Mood of Kabini

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

Some more of the postcards from Kabini.

Indian Rollers Mating

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

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!

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!

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.

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

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

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

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.