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.