Wild Encounters

Lunar Eclipse

2011-12-11T12:27:00.001+05:30

Me and Nanda had an opportunity to take Gargi yesterday to Planetarium on the same day of Eclipse. It was fitting that she enjoyed on this occasion. Here are few images that I shot during the Eclipse.

Lunar Eclipse as seen in Bangalore

Moon chasing another moon?

I shot the last couple of shots initially at 100mm & then zoomed in to the moon to set the focal length at 400mm. Hence the effect. Hope you like it.

Pea fowls

2011-04-16T21:43:00.002+05:30

This time in Bandipur, every Safari drive that we took we encountered a Pea cock dancing & impressing his partner. There's a belief that when Peafowls dance, rain is in the air. And it turned out to be that way as we'd light drizzles on and off.

Post card from Bandipur

2011-04-16T21:25:00.001+05:30

Last weekend we made a quick dash to Bandipur hoping to see Gauri & its four cubs. There's always an excitement before you go for any trip and more so in case of visit to any Wildlife sanctuaries. That child-like excitement is what drives many of us into the wild. And this trip didn't disappoint us, as the last safari we got to see a glimpse of a Leopard.For Rakesh/Prema/Praveer and the kids, this was their first sight of Leopard. Though we couldn't get a chance to photograph them, it still lightened up our mood.

Images from Ranganathittu

2011-03-20T22:23:00.000+05:30

Thanks to our team outing, we'd a chance to visit Nagarahole & Ranganathittu. I've finally started processing some of them & here are couple to start with.

Old ones from Bharathpur

2011-03-20T21:12:00.001+05:30

It's been a while since I processed my older images. Perhaps caught up with too much work and I've not planned it well. Hopefully I'll be more regular now. Here are some of the shots from my visit to the one-n-only Keolodeo National Park at Bharathpur

Eravikulam Sanctuary

2010-11-05T21:34:00.000+05:30

This is one sanctuary that I should visit many times over in every season. The colors that it offers is amazing to see. Here is a Nilgiri Thar that just showed up at a distance during the evening.

While returning from Munnar, Nanda spotted this Malabar Giant Squirrel right beside the road. Before the incoming traffic could disturb it, it gave few glimpses of its beauty.

Postcard from God's Own Country

2010-11-05T21:29:00.000+05:30

Our visit to Munnar & Thekkady during Dasara was awesome. It was very relaxing & refreshing. See a detailed trip report from Nanda here

It's a heaven for landscapes. Here are some of the images from the trip.

Visit to Bannerghatta NP

2010-08-01T21:23:00.000+05:30

Thanks to Dinesh & our own initiative from MindTree foundation, I got a chance to see all the areas (so called "core")of Bannerghatta NP today. We have plans of putting up D/N PTZ Cameras at about 50 watch towers inside the park. And I've got the onus to get the complete system up from the surveillance perspective. Ah, talk about passion & work coming together!! This certainly was an exciting day. Here are couple of shots from the visit. I'll post a detailed report soon.

Patterns

2010-03-21T16:32:00.000+05:30

Two black bucks retreated as soon as I was driving into their territory, despite the fact that I was more than 100m away. This gave me an opportunity to look for interesting patterns. Here is one of those

Journey Ahead

2010-03-21T15:53:00.000+05:30

Couple of weeks back me, Nanda & Gargi made a quick visit to Maidanahalli. This is an amazing place for Blackbucks & Raptors. In two sessions we saw black bucks sparring, an indian fox stalking for a black buck fawn and short toed snake eagle & montagu harriers. Here is the first from the series

Some more images from last day of 2009

2010-01-03T15:44:00.000+05:30

Here are some more images

Last day of birding for 2009

2010-01-01T15:48:00.000+05:30

It's been almost a year since I went to Hesaraghatta & I decided to end the year 2009 by making a visit to Hesaraghatta lake. Pandith & Abhijit joined me. It was their first visit to Hesaraghatta & no one returns empty handed from this place! It's just amazing how many variety of birds are around this place. I'm yet to identify this raptor. It looks like a Marsh Harrier to me. Do confirm if you know.

Elephant Behavior

2009-09-07T22:08:00.000+05:30

Gopalaswamy Betta presented an incredible opportunity for me to shoot this herd of elephants from the top of the hill. I've never seen such a sight before. Watching elephants from the top as if it's seen from an air balloon was really amazing perspective to get. To add to that I saw very interesting behavior from the mother elephant. If you see closely there are two calves suckling from the same mother. It's very rare for an elephant to have twins! I suspect that the other calf is slightly old (may be 3-6 months) & perhaps has lost its mother. The aunt elephant, which is now the matriarch, is taking care of the orphan calf. This social behavior depicts very clearly the caring nature of elephants.

Do share your thoughts if you've witnessed such a behavior before!

Many moods of Jog Falls

2009-09-01T22:11:00.000+05:30

Jog Falls has always been a special place in my heart perhaps due to the fact that we lived close by for over 7 years in Gersoppa. Last weekend I got a chance to recapture some of the moods of it. In next few days/weeks, I'll post some of them. I've called them the moods of Jog primarily due to the changing landscape every time you see it. The mist & the rain create an incredible harmony that makes it very special. Here is the first one to begin with.

Elephant Bathing

2009-06-14T10:26:00.000+05:30

We'd a great time watching this matriarch taking bath in BRT WLS. For over 10 minutes, me, Nanda and Gargi enjoyed watching her bath. Elephants are child like when it comes to water & they play with gay abandon.

Blue tailed bee eater scape

2009-05-09T11:01:00.000+05:30

They offer interesting opportunity for experimenting on the compositions. I'm yet to process all the images. I liked this compo where I was shooting from lower ground & the BTBE was perched on little higher place.

Blue tailed bee eater

2009-05-09T10:48:00.001+05:30

Nagunvina halli is such a magnificent place shoot these birds!! It's the breeding season now. Here is a starter!

Kestrel Male

2009-03-14T22:07:00.000+05:30

I've not had a chance to process my earlier images. This was from our last trip to Hesaraghatta before the Kestrels chose to return to their original home! By far this was the trip that I got the best images of all the major raptors. This Kestrel male was spotted by Rakesh & did give us few poses before it flew away.

LBV - Early Morning

2009-02-08T14:19:00.000+05:30

One of the good things about Ramadevara betta is that it offers lot of possibilities for creating interesting compositions. This Long Billed Vulture gave us a quite a lot of options. I liked this one in the morning light with beautiful winter's blue sky and the grass in the background. Let me know what you think.

Early morning conversation!

2009-02-08T13:52:00.000+05:30

Me, Raks & prema visited Ramanagar today morning. It was really eventful. We spotted Peregrine Falcon which was a lifer. There were 13 Long billed Vultures (& perhaps more) on a single rock bed. Though I couldn't get any decent flight shots, I did like this shot. A myna seem to having a conversation with the LBV. ACtually myna flew very close the LBV and picked something that was close to LBV and before it flew off, they seem to have had a conversation. It was interesting to see Myna sitting close it. I've seen (in photos/videos) Mynas being hunted by Peregrine Falcon & other raptors; and here it seemed unperturbed by its presence!!

Tawny Eagle

2009-02-04T21:39:00.000+05:30

This was a lifer on the day when it rained raptors! Truly, Hesaraghatta is a paradise

Kestrel in its world

2009-02-04T21:33:00.000+05:30

Early morning light had lit up Hesaraghatta and I was intrigued by the mesmerizing fog & the golden light. This juvenile Kestrel which had made the tree its home for the night, was waiting for the sunrise so that it can resume its daily routine.

Jackals & Misty morning

2009-02-04T21:22:00.000+05:30

I've not had time to process images since I went to Ombatttu Gudda trek for 3 days and work had been hectic post Republic day! These images are a week prior to Republic day when me, Raks & Nagesh went to Hesaraghatta.
The day opened with Marsh Harrier and later we saw a Jackal pair. The morning was completely misty and the golden light added to the drama. It was a sight to behold. This happened to be great day for Raptors since we sighted Marsh Harrier, Steppe Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Montagu Harrier (female), Pallid Harrier (female) and also the usual Kestrel (male, female & juvenile).

Post processing differently

2009-01-14T16:10:00.000+05:30

Rakesh commented on one of the other Kestrel images about the light. He said if the Kestrel was in front light, the effect could have been better!! I couldn't have agreed with him more. However I couldn't have changed the light at that time as I was positioned inside Manoj's scorpio and was fairly cramped too. Changing the position of the Scorpio meant loosing those crucial moments of Kestrel feeding.

However I thought about it and decided to post process the image differently. I've processed this image twice in different white balances one in day light and the other in slightly cooler color temperature. Since the Kestrel was getting good light I had to process it in day light white balance. The background was however was with a cooler WB. I've blended both the images to get a better frontal light and over all a much better effect that my earlier image. Let me know which one do you like.

Montagu Harriers

2009-01-14T12:05:00.000+05:30

Spotting Montagu Harriers was a lifer last Sunday. The male is really more colorful. However it was too shy and wasn't comfortable to our presence. Hence we had to shoot from a distance.

A day with Birds of Prey

2009-01-12T21:15:00.000+05:30

Hesaraghatta is teeming with Birds of Prey this winter. We'd a fantastic Sunday morning with Harriers, Black Shouldered Kites and Kestrels. Montagu Harrier was a lifer for me. The male Montagu Harrier is so beautiful! We sighted Pallid Harrier (female), both the Montagu Harriers and Kestrel. The Kestrel (Juvenile) was in great mood & gave us ample opportunity to shoot. It hovered in air & picked up a grasshopper and started feeding on it. Here are couple of shots from yesterday morning.

River Terns

2008-12-28T22:11:00.000+05:30

TG Halli backwaters attracts plenty of river terns from the north during the winter. Yesterday me, Rakesh & Murthy visited early morning. Though over all it wasn't a great photography outing in terms of number of "keepers" I did manage to get couple of river terns in flight.

Swallow scape

2008-12-26T20:34:00.000+05:30

I'd always wanted to shoot swallows. But they wouldn't seem to sit on one place except for electric wires! Finally at Bheemeshwari yesterday, I got a chance to shoot one of them albeit from a distance. Here is one swallow scape from our visit to Bheemeshwari. The frame filler of Swallow can still wait at least for now!

Kestrels again!

2008-12-21T14:14:00.000+05:30

Rakesh joined me and Manoj today to Hesaraghatta. It seemed today for couple of hours that it was a waste to come with nearly no light. Till 9am it was completely foggy and no activities near the lake. However the Sun did come out after we finished our packed Ïdli-Vade-Karabath" and Kestrels didn't disappoint today! I wish the male kestrel was more cooperative, but that gives us one more chance to visit Hesaraghatta.

2008-12-14T20:38:00.001+05:30

For the first time in my life me, Manoj & Nagesh got to see Kestrel! Boy, how beautiful this lady was. Had a chance to spend nearly an hour with her. Though the lighting wasn't that good, we did manage to get some decent shots.

Volcanic cloud ?

2008-10-24T22:43:00.000+05:30

That's how this cloud appears as seen from Kodachadri peak. In horizon Arabian see is seen.

A Walk in the clouds

2008-10-24T22:11:00.000+05:30

Just before the sunset the clouds surrounded us all over the place and the sun was sandwiched between layers of cloud. Following is an HDR image of the Kodachadri sunset.

Man in nature - 2

2008-10-24T21:48:00.000+05:30

I've processed the 2nd image in the previous post in B&W just to indicate a different mood. Actually it was completely misty & cloudy at around 4pm after the rains at Kodachadri peak. I was hoping that clouds would clear up before the sunset. While waiting for clouds to clear up I saw huge avalanche of clouds coming up (Yes, we were above the clouds). Right at this point it seemed as though it would engulf the couple who were sitting on the edge to watch the sunset. At this point I felt the size of man vs nature. I have tried to portray the same in this image. Let me know your thoughts.

Man in nature!

2008-10-23T22:31:00.000+05:30

While at Kodachadri watching the sunrise unfold, I saw this man at the edge of a cliff looking at the sunrise. This image depicts size of man vs Nature.

This follows the same theme & taken during sunset.

Magical Western Ghats.

2008-10-22T22:55:00.000+05:30

To see a winter Sunrise in Western Ghats is a bliss. If it happens at Kodachadri, there can't be any better Sunrise! When the run rays pierce through the early morning mist, the mountain range look just magical.

Solitude

2008-10-22T22:36:00.000+05:30

While trekking down from Kodachadri peak towards "Hidlumane" falls, I saw this lonely tree on the grass land. The early morning light and winter sky was just perfect to produce saturated colors.

Mesmerizing Kodachadri

2008-10-21T21:40:00.000+05:30

Just returned from a wonderful trek to Kodachadri and Hidlumane Falls. The trek was fantastic to say the least. I've been to the same place many times and each time it has gone better and better!! Have loads of images to process. Will start with this landscape as seen from the top.

Oriental white eye

2008-09-20T19:38:00.000+05:30

Me and Murthy went out on Kanakpura road. It was drizzling early morning and sky opened a bit little later. We went towards MaraLvADi and near one of the fields we saw couple of Oriental Eyes and it presented this opportunity for couple of seconds before vanishing inside the bushes.

ರಾಮನಗರ landscape

2008-08-24T13:13:00.000+05:30

Me and venka made an early morning visit to ramanagar rocks last weekend. It was completely misty and the mood was fantastic. We couldn't find a better place to be on a Sunday morning. Here is the landscape from the top of the hills.

Vulture Stare

2008-06-22T16:21:00.000+05:30

Here is a stare from the magnificent Egyptian Vulture. It checked out to see if I was too close.

Egyptian Vulture

2008-06-22T13:45:00.000+05:30

Today morning turned out to be an excellent one. For the first time Nanda joined me to Ramanagar. Early morning hike to Ramandevara betta is never disappointing. The beautiful breeze at the hill top is very relaxing. We saw an Egyptian Vulture and the usual Long Billed Vulture. Thanks to lady luck this time I got some very good shots of the Egyptian vulture. I was able to stalk this one fairly closely as it was not paying attention to me and I got some good eye level shots.

White Balance and Blending

2008-06-15T20:35:00.000+05:30

One of the advantages of shooting in RAW is, it provides greater opportunities during post processing. RAW contains the whole image in a format that can be used to extract the right information that you want out of the image. Here is one such example.

I shot this image on a late evening in mid April at Kabini back waters. The final image that I that I've presented is what I'd visualized before clicking. Unfortunately the sensor can't capture all that we want yet. So to avoid that I processed the image at two different white balances (one at a cooler color temperature of 5500 and another at 7500). However when I started I wanted to retain the dramatic evening light on the elephant. This would mean that the background forest would also look little off color. Hence I blended the two images to get the desired effect on the image. Perhaps a light meter would have helped get the same effect. But light meter is little low on my wish list now.

Boat safari to the river tern island

2008-06-07T22:41:00.001+05:30

Bhadra backwaters welcomes around 5000 river terns every year from northern Himalayas. They come in January and stay till early June. It's also their breeding season. Till the young ones learn to fly and hunt they stay here and 6 months is just about the right period for them to learn the tricks of the trade. I managed to capture a river tern fishing in this island. The next nearby island also welcomes couple of dozens of small pratincoles. Here are couple of those frames from the island.

Break free

2008-06-06T21:17:00.000+05:30

This is one my favorites from the Bhadra trip. I'd visualized the river tern to fly above the foliage on the ground. This one seems the river tern is breaking free and flying away to its home. One of the interesting thing about such abstract compositions is that there could be multiple interpretation of the same image. I would love to know your interpretation. Do leave your comments!

Paddy Field Pipit

2008-06-06T20:47:00.001+05:30

A first timer for me. While on the safari, it sat leisurely for over 2-3 minutes on this stick. Though it's yet another bird on a stick image, this particular species is still a first timer for me. It is a Leucistic Paddy Field Pipit. Leucistic means lacking complete pigmentation.

River tern - Flight abstract

2008-06-06T20:31:00.000+05:30

Continuing from my river tern series; I had shot multiple frames of river terns landing, fishing. However this time around, I've shot them with a slower shutter speed just to indicate action.

River tern scape

2008-06-06T20:30:00.001+05:30

The island close to JLR Bhadra attracts over thousands of river terns every year. This one is an attempt show show the river tern in own world.

Being different!

2008-06-04T12:54:00.000+05:30

Last week I joined a new forum on the net called Creative Nature Photography. It's started by few like minded photographers whose aim is to create a forum that encourages creative nature photography. I know some of them & they themselves have created some wonderful images.
Based on some of the forum guidelines, I started figuring out how to make the images that standout and are different from the normal, usual stuff. It is tough initially to come out of the crowd and stick your neck out. However I've started my journey on these lines and it's really exciting. I got an opportunity last weekend when I was at Bhadra.

Streak Throated Woodpecker

2008-04-23T22:32:00.000+05:30

Here is one more from the streak throated woodpecker series.

Jungle Fowl

2008-04-23T22:28:00.001+05:30

Jungle Fowl are one of the difficult subjects to photograph! Unlike cats, they're not elusive. However whenever you see them and stop your vehicle they disappear into bushes in a flash. The only way to get a right frame with them is to be with them and shoot from a blind/hide. Here is one of my shots from Bandipur.

Wild dogs in a playful mood

2008-04-20T14:52:00.000+05:30

The last Friday morning at Bandipur had everything. We saw 2 packs of wild dogs (5 and 10). The first 5ér pack were in great mood and we got them in beautiful light. Two of the pups (Though there are grown up now) started engaging themselves in fun and showed us a glimpse of their playful behavior. During the same time a Changeable Hawk Eagle presented itself on a nice perch (though against the light). We were in a tricky situation as to shoot which action! After shooting couple of frames of CHE, I shot the dog's behavior!

Beautiful Bandipur

2008-04-20T08:33:00.000+05:30

I'm back to Bangalore and started clicking again!! It has been quite sometime since I left this space due to winter in NH. I visited Kabini and Bandipur for 4 days and it was eventful with my first clean shot of the leopard!

Due to unseasonal rains both Kabini and Bandipur forests are lush green which is unusual for this time of the year. Though in Kabini we sighted wild dogs, we missed out on the cats by a whisker! While we're in Jeep safari, another team on boat sighted a tiger quenching his thirst at a close distance! On the last day of the safari, we heard quite a few alarm calls and waited in anticipation of the elusive cat, we weren't lucky enough!
While we're winding up Kabini after 2 days, Manoj got a call from his friend that JLR folks have sighted 5 tigers in Bandipur the previous evening. That call was a clincher. We made a quick decision to visit Bandipur for a day! And boy, that was a great decision made in hindsight. In Bandipur we saw leopard in the late evening at 6pm for over 30 minutes. Though I'd seen the glimpses of leopard, I'd not shot any frames so far yet. This visit game ample opportunities to shoot though, at low light.

testing lightbox

2007-11-09T22:35:00.001+05:30

I'm testing lightbox to work in my blogger. I had to use the scripts from different sites to make it work. Thanks to the script owners for making it open source.

Boston Skyline

2007-10-28T06:47:00.000+05:30

Cold temperature and rains are making me to sit at home & process my old images. Well, this one is different, it is from concrete jungle! I shot this couple of months ago. This was shot from the small park in front of MIT.

Last few leaves

2007-10-18T08:08:00.000+05:30

The autumn is coming to an end soon. This tree is on the way to our office at Derry, NH.

Streams

2007-10-10T08:07:00.000+05:30

On the way up to Mt Washington this particular stream offers good chances for photography. But the lighting yesterday was very dull and it was raining. So this is all that I managed to get when it stopped raining for a while.

Evening at the Basin

2007-10-10T06:45:00.000+05:30

While returning from Mt Washington yesterday, we spent half an hour at "The Basin". I'd to pack up before it started raining and hence couldn't spend much time there. It was getting dark as well. Here are couple of long exposure shots that I managed to take.

Fall is here :)

2007-10-06T09:03:00.000+05:30

Well, before I came to New Hampshire everyone talked about the beauty of this place. Everyone told me that the Fall colors will be great to see. Well, now I'm finding out that all those were understatements. You can't do justice to the beauty of this land in words! You just have to experience it. I've been going to Mountains pretty much every weekend, even before the first leaf turned yellow. I think this weekend is going to be the best time for someone to see.

The following are my impressions of last week.

This one is a true red carpet shot from Kancamancus Highway.

Reflection!

2007-09-17T01:33:00.001+05:30

It's getting colder day by day and today wasn't different. It was a chilly Sunday morning and I managed to get only a single shot in today's birding. Seems all the birds have started migrating already!!

Profile Falls, New Hampshire

2007-09-11T08:09:00.000+05:30

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Profile falls. This falls is quite away from the maddening crowd and very much concealed in NH forests. Would recommend this to anyone for a quick dip on a hot summer day!

Saturday morning at Audubon Auburn, NH

2007-08-19T07:21:00.000+05:30

I spent an hour today morning at Audubon Centre located close to Massabesic Lake in Auburn, NH. It's lovely place for birding. In my experience evenings offer better sightings here than in mornings. I managed to shoot American Gold finch and sparrow and they let me approach them closely.

Ospreys in playful mood

2007-07-22T04:38:00.000+05:30

Last weekend, we (myself & Rakesh along with our family ;) visited Milford, where Connecticut Audubon Society has set up a camera that captures the life cycle of the Osprey. Apparently Osprey visits this particular spot every year and nests at the exact same location. This year, Connecticut Audubon Society have setup the camera to capture everything about them to learn, understand about their behavior. We were fortunate to see them. The observing tower (with a telescope) is about 100 yards away from the nest and hence they're not disturbed by the presence of humans. More importantly anyone sitting at home can view (Click to view) what exactly those Ospreys are doing now. I saw the 3 young Ospreys playing around and learning to fly. It was really a treat to observe them in close quarters. I wish we do something similar back in our forests. How you wish to see the elusive tiger hunt during night (You obviously need an IR camera as well)!! If we but the thought itself is such exciting!

Here are some shots of those Ospreys playing and learning to fly. With my 400mm lens this is best I could manage. Probably with 600mm with 2x I could have done a better job of getting them really close. They would fly up and down for couple of seconds and come back again to the nest. Since I'd never seen a bird, literally learning to fly, it's an amazing experience, I must say.

Posting after long time!

2007-07-22T04:31:00.000+05:30

It look long time for me to be back on my blogger. Myself and Raks went to a nearby beach along with our family for taking a look at ospreys who were busy learning flying!!! On the way we got to shoot these little beauties. These plovers are protected at Milford by the Milford Audubon Society.

These plover family was all around the beach. There was one plover that was still guarding her nest.

Finally an image from US

2007-06-12T07:14:00.000+05:30

Got a chance to unpack my camera and here is the first click. Still to explore the places here. I guess it'll happen after getting comfortable in the new place.

Pied Kingfisher

2007-05-03T11:48:00.000+05:30

I've not got a chance yet to get close to this beauty. Hebbal lake does present a good opportunity to shoot them. I'm yet to shoot them in action.

Bulbul scape.

2007-05-03T11:10:00.000+05:30

Here is another bulbul scape from Hebbal

Brain fever bird

2007-05-03T11:03:00.000+05:30

The common hawk cuckoo is commonly called brain fever bird. Here is at glimpse of the beautiful bird. It's called the "Brain fever bird" because its is supposed very similar to "Brain-fever.. Brain -fever".. Strange, I couldn't make it though!

Ashy Prinia

2007-05-03T10:56:00.000+05:30

Haven't got a chance to post images that I took couple of weeks back. Here are some of them from Hebbal lake.

Mood of Kabini

2007-04-20T07:56:00.000+05:30

To me this picture represents the mood of Kabini where so many of elephants get into water & have fun during summer. The river bank, during summer, is witness to countless species of herbivores and predators and innumerable birds.

More from Kabini

2007-04-20T07:54:00.000+05:30

Some more of the postcards from Kabini.

Indian Rollers Mating

2007-04-14T22:33:00.000+05:30

I wish if they'd chosen a better place with a cleaner background :) Shot at very low light and a cropped image.

Dead Calf & the Mourning elephant

2007-04-14T22:32:00.000+05:30

The 2 month old calf unfortunately died last week at Kabini (apparently eating a poisonous fruit, reason yet to be confirmed). This was the mourning after the death. She wouldn't let anyone get close to the baby elephant. It was indeed a tragic emotional moment. When the forest dept folks came close to the baby to inspect the cause of the death, she charged them like crazy. The baby was cremated one day later.

Glimmer of Hope!

2007-04-01T14:42:00.000+05:30

The summer is truly here and it's going to be a long wait till we see the monsoon rain. The Mavatur lake is totally dried up and the migrating birds are almost returned to their places! I saw the dried out lake bed and in between there was a new grass beginning grow and it's green. And that's to me is the glimmer of hope.

Mavatur lake!

2007-04-01T14:24:00.000+05:30

I had heard so many good things about this lake (located 40kms from Bangalore towards Kanakpura), that I decided make a visit. Unfortunately I chose the wrong time. This time, Rakesh drove us (Rakesh, Dr. Manoj, myself & Murthy). The lake is completely dried out. The only saving grace for the day for me was this black drongo. I could observe it at close distance. I missed this landing shot for the 1st time when I tried it. However while returning I got lucky (I was prepared!) & got the shot that I needed.

River tern goes fishing in TG Halli.

2007-03-31T21:02:00.000+05:30

I drove early in the morning to TG Halli. Rakesh & Murthy accompanied me this time. In fact they were at my place at 5.40 & I was 5 min late to start. Though the road was painful to drive, the events after reaching the place made our day. All the winter birds are returning and hence the bird count seem to be less. I shot little ringed plover and few egrets and was about to return and suddenly I saw, in my binoculars, this river tern that was about to fish. By the time I put the binocs back & took out camera it had dived once unsuccessfully! The next time I was ready & I got couple of good shots of the same.

Yellow Throated Bulbul

2007-03-26T22:16:00.000+05:30

Few weeks ago while I was sitting inside my hide observing this wonderful bird at Ramangar, it came very close and sat next to a small shrub. It was really fascinating to watch them!

Weekend at Bhadra

2007-03-26T22:05:00.000+05:30

Spent a day at River Tern JLR near Lakkavalli. In this hot summer, this is really a cool place to be. Here is the post card from Bhadra!

Paradise Fly catcher

2007-02-25T19:57:00.000+05:30

There were 3 pairs of them close to the top of the Ramana betta near Ramnagar. I knew after clicking it's not a great image. However with PS-CS2 I could make it better.

Blue faced Malkoha

2007-02-25T19:55:00.000+05:30

This one is really shy & I was lucky to get this shot. Though I'm not really happy with the image, considering that this one never shows up outside of the canopies, I'm okay with it.

Yellow Throated Bulbul

2007-02-25T19:54:00.000+05:30

This one was a lifer for me as I was seeing it for the first time. YTB are very endemic and endangered species due to loss of habitat. I'll post few more images later of the same.

Postcards from Ramanagar

2007-02-25T19:49:00.000+05:30

Myself, Ashwini Bhat & Santhosh drove to Ramanagar rocks & it had galore of surprises for me. We saw the first rays of sunlight falling this magnificent Long Billed Vulture. We waited for quite some time for it to fly & it didn't oblige! It reserved that for next week I guess!

Purple Sunbird

2007-02-24T14:00:00.001+05:30

Another image Dandeli!

Malabar Grey hornbill

2007-02-24T13:54:00.000+05:30

Before I write my article on how the hornbills were fighting for the nest with Myna, I thought I'd post this image of Malabar Grey hornbill anyway. This one was inspecting the nest and cleaning it so that his girl friend could come and rest! Btw an interesting piece of information is Hornbills are paired for life! How I wish homo sapiens could learn from the winged miracles!

Heart Spotted Woodpecker

2007-02-24T13:51:00.000+05:30

This one is a lifer for me as I saw it for the first time in my life. That's how Dandeli is. In fact I saw and heard so many variety of birds that I'd never seen before. This image was shot in low lighting conditions. The image is cropped and saved by neat image!

Pregnant Langur

2007-02-22T12:33:00.000+05:30

This lady kept feeding on the bamboo flowers. After a close look she appeared to be pregnant.

Bee eater take off

2007-02-22T12:24:00.000+05:30

While the safari in Dandeli couldn't throw up anything interesting, this one was the savior for me! I shot about 20 frames of the same fella to get this one. I must say, I've not done post processing properly. I'll repost this one once I re do it.

Black naped monarch

2007-02-22T11:25:00.000+05:30

I was Dandeli for 3 days and it threw so many birds for me to shoot!! This place just rocks!! Here is Black naped monarch displaying it's feathers for a shot moment to me!

Brahminy Kite - Busy building nest

2007-01-27T12:08:00.000+05:30

Spent today morning at our office West campus, off Mysore Road. I spent around 45 minutes standing inside my "hide" but couldn't spot any activity of birds until I found one black shouldered kite. I also shot a brahminy kite that was busy building nest.

Lalbagh - quite a change!

2007-01-26T23:10:00.000+05:30

I didn't visit Lalbagh for last couple of weeks and there's dramatic change in the flora. Lots of fruit bearing trees have already lost lot of fruits and leaves are starting to fall and it's not the same Lalbagh that I saw 2 weeks ago. Looks like winter's span is reduced we're set for an early summer :( This was the only image I could make today.

Misty morning at Eagleton

2007-01-26T22:32:00.000+05:30

I along with 26 other MindTree minds spent 2 and a half days at Eagleton Resorts close to Bangalore last week on a training. Bangalore weather was more Delhi'ish with fog reducing the visibility to 30ft even at 9.30am! On saturday I shot couple of golf-course-scapes in early morning.

The one below was shot just before the sun rose and hence it has more dramatic colours. Infact I was surprised at the magenta colours that nature threw up!

White Cheeked Barbet

2007-01-09T22:11:00.000+05:30

It's raining barbets at this particular tree at Lalbagh. This tree really presents a great opportunity to shoot barbets feeding on atti (in kannada) fruit.

Fly catchers @ Lalbagh

2007-01-09T22:05:00.000+05:30

I was lucky to spot a parradise fly catcher and a verditer fly catcher at Lalbagh last weekend. I love winter, coz it brings loads & loads of birds!!!

Activites galore @ Lalbagh

2007-01-08T09:43:00.000+05:30

Spent Saturday & Sunday mornings at Lalbagh and it's teeming with birds. I saw fly catchers (paradise and verditer) , orioles, parakeets, starlings & on on.. Will post some of them here.

North Kanara - Landscape

2007-01-04T22:12:00.000+05:30

This is from my last month's trek to Hedigudda. This one is on the border of Shimoga and North Kanara dist.

Bushlark stare

2007-01-04T22:02:00.000+05:30

As I laid on the ground & stalked closer to her, she stared me as if she wanted me to get off from her territory. I stayed silently & once she realized that I wasn't harming her, she continued with her search of food.

Indian Bushlark @Valley school

2007-01-02T22:12:00.000+05:30

This beauty posed for me @ Valley school on 1st Jan 07!

This beauty posed for me @ Valley school on 1st Jan 07!

Brahminy Kite with Fish - Chase by Crows

2006-12-31T15:08:00.000+05:30

This particular brahminy kite was having its breakfast early in the morning.

Then came couple of crows attacking the Brahminy Kite and finally forcing it to leave the tree and sit on a different branch.

Even after that the crows followed it and finally Brahminy Kite had to drop the fish it had caught back to the lake.

It was really fascinating to watch the whole even unfold.

Parakeets lit up in the morning

2006-12-31T15:03:00.000+05:30

Myself & Nagesh went to lalbagh yesterday and the birds were really active. This parakeet was feeding it young one when we first time saw it. I couldn't get a frame of the shot as it didn't feed it after we went. Not sure we we intruded into its territory, as there were plenty of joggers and walkers in lalbagh who pass by this particular tree and it's used to them. I guess we're unlucky.

Bhadra Riverscape

2006-12-29T21:00:00.000+05:30

Bhadra JLR is one of the best JLRs that I've seen as the balcony of the resort faces the beautiful Bhadra river backwaters. This was shot in the early morning before the sunrise.

Jackal's day out

2006-12-29T08:14:00.000+05:30

It was the day of the jackal. In early morning light, he gave us (me, Nanda, Kiran & Teju) plenty of opportunities to take shots. Here is one jackal's scape.