The Elixir: January 2007

Friday, January 19, 2007

Birds of Mysore!!

When we think of birds first thing tat strikes our mind is The Wings. Yes!! the wings of fly, wings of freedom, the wings of desire to raise higher and higher. We cant imagine of flying frm one place to other ever without the aerodynamics that birds thought us. We find them everywhere around us; every morning the bird-song wake our souls and welcomes to the real world but yet these birds seem to be unnoticed. They have no boundaries, no borders, no restrictions and they fly across miles to love, breed and offspring a new life far away from their home in a strange foreign land. Wonder what makes them to travel over continents at the stake of their life. Probably tatz wat Exploring-the-Unexplored is all about. They have their own world which is not much different from our world but yet they are so different. The way they communicate, enjoy, breed, prey, build their nests, protect their kins. At one place its a Hunter and at the other its the Hunted.

Oflate have become a enthusiast for birding, its a great feeling freezing their emotions n expressions in my shutterbox. And this being my first such birding-trip had great time reading, learning and unlearning. It all begun with SV's call to go out for the weekend away from Bangalore towards Mysore, it was an asynchronous event and went with the flow without any plan-of-action. We hiked arnd different places between Bangalore/Mysore in hunt for haunted. Kanva and karanji lake in mysore were great discoveries. Well.... Birds fly and in a place like this time too fly. Did spot wide variety of birds from kites, parakeets, erons family, egrets family, bee-eaters, cormorants family, pelicans, painted storks to king fishers. All I missed was the efficiency in my tool to capture them as close to eyes.

Here I leave with few Expressions/Emotions tat bought smiles on my face...!!

The King of Good Times-White Breasted KingFisher

Cattle Egret

Looking high-Drongo

In Vigil-Green Bee Eater

Love is in Air- Pelicans

Wings wide open-Lesser cormorant

In flight-Pelican

Serene Swim-Pelican

For the entire album check the below link.

Birds

Friday, January 05, 2007

Window to the Wild!!

Watta way to bring the curtains-down to 2006; it was the much awaited, most memorable and keep-goin-back trip to JLR(BR Hills)!! It has influenced me yet again to such an extent tat m still in the hang-over of the wilderness :D. Also its dedicated to SV n TheGear on his return back to home. He wouldnt have asked for a better welcome than this [;)]!!

When u speak of JLR its 3 F's always Fun, Fanatic and Facination...adding to tat was the Forests of BR Hills!! We were warmly welcomed by shy-sambhar calf and later by friskily moving boars on our way to JLR!! The tents, food and the hospitality of JLR was juss great!!

After reaching the tent gotto unpack TheGear which SV had got!! ohh bouy was juss amazed to hold the Black Beauty, truly it was as WILD'n'BEAUTIFUL as the rest of the members in the jungle [;)]!!
Soon after the lunch v moved to the near by pond where the tusker n his mother was havin fun in the water!! it was juss amazin to watch the calf playin n enjoyin to the core!! followed by this was the Safari on a almost-open-jeep!! we were all pepped up to meet the Wild Cats!! As we moved on the jungle-routes we spotted the sharp wild-dogs, hefty-elephants, lazy-gaurs, shy-deers and long-shaggy-coated sloth-bear!! It was sun-set time and the entire jungle was engulfed with red magical hue!! The canopy of huge trees made the effect even more pleasant!!

Back to the tents, v were more than happy abt the safari!! only thing remained was to spot the wild-cat!! were hopin to catch a glimse of them on the next day's safari!!

Early in the morning v started off with the safari on the dusty n bumpy jungle-tracks, after spotting deers n gaurs v cudnt find any other wildlyfe for almost half an hour!! our exploration of wild-cat continued... v went very deep in the jungle!! but in vain cudnt spot the wild-cat, cud spot herd of wild-dogs yet again!!

On our way back to JLR v cud witness the wilderness at its best!! yes v spotted a fresh deer kill, it was almost eaten up by one of the hungry wild-cats possibly by a leopard!! On our return from safari, we headed towards the otherside of the jungle for bird-watching.... the forest was rich in diff species of birds, could spot many birds but my camera lacked the coverage!!

It was most satisfyin n enjoyable stay @ BR Hills, decided would come-back again-n-again!! Our next destination was Ranganatittu to spot diff breeds of birds!! Did spot Little Cormorants, bats, Painted Storks, Night Herons and the hibernating-crocos!!

On our way back home we could witness a splendid sun-set @ 91th Mile on BMIRC, tat made our day/year... wouldnt have asked for a better ending of the year!!

Here I leave with few snaps!!