Jhalana Forest Reserve September'2016 - The month of Good sightings!
September came with happy tidings, we had a 100% sighting record.
And some very good ones. The first sighting we had was of a sub adult male who was playing hide and seek with us in the thick green vegetation. He settled down quite a few times and was hardly visible, but gave me a chance for a low key shot once and I grabbed it. The sunlight had filtered through the thick foliage and was working as a spotlight on his face.
We also saw one more leopard who didn't come out in the open, pointing towards the possibility of one of his sisters.
The next sighting was a brief one. It was an adult female, called "Nath wali", because of a mark on her nose resembling a nose pin.
She was walking on the track and gave us a few glances. She even rolled on the ground upon smelling a shrub and then marked her own scent before disappearing in the bushes.
On 14 of the month we heard a lot of calls in the mines area, but the leopard was not seen for a long time. Finally another car pointed towards the possibility of a leopard sitting on the rocks far away from us, and there he was.
We waited there for some time for it to come out in the open but he sat there only looking at everything from the vantage point. Soon his mother joined him, and to our surprise his sister also came walking.
This was a great moment. for the first time I was able to get three leopards in one frame. Though the image is not great but still was thrilling.
On 17, when we reached mines area, we were told by some 4-5 cars that they had seen a leopard but it had climbed up the hill. We pulled our car back and parked at a suitable location to wait for any sign of movement as the other cars were crowding that area. Soon we saw the beautiful female sub adult.
She was wary of something in the bushes, we assumed that it might be a snake. It was confirmed in one of the images from Deky later in the evening.
She gave us a lot of shots in the green settings before moving up the hill.
After that we came down towards a water point and saw a leopard hiding in the thick grass.
It was the mother of the sub adult we had seen earlier. She was stalking 2 cows which had strayed inside the park for green pastures. After some time she charged, but was unsuccessful.
After which she climbed on top of a tree. and then vanished in the forest.
On 18, I was accompanied by my better half and daughter along with a friend and his family. The wives had seen leopards earlier, but the sightings were not very good. So this was our desperate attempt to show them some leopards, as it had taken some effort to persuade them to come along. As we reached water point no.4, some friends were standing there and told us about some alarm calls. We waited there and within minutes we saw the beautiful sub adult female cross the track and then settled in the bushes. the sighting was good but with very few photographs as she moved quickly.
After this we decided to take our chances with a round towards the last water point of this track. And we were happily rewarded. We saw the male leopard, 'Big-Foot', cross our path and vanish in the bushes. Now was the time to apply the knowledge. One more car saw it and sat there waiting but i moved to another location as i expected him to come out of the bushes and take it to the track. I was proven right!
There he was, right in front of us. Then he started moving and we followed, keeping our distance, but he kept giving us some stares.
Then he stopped to relieve an itch.
He kept walking for about half an hour and crossed water point no 4 and moved ahead. I was hoping that he would drink water there, but he wasn't in the mood. At this time the vehicle from last point came and the leopard vanished in the thick. So I decided to move further and stopped at a location where I was confident that he will come if he wants to continue on this track.
We waited there for 5 minutes and there he was.
Then he moved to the other side of the track and and smelled some shrubs and vanished again. We waited there and at some other locations but he was gone.
As a last effort, we went towards the mines to check for other leopards before making an exit. As I climbed the area, the wives pointed towards a leopard and asked us to stop. Both of them were pointing in different directions, and indeed there were 2 leopards, 2 sub adults. One of them ran and vanished whilst the other one was sitting and looking at us.
This was so beautiful, it was a setting that resembled african grasslands, with only the head sticking out of the tall grass. Suddenly the wives pointed towards another leopard moving on the rocks, it was the mother. She moved quickly so we could only get her tail in camera. But, we found her sub adult male sitting beautifully on a rock.
We saw the female sub adult which was sitting in the grass again sitting in the bushes very near to this male sibling, but decided to leave them and head for the exit as the light was also fading. In all we had seen 6 leopards, Mission wives accomplished!
continued.....