[stormerider]

Originally Posted by S2!!!

I felt like I was going through a National Geographic website. Lovely pictures.

Thanks for the kind words, but Nat geo is another level my friend.

Originally Posted by M35

Amazing pictures !
Please do make this thread alive with regular updates and additions.

Thank you. Will try my best to keep it updated. This is something beloved bhpian gurudutt (gd1418) would be doing, if he wouldn't had graduated to the next level. RIP.

[stormerider]

Adding a few more from my collection.

Black winged stilt @ Rajbagh, Ranthambore.



Night Heron ready to dive for a fish @ Chandlai Lake



Pond Heron







Painted Stork @ Bharatpur





Indian Saras Crane- The largest flying bird of India.







It is said that they mate for life and are always found in pairs. If one partner dies, the other will starve itself to death or commit suicide.

[Nempuguru]

Lucky you! Beautiful photographs of big cats. Thanks for sharing.

Now a days it is tough to spot tigers inside national parks, may be due to mad rush and tiger being very shy animal.

[alphadog]

Wow!, Stormerider, what amazing pictures. You calling yourself an amateur photographer is a great understatement. The pictures are so real and they capture the essence of the birds and beasts. Photos of the birds take the cake.
Do keep the pictures coming, thoroughly enjoying them.
Cheerio

[stormerider]

Originally Posted by Nempuguru

Now a days it is tough to spot tigers inside national parks, may be due to mad rush and tiger being very shy animal.

Thanks for the appreciation. I would agree that there is a mad rush, but don't think that the tigers are shy. They just don't care and keep going by there business.

Originally Posted by alphadog

Do keep the pictures coming, thoroughly enjoying them.

Thanks. Will try and keep this photologue updated with an update every month

[deky]

Originally Posted by stormerider

I would agree that there is a mad rush, but don't think that the tigers are shy. They just don't care and keep going by there business.

Actually, I do also feel that the tigers by nature are very shy (not as shy as leopards though) and will try to avoid human presence as much as possible.

We at Jaipur, have been spoilt by the tigers at Ranthambhore (especially the tourism zone), which have no choice but to adapt and go about with their business with all the photo hungry tourists invading their space all the time. T19, T32 are a few such examples. They have chosen to ignore the tourists.

On the other hand if you go to Sariska, where tourism is not that much, tigers are very hard to sight. Even though most of them have collars, but yet sighting is poor because with the slightest of disturbance, the cats will go and hide themselves.

regards

[stormerider]

Bharatpur trip report, August 30/2015, Sunday.

Left early morning around 4:30am. The first thing that caught my eye was the full moon.


We saw the beautiful sunrise on our way at Mahua.


Reached the park around 7am and went about the usual business. Since it was sunday, my family accompanied me (including my 2 year old princess). We had taken 2 cars since we were 7 people, and I did not want anyone to sit in my safari's hatch.
Now lets see what the joys the day gave us.

Bee eater


Bulbul


A pair of White eared bulbul


A large egret going about its business


White lotus blooming in the park


A common Hoopoe


A pair of parakeet


A cotton teal

[stormerider]

(Contd...)

A Purple heron posing for the camera


A bronze winged Jacana.


A little Green Heron


Open Billed Storks with chicks. The newborns make a hell of noise.


Painted Storks have developed a huge colony here and are nesting.








Painted Storks mating.

[Subrat Seet]

Great to know that you like wildlife. Lovely pictures especially the leopard one. Can you please elaborate little more about Jhalana. I have been to these places repeatedly viz., Ranthambhore, Bandhavgarh, Corbett, Bharatpur, Kanha, Tadoba and many other places. This year Baharatpur is expected to be good as the water level is excellent.
I don't have a good leopard luck in Indian jungles for leopards.
However, the dream to take few good pictures realized during my recent visit to Maasai Mara, Kenya.
Please bring them on, i don't mind overdose of wildlife.

[stormerider]

Its been a while since I updated this thread. It has really been an eventful time with many trips and rewards, awesome sightings and captures. Various trips I undertook in this time period include -

• Corbett - 2 trips
• Kanha- 1 trip
• Bharatpur- 2 trips
• Ranthambore- 5 trips
• Jhalana- innumerous
• Few small birding trips

Jim Corbett National Park -
I went twice to Corbett in November and December 2015. Corbett Tigers are still elusive to my eyes after 4 visits! This time we were standing at a location for getting a glimpse of Elephants who were making a lot of noise inside dense foliage and bushes. After almost 30 minutes our patience ran out and we moved ahead only to be informed by the gypsy coming behind us that they saw a tiger cross the path at the same location. Surprisingly there were no alarm calls there! Maybe someday I'll get to see them in the tall grasslands or on the rocky riverbeds. But I love the beauty of this forest, hence keep coming back. Here's an early morning shot -


Corbett also gives us many different species of animals and birds. We spotted the Great Hornbills, but they were too far away to be photographed. Lets look at the others which got captured in the camera!


Plumpous Redstart



White Capped Redstart


A group of Green Pigeons.


Blue whistling thrush


Black Shoulder Kite or Black winged Kite


A group of Vultures, Himalayan vultures is my guess. They were far off.


Steppe Eagle


Barred Owlet - looking curiously after its cover was blown.


Barking Dear, gets the name from the barking alarm call.


Golden Jackal or Indian Jackal


Pair of Yellow Throated Martens - a rare sighting, as I was told.


A 3" spider - dont know the name as not into these. It was hanging from a branch.

[earthian]

@stromerider
your photographs are beautiful. The croc, the leopard, the first one of the tiger with its head on its paw. And all the others.
What is your gear?

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by stormerider

Its been a while since I updated this thread. It has really been an eventful time with many trips and rewards, awesome sightings and captures.

Extremely well framed captures stormerider.

You really have been quite lucky to get some startling birds and mammals. Can you please share the equipments that you used for these?

A 3" spider - dont know the name as not into these. It was hanging from a branch.

This is a Norther Golden Orb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephila_pilipes)

This species is quite common throughout Indian forests and some of them can be really huge.

[stormerider]

Originally Posted by earthian

@stromerider
your photographs are beautiful.

Thanks for the appreciation. Though the leopard image is not mine, I will update this thread with my images also in the forthcoming posts.

Originally Posted by Vik0728

Can you please share the equipments that you used for these?

Thanks for the kind words and the name of the spider.
The images that you saw till now have been clicked with Nikon D3100, but I moved on to D7200 early this year. Lenses are a Sigma 70-300 and Tamron 150-600mm.



January to March were a low time for wildlife as I was occupied on both family and work front and hence the travel reduced to one visit to Bharatpur, monthly temple visit to ranthambore and one small visit to Jorbeer near bikaner when I went to bikaner for work.

Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur
Bharatpur was different in january. We got to see some eagles, adolescent painted storks, a lot of duck species. Surprisingly Pelicans gave this national park a miss this time, pointing out the lack of rainfall this season.


Combed Duck


Snake Bird


Snake Bird


Parakeet


Pied Kingfisher Hovering for food.


Red Avadavat Male


Red Avadavat Female



River Tern


Crested Serpent Eagle


Egret in the Golden Hour



Indian Rock Python - Correct me if I am wrong.

[stormerider]

Ranthambore
Ranthambore delighted us with an awesome sighting without even going on a safari in January. We went to visit the temple there on January 31, only to be informed by the guards that a tiger is on the prowl near the temple road. We went ahead and stopped near a bridge as there were alarm calls and a canter was also standing looking for the Tiger. Suddenly she came out of the bushes in the open and passed our vehicle from behind us.



This was Tigress T39 aka Noor. The sighting was short but enough to put a smile on our faces. Typical of a tiger sighting.

Jorbeer, Bikaner
I went to bikaner on a work related trip, but took out some time to visit a place I had heard about through some friends. Jorbeer is a carcass dumping ground hardly 10km from Bikaner. The Contractors dump the carcasses after skinning them for leather. Though the place is stinking and the background is shabby, One gets to see Eagles, Kites and Vulture in abundance. I went in an off season in march, still got a lot of raptors. Will go again in winters.





Tawny Eagle


Eurasian Griffon Vulture


Egyptian Vulture


Blue Cheeked Bee-eater

We also found Cinerous Vultures, but they were flying too high so couldnt capture them in camera.

[stormerider]

March 2016 came with a fresh wave to our wildlife endeavors, Jhalana Forest was now open to everyone for safari. One could enter in their own car after paying a nominal fee. We jumped over this and started going there morning and evening to pursue our dream of spotting Leopard in the wild. A thirst which wasn't quenched even by a visit to Bera 2 years back! These magnificent cats were still elusive to our eyes.

From 2 to 5 march we had visited jhalana religiously every morning and evening, but didn't get to see the leopards. With the limited knowledge and experience of Tiger tracking, we went around the two tracks of the forest. We found a few calls, traced pug-marks, waited for long hours at the water holes, but the leopards were elusive. Finally we got our first glimpse on 6 March. It was early morning and I had the head lights switched on which made something glow in the bushes. We followed and finally saw a leopard, probably a cub, running away in the bushes. 5 seconds and it was all over, he vanished. Where did he go? Waited there for almost an hour, but no sign of the leopard!
This brought us to a conclusion, this is not a Tiger! It is the most elusive of the cats and hence is the most successful. We started searching the internet for ways to track and trace these cats. Finally we chanced upon an article written by someone I recognised as our very own Deky, or DK as most of us would call him, The same person who had posted a leopard pic on this thread. Shot a message asking for his help and tips on how to track. Got a very positive reply, and he gave us some tips. We started again.

One morning I was waiting inside the park for some movement and calls and got to meet him personally. Though the safari ended with no sighting, but I got a friend! He guided me on the things I was doing wrongly, He asked us listen to Peacock, Partridge and Squirrel alarm calls, whilst we were looking for deer, antelope and monkey calls!

Cut to March 19 - The evening safari was again going down without any sighting. Around 1815hrs, whilst going towards the exit, decided to quickly check an area which everyone calls mines. We saw a car of Jhalana veterans standing. They waved at us and we moved quickly. They pointed towards the leopard, but we were clueless! Then they said look closely in the bushes. There it was, right in front of us, less than 5m away. Hidden with its amazing camouflage.



After the initial excitement, we were asked to move out of leopards sight so as to give it way for moving towards the water point. It was difficult to let the leopard go out of sight, but we still followed. Only to come back and realise that it actually came down and started moving towards the water point.


After this the female went and sat near the water hole. We took a couple of shots and left her there as it was time for us to exit the park.



Finally we had seen a leopard in the wild and that too at a very close distance and in open. We thanked the veterans- Doc and Bana. Called DK and told him about the awesome sighting. After 19 days and some 25 safaris later, we had our first good sighting.

On 21 March again in the mines we saw the same female cross the path. We followed it at a distance. It went on the path and kept looking backwords at us ensuring her safety.


Later she climbed an area where there was no track and marked her territory.

It was a sight to behold, after spraying the scent she moved quickly in the bushes and vanished. It was like she was wishing us Happy Holi! As it was holi, park was also closed and we also traveled to see some relatives giving us a week long break.

We decided to control our movement to the park as we were overdoing it in search of this leopard. It was decided that we will only go 2-3 times a week The leopards went missing again, and the next sighting was 3 weeks later. April 11, whilst coming from mines and going towards another point, my partner asked me to stop and reverse a bit. I did, and there it was. Down, lying low with belly on the ground so that you mistake it for bush or stone!


When he realised that we had seen him, he stood a bit and gave us couple of shots before turning around and going back in the nala.