A trip to Amboli

Last weekend, we headed to Amboli.

Amboli is a hill station in south Maharashtra, India. At an altitude of 690 m it is the last hill station before the coastal highlands of Goa and a relatively unexplored one. Amboli lies in the Sahayadri Hills of Western India, one of the world's "Eco Hot-Spots" and it therefore abounds in a variety of fairly unique flora and fauna. The hills of Amboli village provide one of the sources of the Krishna River (The Ganges of south India).

The weather was beautiful, with misty mornings and blossoming flowers all over the place. The rain was pleasant as well, with regular intervals of drizzling. Lots of birds like Rufus Babblers were active in the morning, in the resort.

We explored variety of landscapes - rainforest, plateau, road side, Ghats, etc., during the visit.

Deep inside the rainforest with different forms of life under the foot on the forest floor, canopy as roof covering everything, very less sunlight penetrating through, a stream flowing silently nearby and the feel was divine.

The forest floor was spectacular with different colors of leaf litter.

The trees were all covered with moss, and looked differently than the trees we see usually. Moss is one of the Earths earliest land plants. It is part of the bryophyte family. Moss is a non-vascular plant (has no eternal system to transport water). Moss grows by spreading out. Moss is important to the ecosystem, as it produces more oxygen.

We also explored the plateau nearby, which had various shapes and sizes of flowers everywhere. Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Magma rises from the mantle causing the ground to swell upward, in this way large, flat areas of rock are uplifted. Plateaus can also be built up by lava spreading outward from cracks and weak areas in the crust.

Also, we explored the amazing view of the Ghats, with mist everywhere, colorful trees, and clouds passing by.

There were plenty of orchids we saw during the forest walk, and for the first time, I noticed the ground orchids. They were small, but very beautiful.

 

There were carnivorous plants grown on the tree trunks which feed on small insects and larvae crawl on the trees.

Wide variety of fungi was witnessed everywhere in the place.

Many life forms – small and large, all perfectly accustomed to the habitat.

There were ants on the plants, feeding on plant sap as well as protecting them. There were snails slowly moving and feeding. There were spiders waiting for the prey to get closer to their trap. A huge Emperor’s Moth was found in a night walk. The highlight was to witness the Tiger Centipede, which could grow near to 1 foot, venomous and their bites are fatal to humans. These veracious predators are amazing to watch. There was a fishing spider which floats on the water surface, waits for a fish or tadpole to catch. A cricket was moulting, which is a process of removing old exoskeleton with a fresh one. A huge long horned beetle was watching us in a night trail. I was told it can deliver a painful bite. The mandibles were looking scary too.

Crustaceans – There were many crabs. The purple tree crab was plenty in number. We saw them feeding on moss grown over the trees. Also the spectacular red crab with yellow legs was the highlight. It looked like somebody did a tattoo work on its legs. We were even saying, Rig vedha was written on the legs. Many transparent crabs were found on the rocks of the ghats, feeding near the small water falls formed. The crabs were beautiful, and when we go closer, they protect them by covering their face with their chelae/claws.

Amphibians – many frogs were there in and around the place. We saw Bombay bush frog, common Indian toad, Amboli toad|Tiger toad, Fejarvarya sp., Cricket frogs and many tadpoles of Malabar Gliding frogs. In the stream, there were eggs laid by wrinkled frogs everywhere on the leaves, stem, rocks and stones. We decided to visit the place in the night. In the night, by the time we were nearing the stream, we heard loud bird calls. It was the call made by wrinkled frogs. They were everywhere. We found a male frog fertilizing the eggs. This frog looked different, than the usual frogs we see in cities. They had diamond shaped pupils, bird like calls, round shaped body and wrinkled skin.

There were almost 15 Prashad’s Geckos around the walls of our rooms. Also there were Day Geckos on trees and Brook’s House Gecko on the plateau.

On the night trail, a bamboo pit viper was found on a small shrub. It was in a curved position, ready to catch any prey like frog or lizard passing by. Also, the Malabar pit viper, was lying low on a tree root, for trying its luck. These snakes are classified as pit vipers. They are nocturnal, which means they are active and hunt prey in the night. They lie motionless at a comfortable place waiting for the prey to pass by. When a prey passes by, they catch them by striking. They are venomous, but no human fatalities are recorded so far. A bite to humans can cause local allergies. They have heat-sensing pits between the eyes and the nostrils using which they can sense the heat of their surroundings. These snakes use this as a tool to identify the prey and danger around them.

In the plateau, there was a huge pied belly shieldtail, feeding on a huge earth worm and finished in seconds, sucked it all just like a noodles. On an evening trail, a large scaled shieldtail was found feeding on an earth worm. Shieldtails are burrowing snakes, which have a distinct sliced like tail. They burrow under the ground and hide their burrow using their sliced tail, which acts as a shield.

There was a Striped Coral snake, which is a venomous snake found near the resort. These snakes feed on other small snakes and amphibians.

While walking inside the rainforest, a Beddome’s Keelback just slithered into a stone hide. These are non-venomous snakes. They display colors in their skin when threatened.  

Also, in the night trail, there 3-4 common vine snakes were found sleeping just at the edge of the branches, which was assumed as the safest place to roost.

Though the forest was lively, with lots of various life forms, with good weather, there was lots of plastic litter everywhere on the road sides.  These pollute the streams flowing in the forest which intern will pollute the rivers which we are dependent for drinking water. Also, we witnessed a beautiful Tiger Centipede killed by some fast driven vehicle on the road. It is hard to avoid animals getting killed by fast moving vehicles in the road.

 Tourism should support the nature, and both tourists and the Govt. are responsible to avoid pollution in any form – land, water, air and noise, at places like Amboli which are important for the ecosystem.

The slideshow can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBxwPgwjVFQ

River Terns of Bhadra & some questions!

In Bhadra, I was watching the river terns in the island. At first, it looked like a huge chaos, many birds flying here and there. But when observed for a while, we could notice a lot of organized activities among them - some go for fishing, some try to steal fish from others, some impress the mate with the food, some feed the young ones, some just circles the island, and so on. It was interesting to watch the activities.

I also observed river terns inspecting areas where cormorants are fishing, an easy way to find food.  

While watching the river terns' behavior, I was hooked with couple of questions.

I noticed that the adult river terns bring fish to the young ones, but does not feed them immediately. The young tern was shouting opening mouth wide open, but the adult observes carefully. In many instances I noticed, the adult take the fish back without feeding.
- How will the adult river tern identifies the young one?

 
I noticed the young river terns come closer to the water, tries to touch the water and with a lot of struggle, climbs back to the home.
- why do the young ones do this? As it is a water bird, wanted to feel (learn) the water?
- how do the young ones get water? will the adult river terns bring them in their feathers like some birds of dry land do? or will the young ones get water from its food (fish)?

 

 

I noticed a river tern, brings the fish, sat near the river bank and dipped the fish couple of times as if like washing the fish. It was strange to watch, but I couldn't guess a reason. In the image, the fish in the river tern's mouth was brought from somewhere else, but the bird sat on the bank and dipped the fish.
- what behavior is this?

 
Please do share your thoughts.

A Chase @ Bhadra

Stories from Bhadra continues...

On a morning safari in Bhadra, we started the safari from river tern island asusual. We saw lot of river terns catching fish, feeding their young ones, few small pratincoles were also there with their chicks, and we spent some time there watching them.

After a while, we started from there, and suddenly we could see a huge flock of river terns flying all in one direction. It was an unusual sighting, and then we noticed – a huge bird was flying among the river terns. Again?! Actually, the huge bird was not flying among the river terns, but being chased by the river terns.

We thought - "is that the Bonelli's eagle hunting again?" No. It was a Woolly Necked Stork!!

I never expected a Stork playing predatory role. I have seen in TV channels about some Storks in Africa are predators, but never expected to see in real. Actually, I am not sure if the Stork was trying to pick a young river tern. What else could be the reason for hundreds on river terns chasing a single stork? May be someone could correct me here. For me, it didn't look like a territorial conflict.

The chase continued, and the scene was like somebody had thrown a stone over a bee-hive and all the bees are chasing. We were moving away from the island and the birds vanished behind the island. Silence again.

Though we were far away from the island, I kept looking at the island, wondering what just had happened. As I was watching, suddenly, there was huge agitation again in the island. The Woolly necked stork came back again and sat on the rock floor in the island. Not sure, if it got a river tern chick. The amount of agitation was crazy. Hundreds and hundreds of river terns were mobbing the stork, but the stork looked determined. It didn't look tired or injured, but was there in the island, till the scene completely vanished from my view. Not sure what happened later.

An amazing drame witnessed - Woolly necked stork, River terns and the chase.

My first Tiger sighting @ Bhadra

Bhadra Tiger Reserve - Bhadra is a dense evergreen forest – its undulating terrain is dotted with lush valleys and misty peaks which form the watershed for the Bhadra river. Spread over the districts of Chikmangalur and Shimoga, the unique combination of three types of forests here – dry deciduous, moist deciduous and the submontane shola – shelters a wide range of flora and fauna. There are around 33 tigers in Bhadra. Though Bhadra is a tiger reserve, spotting a tiger in Bhadra is extremely difficult because of the density of flora. Knowing this, we never had tiger in our checklist at Bhadra.

It was almost 6 PM, and we reached the end of the safari. The safari was full of activities - bonelli's hunt, river terns' feeding, tusker, osprey, lots of cormorants, etc., and we all enjoyed.

While returning back, we saw another boat (a smaller one) near the river bank, and the person (must be the guide) in the boat showed a thumbs up sign to us. I thought we are late and he is calling us back. Then someone in the bank said, there's a tiger sighting. Again, I am used to many false alarms on tiger sightings, and I didn't want to disappoint this time as well. So far, I have never sighted a tiger in wild, even after a detailed try in Ranthambore, that too at the peak of the tiger season (May).

Our boat approached the direction the other boat showed us. And, yes. There's a TIGER, lying at the river bank, relaxing nicely. I am seeing a full grown Bengal Tiger. Actually, it was a Tigress.

Our boat was switched off and the driver diverted it to the river bank without making a noise. The tiger didn't move, and we could only hear "kachak kachak kachak kachak"... All cameras were busy shooting the tiger. My hands were shivering as this was my first tiger sighting, and it didn't move away as I was expecting. The light was also dipping very fast. I managed to get some shots with a higher ISO.

We spent around 15 minutes, and I am sure, all of us in the boat would have got decent shots. But still some of the bazokas wanted to click it more, and was focussing the tiger even closer.

As time passed away, the tiger decided to move away and hid behind a rock. I felt bad that the tiger was forced to move. Not sure how many realized that we crossed the limit. When it got up, I noticed that the tail of this tigress had a unique marking, and for me it looked like a gun. Check it in the image.



 

That's how, I saw my first TIGER, that too at Bhadra and that too while doing boat safari. I thanked God for such an amazing moment, when I asked for tiger, he didn't show, and when I was birding, he gave a tiger.

A Pain turned into a Pleasant moment @ Bhadra

After enjoying the Bonelli's eagle hunt, we settled down for a while in the boat and was watching the water scape, river terns fishing, cormorants and the overall beauty of Bhadra.


From a far distance, we saw a huge thing lying the in the river bank. It was a full grown tusker - a male asiatic elephant. It was lying with it's head tilted up, and one of the tusk was half broken. It didn't look active, and the pose was not so good to see.

 

Somebody in the boat said "there is some problem with the elephant". No one could argue that point, as the elephant was not moving at all. After sometime, the hind legs started moving, and it looked like he is suffering from some pain. I was worried if the elephant is alright, and I didn't want to witness a tragic event.


Everybody was eagerly watching the elephant, as we approach closer and closer. The cameras all were off.
Suddenly, the elephant got up! What a huge animal!! Then it played for sometime with water, splashed all muddy water over it, cooled down for sometime... It was a great relief for all of us in the boat. And, asusual, the cameras celebrated the moment than us - kach kach kach kach... everyone clicked the elephant play time.

 

 

 

After some play in water, it got up and showered itself a lot of mud from the river bank over all parts of the body, as if humans apply lotion/cream/powder.
Then it majestically walked in to the forest. I could see a lot of smiles in the boat. A great moment we had.

The Hunt @ Bhadra

My trip to Bhadra during early May 2013 was filled with surprises. I witnessed lot of drama which made the trip even more memorable. One of the drama was casted by Bonelli's eagle and river terns.
On the evening boat safari, we were watching the river terns in the island, feeding the chicks, fishing, and busy with many more activities. Also there were small pratincoles with chicks. It was wonderful watching them feeding the young ones. That was the beginning of the trip, and we were in the first 15 minutes of our first safari.

All of a sudden, from no where, two Bonelli's eagles flew and landed in the island, and took off. One of the eagles got a river tern chick. There was a huge agitation among the river terns, but the eagles were fast enough to carry away the chick. All this happened in about less than a minute. We were all dumbstruck by this unexpected scene. Later we came to know that Bonelli's eagle were not seen in Bhadra for sometime.

According to wikipedia, "The Bonelli's Eagle (Aquila fasciata) is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. It breeds in southern Europe, Africa both north and south of the Sahara Desert and across the Indian Subcontinent to Indonesia. It is usually a resident breeder which lays 1-3 eggs in a tree or crag nest.
The Bonelli's Eagle is a small to medium - sized eagle at 55–65 cm in length. The upperparts are dark brown, and the underside is white with dark streaks. The wings are relatively short and rounded. The long tail is grey on top and white below and has a single broad black terminal band. The feet and eyes are yellow.

The Bonelli's Eagle takes a wide range of live prey, all taken alive. It usually hunts from cover by a quick dash from inside a tree, but it will also catch prey by quartering hill slopes like other eagles, or make a stoop from a soaring position. Most prey is taken on the ground.
This eagle takes large prey items, usually mammals or birds. Mammals up to the size of a hare are regularly taken, and birds up to guineafowl size. The Bonelli's Eagle is usually silent except in display and near the nest. Its fluted klu-kluklu-kluee call is less shrill than that of its near relatives".

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonelli's_Eagle

With the available time, I was lucky enough to capture some part of the drama.

An unforgettable encounter @ Agumbe

Agumbe - this place is one of my favorite from my childhood, for couple of reasons. I love snakes, not sure from when. Of course my favorite snake is the king of snakes - King Cobra. Agumbe being the King Cobra capital is my primary reason to love this place. The other reason is, I like Malgudi days which was shot in Agumbe's Doddamane. Later, I become a big fan of Gowri Shankar - the herpetologist I admire the most.

I am thankful to Shreeram without whom I wouldn't have enjoyed Agumbe and met Gowri. This is my 4th trip to Agumbe with Shreeram & Gowri. Unusually, this visit was planned on a summer time, to cover the reptile activity during this time. Usually, we visit Agumbe in monsoon.
Summer is the time when king cobras actively come out searching for mates. That's the key attraction of the trip. But they are very elusive and avoid humans as much as possible. But we were hoping to see a king (or a queen) if there is a rescue call.

So we reached Agumbe in Gowri's new place - Kalinga Center for Rainforest Ecology (KCRE) early morning. Bird activity was good in the morning. Also, we were greeted by Flying Lizards (Dracos). After a quick breakfast, we headed for macro photography, searching for unique and amazing subjects.

We were clicking Katydid & Horse fly near a bush, while Shankar Subramanian's wife was sitting in a "safe" place in a pathway on a root, which was not that dense. It was all silent, calm, cool, only could hear the cicadas & barbets.

Suddenly we heard "Guys!"... followed by "snake, snake".... it was Shankar's wife...
We all ran towards her, to click the Vine snake or Tree snake, or may be a rat snake...

To all our surprise, there was a 12 foot king cobra just around 5-6 feet from her... Unbelievable moment... I couldn't believe my eyes... !
We were all shocked, hoping nothing should happen her... there is no anti-venom for this snake bite... 5 feet is nothing for a king... it's almost 3 times the distance, and it is faster.

The king was crossing the path. It was passing over Shankar's wife's back. She heard the sound of dry leaf indicating something moving behind her, and she first saw the tail on her right and thought its a skink. Then she looked at her left and the thing grows bigger and bigger to a huge king cobra. She was breathless for a minute before shouting "snake snake".

Now, Shankar was calm & clear, and said "don't make any fast movements, get up slowly and comeback"... she obeyed.

The snake was not agitated at all, but was looking us watchfully. It took a detour instead of crossing the pathway, and decided to go back. Then it entered a huge pit, and raised its hood, and observed us carefully for sometime.

Later it vanished in to the bushes...

We were so amazed, to see a king cobra IN THE WILD. We named that place as, Kalinga Junction, and the road as KC Road (King Cobra Road)...;-)

The next day, me and Shankar's wife went to the same place and waited for an hour or so, to see the king again. But he didn't show up. Even though we didnt see him again, it was nice to spend time in that place, thinking of the previous day's experience & visualizing a king cobra there with us.