Ranebennur Black Buck Santury

Long time no trips due to lot of work and other activities at home front. This year end get away was to Goa. On the way, we stopped at Ranebennur (on 21st Dec 2013). It is sad to that info on net is outdated and not completely correct. Here are some facts based on local updates:

1. Best time to visit is soon after Monsoon - Aug to Oct.
2. The entry to sanctuary is locked. You have to get the permission from the Forest office which is 4Kms away (you will see it on your right when you are going from Ranebennur village to the sanctuary).
3. Don't expect great treatment at the forest office. You may get a cold reception. The cost is INR 500/- for 4 wheeler and INR 50/- per person - needless to say you have to have your own 4 wheeler to enter the sanctuary.
4. The timing for the visit is from morning 6 to evening 6. However best sightings are from 6 - 7 am and lucky sightings in evening from 5 to 6:30pm. The guide asked us to be there by 6am to get some good sightings.
5. There are guest houses that are available for people interested in staying overnight. Cost per room is INR 1000/- and advance booking may be required

Coming back to my trip, we started from BLR at 11:30am and reached Ranebennur by 4:40pm. By the time we figured out the above and entered the sanctuary, it was 5:30pm. We were very lucky to spot some black bucks and was able to get some good shots (the best you can with a 250mm lens :)).

 

Galibore Fishing Camp: Basics of Bird Photography by Sudhir

I decided to go for Bird Photography by Sudhir. This was in Galibore fishing camp on Jun 22nd and 23rd 2013. It is only 100km from Bangalore via Kanankpura. It is around 10km from Sangama. I along with 2 people (car pooling) started for Galibore at 6:45am. We got some good birds on the way itself. 

Bird photography, without a telephoto lens, is not much use. So, I rented a 100-400mm lens for this workshop.

Painted Stork

Indian Roller

By end of first day, I was hoping that I had a 500 / 800mm lens. The photography class was good, gave me good idea on composition and some settings I hadn't explored!!

Apart from the birds that we watched, we also got some good shots of crocodiles and a nice full moon (in low light - low color temperature - photo preset to Tungsten)

 

On 23rd morning, we went for a trek. It was a good walk with some good bird spotting. The view from the top of the hill was amazing. Also, learnt some cool camera tricks like zoom Burst.  

        

It was 2 days of good walking around and fun learning. Some snaps below:

Imperial Green Pigeon

Green Bee eater

Inidan Shama

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Rose Ringed Parakeet
  

Around the house ... Flora and Fauna

I started getting interested in bird photography from beginning of 2013. First thing you learn in any website is to try out things in and around your place. I started wondering if I would notice any around my home. To my surprise, within 1 month, I could spot lots or different birds excluding the common bird like crow. This hit ratio according to me is great as I have a full time job and also considering that garden city is converting to concrete jungle. Other aspect is that you need a lot of patience.

          

The Red Hibiscus Tree:

One can witness the “Circle of life” around any tree. The case in point is the Red Hibiscus tree in front of my house.

 

Just to give you a perspective of the size, it is very hard to find these birds when the tree is in full blossom. Check the size of Birds - compare it to the tree and even the flower! This makes it so difficult to spot them.

  
Some birds come for nectar, some others for the insects, and other animals for both. I was able to capture some of them: 

    

 

While the tree was around all the time , now the way I started looking at has undergone a huge change. Apart from this some other beauties worth mentioning are: 

    

Trip to Chickmagalur – Mullayanagiri and Ratna Giri Bore

This weekend was in Chickmagalur (May 25^th and 26^th). The drive from Bangalore was good except after Channaraypattana, the highway road is yet to be completed. Once this is done, it will be a great road to drive. We went to Mullayanagiri, the highest peak in Karnataka. The plan was to leave early but the weather was too lazy for that. We finally started at 11:00am. It is just 22kms drive, mostly good road except the last 2 to 3 kms where the road gets narrow and full of pot holes.

As we reached the end of motor able road, we were blown away … this time literally. It was so windy that it would have made a great day for paragliding!! Then the challenge was to climb close to 150 steps in these conditions. The kids enjoyed the climb often doing “off roading”. It was worth the effort as the view from top was breath taking. 

 Mullayanagiri peak from bottom

View from top of the peak

View of traffic from the top

We also witnessed the age old way of transportation …

I would definitely recommend this to any one near Chickmagalur or a day trip from Bangalore covering Belur, Halebid and Mullayangiri. 

Next day morning we woke up by 6:45am and it was pretty cool … what else do you expect in a hill station. My cousin and I started for a walk to Ratna Giri Bore, a hill just 1km from where I stayed. It has a great garden with swing and other items that kids would love. They also have a toy train which was not open when we went. I was able catch some birds in action – along with their breakfast spread. 

Trip to Karnala Bird Sanctuary - Mumbai

We were in Mumbai from May 7 to 11^th. It was a good trip … family get-together, Pooja, Snow world in Phoenix Mall. The true fun was still missing. A quick check on Google pointed that Karnala Bird sanctuary will be a good place to visit. Some of the reviews were not looking good. So it was kind of risk … many people not knowing what and where to look for, generally give bad reviews. My view … birds don’t visit you in bird Sanctuary, one has to explore and look out for birds.

We started at 6:45am from Thane. We had packed 2 bottles of water and cookies. The journey was quiet ok, with lot of truck traffic on the way. We reached the sanctuary by 8am and had to pay Rs. 130 for car park + entry for 5 people.

After couple of minutes of walk, we saw the caged peacock which was a little sad. After this, we saw a snake on the platform. It raced to the hole as it saw us approaching. That was not very comforting … but what else can one expect to see in the jungle? Immediately, we had a fly past from 2 Yellow birds (I couldn't make out the specie) and 1 from kingfisher.  It was already looking good but had nothing captured in camera.

We then started trekking towards the Karnala Fort.

As it was reasonably dense forest with greenery, it is not very easy to spot birds. Imagine this bird on a tree full of green leaves J.

Most of the birds were out there seeking nectar or fruits.

In the short trek of about 45mins, we saw atleast 4 – 5 varieties of birds … which in my view is good.  The kids had a nice time during the short terk as it was quiet different than usual. Of course we had our regular visitor … Mr. Langoor. 

I would recommend this place if you need to get away to the bustle of the city and have  a little adventure. Do pack enough water and snacks. There is hardly any thing available once you enter sanctuary (at least early in the morning).

Bheemeshwari Jungle Lodges and Resorts

A quick review of Bheemeshwari on the internet made me feel that it had all the characteristics to make our last minute trip an exciting and adventurous one. Discussing with friends, we decided to hit the road. On the way to Bheemeshwari, we took a deviation to Sangam – where Cauvery and Arakavathi rivers meet. 

Unfortunately, there was very little water and nothing much to see there.

After this we started for Bheemeshwari Jungle lodges and resorts. The Kanakpura road was good. When we took the left at Halagur, the road was narrow at some places but overall the drive was ok.

Once we reached Bheemeshwari, I set out with my camera to take some snaps – spotted two Crocodile in the river, some birds and insects.

 

Adventure 1: Curiosity got over me and I wanted to check things upstream. Found a place where the river was very narrow and started to cross. Suddenly I missed the depth J and fell in neck deep water. My camera and mobile were completely wet. I dried them for some time and lucky for me, the camera started working but not the phone. There was no network in the area anyways J. Some of the snaps made me feel that it was worth the trip.

  

The clothes quickly dried in the cool breeze. Then was time to catch take some sunset snaps.  

After this, it was barbecue time at bon-fire followed by dinner.

Next day morning I woke up at 6am and got ready for a trek in the jungle. We could see some early morning birds near the log-hut where we stayed. The trek started pretty well where we spotted an eagle, some other birds, wild boar, deers, etc.

  

Adventure 2: After about 20mins of trek, one of the guides heard an elephant and we stopped. It was lone male elephant and could be dangerous. We inched ahead and the elephant came charging!!We ran for our life and just when I thought that it could be a long chase, it stopped abruptly and went away. We recovered from the shock and took a deviation.

  

After this, I had some fun with Zip line and then it was time to head back home.

Before booking at Bheemeshwari Jungle lodges and resorts, there was confusion on log hut, mud hut, tent, etc. I have captured some snaps to clarify the air around it.

 

      Mud Hut - with A/C                         Tent house - without A/C                   Log Hut-with A/C