[Stryker]

It had been nearly three months since my last photo trip to Kabini (read more about it here) and the itch was becoming too much. I decided to go to Bandipur this time around, since I hadn't been there before. As usual, the weekends were booked solid at JLR so I had to plan a trip on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. To get leave on these days of the week, I had to promise an arm and a leg at the office. It is a myth that those who run their own company can take leave whenever they want. I have always found it very difficult to take leave and have to weigh a hundred things before doing so. I have never found my employees thinking the same way, they happily apply whenever they want regardless of how it will affect work. Sorry for the rant.

Anyway, come Sunday we (I and my nephew who had just finished his XI std exams) drove off to Bandipur. The road from Mysore to Nanjangud is absolutely terrible, as they are widening the road into a four lane expressway. As of now, only one side is open and as usual, it keeps alternating between the left and right side. At these turning points, there is always a jam with no one willing to give way to vehicles from the opposite side. All said and done, it took a cool one hour to cover the 22 kms distance. The road from Nanjangud to Bandipur via Gundlupet is in reasonably good condition, with some occasional bad patches. We checked in to JLR by around 11:30 and after a good lunch, were ready for our first of our four safaris. Here are the photos from these sojourns into the reserve.

All photos taken with my Nikon D7200 and the excellent Tamron 150-600 lens.

A mongoose looks askance at our presence and refuses to budge from the road:


A lone peacock perched high on a branch. We were on the old dam road and the dried up tree was growing on the sides of the slope, so we were positioned slightly above the bird. I wonder how the bird flew up so high since peacocks are not known to be very strong fliers. In any case it made for a visual spectacle, with the vehicle tracks way down in the background. It is now one of my favourite images:


A barking deer, a very shy animal:


A morose looking langur gazes back at me:


Here is a hoopoe:


A rare sighting in Bandipur, a vulture:


Black naped hare, up on a slight rise away from the track:


An Indian Dhole (wild dog) crosses the track in front of us:


A jungle fowl flew up onto a tree and started giving alarm calls when it saw the Dhole:


A young langur mother with her precious (and super cute) baby langur. She's probably a first time mom, which explains the possesive posture:


Our national bird poses again:


And then we come across the ghost in the shadows. The scrub in the foreground was so distracting that the camera sensor was continually focusing only on that. I had to switch to manual focus to get this one. Unforturnately, it was very late in the evening around 6:30 pm and the light was quickly fading. Moreover, it was also time for us to leave the park, but the driver kindly consented to wait for a few more minutes for this sighting:


And then, this. There were two of them and they were mating! We watched spellbound for a few minutes and then they just melted into the background. They did come out a little later but by then it was too dark to take photos.


This one is purely due to the power of RAW processing to get a barely usable image from what almost looked totally dark in camera. The time difference between the previous photo and this one is just four minutes, but that's how quickly it gets dark out there:


We came across a group of wild pigs, this one is just a kid:


An elephant has become all patchy due to its rolling around in the few feet of water in the mostly dried up pond:


A spotted owl stares at me trying to fit both it and the other bird into the frame at the same time:



Thus ended another short break. I am already looking forward to the next one, not yet decided where I want to go. I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. Until next time then...bye and drive safe.

[ampere]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!


And your short stories with wild life continue! Nice one again.

[ssambyal1980]

Awesome is the only word to describe. Sir you have virtually brought the wildlife alive on our laptops with your excellent photography.

[Stryker]

Good to know you like the photos, ssambyal1980.

[r.K]

Stryker! I am a sucker for wildlife photography Neat clicks. Would have loved to see a close-up of the owl! What was the gear which you were using?

[King_pin09]

Agreed sir, getting the perfect balance between work and personal life is near to impossible. I remember someone comparing it to the early morning struggle one undergoes to get that perfect combination of hot and cold waters for bath.

By the way, very clear and crisp images. Left us craving for more.

[mksureshhere]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Thus ended another short break. I am already looking forward to the next one, not yet decided where I want to go. I hope you enjoyed these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. Until next time then...bye and drive safe.

Stryker, That was a nice break. Beautiful pictures there. I was thinking about taking my 2.5 years old son and my wife to such a place. Is post monsoon a good idea?

[AshyRocks]

Great photos there Stryker!
It's been a while since my last trip to the wild, but this post sure did bring out the itch again to drive down again. The upcoming Good Friday long weekend seems to be the right time for this. Bandipur has also received a good deal of rain this weekend, so the carpet of green may just about be peeking out by then as well.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by r.K

Stryker! I am a sucker for wildlife photography Neat clicks. Would have loved to see a close-up of the owl! What was the gear which you were using?

Thanks, r.K. As I mentioned at the top, I use a Nikon D7200 body and for this trip I was using a Tamron 150-600 lens.

Originally Posted by King_pin09

By the way, very clear and crisp images. Left us craving for more.

Thanks, King_pin09. You'll definitely get more! Not sure when, though.

Originally Posted by mksureshhere

Stryker, That was a nice break. Beautiful pictures there. I was thinking about taking my 2.5 years old son and my wife to such a place. Is post monsoon a good idea?

Thanks, mksureshhere. Post monsoon is generally a good time as the forest is very lush and very green. Sightings maybe a little difficult due to the dense growth and the easy availability of water. But you will certainly see an abundance of wildlife.

Originally Posted by AshyRocks

Great photos there Stryker!
It's been a while since my last trip to the wild, but this post sure did bring out the itch again to drive down again. The upcoming Good Friday long weekend seems to be the right time for this. Bandipur has also received a good deal of rain this weekend, so the carpet of green may just about be peeking out by then as well.

Thanks, AshyRocks. Yeah, the rain over the weekend would have definitely improved things over there. It was extremely dry. In fact, the forest fire happened the same afternoon after we finished our last morning safari!

[r.K]

Originally Posted by Stryker

Thanks, r.K. As I mentioned at the top, I use a Nikon D7200 body and for this trip I was using a Tamron 150-600 lens.

Ah, sorry! I went straight to the pics after reading the first few lines! I have a D90 with a sigma 75-300, and I find it inadequate in many situations. How much does the Tamron 150-600 cost?

[NPV]

Excellent pictures there, thanks for sharing
How was the weather in Bandipur this time of the year with summer just setting in ? A good time for wildlife sightings for sure

[littlebrother]

Great pics, sure is an inspiring post for me to buckle up for the same trip! But your clicks are so good I think I have already covered this trip

Such breaks for exploring nature and wildlife are so refreshing given the Jobs we have now a days that one should often consider doing these once in 3/6 months !

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by r.K

Ah, sorry! I went straight to the pics after reading the first few lines! I have a D90 with a sigma 75-300, and I find it inadequate in many situations. How much does the Tamron 150-600 cost?

Hey, cool, r.K! I'm like that too! I try to keep these descriptions as short as possible in a photologue.

I've upgraded from a D90 myself and the D7200 is in a different class. But I did that mainly because of the high ISO performance and the newer sensor. The D90 is a wonderful camera in itself and you can get very good photos indeed, depending on what you shoot. Of course, if you are a wildlife photographer, the D90 falls a little short.

I don't own the Tamron 150-600 lens, but it costs around 70K - 75K depending on where you buy it. I find that, given my usage frequency, hiring the lens is a much cheaper option.

Originally Posted by NPV

Excellent pictures there, thanks for sharing
How was the weather in Bandipur this time of the year with summer just setting in ? A good time for wildlife sightings for sure

Thanks, NPV. The weather is hot and dry there. I'm sure it will be like that over the next couple of months, occasional rain notwithstanding. Definitely a good time for sightings.

Originally Posted by littlebrother

Great pics, sure is an inspiring post for me to buckle up for the same trip! But your clicks are so good I think I have already covered this trip

Such breaks for exploring nature and wildlife are so refreshing given the Jobs we have now a days that one should often consider doing these once in 3/6 months !

Thanks, littlebrother. Sometimes a vicarious visit is what you have to be satisfied with! I try to do these trips at least once in 2 months. I'm thinking about once a month, time permitting.

[sudev]

yeh dil mange more...lovely pictures and crisp commentary. Love your style.

[arunrajk81]

Good Pics.
Also you are very lucky to sight Leopard, Wild Dog and Vulture in single Trip.
I haven't seen these three in Bandipur even I have Visited more than 10 times . But I have seen these in animals at Athirapilly-Vaalparai Road.