[stormerider]

Kanha National Park
We visited the Kanha National Park in April as we had gone to attend a wedding near Nagpur. Had done the safari permit booking way back in February only. 3 safaris were for Kanha zone whilst one was for Mukki zone. We stayed at a resort near the kisli gate.

17 April - We started from Nagpur around and 8am, and reached our resort around 2 pm. The drive was nice with greenery all around and through the ghat sections and forest. We checked in and had lunch. Soon it was time for us to enter the forest. We were told that evening we have very less time as Kanha zone is deep in the forest and we had to pass through Kisli zone to reach it. Upon entering the forest, we saw a lot of gypsys standing at a distance. Upon enquiring we were told that its kisli zone and there's a natural water point and usually there is a good sighting at that location but we cannot go there. We moved on and found this beautiful bird which is in abundance in this forest but is not found in Rajasthan.

Racket Tailed Drongo.

Took some shots and moved quickly as the guide said otherwise we might not get to see The Tiger. This is Typical of all Tiger reserve guides, they are only interested in showing a tiger, rest everything is of no value to them. Primarily because people want to see these big cats only and only then the guides get a hefty tip. We moved on and reached a small lake and stopped there. Upon enquiring it was told that there is one tigress with three cubs here and usually stays near this lake only. We got calls and saw some Crows hovering, pointing towards a probable kill but the tigers didnt come out. We came back had dinner and started playing board games. When we finished, it was 2am, so we quickly went to bed.

18 April- When I woke up, it was already 5:45 and we were late for our safari. Woke up everyone and quickly got ready and entered the park. We were lucky that the guards allowed us to go in as they were about to cancel our booking. We started our journey to kanha zone, checked a lot of area and finally reached the same point we were waiting at in the evening. We were told that one car had seen two cubs, rest everyone was waiting there. So I started looking around for subjects and got these dragonflies -



and this ibis -


After waiting for some time, I asked the guide to check other areas as it was getting a little hot and Tiger being lazy might not leave its place. We moved ahead to find a spot with a lot of chirping around. Upon searching, we found this Shikra perched in beautiful light. The birds were making noise because of its presence.


Further in the jungle we found this indian jackal patrolling in search of food.


This Painted Francolin came in beautiful light and started making a lot of noise.



Barahsingha or the swamp deer, is a deer found in this part of the country. They are beautiful and get their name from the tines in their antlers(horns). The mature stags usually have 10-14 tines, and hence the name Barah-singha.



This elephant was tamed and was used by forest guards to track tigers and patrol the park.


The safari ended with no tiger sighting again. Came back, had breakfast, slept. Afternoon we had Mukki zone which was far away and upon enquiring we were told that we can go from kisli gate itself passing the kanha zone in between. We did that, but looks like our luck was on a vacation somewhere. we got a flat tyre just as we reached mukki zone water point, only to realise that the spare was also flat! We could see gypsies standing and heard 1 call, asked the driver if we could move a bit (appx 10m) ahead and change the tyre later, but he said no . The tiger probably moved ahead and so did the gypsies, leaving us stranded. We asked him to borrow a tyre from other gypsies, but all these gypsies were from mukki side and would not lend him a tyre. So we had either wait for one gypsy which was from our gate. But the guide and driver decided to go back to forest checkpost of this zone which was appx 1 km behind us. We were moving on the flat tyre, almost halfway to forest post, the driver stopped the car saying can't run on rim. So driver and the guide deliberated and decided to go on foot to the post to get some help and asked us to stay in the gypsy only, but then the guide stayed back with us. After about 15 minutes the kisli gate gypsy arrived, gave its spare to us and left as it had to reach back on time. The driver came back with two guards and then changed the tyre and we started heading back. Without a sighting, Again.
This day looked like the worst day as far as our luck was concerned. We had dinner and decided to go to bed and start early the next day as that would be our last safari in Kanha.

19 April - As planned we entered the park early in the morning and heard some calls coming from the kisli lake side. the guide asked the driver to hurry up and take us to the closest point and wait. After around 5 minutes we saw the tigress in the bushes at a distance, it was moving from our zone to to kisli zone lake.




After the tigress went, we moved on to explore the other areas and find more tigers. We chanced upon this herd of Gaur, The indian Bison. They are the heavyweights of this forest after the elephants.



As we moved ahead we saw pug-marks of another tiger and started following it. The tiger had actually walked for more than a kilometer on this track. We waited near a waterhole in search of the tiger but he wasn't there. Instead we found these-

Changeable Hawk Eagle


Racket Tailed Drongo


Woodpecker - My guess is Rufous woodpecker, correct me if I am wrong.

That ended our trip to Kanha National park and we started our journey back to Jaipur.

[stormerider]

When we came back from Kanha, all of us were disappointed with the trip. The thirst for tiger was turning us in zombies. So we decided to do a quick trip to our very own Tiger Heaven - Ranthambore.

Ranthambore Tiger Reserve
Made a couple of calls to my hotel guy and after sorting the stay and bookings, we reached Ranthambore on Saturday 23 April'2016. The zone we got for this trip was Zone 8. I usually don't go to zones 6-10, and stick with Zone 1-5, as they have better chances of sighting. But my agent told us that they had seen tigers resting near a waterhole in morning and sightings have improved in these zones so we went for it.
The entry to this zone is on the other side of the park and hence took us some 30 minutes to reach. This zone is on top of a rocky plateau, so the climb was steep and the ride was bumpy. Once we reached the top, we started looking for tigers and in less than 15 minutes we were looking down a valley where tiger was resting in a den and there were few calls.




Here he was, Male T58 of Ranthambore resting inside his den on this sunny afternoon. He gave us a lot of poses.





Suddenly someone pointed towards a bush and we saw one tiger cub walking and going further down. At this time our guide started looking for the other cub, who should be close by. This zone has T58 male, T61 female and two cubs. Upon scanning the valley, the guide asks me to check another cave and voila, there he was, the other cub sitting inside. It was so difficult to spot him, and capturing was further difficult as he was sitting inside a dark cave whilst outside the rocks were reflecting the harsh sunlight.


We were standing on top of the plateau, whilst the tigers were down in the valley. It was difficult to look at them without binoculars or camera lenses. The guide was showing a small video of tiger growling to my 3 year old daughter. Suddenly, we saw the female come out of bushes and she sat near the cub's cave. This was probably because she heard the growl from the video!

Soon the cub came out and sat next to the mother.


We watched these tigers for almost 2 hours from the top. And came out at the end of safari, Happy and content.

Next day morning safari we went to the same zone as the guide predicted that the tigress would move the cubs away from the male and might come up the hill. And He was right, we saw a pug-mark trail on top and started following it. But luck wasnt on our side this time, the trail went into zone 7 and all hope was lost. so we started tracking our way back. We found a pair of painted sand-grouse on the way.


Painted Sand Grouse male.


Painted Sand Grouse female.


And Crested Bunting.

The search for the male tiger was also unsuccessful, but nevertheless we came back to Jaipur after watching 4 tigers and for good 2 hours.

[deky]

Aah so you are back. Great!! Will be looking for some mouth watering leopard pics from now on.

Originally Posted by stormerider

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!

Thank you, but more than anything what is commendable is your passion and love for the wild. Without the passion the knowledge is zero.

And I see a new logo on the pics, congratulations

Regards

[stormerider]

Originally Posted by deky

Aah so you are back. Great!! Will be looking for some mouth watering leopard pics from now on.

And I see a new logo on the pics, congratulations

Yes,finally I am back at updating the thread as we discussed. Leopard and other pics are on the way, "Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost!"

Thanks for the kind words.

[stormerider]

Some days are bad days and some days the world is at your feet.
Mid april, we were not very lucky with the sightings, and next week we were riding high on our sightings. The same luck continued to Jhalana and I got back to back amazing sightings for 4 days in a row!

April 26 -
I got a call from doc inquiring if I was going to Jhalana that day. Though their wasn't a plan but I couldn't resist the temptation of the jungle plus you get to learn a lot from a person who sees and understands leopards like the back of his hand. We went inside a bit late as it was a hot afternoon. After patrolling both the tracks for calls, we decided to stop at the last water point and wait for some movement to happen. 10 minutes later we heard some partridge calls and went that side and parked. A leopard jumped out of a bush on our left and crossed over to the other side behind us. We saw it, but all this happened in just a fraction of a second, we could have easily missed her if we were looking the other side.The doc asked me to pull back and park the car some 8-10m away from the water hole. We waited there but the leopard didnt come out and all the calls had gone silent too. So we decided to go again and check the area. As we started moving, we saw her right on the track, coming towards the water point. We reversed and parked at the same spot.


She stopped and took a close look at us and started walking towards the water.





She quenched her thirst for almost 10 minutes, keeping a close eye on us and all the sounds nearby. Finally when she was done, she stood up and wagged her toungue as if she was saying - Yummy!


Then she turned around and came in stalking mode. Their was a male Blue bull who was approaching the water. She snugged to the ground and started moving, the bull was on the other side of the mound, so had no clue about the leopard. Suddenly they both come face to face, but the bull turned around and went away. He didnt even gave an alarm call. Upon inquiring about this behavior Doc explained that male Blue bulls are too big for these female leopards, hence he just turned away.

The leopard after the failed attempt.

[stormerider]

28 April - I got a call from DK asking if we had plans for jhalana. The time was fixed for 1530Hrs. As we entered the park, we saw some spotted dears staring in one direction and were very alert. we stopped to look around and the alarm calls from deer and monkeys started, pointing the probability of Leopard around. We looked closely and saw her standing behind a tree looking at us.

She stared at us fro 15-20 seconds and started walking away. We tried looking for her, but she vanished in the jungle. This was the first time we spotted a leopard so early on such hot days. Their movement is usually towards the evening when it gets a bit colder.

29 April - We were waiting around a water hole around 1715hrs as there were squirrel calls nearby. 5 minutes later a leopard came and sat near the water point looking around. This was a male cub of the female we had seen on 26 april.




There was one more vehicle which had no clue of the leopard sitting, and was just scanning the area. The leopard kept a close watch on every movement around



We were hopeful that the leopard will come out in the open and quench its thirst like its mother had done the previous day. But for that we needed the movement of the other vehicle to stop and pull back so as to give some space and sense of safety to the leopard. So we flagged that vehicle and told them about the leopard and its location. We asked them to click a couple of images and please pull back so as to allow it to come in open. It was our fault, that vehicle never pulled back and started going off road, as it was a Thar, towards the leopard, scaring and forcing it move away.




We left this place and moved our car to other location, asking the same from the other car, but all went in vain. After some time the leopard did come back and sat at almost the same location but this vehicle with its overenthusiastic occupants didn't let it come down to water till 1830 hours, which is when it was time to move out of the park. Sad and tormenting it was to watch that leopard sit there, and wait for the movement to settle down allowing it to come down for water.

30 April - Today we didn't get to see a leopard and came out empty handed. Upon reaching the gate, the guard asked us if we will help him rescue a vehicle which had got stuck in sand. He asked us for help as the tractor was not there. We jumped on it as this would give us an opportunity to go inside again, and leopards being nocturnal, this is in fact the best time. We went inside, rescued the vehicle and started our journey back. Suddenly a leopard ran across the track and went into a seasonal nala. So the doctor started scanning the area for its sibling and mother. The sibling, a small female cub was hiding itself on the ground in dry grass.


Look at the camouflage, it was so difficult to even spot it. This is after a lot of post-processing.

Suddenly the doc pointed towards the mother walking away at some distance. The light was very low, but was able to get decent result thanks to high ISO range of D7200.



She stopped and called out to her cub.

As it was getting late, we moved quickly towards the gate. As we were about to go out we saw our fourth leopard. The strangest behaviour here was by a golden fox, which was giving out alarm calls and following the leopard, as if she was driving it away.

The image is not good and tells a lot about the lighting conditions at that time. But whats important is that we had seen 4 leopards in less than 20minutes in total. Speaks a lot about the nocturnal behaviour of these magnificent cats.

[stormerider]

Ranthambore National Park
10 May - One of my dear friend was coming to Jaipur. He had never seen a Tiger in the wild so we decided to go for Ranhambore, plus try to get him some leopard sightings also at Jhalana. His trip was short so we decided to spend only one day in ranthambore. I had asked my contact there to get us zone 1-5 if possible. Luckily we got Zone 5, due to some cancellation. We had reached early but got late due to the reallotment of the cancelled gypsy and the formalities with it.
The core part of Zone 5 is deep inside the forest and we were already late, but the driver was good and he covered that part very quickly. We soon crossed the Kachida chowki and started our search. We found fresh pug-marks pointing towards the movement of a male tiger. We started following this trail and reached Bakola area and saw 2 vehicles parked near the water body. It was a clear sign that the tiger is there. It was T64 male tiger of Ranthambore. He was sitting in a swamp kind of area with green grass and ankle deep water.



The grass in this area was still green because of the proximity to this water body in Bakola, giving us excellent setting for the Tiger. Otherwise whole of ranthambore had dried up due to excessive heat in summers.

Suddenly the Tiger made a strange face as if he had sensed proximity of another tiger. He got up and moved further in the grass and bushes. And we started looking around. He was right, there was another tiger sitting at some distance.

This was T73 male. He was sitting gracefully, and was well aware of the territorial male's presence. He made some advances in his position and came and sat closer to us and started smelling the other tigers scent.


At this time T64 turned around, and started stalking T73, and made some rapid advances in the direction.. We thought that we had a territorial fight on the cards and hence the guides asked all of us to stay silent, as this time the tigers get very aggressive. T64 coming towards T73-


Upon seeing T64 coming for a fight, T73 being smaller decided to bug out and started moving in the other direction.

He was followed by an aggressive T64 who was closing the gap swiftly. But the tigers entered the bushes and we lost sight of them. We went ahead to check if they had come out on the other side of the hill, but were disappointed. So we started looking around for other possible subjects! and found these-

Common Kingfisher


Changeable Hawk Eagle

We circled back and came back to Bakola area after 50-60 minutes, only to find that T64 was back and was renewing its scent markings everywhere. He kept smelling and renewing as if he wanted to eliminate every mark of T73.



He kept doing this and then came towards the water body near the track.

You looking for me?

He climbed down in the water body and gave a lot of poses.



Then he started quenching the thirst-


Finally he decided to cool himself off in the water.





He sat their for good 15-20 minutes and then came walking towards the gypsies and the track. He walked a bit and then sat in the middle of the track-


It was time for us to turn back leaving him. It is very difficult to leave a tiger and move out because of time constraints. Suddenly he got up and started moving in the other direction as if saying bye.


We came out after this, happy and content. This was by far the most amazing sighting, we had exhausted our memory cards and just couldnt stop talking about it.

The evening safari was to Zone 8. We went their with high hopes, but the tigers kept evading sighting and all we could capture was this -


But we kept looking and found these also -

Nightjar sitting on the ground


Plum Headed Parakeet


Quails - Two clans fighting with each other.

[sainyamk95]

Absolutely amazing photographs, stormerider! Some of these are the best I've ever seen. Got so many new wallpapers now :P
The write up is really good read as well.

[RoadTrippin]

Incredible pictures, great sightings. Your love for nature shines through. Keep it up!

[stormerider]

Originally Posted by sainyamk95

Absolutely amazing photographs, stormerider! Some of these are the best I've ever seen. Got so many new wallpapers now :P
The write up is really good read as well.

Thanks for the appreciation. As far as the best is concerned, its yet to come! Keep space for more wallpapers.

Originally Posted by RoadTrippin

Incredible pictures, great sightings. Your love for nature shines through. Keep it up!

Thank you. Our forests and wildlife are our treasure, sadly we don't appreciate something until its gone or lost!

[Nempuguru]

Awesome snaps of big cat, leopards, Gaur and varieties of birds. Great sighting.

Your threads are very inspirational, soothing to the eyes and soul.

[gpadki]

Wow it must have been a wonderful trip, your pictures speak aloud. It is surely a luck to spot these beauties in the jungle, and you have had the opportunity to capture them well too! Kudos and thanks for sharing.

[earthian]

Thoroughly enjoyed your trip report. Lovely photographs. i had gone there just after you did (May end) and had amazing sightings too. Just finished writing my trip report.

[stormerider]

Originally Posted by earthian

Thoroughly enjoyed your trip report. Lovely photographs. i had gone there just after you did (May end) and had amazing sightings too. Just finished writing my trip report.

Great, I went back twice in June also. Will update that too here. Lemme know next time you come around, we may go to jhalana also!

Originally Posted by gpadki

It is surely a luck to spot these beauties in the jungle,

Definitely luck is a factor. But I think its more about patience, persistence and behavioural study and understanding.

Originally Posted by Nempuguru

Your threads are very inspirational, soothing to the eyes and soul.

Thanks for the appreciation. That's in fact the best compliment that I received.

[AJ-got-BHP]

Originally Posted by stormerider

Kanha National Park
We visited the Kanha National Park in April as we had gone to attend a wedding near Nagpur.

It seems your Kanha Escapade was not a very pleasurable one in terms of Tiger Sighting. It is indeed difficult to spot tigers in any of the zones in Kanha mainly because it is spread over a large area with not as many tigers in comparison to other national parks. Moreover, the Kanha National Park is pretty dense and has lesser open pastures which makes sighting opportunities even more difficult.

However, going through your Travelogue with those fantastic pictures made me nostalgic of my visit to Pench & Kanha earlier in 2014. We went in November when the park had just opened with overgrown shrubs all around. But yes we had a fantastic time none the less. Sharing a link of my TL for your reference : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...onal-park.html

I would like to comment as I have previously also mentioned that "We should be prepared to experience the wild and not just drive through the jungle in the quest of the Tiger. There is much more to it than that. The quest for sighting the Tiger makes you overlook or neglect the other natural beauty around you. My suggestion to everyone going for a Jungle Safari would be to go with an open mind and just enjoy the surroundings and the habitat of the wild animals." This is exactly what makes exploring wildlife in their natural habitat more pleasurable.