[sach.sri]

Originally Posted by gd1418

I was not showing off. You guys wanted to see the new hardware. And thank you for saving me from the chill. I had miscalculated. So, I was looking dashing in that wind cheater? Hmmm..

>> Sirjee, in jest - dont take it to heart. On second thoughts - if you have a new toy, why not show off? We subscribe to the idom - "if you have it, flaunt it"

The 100~400 with its reach beats the competition.

>> Thank you... if only it was faster. The 2.8 300 is amazing at low light compared to 100-400L

Everybody is a pupil. It is learning for me everyday. I'm not a master.

>> I know. But looking at this pic - this was the caption that came to my mind first and i gave that caption to the pic. Hope you dont mind.

The wagtail has come out quite nice..

>> Thanks.


>> Cont the TL

This trip yielded such low returns in terms of wildlife pictures - i am adding some of the pics that we took of ourselves and posting some pics from my trip to Sariska on 29th and 30th June before the park closed.

The arsenal


Posing!




Clicked while clicking


Closeup


Happy faces



29th June 2012

This was the trip when I came to know that ST2 had conceived and will be giving her first litter and also had a glimpse of ST6.

Even though it was peak summers - still there no good sightings partially because of the terrain of Sariska and partially because the jungle deptt in all its wisdom is emulating the R'bhore way of dividing the tourist area into different zones to control the number of vehicles, however this move means that with the less number of Tigers in the park - it becomes all the more difficult to get sightings.

Onto the pics.

Hopooe


Wooly necked Stork




Pond Heron - breeding plumage


Sariska Palace from the jungle road





ST6 - dissapearing behind the rock. KalaKund is on the other side of this rock




The story of ST6 sighting is pretty interesting.

Harisingh had information that ST6 is near Ghanka chowki. We went there and were trying to track ST6, when we came to know that ST6 had made a kill and it is lying at the same spot for sometime. There is a waterhole of top of a small cliff called Kalakund and this is where ST6 was - it goes to the kill, eats and then goes back to KalaKund and sits there in the water. We were going to and fro on that route when the tracking team of ST6 came and we started talking to them. They showed us the signals. Now we were on the road with the tracking team on our left and KalaKund on our right.

All of us were talking to the foresters and listening to the signals, when suddenly my wife goes - TIGER!!!!

ST6 was coming down from KalaKund - but in the commotion that we caused by this discovery, it got spooked and went back up. We could only click these two pics. Harisingh, the driver and the foresters were amazed at this - because per them, ST6 is normally not this shy and this was not how he normally behaves.

To this day i wonder - what would have been the case had we discovered ST6 a moment later? Would it have come down and given us a good dekho? or would we have missed it altogether? - I prefer to think the later..

[sach.sri]

Last update on this TL was for my visit to Sariska in June last year - just before the jungle was going to close and we had ST6's sighting, though could not take any good pics since he quickly moved out of sight.

Since then, I did 3-4 more trips to Sariska wanting to see ST6 again - GD sir was lucky enough for ST6 to walk with their Gypsy in Dec, alas lady luck did not so favour me. So, this time again we went to Sariska on the last w/e - just before the jungles closed to see if I get lucky.

And - guess what, I did get lucky. We sighted ST6 on 30th morning Safari - he had killed a cattle in Kachi Mori area and for the last 2 days was roaming around in that area only - between kachi mori and latthawala, where he used to go to sit in shade and water. But on Sunday morning - we got lucky to see him. It was not a very detailed sighting - but sighting none the less.

However, seeing ST6 did not really thrill me this time - why, you ask? Look at the pics below -





ST6 has a tumour type growth on his nose and also a growth on top of the right eye + some minor injuries on his leg and chest area.

It is clear that he resorted to killing the cattle because he was not able to kill anything else and this is a sad situation which needs to be corrected asap.

I have shared the pictures with the forest deptt and they are going to take appropriate action. With the jungle being closed for 3 months - it also gives them good opportunity to administer treatment to the king.

Hoping to see him in prime form the next time we meet - and hopefully he will favour us with a smile

Trip log coming up in short time (need to finish the R'bhore TL first) ...

[sach.sri]

BTW - I was searching for what kind of sightings happened in Sariska in June and was delighted to see my TL on the first page of google search also a couple of my pics were there at the top of the search

Is a very nice feeling

[sach.sri]

In my last post i mentioned how my Sariska thread is in the top search items on google. Today - one of my pictures of ST6 (refer to post #107 above) got published in Dainik Bhaskar's Jaipur edition.



I M Loving It