. I had missed it a couple of times, and was waiting patiently for it to come back. It came back with a meal!
This was a great trip on many fronts. Here’s the list of birds sighted:
Posted in bird photography, bird watching, travel, wildlife | Tagged architecture, bethala temple, bird watching, Birding, birds, common hoopoe, dodda gaddavalli, hassan, hoysala architecture, photography, wildlife | 17 Comments »
The thought of starting a photoblog was lingering in my mind since i bought my DSLR, but adhering to a particular theme was not easy as i clicked everything. Since majority of my shots are of wildlife, i thought of starting a photoblog to showcase wildlife and share whatever limited knowledge i have.
Wild Chronicles would mostly consist of images that illustrate behaviour, and/or habitat of a species, with few lines of text. Some images might be on this blog (HowYouDoin) as well as Wild Chronicles.
Hope you like my photoblog. Do let me know what you think of the new blog:
Posted in photography, wildlife | Tagged photoblog, photography, sandeep r, wildlife | 4 Comments »
All the participants with Karthik
I remember a colleague asking ‘Who’s a Naturalist?’ when one other colleague told us that he was invited by a popular wildlife photographer to work as a naturalist (the authenticity of which is not worth exploring). Answer to this question was what first answered in the Naturalist Training Program, which i attended from March 27-29, conducted by S. Karthikeyan, Chief Naturalist of Jungle Lodges and Resorts.
A person who studies natural history is know as a naturalist. Someone who looks at the nature in totality, someone who does not study nature with respect to one particular species is a naturalist.
Barking deer AKA muntjac
The three day training program consisted of sessions on topics like biodiversity in India, introduction to bird watching, bird behaviour, urban wildlife and the most exciting of all, plant-animal interaction. The sessions were interspersed with Nature trails in the morning and evening inside the herbivorous enclosure of Bannerghatta National park. After the nature trails in the evening, David Attenborough’s The Life of Bird series was played. The mesmerizing life of birds would inspire a novice to an avid bird watcher.
In the group of 17 odd people, probably 4-5 were into bird watching prior to the program, but most others weren’t. But the zeal of everyone was truely inspiring. The immense knowledge of Karthik got us to appreciate every little thing we saw in the nature trail. The sap sucked by the miniscule scaley insect on a leaf, and two ants close by to quench their thirst by the sap still remains vividly in my mind. The intricate interdependence of various forms of life, where loss of even one species could result in death of about 30 other species was put into perspective.
Bonnet macaque - mom and son
Watching keenly the behavior of the birds, and observing little things is what makes bird watching such an exciting activity, even if the bird is a common one. This point was put across by Karthik when he asked us ‘Does Myna hop or walk?‘
Asian Paradise Flycatcher (male)
How often would we get to see the beautiful male Paradise Flycatcher from the dining table? This bird was around the camp for quite some time. So were many Sun birds, feeding on nectar from the flowers on jacaranda tree.
We were able to sight a variety of herbivorous mammals in the herbivorous enclousure. Black bucks, Gaurs, Chitals, Barking Deers and Nilghais shared the same space. This made it possible for some to get Blackbuck and Gaur in the same frame! :))
The only big carnivorous in the enclosure are the Mugger Crocodiles, which were sighted in the late evenings on the banks of the lake.
Three days, i was totally cut off from the bustling city and enjoyed 4 back-to-back bird watching sessions in 3 days.
Few more images:
jlrntp participants looking to identify a bird spotted
Praying mantis, last species to be shot
Largest species of wild cattle, Gaur
Ubiquitous White Cheeked Barbett
P.S.: I was more into learning and less to photography, so please excuse me for these images.
Since this trip, AF on my 450D + 55-250mm IS lens seems to be little cranky. I am not able to get images as sharp as i got earlier with the same. May be i need to give the camera for service and get the lens calibrated. Anyone has any tips regarding this?
Posted in Birding, Karnataka, bird photography, bird watching, photography, wildlife | Tagged bannerghatta, Bannerghatta national park, BNP, JLR, jlrntp, jungle lodges and resorts, naturalist, ntp, wildlife, wildlife photography | 11 Comments »
It works like a miracle, it does work. Hope. I hope the image signifies hope.
I love power cuts, for it gives me time to relax, time away from surfing on computer, watching television, or reading some book . I used to love power cuts even in childhood. In those days, power cut in the evening meant no studies for that time. :)
Three day weekend, i’m off to NTP. Hope i have a great time.
Posted in Life | Tagged candle, hope | 16 Comments »
I’ve started tweeting of late. I know i’ve arrived late just like i arrived late to blogging. I guess gone are the days when people were paranoid to write about their daily activities (read personal) in public domain. I guess people now live more online, and less off it. Though LiveJournal started the cult at the beginning of this century, i think it took Twitter to bring about the change so drastically.
It’s good to see information being passed so quickly through tinyurls to accommodate the link to a detailed article on web with the gist in the tweet. Tweets like ‘Off for dinner‘, ‘Back from loo‘ etc is just plain stupidity. But i’m sure there are people who follow such tweets as well following up with a tweet Hey Britney just got back from bathroom, jeez that was quick!
It gets irritating when people use twitter for conversation. It happened to me. Someone wanted to know if i would do freelance product photography, the conversation went on for some 5-6 tweets, i had no option but to reply on twitter itself. Why don’t people use email or IM for that?! This is exactly like using scrapbook/wall for conversation before chat feature was integrated into social networking sites.
I love the new Twitter search feature, which has a simple search homepage, what Google did more than decade ago. But i wonder why don’t they have ads in the twitter profile page?! It makes so much sense to have a couple of text ads there. For example, one of my tweets went like this: ‘Seems like 400mm f/5.6L USM went out of stock even in US!!! Canon, do something!’ It makes a lot of sense to have an ad for Canon 400mm lens which is in stock. It is fine that you might not be able to facilitate such ads on all tweets, but i’m sure you can find quite a few which do match. ‘Back from loo‘ can have a toilet paper ad. :))
On a totally different note, i’m finding it hard to understand Hyperfocal distance to produce images with greatest depth of field for landscapes. This supposedly explains it well, but i’d appreciate if someone can explain better.
P.S.: Can i change from a postpaid connection to prepaid without changing the phone number? I use Vodafone. This was another tweet for which i’d have appreciated relevant ads. I still haven’t found an answer, would appreciate if any of you can address.
Posted in business, technology | Tagged Advertizing, business, business model, twitter, twitter search | 16 Comments »
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